There are some pain in the neck things I have to deal with here, in Armenia, when getting packages from overseas, and I thought I’d ask other forum members if they have similar problems in other countries and what the best solutions would be.
The most annoying thing is that I’m currently having some problems with supplements and other health related material being shipped here. Either the merchant refuses to ship such merchandise here or I have to end up going to the customs office and spend several hours going around filling out forms etc., and paying 32 % of the invoice to have the package released. I’ve had this type of merchandise (as well as others) shipped to people I know in California in the past and had them use shipping companies that send containers here every 10 days or so, but they are now refusing, saying that in order to be able to do so they have to pay about $10,000 a year to the authorities in Armenia and they don’t have enough customers who ship vitamins, minerals, etc. to make it worthwhile. I can still do this with these container shipping companies with books, for example, from amazon with no problem and the container arrives in a reasonable time and comes right to my door with their local courier.
In late November, I ordered a FIR blanket from Get Fitt and it was shipped by FedEx, arrived in 3 to 4 days, but FedEx came with forms for the customs instead of the package and I had to take a cab, spend 3 and half hours in bureaucratic runaround, pay a third of the invoice to customs to finally pick it up from the customs warehouse even though it was labeled electric blanket (not really health related). So it may be that many different types of products will have to be dealt with in this way if it does not come straight to my door.
The best other option for receiving mail or parcels is regular post office services which is delivered to my door and so far no problems. The only thing is, it can take up to 3 weeks or longer to arrive and not all merchants give you that shipping option. I just ordered a bunch of supplements a couple of days ago that will be delivered using US postal service, so I’ll see how this turns out. The nutritional supplements, are the real pain in the neck, but it seems any shipping service like UPS, FedEx, etc. used for international shipping will end up at the customs office.
Laura suggested that I see if it is feasible to become a supplement distributor myself here as one way around this hassle, but so far it doesn’t seem to be so; there’s not much market here to make it worthwhile as the population is tiny and a very small percentage would be interested in nutritional supplements. She also suggested that I post on the forum and see if others are having similar problems to network for solutions. It seems nutritional supplements are under attack from many angles worldwide, but here it seems that the government is just trying to collect as much revenue from international shipping in general as they can. Anyway I’ll see how this USPS delivery will go and post the details after it arrives, which will be in a few weeks.
The most annoying thing is that I’m currently having some problems with supplements and other health related material being shipped here. Either the merchant refuses to ship such merchandise here or I have to end up going to the customs office and spend several hours going around filling out forms etc., and paying 32 % of the invoice to have the package released. I’ve had this type of merchandise (as well as others) shipped to people I know in California in the past and had them use shipping companies that send containers here every 10 days or so, but they are now refusing, saying that in order to be able to do so they have to pay about $10,000 a year to the authorities in Armenia and they don’t have enough customers who ship vitamins, minerals, etc. to make it worthwhile. I can still do this with these container shipping companies with books, for example, from amazon with no problem and the container arrives in a reasonable time and comes right to my door with their local courier.
In late November, I ordered a FIR blanket from Get Fitt and it was shipped by FedEx, arrived in 3 to 4 days, but FedEx came with forms for the customs instead of the package and I had to take a cab, spend 3 and half hours in bureaucratic runaround, pay a third of the invoice to customs to finally pick it up from the customs warehouse even though it was labeled electric blanket (not really health related). So it may be that many different types of products will have to be dealt with in this way if it does not come straight to my door.
The best other option for receiving mail or parcels is regular post office services which is delivered to my door and so far no problems. The only thing is, it can take up to 3 weeks or longer to arrive and not all merchants give you that shipping option. I just ordered a bunch of supplements a couple of days ago that will be delivered using US postal service, so I’ll see how this turns out. The nutritional supplements, are the real pain in the neck, but it seems any shipping service like UPS, FedEx, etc. used for international shipping will end up at the customs office.
Laura suggested that I see if it is feasible to become a supplement distributor myself here as one way around this hassle, but so far it doesn’t seem to be so; there’s not much market here to make it worthwhile as the population is tiny and a very small percentage would be interested in nutritional supplements. She also suggested that I post on the forum and see if others are having similar problems to network for solutions. It seems nutritional supplements are under attack from many angles worldwide, but here it seems that the government is just trying to collect as much revenue from international shipping in general as they can. Anyway I’ll see how this USPS delivery will go and post the details after it arrives, which will be in a few weeks.
