How long did it take to get your stuff??

[Tiffani]

Hi everyone,

We've been in Melbourne now since the beginning of February, and after much ado, our ship is docking in the Port of Melbourne TODAY!

Question: Once your ship was in port, how long did it take before you actually received your stuff at your house? The shipper in the US said it was a matter of days, but the agent here in Melbourne said 2-3 weeks. How long does the customs/quarantine process take and did anything unexpected happen to you during this part of the process?

also, how specific do you have to be in the inventory listing? I didn't realise when we were packing that a complete inventory would be required on the back end, so there's no way I could possibly remember every single thing that is in the shipment (we've basically brought over our house). Do customs officials rifle through your things? Was anything damaged upon arrival that could've been attributed to customs? (like, it was packed perfectly but then suddenly it arrived broken? etc)

Help!!!

Thanks
Tiffani

[kingwilly]

Its supposed to be a complete inventory - who else is gonna do it. In theory customs may have to open it all and check (how do you think drugs etc get smuggled - their job it to stop this)

In practice they may not worry too much - sort of all depends on everything.

[Dolly]

Originally Posted by Tiffani

Hi everyone,

We've been in Melbourne now since the beginning of February, and after much ado, our ship is docking in the Port of Melbourne TODAY!

Question: Once your ship was in port, how long did it take before you actually received your stuff at your house? The shipper in the US said it was a matter of days, but the agent here in Melbourne said 2-3 weeks. How long does the customs/quarantine process take and did anything unexpected happen to you during this part of the process?

also, how specific do you have to be in the inventory listing? I didn't realise when we were packing that a complete inventory would be required on the back end, so there's no way I could possibly remember every single thing that is in the shipment (we've basically brought over our house). Do customs officials rifle through your things? Was anything damaged upon arrival that could've been attributed to customs? (like, it was packed perfectly but then suddenly it arrived broken? etc)

Help!!!

Thanks
Tiffani

Hi Tiffani,

Great news re your shipment.

Our shipment arrived in Melbourne on 30th Nov last year and it was delivered to us on 16th December (it was an extremely busy time of the year).

Back in the UK the packers did an inventory list as they went along (we didn't have to do one this end). We filled out an "Unaccompanied Personal Effects Statement" form which was given to the shipping agent.

Customs won't open up every single box you have, but if they find something suspicious/not cleaned properly etc then they'll have a field day. Ours went through with no problems.

We had a few breakages (mostly glass cracked on paintings/porcelain pots etc) which was covered by insurance. There would be no way of knowing who broke a item in your consignment.

When our stuff arrived, we used the inventory list the packers in the UK wrote, and ticked off the boxes as they came off the container (all were numbered) and luckily they were all there!

It shouldn't be too long now.....

Dolly

[Tiffani]

Thanks Dolly for your response.

So it took about three weeks at a particularly busy time; that's a good sign then.

As for the inventory, I'm kicking myself for not completing one. If I had known it would be required (although I suppose it makes sense that it would be -- I guess I was just thinking we'd have to fill out one of those forms like you get at the airport certifying that you're not carrying anything dangerous or illegal, etc)I would've done it whilst packing. The shipping company did send an inventory list to complete and I'd started it, only to be told that it was only necessary if we were going to take out additional insurance which we opted against! DERR! My bad.

I'll know for next time to write down everything that goes in each box on a sheet of paper and tape it to the outside of the box so that it'll be easier on the customs fellas. Hopefully they won't see anything that will make them suspicious! All of our stuff is pretty innocuous really With that said, I had NO IDEA just how serious Quarantine regs were in this country until the QANTAS people told us we couldn't even take the cookies we were given on the plane into the country!!!

[Dolly]

Hey Tiffani,

Oh dear....there's not much you can do now, but I'd write a letter of complaint to your shippers for not making sure an itinerary list was done at the time of packing (I'm presuming you packed everything yourself?). You'll just have to do a list to the best of your knowledge...although it'll take a while.

What the customs guys do is look down the list to see if there's anything that could possibly be dodgy like shoes/christmas decorations/garden stuff/tools etc. As I said, our list was itemised and each box given a number. If, for example, shoes were in boxes 16 and 24 then they knew which boxes to open.

I'd suggest keeping in contact with your shipping agent on your consignment status.

I'm afraid Australian customs are renowned for their hardline approach to quarantine laws. Your comment re the cookies made me laugh. When we were over on our reccie, my MIL came with us. She had brought some sandwiches with her, which were in her bag. We'd all completely forgotten about them until we were standing in the customs line at immigration! My MIL nearly had a heart attack thinking they'd lock her up LOL Luckily there was a bin nearby and they were duly thrown away!

Dolly

[Tiffani]

Dolly, I was in a complete panic when we arrived in Melbourne and even saw a quarantine sniffer dog walking around the airport. I threw away everything except for a pack of gum (I asked the quarantine officer if it would be OK to keep it and she said it was fine!!!!) It's really terrifying. I think I'd be more afraid of bringing in a banana than a kilo of coke LOL I don't blame them though; they've been burned so badly in the past that it makes sense to be extremely careful.

The shipper did put a number sticker on each box/bed part/shelving unit that they packed, but what's in the boxes is anybody's guess! There will be some indication by what we've written on the outside of the boxes "shoes" "clothes" "bathroom" "kitchen" etc, but unless I can actually see the boxes in order to put the number of the box with what I think is probably inside of it, there's no way I can do them correctly by number.
Plus, the shipper decided that some of the boxes were too small and would have to go into a large shipping box, so I'm not sure what's in that big box either! arrrggghhhh...

At any rate, I haven't received the documentation from the shipper on this end yet, so I'm going to call her and ask her where it is.

thanks for your help