How long will it take?

[eira]

Hi all,

I've been expecting a parcel from South Africa for about 2 weeks now.

From the tracking history it says it was posted on 26 January and it got to Capemail's hub on the 28th.

I know South Africa's postal service and customs have their issues and the backlogs but I ordered the item on the 19th January and it's not even left the country left. 

How much longer will I be waiting? I'm trying to be patient because I know that it'll take a while but it's starting to annoy me now.

Thanks in advance.

Edited February 3, 2019 by 1kv
removed picture of tracking history

[Monkey Dust]

Getting stuff delivered from outside the EU (for the love of all that is holy, don't mention the 'B word') is a slow painful process. Last time I ordered something from Japan it was in Coventry for 2 weeks before Revenue and customs looked at it. SA customs could easily have a 2 week delay.

 

And a heads up if you don't know already, your postie won't just show up with your package. You'll likely get a card telling you how much duty you need to pay, and an extortionate admin fee from Royal Mail for handling the duty. Once you've paid that, then you get you package. Hang in there, all being well you should have it by Easter.   

[Guest]

 

it’s making progress from what you’ve said. 

It’s not like it’s lost or anything. 

[eira]

21 minutes ago, Monkey Dust said:

Getting stuff delivered from outside the EU (for the love of all that is holy, don't mention the 'B word') is a slow painful process. Last time I ordered something from Japan it was in Coventry for 2 weeks before Revenue and customs looked at it.  

Last time I got something shipped from overseas it took about 3 weeks. It took 2 weeks to leave Russia and took about a week to clear customs.

It was horribly slow but when I went to pick it up all I had to do was just sign for it. They never asked me to pay fees.

21 minutes ago, Monkey Dust said:

And a heads up if you don't know already, your postie won't just show up with your package. You'll likely get a card telling you how much duty you need to pay, and an extortionate admin fee from Royal Mail for handling the duty. Once you've paid that, then you get you package. Hang in there, all being well you should have it by Easter.   

Everytime I've bought from outside of the EU I've never had to pay HMRC anything so I'm not sure if it's just items over a certain value that get charged duty.

I'm expecting it to be here by around late February to mid March (mainly due to SA's customs having a massive backlog) but I guess we'll see.

7 minutes ago, fpo said:

it’s making progress from what you’ve said. 

Yeah, it's just that it's not moved in nearly a week. It's not even left the city it was shipped from yet. It's something I'm not used to.

7 minutes ago, fpo said:

It's not like it's lost or anything.

Plenty of stuff gets stolen from the mail in South Africa. I doubt they'd steal my package (it's a hat that was like £6) but anything can happen.

https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/threads/missing-sapo-parcels-and-letters.453995/

[Guest]

 

1 minute ago, 1kv said:

Plenty of stuff gets stolen from the mail in South Africa

You have insurance or something? If it was stolen, you should get reimbursed 

[eira]

25 minutes ago, fpo said:

You have insurance or something? If it was stolen, you should get reimbursed 

I doubt it. BTW, I'm not saying it is stolen, I'm just saying there is a possibility of it happening. 

But yeah, I don't think I'd get reimbursed either in that type of situation.

[aezakmi]

30 minutes ago, Monkey Dust said:

don't mention the 'B word'

Bunited Kingdom?