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#1 October 12 2018

hkbazzi
Member

How to import smartphones the cheapest way

Hello Everyone,

So this is my story. I ordered a Xiaomi Mi 8 from Gearbest that was shipped through Aramex. It took a while to reach but this thread isnt about the duration of how long a phone will take to reach your doorstep, this is about how to get one at the cheapest possible price and everything you need to do.

1. All your smartphones being ordered should come through Liban Post, not any other carrier.

Explanation:

Since all phones are being stopped regardless of which carrier they are coming in from. There is something called permission to handle "2izin Tisleem" When anything gets stopped in the Lebanese Customs you have the choice to either finish the paperwork needed yourself or have a broker do everything for you. The cheaper way is to always do it yourself and not the broker.

This "2izin tisleem" is a permission that you have to pay for. All of the other carriers charge 91,000LL (I got screwed with this) Liban Post is just 5,000LL SMH



2. After the 2izin tisleem is taken, you should go to the Keshef to value your smartphone.

What should you do here:

My advice is to try to haggle the shit out of the Keshef to put a lower value, don't be shy, he's expecting it usually. A plus would be an altered invoice that has a lower value printed from whatever site you bought the phone from. If you don't know how to do that google on how to edit web pages (for Chrome users: inspect element)

Ethical squad out there, please don't even think that you are not being ethical, it's their culture there.



3. Make sure after the paper is filled out with the value of the phone is stated that it has also a stamp and the signature of the Keshef that he has transferred the paper to the Ministry of Telecommunications. If the phone is dual sim make sure that he writes down both IMEI numbers that are on the box


4. Head to downtown Liban post that's right next to MoT and grab yourself a stamp value of 5,000LL it will save you time.


5. Head to Downtown to the ministry of Telecommunications go to the first floor and ask where you should fill the request, fill out the document, the woman there will help you out, she'll stick that 5,000LL stamp on the request


6. Head home chill for 2 or 3 days, (my case 3 days) it takes time for them to register your IMEI number on their system. Call them ahead of time to know if your phone is done before you back to the ministry to pick up the papers you gave in.

This is their number 01 979 131


7. Grab the papers you got from the ministry and go to DHL in the airport, it is at the very end, there is an office for the Lebanese customs, he has to stamp the papers.


8. Go to the Keshef (same place where you valued your phone) and have his assistant fill out the bill for the phone


9. Head to the MEA building next to the DHL (you'll know it by hearing the cargo being unload and it is the loudest spot there) get on the 2nd floor and pay the bill and "Shattib" the carrier receipt from the manifest


10. Head back to the Keshef grab the phone, while you're leaving the guy on the gate is gonna ask you to show the ti2shira, just show him the bill that you paid and you're good to go

Congrats you have your phone.

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#2 October 12 2018

chosen2k
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

Nice post.
Did you pay for parking?

Note: If your day at work offsets the price of the broker then go for the broker. Because you will be technically losing two days of work to get this shit done. That's not mentioning the 10k steps you'll do because they no longer allow you to use your car to go from building to building.

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#3 October 12 2018

duke-of-bytes
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

or get a huawei or samsung and done with it ..

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#4 October 12 2018

vlatkozelka
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

duke-of-bytes wrote:

or get a huawei or samsung and done with it ..

No thanks

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#5 October 12 2018

mmk92
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

I'm going through the process now.

So far I went to the LibanPost HQ, on the second floor I got into the postal room where a man opened up my package and then the phone box in front of me and wrote down the IMEI number and took out the sticker it came with. It was so sad seeing the phone right in front of me but I won't be receiving it till another two weeks :(.

He gave me a paper and wrote down a few details about my phone, I took it to DHL headquarters were a lady wrote me a paper for the Ministry of Telecommunication. I didn't have the invoice on me so I gave her the value of the phone and she just wrote it down.

I didn't pay anything yet, heading to the ministry of telecommunication next. There as hkbazzi said, I will provide the document and wait for approval then pick it up and go back to DHL to pay the customs/tax...etc


Honestly, I can't recommend going through this process. I will be paying 50 to 120thou in cash + gas + parking + the time I'm wasting. There are official resellers in Lebanon and I would have happily paid a 100-130$ difference on the item and as a bonus, I'd get the item faster and have a local warranty in case something goes wrong.

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#6 October 12 2018

duke-of-bytes
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

vlatkozelka wrote:
duke-of-bytes wrote:

or get a huawei or samsung and done with it ..

No thanks

at least it is covered by a decent warranty

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#7 October 12 2018

mmk92
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

duke-of-bytes wrote:
vlatkozelka wrote:
duke-of-bytes wrote:

or get a huawei or samsung and done with it ..

