So I ordered that camcorder I was on about the other week.

Ordered Wed 27th Jan.
Dispatched Friday 29th
Parcel tracking says it left Hong Kong on 31st

It's now the 5th, so where the **** is it? I presume stuck at UK customs?

If so is there anyway I can find out?

(The cost included VAT import charges, so it's not like it should be held as a dodgy import tax dodge or anything).

6 days to arrive from HK isn't that much.

I'm still waiting for a parcel posted from London (I'm in Herts 30 miles up the road) on the 12th January.

Umm i would be patient. That's not long really…

coming from HK ?
6 days?

jiminey crickets !! , take me two weeks just to get things here from the UK .

Umm i would be patient. That's not long really…

Mmm.. just seems a long time when I've paid £30 for Registered Air Mail and the shop website says expected delivery date was yesterday.

I know I'm being impatient, but I'm off on holiday on Tuesday and I'd quite like to have the camera for it. 😕

The cost included VAT import charges

How does that work then? Everything I've ever imported I've got a bill from the delivery company this end.

Maybe you should have ordered it earlier

I ordered a light from DealExtreme on 20th Jan. It was shipped on the 26th and it arrived 2nd Feb. I thought that was pretty quick.

Hmm. I ordered a light from DealExtreme on the 3rd Jan. Dispatched on the 14th with Hongkong post. Still waiting…… 🙁

Although I didn't pay for airfreight, I got it. Don't know how that works.

I ordered a light from DealExtreme on the 3rd Jan. Dispatched on the 14th with Hongkong post. Still waiting……

Aaww **** don't say that. 🙁
Was that Air Mail too?

Seems to me that if HK Post says it "left Hong Kong for its destination on 31-Jan-2010" then presumably it arrived in the UK on the 1st?

Which means it took 4 days to cover the 6000-odd miles from the shop in Hong Kong to London, but hasn't managed the remaining 350 miles in a further 4 days?

i got some forks from the US a couple of weeks ago. took less time to get from california, via tennessee to london than it did to get from london to st andrews. was in customs for a few days. its normal.
i got a bill a few days after for customs charges

I was kind of hoping that paying the proper import duty upfront would avoid any customs delay and additional "administration" charges though?

Ordered 4 lights from DealExtreme on the 5th of Nov, got 2 last Tuesday, god knows where the other 2 are and they are difficult to communicate with to say the least

Well I was curious about the customs thing, so wandered over to the supplier's site. Still not sure exactly how it works – presumably they have some sort of contract with the carrier, but this may well mean they get billed and have to pay before the parcel is released which will add delay. In any case, customs themselves can't be hurried.

You have seen http://www.digitalrev.com/en/what-is-the-typical-delivery-time-30-article.html – which makes me wonder why you selected air mail?

Arse, I didn't see that page. 😕
The "Registered Air Mail" was the more expensive option, so I guess I kinda assumed it would be the faster delivery option 😳   😳   😳

Still the "My Account" page still says "Expected Delivery: 4th Feb" so there is hope yet.

I suspect the headings are the wrong way round on that page.

Can't see why they would be – I'd expect air mail to be slower. Have had stuff DHL International Express and it came very quickly – I think that's what I used to get something delivered from the US in 2 days from ordering.

Ordered some stuff from the US (Kill Hannah CD and merchandise) on 26th October. Delivery was attempted on 11th November. Not bad I thought.

However, I queried the size of the customs charge and asked for it to be returned to customs in London for reassessment.

It eventually arrived on 1st Feb! To add insult to injury (well a long period of waiting) the customs charge was correct 🙁 It just looked big because the £11 charge was made up of £3 from customs and £8 (yes £8) admin charge from the Royal Mail 🙄

Customs is always a big hold up. I bought my VPfree frame from Canada. I had full tracking on it, took about 24-36hrs to go from some little town in Canada to Toronto and on to Heathrow and then customs, where it spent an entire week!

Though some carriers will speed stuff through customs quicker than others – when I did my urgent order (not totally sure it was DHL – though I have definitely used them) it didn't seem to spend any time held up – the irony being that most of the customs charge was on the delivery cost, since that was more than the cost of what I'd ordered!

Maybe a sniffer dog sat down next to your "camcorder" And that telecoms van outside your house is full of armed police….

Pete,who did you get to send SC to the uk?

I ordered some guitar parts from Canada and the Seller used Canada Post – it took 3 months!!!

 
**Update**

it finally arrived on Tuesday 16th, 12 days after the expected delivery date and 16 days after it left Hong Kong.
No customs charges. And no explanation or covering note naturally.

Anyway, it was too late, I was already away on holiday, so it's now for sale on classifieds 😀