LebGeeks

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#1126 January 12 2018

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Of course! Smartphones only!

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#1127 January 12 2018

Hybrid
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

LifeEngineer wrote:
infiniteloop wrote:

I don't understand, starting February any phone you bring yourself (online or by travel) will have to be registered at the airport but no customs to pay?

-starting February any phone you bring yourself (online or by travel) will have to be registered at the airport ==> True. But not sure if at the airport or the ministry of telecommunications in case of travel.
-no customs to pay ==> for online purchases (like aliexpress) you will have to pay the customs; for personal travel, you won't need to.

So can i order online, travel somewhere or give it to someone traveling for tourism somewhere, then come back and register it at the airport?

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#1128 January 19 2018

infiniteloop
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Geez this customs are really slowing everything down, they should hire more ''active'' people, I have a small item (2 Gopro mounts) since Monday with the customs, the week is finished and it didn't move yet. I wonder if they are not passing some people before others as usual in this country of ''wasayet''. I need these mounts to make ski videos for my vlog

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#1129 February 10 2018

Hybrid
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

LifeEngineer wrote:

Watch out guys:
Don't order any cell phone online anymore, unless you know what you're up to.
There's a new law that forbids foreign phones to work on our network, unless you register the IMEI and pay the customs fees.

Is this law applicable yet? I want to order a new phone ?

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#1130 February 10 2018

Salloum
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Hybrid wrote:
LifeEngineer wrote:

Watch out guys:
Don't order any cell phone online anymore, unless you know what you're up to.
There's a new law that forbids foreign phones to work on our network, unless you register the IMEI and pay the customs fees.

Is this law applicable yet? I want to order a new phone ?

I remember this law being active in 2014 or 2015 but was canceled when the minister of Telecom changed. I hope it's not coming back because it was a huge hassle

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#1131 February 10 2018

xazbrat
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Hybrid wrote:
LifeEngineer wrote:

Watch out guys:
Don't order any cell phone online anymore, unless you know what you're up to.
There's a new law that forbids foreign phones to work on our network, unless you register the IMEI and pay the customs fees.

Is this law applicable yet? I want to order a new phone ?

I will let you know IF I ever get my phone.  I ordered it just after Christmas and it has been "in country" for 3 weeks now, so in the next couple of weeks, I am either going to get my phone, or my money back.  Still hoping for the former.

I guess customs do things at their own pace if they ever show up.

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#1132 February 12 2018

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Hybrid wrote:

Is this law applicable yet? I want to order a new phone ?

I suffered from it / experienced it last month.

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#1133 February 12 2018

Hybrid
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

LifeEngineer wrote:
Hybrid wrote:

Is this law applicable yet? I want to order a new phone ?

I suffered from it / experienced it last month.

Can you please share how did you exactly register it? And any fees beside customs?

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#1134 February 12 2018

infiniteloop
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

BTW do you have to unregister your phone number from the phone before sellign it to anyone like we used to do 2-3 years ago?

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#1135 February 15 2018

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Hybrid wrote:
LifeEngineer wrote:
Hybrid wrote:

Is this law applicable yet? I want to order a new phone ?

I suffered from it / experienced it last month.

Can you please share how did you exactly register it? And any fees beside customs?

Got a msg from Libanpost that i have a stopped/held item at Jemrok and that i need to go pick it from the airport.
Went to Libanpost at the airport. They opened the package and checked the phone name/model and gave it to me as a paper to go to DHL warehouse (although it was a regular aliexpress shipping) to ask for someone (forgot her name).
She asked for the phone order bill/receipt. Told her it was on aliexpress. She said fine show me the order. Luckily for me, xiaomi adopts some weird/tricky naming conventio, so I told her it was on my ipad and i don’t have it on my phone (just to evade the true price) and then googled xiaomi redmi 4 price instead of redmi note 4 and showed her that it’s only 120$ instead of the true 200. She was like note 4 and i can’t see note word here, i told look it’s the same. She filled some papers and asked to go to the ministry at downtown to register it (the IMEI needs to be registered on the network for it to work. It will work for couple of months i think without that registration tho, only.). She still priced it at 200000LL tho.
I went there and filled some papers. They asked for the phone catalogs. I got it printed in a nearby libanpost.
Needed to wait for 2 days for the papers to get signed.
Got them and headed back to the airport. They got those papers and made me pay the Jemrok.
Then got the receipt and went back to Libanpost there in the airport and got my phone.