No thanks

at least it is covered by a decent warranty

Also covered with a few layers of forced bloatware with a hint of less value for the money

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#8 October 12 2018

duke-of-bytes
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

mmk92 wrote:
duke-of-bytes wrote:
vlatkozelka wrote:

No thanks

at least it is covered by a decent warranty

Also covered with a few layers of forced bloatware with a hint of less value for the money

because other chinese phones are bloaatware and spyware free .. hehehe right

at least i can change my screen if it breaks

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#9 October 12 2018

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

Well I went through all of that. But it's not about what's the cheapest, it's about the hassle and the waste of time. I wouldn't like to go through that all again. I was drooling over a Xiaomi mi Max 3 but I restricted myself from doing it.
This is all fucking bullshit. All that procedure could be done automatically without any interference from the buyer. Once they make sure the phone is authentic and is compatible with our network bands, they should dispatch it to Libanpost and let them collect the overall sum from the buyer once they deliver the phone to his doorstep. I'm not against the payment here (tax and customs); it exists in all countries but I don't think that horrendous procedure exists anywhere besides Lebanon.

Last edited by LifeEngineer (October 12 2018)

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#10 October 12 2018

mmk92
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

Exactly @LifeEngineer

They also mishandled the phone. He opened the package in front of me and took the phone out of the box (he robbed me of the unboxing experience :( ) and then he opened the box upside down and my phone slipped out.

I complained about MoT and the fact that they don't have an agent there but nobody would question anything there so this is where we're at...


There was an old man there (70 years old) there too and he had to pay 80,000LL and go through the entire process for a $40 phone he ordered.

PS: My package was labeled "Gift MP3 Player" and the value was set to $50 but it still got stopped at customs.

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#11 October 12 2018

NuclearVision
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

I have to second duke of bytes  specially about the screen thing, also I've been reading for ages that xiaomi has officially come to Lebanon, is it true?
One more question, I ordered a tablet from U.S. will i have to go through this? it is wifi only model.

What's the point of that really....
The only reason i can think of is promoting lebanese Phone dealers... Totally 1900s stuff(retarded).

Last edited by NuclearVision (October 12 2018)

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#12 October 12 2018

xazbrat
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

NuclearVision wrote:

I have to second duke of bytes  specially about the screen thing, also I've been reading for ages that xiaomi has officially come to Lebanon, is it true?
One more question, I ordered a tablet from U.S. will i have to go through this? it is wifi only model.

What's the point of that really....
The only reason i can think of is promoting lebanese Phone dealers... Totally 1900s stuff(retarded).

Xiaomi is in Lebanon now---they don't have all of the phones yet so if you are looking for the Pocophone, you are SOL. They do have the Mi A1 (Android One phone), Redmi Note 5 and a few others.  It is a start, but long way to go.

https://www.facebook.com/XiaomiLb/

I saw them for sale in Bschamoun, so maybe you will find other random dealers somewhere

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#13 October 12 2018

mmk92
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

They started selling after I ordered my phone.

There's a reseller on Instagram that had for 385 and them at 405, and that's the 128gb version.

I got mine for 304$ + the time and money I'm going to be investing into getting it back from customs. Have I had known, I would have gotten it from here and it would have been cheaper with all things considered.

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#14 October 13 2018

vlatkozelka
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

duke-of-bytes wrote:
mmk92 wrote:
duke-of-bytes wrote:

at least it is covered by a decent warranty

Also covered with a few layers of forced bloatware with a hint of less value for the money

because other chinese phones are bloaatware and spyware free .. hehehe right

at least i can change my screen if it breaks

Can you do a bit of research before recommending Samsung to people? So mainstream ...

Chinese phones can have bloatware, sure. But it will say it right on the box. If your phone comes with EMUI or whatever, then yeah that will have bloatware. But One Plus for example comes with OxygenOs, which is pretty much vanilla Android + an added screen called shelf that you can turn off.

Samsung has ads on the damn home-screen.

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#15 October 13 2018

duke-of-bytes
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

vlatkozelka wrote:
duke-of-bytes wrote:
mmk92 wrote:

Also covered with a few layers of forced bloatware with a hint of less value for the money

because other chinese phones are bloaatware and spyware free .. hehehe right

at least i can change my screen if it breaks

Can you do a bit of research before recommending Samsung to people? So mainstream ...

Chinese phones can have bloatware, sure. But it will say it right on the box. If your phone comes with EMUI or whatever, then yeah that will have bloatware. But One Plus for example comes with OxygenOs, which is pretty much vanilla Android + an added screen called shelf that you can turn off.

Samsung has ads on the damn home-screen.

If you're a techie.. You root and clean your phone
If you're non techie.. It will not bother..

