Shipping from abroad (share your experience)

ggtks wroteI have a handful of packages from Ali coming to Leb (relatives abroad are a precious help), will share statistics on how long things are taking. Will also note things like "extra" fees or whatever. I've heard rumors of these things lately.

Libanpost has been a class act for years in my experience with the occasional customs hiccup but with the way things are going I wouldn't be surprised if that was no longer the case now. I'm seeing a lot of people mention the tracking numbers not showing up in LiPos's system, honestly I've always used parcel tracking services to scan multiple couriers and give me the full timeline. YMMV depending on shipping provider obviously.

What's interesting is that there are packages from China that are getting to Lebanon within less than two weeks. This was never the case for me in the past. The worst one is the package that spent 10 days in transit with twice that time in customs.


Also, ShopAndShip fees at a 6000 rate sounds like highway robbery. Maybe it's time to make an account?

ggtks wrote

xazbrat wrote

NuclearVision wroteanybody received anything recently?

Got a package from Fedex this morning--I don't hold much faith in Libanpost.

The courriers (Fedex, Aramex, etc) are still running, Libanpost is functional but slower than ever. Still haven’t recieved anything, according to their customer service there’s a very large number of packages being sorted (especially in my area). I presume they’re understaffed and underfunded, as well as suffering from the current crises, so I do expect them to be slow.

Might have to sign up to Aramex, but truthfully I feel guilty ordering stuff online in this situation, so no clue if I’ll be using it.

Signed up for Aramex about a month ago, may start using it soon. I am worried about getting shafted by customs, but it is what it is.

I never used Aliexpress as much as I did this year, I had a lot of small items I needed for one of my jobs and there was zero supply in Lebanon for it. Thankfully I have the means to get these this way, which is something I am grateful for.

As for my many packages, here are some statistics as promised:

(used an old school BBCode table generator but it looks like LG doesn't support that.. Oh well)
Disclaimer: This is just for information, none of my figures should be taken as reference or gospel, this is just anecdotal.
All items were ordered between March and August of 2021.
I've anonymized some of the info as well.
I added the middle ranges in a non-statistical way, just by ear, because I'd say some 20% of packages are outliers in some category.

Cainiao Standard Shipping for Special Goods: Mostly smaller items

• n = 5.
• China Transit: 2-6 Days
• Overseas shipping: 8-9 Days
• Customs: 10-20 Days
• Libanpost: 35-40 Days

Cainiao Super Economy for Special Goods: Mostly smaller items

• n <10.
• China Transit: 2-4 Days
• Overseas shipping: 8-11 Days
• Customs: 52-54 Days
• Libanpost: 2 Days

Cainiao Super Economy Global: Still mostly smaller items. That's just what I get from Ali anyways.

• n = 10.
• China Transit: 4-5 Days
• Overseas shipping: 22-24 Days
• Customs: 40-70 Days
• Libanpost: 2-11 Days

China Post Registered Air Mail: Bigger, heavier items

• n <5.
• China Transit: 3-4 Days
• Overseas shipping: 8-22 Days
• Customs: 8-39 Days
• Libanpost: 2 Days

Totals:

• n <30.
• Average total days from ship date to received date: 76.6, SD 22.6
• Average China Transit: 9.2, SD 15.1
• Average Overseas Transit: 25.1, SD 18.9
• Average Days in Customs: 41.5, SD 20.3
• Average Lebanon Transit (Libanpost): 10.0, SD 20.0

There are also small packages sent through other carriers but those aren't enough to draw any conclusions from.
I had one China Post Regular Air Mail outlier that spent 100 days bouncing around China until it returned to the seller. I know the seller from previous sales (they sell items for a very specific hobby), so I immediately contacted them. They gave me the option of a refund or sending again, I went for sending again. It went through 4px and it was a breeze.

YMMV as always. My items were mostly small, cheap (~$7.9, SD $7.2) items, with one exception. I did not pay any extra fees.


TLDR: The mail system is still functional, slow but functional. Customs is slower than ever, especially with smaller packages. LibanPost will sit on your packages for a while if they are small, and then send them to you asynchronously regardless of how long customs takes. Patience is more important than ever. All the Libanpost staff I had to deal with were helpful and friendly.

I hope this helps.
Best of luck with your shipping endeavors!

Over the past few months, I have used Aramex (ShopAndShip) quite a bit. I find them to be the best and cheapest option available, and their rates remain very affordable.

Hello everyone,

I received my order today, and now Aramex charges in USD
I have paid 25USD in cash and 30,000LPB for a 1kg package from Amazon (around 580.000 total).

I paid much less for a bigger shipment a month ago (about 300.000 for around 2kg package) AND I paid all in LBP

I don't know if Shop&Ship is worth it these days

NuclearVision wroteits ok, it was too good.
Now its fine with flex
i got an email that fees will be increased in feb 1st

ill wait and see

Yes, I just called them, and their shipping fees are now being collected in fresh starting this year (1st Jan).
So, expect to pay around 600.000 LBP for a 1kg package now (by the way, I'm on Flex. so higher if you're not a Flex user )

The weird thing is I received the receipt through my email in LBP. When I enquired about it, they told me they have to put the receipt in LBP since the official rate is still 1507 but they charge you in USD.

Do you think it's still worth it anymore?