Sunfish
17th Oct 2007, 20:53
While I know that security is a pain in the ***, and the AFP have come in for a clobbering as well elsewhere in Pprune, let me add another wart on the bum of progress - Australian Customs.
I ordered a part from the USA on 6th October. It was consigned and accepted to USPS Global Express mail second business day after order (Tuesday Ninth). Left Newark Airport same day. Arrived Melbourne "Gateway" October twelfth.
And there my friends it has sat at the "Gateway" or should I say "Rat Hole" for five ****ing days before I'm even notified and required to fill out four different forms, the declaration itself and then two forms (wait for it) to register myself and the sender in the customs computer plus an authority to charge credit card.
And I'm now to allow, according to Customs, five days for the forms to be "processed" + plus another three days to process the credit card, + another three days to give it back to the Post Office + about two days to receive delivery.
So basically thanks to the wonders of modern computers and the twisted little brains in Customs, my package can sit in Customs for at least two weeks.
I called them and asked if I can simply drive out, pay the duty and collect my package? ""Oh good gracious no sir, there is no entry to the general public Sir".
I seem to recall twenty years ago, one was simply notified, you presented yourself, the package was inspected, discussed if necessary and classified for duty in front of you, you paid your money and took your goods.
Total time maybe an hour. Now fast forward to 2007 and...its two f***ing weeks! I guess it does provide a sheltered workshop for new Australians doing meaningless data entry of transactions, but is this the way to achieve, let alone maintain, full employment?
Multiply this behaviour by hundreds of thousands of transactions and think of the drain on the economy.
How can we take our country back from these Oxygen thieves in the AFP, "Security", Customs and elsewhere that basically do nothing useful, and stuff people around for no good reason whatsoever?
I ordered a part from the USA on 6th October. It was consigned and accepted to USPS Global Express mail second business day after order (Tuesday Ninth). Left Newark Airport same day. Arrived Melbourne "Gateway" October twelfth.
And there my friends it has sat at the "Gateway" or should I say "Rat Hole" for five ****ing days before I'm even notified and required to fill out four different forms, the declaration itself and then two forms (wait for it) to register myself and the sender in the customs computer plus an authority to charge credit card.
And I'm now to allow, according to Customs, five days for the forms to be "processed" + plus another three days to process the credit card, + another three days to give it back to the Post Office + about two days to receive delivery.
So basically thanks to the wonders of modern computers and the twisted little brains in Customs, my package can sit in Customs for at least two weeks.
I called them and asked if I can simply drive out, pay the duty and collect my package? ""Oh good gracious no sir, there is no entry to the general public Sir".
I seem to recall twenty years ago, one was simply notified, you presented yourself, the package was inspected, discussed if necessary and classified for duty in front of you, you paid your money and took your goods.
Total time maybe an hour. Now fast forward to 2007 and...its two f***ing weeks! I guess it does provide a sheltered workshop for new Australians doing meaningless data entry of transactions, but is this the way to achieve, let alone maintain, full employment?
Multiply this behaviour by hundreds of thousands of transactions and think of the drain on the economy.
How can we take our country back from these Oxygen thieves in the AFP, "Security", Customs and elsewhere that basically do nothing useful, and stuff people around for no good reason whatsoever?