Bought electronic item from AliExpress. Pos Malaysia says my item held by customs.

Email from Pos:
Your item ELxxxxxxMY is currently held by Royal Malaysian Customs due to (high-value/import permit required/SST issue).
You have three options for Customs clearance:
1. Appoint Pos Malaysia (PMB) as your clearance agent.
2. Self-clear at: Pos Malaysia International Hub, Jalan KLIA S1, 64000 Sepang
3. Appoint your own Customs agent

I do have a few questions:
A) If I appoint Pos as my clearance agent, I just need to email (cspmih@pos.com.my) them my online purchase? After that, they will guide me with payment method? How long more to wait for delivery to my house? I search on internet and someone says this process take about 1 month.

B) For self clear, if I go to Pos KLIA myself, can this whole process be done in a day (or hours)? Can get my item on the same day? I need time-off from work for this. Is there anywhere else that I need to go besides Pos? Just need to show proof of online purchase to Pos? Where to park and enter Pos KLIA? I look at GMaps and still don't know the exact spot.

C) Any good, reliable and fast agent to recommend?

This post has been edited by Skylinestar: Jun 6 2025, 11:14 AM

just do #A, easiest, abt 1 week.

for #B, must declare by the right categories to prevent excess tax. Freighforwarders / POS know d cat very well. 1 day can kaodim.

good luck!

Tax depends on which category your items falls into. Sometime customs put wrong category on item if they are not familiar with the item. If you disagree with classification, then you may need to provide proof that the category they put it in is wrong. Proof can be in form of leaflet of product description and purpose.

As soon as they satisfied with explanation, then you just need to pay the amount of tax and your item can be released as soon as the officer got the document stamped. Agent will take longer time sometimes because they are also doing clearance for many customers but probably within few days if the item has no problem with customs. You probably can clear it within the same day or even hours.

If you are lazy to do by yourself, just appoint POS to do the clearance. Maybe just few days. You can call POS to ask how soon you can get your item. I have no idea how much they charge though. Very long long long time ago I did my clearance but it was for a bulk of personal items I shipped back to Malaysia. Have no experience at all and ask the officer how. He guided me and give sample on how to fill form. I got everything cleared in about 40 min. The officer told me to look at all those agents. Those agents (perhaps newbies) probably spent the whole day. He was there for those who needed help but no one was asking and said. "You get yours done in less than an hour." I just smiled and thanked him

Freight Forwarder or agents don't really bother if the declaration of category is correct or not. They are not technical people. Sometimes, they get back to you to ask and sometimes don't. They just tell you how much tax you need to pay.

I had never done option A because I read reviews before that they (agent) charge higher than you picking it by yourself.

But, I had done option B. Yes this can be done by the day itself, but be prepared:
1. Your time going to KLIA, which will take about ~30-40mins (1 way) from Subang and depending where you stay
2. Petrol and toll fees
3. Purchase bill, list of items/receipts
4. Maybe prepare tons of cash, at least maybe RM500 - But recently I heard now customs accept card payment already, the last time I went there was year 2022-2023 and they said they only accept cash.
5. (optional) spare clothing - especially long pants + covered shoe, because you are entering government(?) building and the guard has right to refuse you to enter if you wear short pants, saw someone kena refused to enter before right in front of my eyes because he doesn't wear long pants, in the end he said have to batal balik to Damansara, lucky I have one spare long pants in the car and I sold the pants to him lol


You need to park here:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/d66sNYjjZn7RkH6X9




you should be seeing POS Office on the other side, you cannot "drive in" directly there but park at the outside parking lot (shown in red circle in the picture I posted above), try park your car near the overhead bridge for your convenience, then you get down of your car and take the overhead bridge, head to the gate and give your IC and the shipping code (for yours its ELxxxxxxMY)

^ This TS.

I was one of the "refused entry due to short pants" guy.

The guard pity me and borrowed his spare pants to me.

I left an RM10 note in the pockets when returning to him =D

Btw Self clearing now also kena charge. RM 32

Pos Malaysia charge RM 50

Only end up saving RM 18 for the hassle lulz

This. I went option B once. If you can go for option A, just go A. Not worth the hassle to do it yourself.

What you buy? What is the rm value?

I'm ok with 1 week (after me submitting my online purchase proof). but it is the 1 month that fears me.

can settle in 1 hour?

This post has been edited by Skylinestar: Jun 6 2025, 02:29 PM

dayum. looks like not much saving. but I'm also concerned with the time duration.

my office usually use forwarder agent, prepare your items spec as well, if your equipment has wifi chip, just in case, and the sender should have the price tag there, they will charge the tax based on that price :X

Depends on the queue. If you don't have a day to waste for this kinda thing, I would just avoid it. I got my parcel from Pos the same week.

if together with travelling time then definitely no lol

if you mean business time inside, I think really depends on luck? the last time I went only 1 person in front of me, clear in 1hr. They search the parcel already 5mins, tell you to open box in front of them another 5mins, tell them story what is it another 5mins

oh yeah do take note on the working hours, because it's stupid government building, you know i know la they clock in clock out damn sharp one

must take note on the 3rd Saturday if you are going on Saturday

if mini pc has wifi, need to pay extra for mcmc?

you may need Sirim approval cert, thats why you need to prepare the product brochure detail if you are asked. \

that's why a lot of people ask agent to do it, as it is a bit hassle :X

https://www.dhl.com/discover/en-my/faq/cust...es-personal-use

This post has been edited by anakkk: Jun 6 2025, 03:39 PM

what does that mean? go to Sirim before going to KLIA?

you can apply permit at sirim website check the following link.

https://www.dhl.com/discover/en-my/faq/cust...0-Do%20I%20need

I went with option B once just for the experience. Once is good enough.

