nobody here can tell you what will clear customs where you live and the mods stop that conversation quickly, anyway
#shipping-customs 2025-08-27
Wednesday46 messages11 participantstimes are UTC
Highlights from this day
- glucagon_arm — summer into a hot country is the risk. order in a cooler month if you have the choice 20:40
- step_one_sian — tracking going dark for a week or ten days at a port is common and resolves on its own most of the time 20:44
- u100_pat — i had a parcel marked returned that arrived eleven days later. it happens 20:50
customs charge came to $120, is that normal for Singapore
🙏18🧊6🤝6
anyone shipping into Singapore in summer and what do you do about it
🙏6😂11
unrelated but is it worth paying for a faster service or does customs eat the difference
powder is robust
ports do that
[edited]fridge-thermometer.png
800 × 800 · 166 KB · not retained in the public archive
the parcel is the risk you accepted. that is worth remembering before it becomes a crisis
[edited]handling fee is the killer
Channel stats, last 30 days: 65 messages from 14 members.
mine took 19 days
split shipments arriving weeks apart is normal and is usually a stock thing, not a customs thing
a liquid cold pack tells you it was above freezing, not that the vial cooked. lyophilised powder is robust
got a seizure letter, what actually happens next
22 days to New Zealand with working tracking the whole way is at the good end of what i have seen, i think
how long is transit to New Zealand running at the moment
thats slower than usual
update on the earlier thing update from 23 months ago: Japan transit has got slower, consistently, across four orders
order in winter
👀10
unrelated but coming back after 10 months, has anything changed with New Zealand
summer into a hot country is the risk. order in a cooler month if you have the choice
💀18🙏3📉15
a port stall is not the same as a customs hold and the tracking language usually distinguishes them, ymmv
tracking going dark for a week or ten days at a port is common and resolves on its own most of the time
🧪2📉6😂14
i have lost 8 parcels in three years across a lot of orders. that is the actual rate for me
winter shipping into a cold country risks freezing, which is a different problem from heat and gets discussed less
🙏11🧊1
what does the room consider a normal transit time now
i had a parcel marked returned that arrived eleven days later. it happens
👀5✅14🎉5
thats the end of it
thats normal transit
😂2🎉3📉13
signature requirements slow things down and do not obviously reduce loss
thats a stock split
📉2
the transit table is pinned and built from what members actually reported, not from what suppliers quote
🙏1
paying for a faster service does not speed up customs. it speeds up the legs either side of customs
the same address every time is fine. a different address every time looks worse, not better
does a signature requirement help or hurt
ask about reship
quick one postal has been better than courier for me every single time. couriers are more thorough
reship policies vary enormously. QST honoured one for me without being pushed, which is not universal
paying for a faster service does not speed up customs. it speeds up the legs either side of customs
i declare it as what it is at a low value. we do not discuss wording beyond that here
what happened when you queried a missing parcel with the supplier
give it another week
quick one anyone had a split shipment arrive weeks apart
ok so a seizure letter is usually the end of it. you have lost the parcel and that is almost always the whole consequence
⚠️13
slightly off topic but if you query a missing parcel, be factual and patient. the good suppliers respond to that
*that should say weekly
declared value, do you go low or realistic
vat is usually charged on declared value plus shipping, and the handling fee is often more than the vat, ill dig out the number
📉1