worrying day of delivery..

Most embarrassing deliveries?

3. Rubber overcoat for my Scarlet Witch costume, sent in a box labelled 'XYZ Rubber'.
2. Turquoise high heels for my Deana Troi costume, sent in sellotaped shoe-box c/w with colour photo lid.
1. 14-foot bullwhip for my Pfeiffer Catwoman costume, sent in a thin plastic bag and delivered to the local corner-shop/sub-post office.

That's soft.

I bought a chastity cage on ebay. Seller said registered in UK, shipping from UK too. 2 weeks later I was expecting the package. It was late.
One month later it still didn't arrive. I got worried. I was hoping it got lost.
My worst fears came true 2 months later. I received a notice from the local customs office. There was a package from China waiting to be opened and inspected. And I must be present at the opening and inspection! And I must bring an invoice / proof of purchase for the content of the package to calculate VAT and import fees.

[Like Ra]

There was a package from China waiting to be opened and inspected. And I must be present at the opening and inspection!

Funny rules you have... Bored are those customs officers I guess...

There was a package from China waiting to be opened and inspected. And I must be present at the opening and inspection!

Funny rules you have... Bored are those customs officers I guess...

Different countries, different customs. In the Netherlands these things go rather smoothly. DHL and the mailservice deal with the customs, and afterwards you pay DHL at or before delivery. The mail puts it at a pickup point and you pay when collecting your package. The mail can be slow though. A current package has been in limbo for 22 days. 
In Spain it is different altogether. One day we received a rather heavy package from Japan and we had to go to the airport to pick it up. After going between customs and mail back and forth a few times and each time standing in line, finally the package was cleared and then they could not find it. Took more than an hour. And then I had to carry it to the car which was quite a distance because you could not get the car close to the place. Was not good for my back. There were some people waiting there for a package who had come from an other part of Spain! In all rather primitive.

I have no idea how much your package is worth, but it does not sound very expensive. To have to make a trip to the customs for that does not sound very efficient. If the package is too much overdue, at least with aliexpress, you can ask your money back and have the package sent back. If the seller claimed a date or said it was sent from the UK, clearly they violated the conditions, because anything sent from the UK should not involve customs, provided you are in the UK of course. In that case you should be able to get your money back if you put your foot down.

Too late to cancel. The packages was aeady on it's way.
Once it arrives in the country, I have no choice but to go to the customs office to pick it up. There's a fine if I don't pick it up or I don't have the required paperwork and there is also a storage fee if I'm late.

[Like Ra]

I wonder if they were curious after looking at the label that was put on the package. Now I'm curious too 😁

Too late to cancel. The packages was aeady on it's way.
Once it arrives in the country, I have no choice but to go to the customs office to pick it up. There's a fine if I don't pick it up or I don't have the required paperwork and there is also a storage fee if I'm late.

Strange system. If somebody sends you a package, you are forced into all kinds of things? Even if you do not ask for that package? I can see some form of terrorism developing here.

The whole pandemic has turned shipping on its head.

Stuff I ordered back in April is still literally in the air (last update saying handed over to airline) or just gone into some other weird limbo.

One thing ordered April 21st, "departed country of origin" on April 30th, and didn't have a single update until May 27th with the cryptic status of "item pending international transport availability" despite having aeady left..?

One thing I ordered back in March didn't make over to the US shore until the end of May. Took two whole months to go from being put on the plane to landing in San Francisco.

In any case, because I ordered a lot of things at the same time, my refund window for many of these juggled things will be opening up around the same time near the end of June. I just really hope none of them actually take that long, 'cause one of them includes some really nice shoes I'd custom made.

Spare International Airfreight is down by 90% due to the drastic reduction in passenger flight, the opportunity to just chuck it into the hold of a plane that has spare luggage capacity has gone...
The cost of "spare capacity" has gone up by 300%+, Oddly enough that "free delivery" from China is not getting any form of priority now... those parcels paying $100+ are getting in the air cargo

Two leotards arrived today in a split bag...the local Hermes are bloody useless! Last week they left a package a the wrong house - and emailed me a pic to prove it - luckily it was only some plants for the garden.

[Like Ra]

Last week they left a package a the wrong house

In our case it began to happen more often 😟 To all my complaints they respond with "ask the sender to log a case".