LebGeeks

Jo_K

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Hey! Yes anyone has new info on this?

nuclearcat

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

I think internet shopping for $1 things will be over. Basically customs and libanpost can't handle such burden.

ILIA_93

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Good news or what?

edwed

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j40 … ture-8.png
Good news or what?

I don't think that. I have items in customs (same status as yours) since 16 July.
I think it's better for us to go to airport and try to get our items.

maroun

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Has any body received any item through normal libanpost delivery channels recently?

nuclearcat

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

One my friend received at this week, but his item was specific electronic product not available in Lebanon.
There is some rumour (but not confirmed at all) that any product that can be bought in Lebanon will be stuck in customs, but sure there will be mistakes. It was a decision, because people avoiding paying taxes and import fees by buying stuff on aliexpress.

rtwo2008

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

One my friend received at this week, but his item was specific electronic product not available in Lebanon.
There is some rumour (but not confirmed at all) that any product that can be bought in Lebanon will be stuck in customs, but sure there will be mistakes. It was a decision, because people avoiding paying taxes and import fees by buying stuff on aliexpress.

I think the Open Trade Agreements we have with the west forbid us from collecting tax on personal use items coming in by mail. I'm not completely sure about the technicalities though. I just think that they can not just out of thin air add tax to personal items just because they don't have the manpower to sort through all the packages... You can't just create an extra (unallocated) income for the government by the decision of one man behind a desk. (unless ma 7adan se2len in the official channels, as usual ...)

Last edited by rtwo2008 (August 8 2014)

Louis40

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Can anybody twitter to any concerned authorities, such as a minister or somebody......

chosen2k

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

This is what happened today but please note that the item was bought from a chinese website but NOT aliexpress.

I check the status today and it was:
    2014-08-07 14:29, Item sent to Distribution Office, LEBANON-Parcels unit
    2014-08-07 13:38, Item received back from Customs, LEBANON-Parcels unit
    2014-07-25 09:34, Item handed over to Customs for clearance, LEBANON-Parcels unit

I directly called libanpost and i was informed that the item is in the jdeide office & they gave me some sort of tracking number that when given to the employees they will be able to find the package.

So i went to jdeide branch and waited an hour for my turn. When it was finally my turn I had to pay:
Custom duties: 10,000
Custom VAT: 21, 000
Revenue Stamp Duty: 5,000
Administrative Fees: 9,000
Administrative Charge: 900

Sa a total of 46,000 LBP

Now the thing is the item price as per the package is $66 (The price the seller put on the package). However the customs priced the item for 210,000 since they took VAT 21,000

So let's say for any regular package the minimum is:
Custom duties + Revenue Stamp Duty + Administrative Fees+Administrative Charge = 24,900 + VAT

I hope I'm mistaken for the 24,900 as minimum for any package.

Anyways from what I understood from the lady there, aliexpress packages are still blocked. Maybe my package was released from customs simply because it is not from aliexpress.  (@nuclear did your friend receive a aliexpress package??? If yes then this assumption is wrong)

Another thing usually my packages get delivered to my home however with customs now in action we personally need to go to the libanpost offices to collect our items and pay the fees.

If I waited instead of going directly to jdeide I should have received some sort of letter that mentions that i need to go to libanpost to collect my item.

Last edited by chosen2k (August 8 2014)

rtp

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

if am not mistaken aliexpress are a set of Sellers all around China. So a person ships the shipment on his name not Aliexpress. So technically there is no way they can tell if it has been bought from Aliexpress or not.

25,000 L.L minimum, ok i have like 4 items that cost around $10 each, i guess i will let them be.

nuclearcat

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

(@nuclear did your friend receive a aliexpress package??? If yes then this assumption is wrong)

Yes, it was aliexpress.

edwed

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Guys, let me clarify some issues for you.
First, customs can't know if item is from aliexpress or not. Aliexpress is a third party between sellers and customers. When we order an item on aliexpress, the seller ships the item via a shipping company (chinapost, hongkong post, sweden, singapore or express shipping such as dhl, aramex). To ship an item, the item is given a tracking number and shipped by the shipping company. So, aliexpress is responsible only on the "website" side to show items, collect money and control the process. Conclusion: it's not because of "items from aliexpress" that customs hold it.
Second, I ordered an item from aliexpress, 3 weeks ago, and I received it last week (shipped via hongkong post).
Third, I have items in customs since 16th and 25th of July shipped via hongkong post.
Fourth, I ordered a dress from aliexpress via aramex and I payed only 26$ clearance and vat.
Fifth, I have more than 35 items shipped via chinapost since 2 month and I received none of them.