Thats maybe your 5th post flaming.. You sound like a 15 years old douche

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#16 October 13 2018

mmk92
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

How is that flaming? If someone is disagreeing with you it doesn't mean they're flaming.

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#17 October 13 2018

nosense
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

I don't understand the point of hating on samsung, I have a note 9 and I am yet to be annoyed by a single "bloatware".

If you care enough you can get a package disabler app from the market and disable any bloatware that annoys you, and have the best phones on the market with the best screens.

All phones right now deliver what most users need, other than that it's just preference and availability in lebanon.

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#18 October 13 2018

nosense
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

vlatkozelka wrote:
duke-of-bytes wrote:
mmk92 wrote:

Also covered with a few layers of forced bloatware with a hint of less value for the money

because other chinese phones are bloaatware and spyware free .. hehehe right

at least i can change my screen if it breaks

Can you do a bit of research before recommending Samsung to people? So mainstream ...

Chinese phones can have bloatware, sure. But it will say it right on the box. If your phone comes with EMUI or whatever, then yeah that will have bloatware. But One Plus for example comes with OxygenOs, which is pretty much vanilla Android + an added screen called shelf that you can turn off.

Samsung has ads on the damn home-screen.

where can I see those ads ? they are not visible on my home screen

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#19 October 13 2018

themike10452
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

aliessayli2 wrote:

I don't understand the point of hating on samsung, I have a note 9 and I am yet to be annoyed by a single "bloatware".

vlatkozelka wrote:

Can you do a bit of research before recommending Samsung to people? So mainstream ...

duke-of-bytes wrote:

If you're a techie.. You root and clean your phone
If you're non techie.. It will not bother..

https://youtu.be/Ps-Kne9ray8?t=474 (7:54)

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#20 October 13 2018

vlatkozelka
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

duke-of-bytes wrote:
vlatkozelka wrote:
duke-of-bytes wrote:

because other chinese phones are bloaatware and spyware free .. hehehe right

at least i can change my screen if it breaks

Can you do a bit of research before recommending Samsung to people? So mainstream ...

Chinese phones can have bloatware, sure. But it will say it right on the box. If your phone comes with EMUI or whatever, then yeah that will have bloatware. But One Plus for example comes with OxygenOs, which is pretty much vanilla Android + an added screen called shelf that you can turn off.

Samsung has ads on the damn home-screen.

If you're a techie.. You root and clean your phone
If you're non techie.. It will not bother..

Thats maybe your 5th post flaming.. You sound like a 15 years old douche


Where did you find any flaming in this post?
Is saying "no" just not allowed on here?

All I'm saying is is you claim Chinese phones all have bloatware, and it's not true. And please don't go on about rooting and flashing rom. That's not "techie" at all. Techie would be to build your own OS, and getting all hardware to work... nope, I'd rather not buy a Samsung and be done with it.

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#21 October 13 2018

duke-of-bytes
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

vlatkozelka wrote:
duke-of-bytes wrote:
vlatkozelka wrote:

Can you do a bit of research before recommending Samsung to people? So mainstream ...

Chinese phones can have bloatware, sure. But it will say it right on the box. If your phone comes with EMUI or whatever, then yeah that will have bloatware. But One Plus for example comes with OxygenOs, which is pretty much vanilla Android + an added screen called shelf that you can turn off.

Samsung has ads on the damn home-screen.

If you're a techie.. You root and clean your phone
If you're non techie.. It will not bother..

Thats maybe your 5th post flaming.. You sound like a 15 years old douche


Where did you find any flaming in this post?
Is saying "no" just not allowed on here?

All I'm saying is is you claim Chinese phones all have bloatware, and it's not true. And please don't go on about rooting and flashing rom. That's not "techie" at all. Techie would be to build your own OS, and getting all hardware to work... nope, I'd rather not buy a Samsung and be done with it.

what phone do you have now ?

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#22 October 13 2018

vlatkozelka
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

One Plus 3T, for 2 years. It never slowed down or showed any signs of wear, even though I develop on it at work

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#23 October 13 2018

nosense
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

vlatkozelka wrote:

Techie would be to build your own OS, and getting all hardware to work...

OS developer = techie ?

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#24 October 14 2018

Jerome
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

Great post! Thanks.

Note: I got a phone (sony) shop-and-shipped from amazon a couple month ago, and all the fees I payed to the delivery guy, I didn't need to register anything.

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#25 October 14 2018

NuclearVision
Member

Re: How to import smartphones the cheapest way

Jerome wrote:

Great post! Thanks.

Note: I got a phone (sony) shop-and-shipped from amazon a couple month ago, and all the fees I payed to the delivery guy, I didn't need to register anything.

how much did you pay for customs? Not delivery charges.

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