GST, Slow Post and Australian Customs and Compensation

[natureboy1959]

A number of purchases recently from overseas. Now with the advent of GST on all overseas purchases and 'services' including post, there would seem to be a number of issues regarding processing through Australian Customs. Firstly when one pays for expedited post with tracking which is quite hefty, one expects a service which one has paid for. The seller may well be very efficient and in most cases they are, as they understand you have paid big bucks for the postal service. But all that comes to a halt, once the item arrives in Australian Customs. They have no obligation or responsibility when it comes to processing in any timely manner. One has paid GST or is liable to pay GST on the item, including the postal 'service'. That service is expedited shipping with tracking. The trackiing disappears once it hits the black hole known as Australian Customs, where it can sit indefinitely. Seems to me - rather than charging for GST on a postal 'service' - Australian Customs should be compensating buyers for the loss of service. It is a serious loss of service. The tracking is lost or disappeared, the expedited shipping paid for is money down the drain, as the item will not be received in an expedited way more likely in timeframes that you would expect from an item that was shipped by boat. Thats a serious loss of dollars in shipping costs. To add insult to injury, you are then charged GST on the expedited with tracking costs - a service you have defintely not received!  So Australian Customs rather than charging GST on shipping should actually be compensating buyers. Australian Customs are not answerable to anyone apart from their own invisible bureaucrats. With advent of the GST on imports, no doubt the workers would be directed to check every single item, but they would not be sufficiently staffed to do this in a timely manner. Australia is still a backwater and will always be - with Government red tape getting more and more into peoples lives and with an isolationist policy, Amazon restrictions etc,  I can see there will inevitably be a downward trend in sales through eBay for international sellers, which is what the Government and the Harvey Normans want. A true isolationist approach - Australia still a backwater - and really turns the clock back many decades. Welcome to the 1950's.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

---

@luna-2304 wrote:

Hello, everyone.

This thread is getting a little off-topic.

Could we please bring the discussion back to "GST, Slow Post and Australian Customs and Compensation"

Thanks!

luna-2304

Community Moderator

---

for me, the Opening Post sets the framework for replies on a thread.  Then, when the Opening Poster continues to post on the thread, they set the framework for the direction the thread takes.

It was the Opening Poster who introduced the number of posts a member has (and the idea that member posts here are made by eBay or government employees) into this thread, others then just went in the direction that the Opening Poster decided to take the thread.

For this reason, I don’t think that this thread has gone off-topic.  It has followed the direction determined by the Opening Poster . . . . . . and now, it has taken another course due to moderator intervention . . . . . . . . which I have no problem with so long as I am granted a right of reply seeing as luna replied to my post with the assertion that the thread has gone off-topic.

[enigmabear]

The OP themselves then introduced the number of post counts another member had in their reply

Other members responded on the subject of post counts since the OP mentioned it in relation to their post and the validity (or lack thereof)of the first member's response based on their post count

[bbad76]

You must be joking if you domt think customs will bold items for 3 months.. I have been waiting 2 months for one delivery of car parts. And am currently on 2 weeks for a another car item.. Te date I am going off is the date that 17 tracker noted the item arrived in Australia.. they def should have a maximum time frame placed on them so if they need more staff they can get the extra staff they need to provide a reasonable time frame for checking items.

[bbad76]

You must be joking if you domt think customs will bold items for 3 months.. I have been waiting 2 months for one delivery of car parts. And am currently on 2 weeks for a another car item.. Te date I am going off is the date that 17 tracker noted the item arrived in Australia.. they def should have a maximum time frame placed on them so if they need more staff they can get the extra staff they need to provide a reasonable time frame for checking items and getting them out. I also note that I have not received any correspondence from customs so dont know what they are checkingbor it they lost or damaged the items I ordered and are trying to cover it up

[davewil1964]

You must be joking if you think the situation today with COVID-19 has anything to do with the situation TWO YEARS ago, when there was no such thing as COVID.