Conclusion:
As chosen2k informed us today, most probably we have to pay 25 000 + vat on each item. (I payed less than 300$ to order 30 items and I have to pay around 600$ taxes to customs!!!! Noway!!!!)
What is happening now, is that each item (except the one I got last week by luck zamat) arriving to customs will be on hold for customs clearance, this means we have to pay too much for it and wait much more.
My suggestion for you guys, if you want to order items use Express shipping, you pay same fees but at least items are shipped in couple of days.
My final suggestion, forget about online shopping, thanks to our authorities :)

nuclearcat

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

With express shipping you pay MUCH more for shipping, plus usually customs fees are higher.
I had some big packages from alixpress over libanpost who passed customs (before all this happened), and similar items over express had 2-3 times higher fees.

rtp

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

25,000 L.L + VAT is such a fair price, i wish they implemented this before.  They must have done a lot of studies and research. God bless this country and its ethical workers.

maroun

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

It seems (and hope) that the customs are using such rules.
1- Items below a certain price are not subject to tax (as for the item that Zamat with Edwed) Edwed please what was the price of that Item?
2- For other Items which they consider according to their price subject to tax they are using a multiplication factor of the price to calculate VAT because they cannot estimate prices of all items there might be millions.

I have shipments which i have ordered since 1/6/2014 with prices varying from 6$ to 54$ till now none has shown on LIBANPOST tracking system neither received any notice in my P.O.BOX (last time i checked 3 days ago)

I shall keep you posted when my items arrive.

Thank you all for the info you are sharing.

rtwo2008

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

I think the customs officials themselves have ordered from aliexpress at some time. And they would know from the package they received how much on average the aliexpress seller is undervaluing the items price on the shipment tag.

So to counter that, because they are smart..., they must be multiplying by a certain X factor consistent with their own personal package average.

LifeEngineer

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

I think a smart procedure from their side is to simply keep a laptop or smartphone in their hands and check manually each item price on Aliexpress website! It would take less than 30sec per item!
I hope they are that smart! Or else we might be screwed by their false assumptions!

Louis40

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Libanpost is following the same policy as DHL. I have ordered some car parts through DHL and when they delivered the invoice was detailed exactly as chosen2k above thread. So Libanpost workers have enough of delivering for nothing and they are so glad that this time they will get paid. In other words the complaints came from Linapost to the authorities where the customs gladly are stopping everything and do their jobs at ease. This is what i saw and told by one of the uniform guy.....

edwed

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

It seems (and hope) that the customs are using such rules.
1- Items below a certain price are not subject to tax (as for the item that Zamat with Edwed) Edwed please what was the price of that Item?
2- For other Items which they consider according to their price subject to tax they are using a multiplication factor of the price to calculate VAT because they cannot estimate prices of all items there might be millions.

I have shipments which i have ordered since 1/6/2014 with prices varying from 6$ to 54$ till now none has shown on LIBANPOST tracking system neither received any notice in my P.O.BOX (last time i checked 3 days ago)

I shall keep you posted when my items arrive.

Thank you all for the info you are sharing.

It was a cigar cutter costing around 3$. I took only 9 days delivery. What was written on package: cable 2$.
I have items in customs since 16 July priced 3$ too (2 usb flash memories).
So I think that passing items to customs or not, depends on the category and the price of the item.
And as we know, they are smarter than looking at the package price, they evaluate the content and its category and they give a price!
For more info about customs you can take a look to taxing rules and categories: customs.gov.lb

nzeinoun

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Check Libanpost page on FB they have the below announcement:

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

Due to customers’ inquiries about incoming mail from China, LibanPost would like to announce the below:
In accordance with the customs’ law, all incoming packages and parcels from outside Lebanon, including China (AliExpress & others), are now subject to customs’ inspection and fees.

According to postal regulations, LibanPost cannot release any mail item nor send it to delivery prior to customs’ clearance, and cannot change or intervene in the customs’ declaration process or fees. We are committed to delivering right after customs’ clearance. Therefore, you will be receiving the goods with the customs clearance bill. It is important to note that time to clear customs varies and delays are currently occurring due to huge volumes at Customs.

To track your mail item, please go to: "Libanpost website"
If your item is still with the Customs: we are waiting just like you for the items to be cleared to be able to proceed with the delivery and cannot provide exact and accurate information about the declaration process.
If there is no data: your mail item has not reached the Lebanese territory yet.
For other inquiries, email us: customercare@libanpost.com or call our hotline: 1577.

m_zeid

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

I have items bought from dx.com stuck at customs since 24/Jul. and it says: Item handed over to Customs for clearance
Last time i bought something from dx.com was delivered from airport to my door in two days.

A guy in a prevoius reply said that we should tweet the authorities, well the mail service is the responsibility of the ministry of telecom.
So,it is minister Harb you should tweet.

kiwithefruit

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Just had to cancel all my kickstarter pledges. Thank you Lebanese Customs...

georgesmh

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

can we choose not to pay for them and send them back and get a refund from AliExpress? I have ordered 2 weeks ago around 13 products. Imagine i have to pay now 25000 on each one of them... i'll be totally screwed... please tell me i cancel this.

edwed

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

can we choose not to pay for them and send them back and get a refund from AliExpress? I have ordered 2 weeks ago around 13 products. Imagine i have to pay now 25000 on each one of them... i'll be totally screwed... please tell me i cancel this.

Orders that still are in processing mode (not yet shipped) you can ask for full refund and sellers will accept it (tell them the reason and say that you will give a 5 stars feedback after refund, they accept).
For items that were shipped all what you can do is wait to there arrival to lebanon and then i dont know if it is possible to say to libanpost "no i dont want it anymore" since they are responsible for paying our customs now.

gamingindex

Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

i bought some stuff on ebay and today it shows that they are at libanpost distribution center with no sign that they are handed to customs