Custom delay for over a month

@Ccammeo No. I sent registered mail that is traceable to Norway on March 1st. It hasn't arrived yet today, March 19th. It is not uncommon. It left VN the 1st after taking 5 days from Nha Trang to SGN.

Has anyone experienced this before? I have a clock shipped from the Us (using DHL) and it has arrived at Vietnam on 30rd Jan. However it is March 19th now and I have not been contacted for VAT and get no update about the package.
Is this weird?
-@Ccammeo

In my opinion & I have used DHL a lot, this is definitely unusual. Every time I have used DHL within 24 hours of arrival they have contacted me by phone & e mail to confirm what's inside the package & within 24 hours its cleared customs & out for delivery & they contact you to say they are within 30 minutes of delivery. On one occasion I missed the delivery cos I was out & the next day I just went to the depot beside the airport & picked it up.

Has anyone experienced this before? I have a clock shipped from the Us (using DHL) and it has arrived at Vietnam on 30rd Jan. However it is March 19th now and I have not been contacted for VAT and get no update about the package.
Is this weird?
-@Ccammeo

Hello Ccammeo, and welcome to expat.com.

I agree with goodolboy. Unusually long delay. What does the waybill/tracking # currently state on the DHL website? Have you called DHL?

Please let us know what you find.

Has anyone experienced this before? I have a clock shipped from the Us (using DHL) and it has arrived at Vietnam on 30rd Jan. However it is March 19th now and I have not been contacted for VAT and get no update about the package.
Is this weird?
-@Ccammeo

Sometimes when we hear stories sure as this on the forum, it's because the end delivery person here in Vietnam was unable to contact the foreigner by telephone before delivery.

I have no idea if that's the problem in your case, but any casual readers of this thread are well advised to make sure that a Vietnam telephone number for a Vietnamese-speaking person is clearly visible on the outside of the package. 

Also, calls from unknown numbers should not be blocked and should always be answered, as virtually all delivery drivers (in my many experiences) do not display any identifying information on caller ID, and voice mail is often not set up.

@MartinLe Thank you

@Aidan in HCMC I have only contacted the shop (Jomashop) and the local post service (VN Post) but they all told me to check with each other. I have not contacted with DHL yet since they said they have no representative in Viet Nam. Currently DHL shows my package as "Arrival at destination country" in their official website

@Aidan in HCMC I have only contacted the shop (Jomashop) and the local post service (VN Post) but they all told me to check with each other. I have not contacted with DHL yet since they said they have no representative in Viet Nam. Currently DHL shows my package as "Arrival at destination country" in their official website
-@Ccammeo

Im confused, you say DHL has no representaive in VN, yet there are many DHL centres.

@colinoscapee I contacted their page "DHL in VietNam" only (there is no DHL Center in my region). They said they are DHL Express, not DHL Ecommerce and they can not help me with it. Have you ever contacted a center about an international package like this?

@Ccammeo No. I sent registered mail that is traceable to Norway on March 1st. It hasn't arrived yet today, March 19th. It is not uncommon. It left VN the 1st after taking 5 days from Nha Trang to SGN.
-@MartinLe

what's registered mail got to do with DHL?

@Aidan in HCMC I have only contacted the shop (Jomashop) and the local post service (VN Post) but they all told me to check with each other. I have not contacted with DHL yet since they said they have no representative in Viet Nam. Currently DHL shows my package as "Arrival at destination country" in their official website
-@Ccammeo

whats a shop called jomashop & VN post got to do with DHL??? If the DHL (an international courier company) package is addressed to you why would you think VN Post could help you?

Has anyone experienced this before? I have a clock shipped from the Us (using DHL) and it has arrived at Vietnam on 30rd Jan. However it is March 19th now and I have not been contacted for VAT and get no update about the package.
Is this weird?
-@Ccammeo

Sometimes when we hear stories sure as this on the forum, it's because the end delivery person here in Vietnam was unable to contact the foreigner by telephone before delivery.

I have no idea if that's the problem in your case, but any casual readers of this thread are well advised to make sure that a Vietnam telephone number for a Vietnamese-speaking person is clearly visible on the outside of the package.

Also, calls from unknown numbers should not be blocked and should always be answered, as virtually all delivery drivers (in my many experiences) do not display any identifying information on caller ID, and voice mail is often not set up.
-@OceanBeach92107

Every package I have sent using DHL has section on the form where you have to put the contact details including telephone number for the sender & the receiver.

@goodolboy  vir.com.vn/dhl-ecommerce-stops-operation-in-vietnam-88608.html

I contact their page and they said there is no DHL E-commerce which is responsible for my package in Vietnam. DHL Express and DHL Global Forwarding - other divisions of DHL - are still operating and I guess this is the reason you still see their office somewhere.

I read that DHL E-commerce will just ship the package here and VN Post will be the one who directly deliver it to me domestically.