A long ugly process. May look simple now, but it was a pain to drive in lots and lots of traffic and have to be late at work or leave work to go there! I wouldn’t order any phone again until they cancel that bullshit.

Jemrok was about maybe 50000LL if i remember well and if i add parking fees, tawabe3, etc i end up with like 65000LL (neglecting fuel and time and effort).

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#1136 February 16 2018

NuclearVision
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

LifeEngineer wrote:
Hybrid wrote:
LifeEngineer wrote:

I suffered from it / experienced it last month.

Can you please share how did you exactly register it? And any fees beside customs?

Got a msg from Libanpost that i have a stopped/held item at Jemrok and that i need to go pick it from the airport.
Went to Libanpost at the airport. They opened the package and checked the phone name/model and gave it to me as a paper to go to DHL warehouse (although it was a regular aliexpress shipping) to ask for someone (forgot her name).
She asked for the phone order bill/receipt. Told her it was on aliexpress. She said fine show me the order. Luckily for me, xiaomi adopts some weird/tricky naming conventio, so I told her it was on my ipad and i don’t have it on my phone (just to evade the true price) and then googled xiaomi redmi 4 price instead of redmi note 4 and showed her that it’s only 120$ instead of the true 200. She was like note 4 and i can’t see note word here, i told look it’s the same. She filled some papers and asked to go to the ministry at downtown to register it (the IMEI needs to be registered on the network for it to work. It will work for couple of months i think without that registration tho, only.). She still priced it at 200000LL tho.
I went there and filled some papers. They asked for the phone catalogs. I got it printed in a nearby libanpost.
Needed to wait for 2 days for the papers to get signed.
Got them and headed back to the airport. They got those papers and made me pay the Jemrok.
Then got the receipt and went back to Libanpost there in the airport and got my phone.

A long ugly process. May look simple now, but it was a pain to drive in lots and lots of traffic and have to be late at work or leave work to go there! I wouldn’t order any phone again until they cancel that bullshit.

Jemrok was about maybe 50000LL if i remember well and if i add parking fees, tawabe3, etc i end up with like 65000LL (neglecting fuel and time and effort).

Don't complain! everyone does this including amhaz for all his phones !

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#1137 February 16 2018

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

NuclearVision wrote:

Don't complain! everyone does this including amhaz for all his phones !

Not true. Resellers or store owners simply have another procedure which mass-register all the phones at once.
They get previous approvals and IMEIs registered before the phones actually reach here.

Doing this procedure for every phone is obviously stupid and not feasible / very time consuming.

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#1138 February 16 2018

NuclearVision
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

LifeEngineer wrote:
NuclearVision wrote:

Don't complain! everyone does this including amhaz for all his phones !

Doing this procedure for every phone is obviously stupid and not feasible / very time consuming.

and that's why i was being sarcastic. But add the word 'unfair'

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#1139 February 20 2018

beezer
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

I brought 4 phones from outside just 5 months ago. None were registered and all of them are working fine till today.
Are you sure about this?

LifeEngineer wrote:
Hybrid wrote:

Is this law applicable yet? I want to order a new phone ?

I suffered from it / experienced it last month.

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#1140 February 20 2018

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

beezer wrote:

I brought 4 phones from outside just 5 months ago. None were registered and all of them are working fine till today.
Are you sure about this?

LifeEngineer wrote:
Hybrid wrote:

Is this law applicable yet? I want to order a new phone ?

I suffered from it / experienced it last month.

No, I'm not sure I was hallucinating.

Now seriously, it's a relatively new law and you luckily missed it.

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#1141 February 22 2018

beezer
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

beezer wrote:

I brought 4 phones from outside just 5 months ago. None were registered and all of them are working fine till today.
Are you sure about this?

LifeEngineer wrote:

No, I'm not sure I was hallucinating.

Now seriously, it's a relatively new law and you luckily missed it.

I don't know how well this is implemented. I think they forced you to do that when they noticed it's a new phone and could make you run around, but I had 3 guests here from Feb 12-15. Each brought their phones with them and they worked fine, one of them even put a Lebanese sim card in because his phone has 2 sim slots.