Now I just go with option A for the convenience.

warehouse with parcel campak merata-rata, i went in there with slippar n ah beng khakis only.

actually now POS is faster edi. Depending on how complex is ur item, usually 3-4 days can kao dim. (Subject to their op time)

Option A definitely, just call up to office give them your reference. Probably cost u around rm50 to rm100

I faced similar issue just last month

what is the not convenience part?

before (slow era) is when? before covid era?

how long does it take for them to quote you the payment? they email you the instruction on how to pay? now, I get both email and whatsapp from the staff. still waiting for their quote.

This post has been edited by Skylinestar: Jun 6 2025, 06:25 PM

Have to drive there myself.

Time + fuel + toll.

1 to 2 working days, they directly whatsapp me. After settle the payment, probably around few days to 1 week custom clearance and the item reach my location.

i recently had something similar happen to me as well
got the limited edition razer mouse and they asked for sirim registration thing
i went with custom agent coz fedex or dhl told me its an option
i messaged a couple that they recommend and paid like 50?
they settled it on the same day and the item got released very quickly
whole ordeal from when fedex reached out about the issue until i received the item was like 3 days
this is the kind of thing that i'd like to say, if you dont know much about it, just pay someone who knows to do it and it saves alot of headache for you
i was thinking maybe i drive down do it myself but then i have to drive down and do it lol
later mong cha cha and fk things up then have to do multiple trips and whatnot

your item is initially shipped by fedex/dhl (I mean from oversea to Malaysia)?

yeah coz its expensive af and it was bought directly from razer
they shipped from hk to msia and used a courier service
but since the mouse is wireless so had to do the sirim thing
but honestly when fedex reached out to me about this issue, they also provided me with the solution (they recommend a couple of 3rd party agent that can do it for you)
but after i see what they did for me (the agent cc'd me in the email back to fedex), i feel like waterfish since its so damn easy but i didnt know what to do at that time and i was also in and out alot of meeting so i just paid the first agent that responded to me in the list
it was done really quick
if urs is being handled by POS then mileage may vary but the process is the same i guess

from last few month with some friend, at least 1-4 week or months ( rare ) , in other case u need to go custom office ( yea the KLIA one ) to pay money

Going there by yourself isn't hard. I usually go there two times a year and acquire the items i bought meself. Just a few pointers which others have already pointed out:

1- wear appropriately

2-bring cash, although now they accept QR pay too (TnG not possible last Feb I was there, maybe duitnow can?) but still, better be safe than sorry. Nearest ATM is several blocks away at the other side of the road, the inactive food court I think

3-the payment + whatever charges they think in front of you at the time is 10%, or slightly more. This is a bit of an odd one: sometimes they charge the nett price of the item you shipped in, sometimes plus shipping. A 2.5k collectible figurine will be 250 or 300+ depending on the officer working that day.

4-the thing becomes a multiple day affair IF your item in question requires SIRIM certification. But SIRIM can be done online and easy (paid rm100 for linux device on 2022, paid rm100 for an obscure windows handheld, last year)

Yes, long pants and shoes. I got turned away because I am wearing cargo pants (below the knee) but still tak pass. So I got creative, went back to my car, I wore another short pants below my cargo pants. So its a double pants, the security laugh hard, the customs laughed hard, but I got my item and didn't have to turn back all the way just to get that darn long pants.

What did you bought?

Maybe not because kena mcmc. Nowadays buy online also need to pay SST. Maybe it's this.

"Customs Authority has held your parcel" per parcelsapp.com.
7 days already.
I choose the 1st option. let POS handle. last status from POS is "hi we are still waiting from customs ya". maybe Hari Raya Haji holiday season, so things are slower. this is a lot slower than I have expected.

this evening, got a whatsapp message from POS. finally got the quote to pay. it is basically telling me to go to POS website and use the chatbot, which will then lead to a payment gateway from KIPLE (first time heard of this company). the message says after payment, POS will deliver my item in 3-5 days. it doesn't even tell me to update them after I have made payment.

This post has been edited by Skylinestar: Jun 10 2025, 10:13 PM

hmm, it's automated these days

I really hope it's automated.

Not worth it to let pos do clearance for you.
Charge big sum to do things you can clear less than 20 min at kastam. fkin nutjob if you ask me.

I specifically prefer national courier when shipping ddu because it will be handled by pos, and you have option to do self clearance unlike other courier.

handling fee RM30.
I don't mind if it is 20 minutes, but some people say it may take hours.

This post has been edited by Skylinestar: Jun 11 2025, 08:11 AM

I’ve done dozens of self-clearance (PMIH KLIA), and I’ve never been there for more than 30 minutes.
If you go in the afternoon, it’s almost always empty, no queue at all.

You just wait at the POS counter while they retrieve your item from the warehouse, open the package in front of the customs officer, and try to reason with them (like saying this or that item falls under a cheaper HS code). There’ll be a bit of back and forth between customs and the POS counter next to it; and that’s it.


you should try at least once next time, just to learn the general border procedures.
It goes a long way making your future oversea purchase smoother as you know what's exactly happening behind the tracking progres.

on jun 12th, my item got delivered to my house. that is less than 2 days from the time I made my payment. fast enough.

the longest wait is actually from the day the item reaches Malaysia until POS tells me the item is held by customs. 27May to 05Jun. 10 days is just too long for that.