I have. I ordered vitamins from America on November 2022 and I didn't get it until February 2023. I don't know why it took so long to get it, but I received it eventually.

I am quite desperate now. After Vietnam custom does not contact me, I text DHL for clarification and this is what they said:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DUGDkw … p=drivesdk

I do not know anything I can do anymore about it🥹

Im my opinion if you want to order anything to vietnam don’t use normal post to do it, instead find shipping services that offer that you ship item locally ( like in US. ) and then they will handle shipping from there to Vietnam.

also think DHL EXPRESS like UPS, and DHL commerce like USPS..  one is shipping company that directly make sure you get your package and other just ship it to you and hope the best.

@Ccammeo

A couple of years back, it took 3.5 months for a package to arrive from Canada, via CanPost/VNPost.

I am quite desperate now. After Vietnam custom does not contact me, I text DHL for clarification and this is what they said:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DUGDkw … p=drivesdk

I do not know anything I can do anymore about it🥹
-@Ccammeo

It says your only recourse now is to file a claim with the "vendor", which presumes that you did not have it shipped by a private party (family or friend).

You wrote:

I have a clock shipped from the Us (using DHL)

So if you mean to say that you purchased the clock from a vendor in the United States and THEY shipped it for you, then this part of the DHL message applies:

Please be aware that when purchasing goods via commercial transactions conducted online, in the regrettable event that the shipment misses or exceeds its "Delivery Deadline" (like in this case), beyond any reasonable estimate (through fault of our own or that of our "Delivery Partner"), the path forward requires the package recipient to get in touch with his/her "Merchant" or "Shipper" (the store where you purchased the item from), as the proper conduit to a resolution settlement. In this regard, please reach out to your "Vendor" as soon as possible for a prompt resolution, whether that is a refund, a replacement, or something else according to their policies, guidelines, and procedures.

For the casual reader, I agree with Wald0 that if you are shipping privately, the best option is to use a shipping service run by Việt Kiều (overseas Vietnamese people) who will ship through customs to their own network here in Vietnam.

Weigh your packages before taking them to the shipper, and make sure that they open your packages and create a record of inspection prior to shipping for you.

Also be aware that anything mechanical in nature is subject to a very thorough secondary inspection in customs, especially if you don't have your shipper inspect it (a lesson I learned the hard way).

A similar inspection by customs caused a CPAP machine of mine to be delayed an additional 6 weeks in SGN/HCMC.

The more advanced the mechanical device (capability to interact with computers or the Internet via Bluetooth, etc) then the more likely that the inspection will be extensive, meaning, delayed

This also brings up a bit of a conundrum regarding insurance.

On the one hand, many of us recommend having little or no insured value on shipments into Vietnam, as customs will use the insured value as a factor in assigning a duty fee to the shipment.

However, failure to insure through the carrier leaves you little if any recourse when shipments disappear or have items pilfered.

Just to add another little data point. I shipped some shoes that I purchased online and shipped via DHL. I used this service which includes duty and customs costs in the price. I was able to track the package until it just disappeared in Hanoi. I was getting ready to leave Vietnam in 2021 and really wanted to get the package. I waited almost a week and no news. Finally, I asked my landlady to please call DHL at the Noi Bai Airport and I found out from her that the package was stuck in customs because I had written that the shoes were made in the US but inside, the label clearly said "made in Vietnam". I had no idea really. I've bought these shoes in Cambodia, Mexico, Vietnam before. So I made a trip to the DHL clearance facility at the airport. There I waited until an English speaking customer service person came over and cheerfully told me that this same thing had happened to her before. She helped out with DHL and customs clearance and I took the package home. All within about three days of leaving Vietnam for what I thought was forever in 2021. If you can, I would call DHL and ask with the waybill number. This is the only way I found out. It also helped my landlady is Vietnamese and was able to get the answer rather quickly for me.

It took one VN post item 17 months to arrive (with a hole like a rat munched it), ironically it arrived the morning I was flying back to the UK.

@Ccammeo i have twice sent small gifts to vietnam from teh US, usimg US post office first classs with gtracking... in botn  cases it reached VN within a few days... and that was the last we ever heard of it. US PO can trace it in Vietnam. The first tiem wads during covid so i chocked it up to covid delivery problems. The second was after the major crisis has passed... but it didn't do any better.

Well , i been waiting 2 month for few documents into a hard envelop from france.

It was already in vietnam after about 10 days according to the french tracking service.

I went twice to the big post office in district 1 to sk about it , they were able to say "yes your package is in vietnam but don't know yet !

Good luck guys.

@Ccammeo  Yes I have had this experience and using DHL. My  parcel went missing for 3 months. I sent an ozoneator from Australia to Vietnam. Turned out because it was a repaired electrical item, customs would not clear it but told no-one of their decission. Took DHL months to find out what happened and that only happened when customs wanted the item returned to Australia.