I remember when it was implemented a few years back there was a counter at the airport for doing that. Anyways, I'll be traveling again soon and will see if someone asks me to buy a phone for them.

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#1142 February 22 2018

xazbrat
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

beezer wrote:
beezer wrote:

I brought 4 phones from outside just 5 months ago. None were registered and all of them are working fine till today.
Are you sure about this?

LifeEngineer wrote:

No, I'm not sure I was hallucinating.

Now seriously, it's a relatively new law and you luckily missed it.

I don't know how well this is implemented. I think they forced you to do that when they noticed it's a new phone and could make you run around, but I had 3 guests here from Feb 12-15. Each brought their phones with them and they worked fine, one of them even put a Lebanese sim card in because his phone has 2 sim slots.

I remember when it was implemented a few years back there was a counter at the airport for doing that. Anyways, I'll be traveling again soon and will see if someone asks me to buy a phone for them.

I think there is a time limit on how long you can use the sim card before you are dropped off of the network---I want to say 2 months, but it could be a month.   They did sort of keep in mind of the 10's of thousands of Lebanese who work outside of the country (they just decided to screw over the people in the country).

And next time I order a phone, I will have it sent to Dubai for a family member to pick up and bring with them.  What an asinine law and even worse implementation.

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#1143 February 22 2018

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

xazbrat wrote:

I think there is a time limit on how long you can use the sim card before you are dropped off of the network---I want to say 2 months, but it could be a month. They did sort of keep in mind of the 10's of thousands of Lebanese who work outside of the country (they just decided to screw over the people in the country).

^THIS.

Last edited by LifeEngineer (February 22 2018)

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#1144 February 25 2018

xazbrat
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

A couple of  things:  if you ever order a phone from wherever, the alfa and touch sites are pretty much worthless for configuring any internet services.  After spending a fruitless half hour trying to configure everything, I found this site and my connection was configured within a couple of minutes.  Since most people don't order a samsung, apple, htc or huawei, the site is seems pretty useful, even for those brands.  2)  If/when I order another phone, it will be to family in the UAE (UK and Canada also) so they can bring it over without the current hassle and bs.  While the people at the ministry and libanpost were friendly and almost apologetic, it still is a procedural pain.  If my sim expires after a couple of months, so be it, I will deal with it.  But going back and forth at the beginning is  not worth it if you know about it in advance. They sort of sprung it on us as a new year's surprise.

Anyway, happy with my new phone.  :)

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#1145 April 24 2018

nas93
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

"Held by customs in destination country" For a $15 earphone, gonna dispute order and not even bother with contacting jomrok.

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#1146 April 24 2018

NuclearVision
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

I don't believe held by customs means you need to go.
Normal process.
I could be wrong though.

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#1147 April 24 2018

nas93
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

Item handed over to Customs for clearance Retention Reason: Awaiting presentation to customs commissioner

Customs commissioner for a $15 item lol, will probably call them tomorrow and ask what are the additional fees and if they amount to anything more than $2 will probably let them keep it

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#1148 April 24 2018

boudz
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

nas93 wrote:

Item handed over to Customs for clearance Retention Reason: Awaiting presentation to customs commissioner

Customs commissioner for a $15 item lol, will probably call them tomorrow and ask what are the additional fees and if they amount to anything more than $2 will probably let them keep it

happened with me before
it is normal item delivered without any taxes

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#1149 April 24 2018

NuclearVision
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

boudz wrote:
nas93 wrote:

Item handed over to Customs for clearance Retention Reason: Awaiting presentation to customs commissioner

Customs commissioner for a $15 item lol, will probably call them tomorrow and ask what are the additional fees and if they amount to anything more than $2 will probably let them keep it

happened with me before
it is normal item delivered without any taxes

Exactly. the item is on-wait to be inspected that's it.
However, if i may ask, how long did it take the item to arrive to lebanon? Thanks!

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#1150 April 25 2018

Xsever
Member

Re: AliExpress in Lebanon

nas93 wrote:

Item handed over to Customs for clearance Retention Reason: Awaiting presentation to customs commissioner

Customs commissioner for a $15 item lol, will probably call them tomorrow and ask what are the additional fees and if they amount to anything more than $2 will probably let them keep it

Just wait. The item will eventually get delivered without taxes. It happened to me with $5 earplugs. Customs love to "inspect" everything.

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