On Friday 03 July I received email from Aramex to supply info for customs, ID No., cost of item, and upload copy of sellers invoice for item purchased. I did this and then logged into my account on AGS and saw that the status had updated now showing the cost of goods as I had declared it, and it listed the invoice I had uploaded as an attachment as well as a photo of my package as received at Aramex New York. I logged into my AGS account today and see that the cost of goods is no longer showing and none of the attachments are there anymore (the invoice, and photo of the package) - is this normal? Status is still the same as it was on Friday too i.e. Received at Origin Facility New York
First of all, don't panic. If you see a tracking number it means your parcel is somewhere.
People are working from home. Not everything is as super-efficient as usual. To make things worse, warehouses are closed for deep cleaning, probably weekly.
NY shipments are going via Dubai as there are no direct SAA flights.
Right now, customs Johannesburg is closed, so even of you did miraculously receive your shipment today, it would sit.
Bottom line, and this is addressed to everyone, is to hang in there.
Where possible use an under-used origin address. Australia is fast, so have a look at ebay Australia.
Or use Singapore or Hong Kong for Aliexpress.
Ebay UK, and Amazon UK is great as Slough is working fine.
Try not to use New York or Shanghai.
New York is backed up. Shanghai is expensive, and PPE flights take priority.