Reaching out to all the OzBargainers who've had recent, trackable shipments and parcels sitting in customs for a week or more, especially post-May.
I'm hearing some similar stories on Whirlpool and wanted to gauge what the average customs clearing times are like lately, but since this topic largely falls outside of WP's sub-forum categories, I thought here would be a better place to ask.
My recent order is a DHL Shipment that left the UK on 04/06, arrived in Australia in a very respectable 5 days and has been at customs since 11/06. I can't remember any trackable order/shipment being at customs for more than week in probably 10 years of online shopping. DHL couldn't provide any information about the delay when queried and fobbed me off to their designated customs broker in Australia, who again couldn't provide any specifics and told me to check back with them later.
It did occur to me that perhaps there is some flow-on effect for customs efficiency and processing times as a result of the imminently-approaching July 1st GST changes for international transactions, and maybe Australian customs clearing houses are scrambling to try to implement all the compliance and regulatory requirements (hence their day-to-day work may fall behind); but general Australian, slow-as-molasses bureaucracy notwithstanding, it does seem out of whack for an order under $1000 AUD in value, that is not a dangerous/prohibited/restricted category of goods, to sit in customs for a week.
There is a huge flow in effect, not just some, i have a relative who works for customs, and they are saying that the volume is unprecedented. There is a queuing system, just because volume has increased doesn't mean they are going to slack on their job. it just means whichever package has been chosen to be inspected will take much longer than normal.