Thelema Posted June 26, 2009 Just a general question, how long can customs hold onto an imported package for until they contact you that they are holding it, or send it on? is there some sort of timeframe? or can it go "lost" for months while they're sorting their shit out? Anyone have any experience?-LOL I'm not talking about "illegal" imports either. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
markcond Posted June 26, 2009 (edited) Just a general question,how long can customs hold onto an imported package for until they contact you that they are holding it, or send it on? is there some sort of time frame? or can it go "lost" for months while they're sorting their shit out? Anyone have any experience?-LOL I'm not talking about "illegal" imports either. Hey Thelma, SWIM recently tried to get some seeds from OS before they realised how naughty they were being. Customs turned up on SWIM's doorstep about three or so months later, although SWIM knew goods had been sent within the week of ordering or so SWIM told me. If your import is legit it should not be held up for more than a few weeks from what I've heard. If it's getting to the 6 week stage or more then I'd suspect it won't ever come ( that's assuming it is legal OK). I hope no one would be silly enough to attempt importation of anything illicit or illegal as I'm sure there would be an ASIO tick on your name lol : )) Edited June 26, 2009 by markcond Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Torsten Posted June 26, 2009 mark, are you talking customs or quarantine? seeds [if they are illegal drugs] usually attract only a first notice letter from customs, but no visits. Visits generally only happen on repeat offences. quarantine is a different matter though. Thel - the longest I've had something in customs was 9 months. That's how long the government labs take to analyse stuff if it is deemed non urgent. By the time it arrived I had moved house. Customs does not inform you that they have it if it it under investigation. I had an ems tracking number and called auspost every few days in the first few weeks and got no info from them at all other than that "the item is not lost". Eventually some noob operator let it slip that it was with 'community protection unit', which is a part of customs. I just let it be at that point and waited as I figured it would take months to analyse. In general customs won't hold anything unless it showed positive on their FID scanner. This can be enough for arrest, but if they are not sure they will fully analyse it first which takes months. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites