• Home
• About
• Contact

Hold on your online carts, Aramex packages will go through customs!

The following is an email from Aramex Shop&Ship notifying customers of new Kuwaiti Customs Authority regulation:

“Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for choosing Aramex as your transportation partner.

The Kuwaiti Customs Authority has recently notified us that all courier shipments containing non-documents shall undergo customs inspection upon arrival at Kuwait airport. While Aramex shall continue providing its clearance services, we are unable to provide a specific time frame as to the duration of the clearance period, which may exceed five working days. Aramex therefore encourages all its customers who require speedy clearance to collect their shipments’ documents for self-clearance at the Aramex Ardiya office.

Should you need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us on + 965 1820011.

Best Regards,

Aramex Shop&Ship Team”

So only letters and documents can pass through. But otherwise, each and every package of yours will have to go through customs, so you will have to add an extra 10-15 KD at least on top of your online purchase price, add to that the 2-3 days delay on average, as many packages will arrive just before or during the weekend and will have to wait for next working day to clear them. I would say however it’s 7 days in most cases, as if you’ve been to customs clearance once before, you won’t wanna do it again, and neither does Aramex I’m sure. They’d rather collect their payment upfront, since the hassle is not worth the extra 5 KD charge.

So added days for delivery, added cost, and ten times extra headache, Kuwait has made online shopping literally impractical. This is a blow for Aramex themselves however more than it is for the end user, who will go with the more convenient path now. I bet this is the best time for Aramex to reduce prices to cover the difference.

Now as for Kuwaiti Customs, I’m not sure why they would have to go through each and every single individual package, when most shipments are from trusted merchants like Amazon, with a bill specifying all that’s inside it. Well maybe I know, but I mean it won’t be a reasonable explanation for such a call. But let’s just say that’s fine, they lay the rules, and they have their wise reasons. Do they have the capacity for it? Before you say you want to check each and every package, can you handle all that load? For some Disney kid’s cartoon, I had to carry the package, guided with security guy, back and forth twice from the storage to the Ministry of Information hut to authorize it. And that place of theirs is so tiny a think guy can barely walk between the desks with one Pakistani guy who clears it. How can all the packages go through this one person? And that’s just for the DVD, let alone all the other items inside. I heard any item that has a charger has to go through Ministry of Commerce. No comment!

Has anyone paid the customs a visit, you will see what a mess the process is, and how overwhelmed they were already without inspecting all these Aramex packages. Now if you want to inspect the package, I say fine. I’ve got nothing to hide (most of the time!). But give us a process. I don’t have to waste a whole day, running from one building to the other trying to follow a process that insiders keep arguing about it.

So in a nutshell, for the foreseeable future, I say put on hold the items that can wait. Ohh and… I Love You Kindle!

Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.