Info4U: Sending & Receiving Packages in Israel

In my experience shipping from the EU and China is cheap,
and some vendors just send their packages regular mail.
Some send it registered mail, and the tracking system in
China, and Israel is excelent.

There is also two different systems for sending mail,
although it is not advertised. I find that anything in an
envelope to the US arrives in a week, and anything in a
small envelope arrives in Israel in about a week from the
US, or less from the EU.

Large envelopes, any boxes, etc take 2-3 weeks, sometimes
longer. One package took 35 days from when it was logged
in at the post office in the US, and its record never updated
again to delivery to me.

Another package was lost in the mail. After two months, a
replacement was sent. It was split into two envelopes sent
priority mail and I was lucky it, came in 8 days. The vendor
had to "eat" the cost of the new order, and priority mail
shipping.

The best service I've had was an order for some items small
and light enough to fit into a regular envelope and sent by
regular airmail. It was mailed from Vienna on Monday and
in my mailbox on Wednesday.


Note that all packages sent by courier service, including
the Post Office's EMS (BUT NOT REGULAR/PRIORITY MAIL),
require customs clearing, which costs money. Even if your
package is under the $50 limit for taxes, you have to pay
a fee, which for EMS is 30 NIS plus
VAT.

If you order from China, be aware that all mail to Israel
comes from Hong Kong. That means there is usually a
week for the package to travel inside China if it is not
mailed directly from Hong Kong. Once it is sent from/
arrived in Hong Kong, there is a delay while it waits
for space on an outgoing airplane. This is usually five
days. If the package is sent registered mail, you can go
to the Chinese Post Office website and see when it got in
line and when it is expected to leave. You can then see
when it arrives in Israel, and you can track it on
the Israeli Post Office website.

As for Israelis, postage in Israel is cheap to the Post Office,
expensive if you want delivery. The vendor also must
charge you VAT on the cost of the item and delivery.


Geoff

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for your post. Do you know of a cheap company that ships 20kg box to Israel. I am finding it extremely expensive. Melbourne - Israel id the route.

    regards,
    Krista

    ReplyDelete

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