Okinawaiso
Active Member
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2010
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Chill...
In my experience, an item that gets selected by SARS (aka 'Customs') for inspection can be 'delayed' by up to 2 weeks (in addition to the regular delivery time) if there is no invoice attached to the parcel.
The reason for this is that customs needs to calculate VAT and duty based on the item's purchase price - so if no invoice is in the package, they have to request the invoice from the addressee. Another reason for the delay is that customs is just slow – parcel inspections are carried out by a few select persons who have to unwrap parcels and re-wrap them, assign them a ‘Registered Incoming’ tracking number etc. All this takes time.
Visit your local mail sorting office if you want a taste of this efficiency. There are also certain sending countries that SARS *loves* because they know that people are shopping online and that a majority of shipments from certain postage agents will most certainly contain goods that are liable for VAT and duty. Imagine a 40kg bag with 80-100 parcels… its going to take some time to go through all those parcels.
SARS also keeps your address on file in their computer system each time an item addressed to you are selected for inspection. With this data it’s easy to check to see what your parcel inspection history contains and possibly flag your address for inspection of incoming parcels.
If your parcel was selected for inspection and you don’t receive a notification it’s possible to check the system with just your delivery address to check where the parcel is.
All this adds days to the delivery time.
I would not worry about your package in this instance because it simply sounds like its delayed… I would not worry about loosing out either, since you paid via PayPal, so if the sender can't produce a tracking number that can be tracked online - you can simply claim back the purchase price (incl. postage) from PayPal within 40 days of your purchase.
In my experience, an item that gets selected by SARS (aka 'Customs') for inspection can be 'delayed' by up to 2 weeks (in addition to the regular delivery time) if there is no invoice attached to the parcel.
The reason for this is that customs needs to calculate VAT and duty based on the item's purchase price - so if no invoice is in the package, they have to request the invoice from the addressee. Another reason for the delay is that customs is just slow – parcel inspections are carried out by a few select persons who have to unwrap parcels and re-wrap them, assign them a ‘Registered Incoming’ tracking number etc. All this takes time.
Visit your local mail sorting office if you want a taste of this efficiency. There are also certain sending countries that SARS *loves* because they know that people are shopping online and that a majority of shipments from certain postage agents will most certainly contain goods that are liable for VAT and duty. Imagine a 40kg bag with 80-100 parcels… its going to take some time to go through all those parcels.
SARS also keeps your address on file in their computer system each time an item addressed to you are selected for inspection. With this data it’s easy to check to see what your parcel inspection history contains and possibly flag your address for inspection of incoming parcels.
If your parcel was selected for inspection and you don’t receive a notification it’s possible to check the system with just your delivery address to check where the parcel is.
All this adds days to the delivery time.
I would not worry about your package in this instance because it simply sounds like its delayed… I would not worry about loosing out either, since you paid via PayPal, so if the sender can't produce a tracking number that can be tracked online - you can simply claim back the purchase price (incl. postage) from PayPal within 40 days of your purchase.