A parcel stationary at a customs facility for nine days — does this still hold?

Customs outcomes are not predictable at the level of an individual parcel. What is predictable is that consistent, accurate declarations correlate with fewer interventions, and that the same route behaves differently in different months.

An observation about parcel stationary that I cannot explain and am posting anyway, on the principle that unexplained observations are more useful public than private.

The arithmetic in post #16 is right; the assumption feeding it is the part to check.

Photographing the parcel on arrival before opening it takes ten seconds and is the difference between a report and a recollection.

That holds for the case as described. Change the assumptions and it may not.

Answering the question post #14 raises rather than the one it answers.

A tracking gap at a customs facility is the most common cause of an unexpectedly long transit and the segment nobody has visibility of.

That is the version I use. It may not be the version that is correct.

At what point is a parcel genuinely a problem: if it was despatched weeks ago and there has been no update for days at customs, it might be held or lost. Days of delay at customs without update is ordinary; weeks without movement warrants inquiry.

A parcel held for a documentation query usually moves once the document is provided. Chasing the carrier before the query is answered achieves little.

Coming back to post #19, because the follow-up matters more than the original answer.

Tracking stops updating: tracking last updated days ago usually means the package is in transit and will not update until it reaches the next scanning point. No update for weeks means it might be stuck.

A weak preference rather than a position.

Useful. I had the fact and not the reason, which turns out to be the important half.

This follows post #21 rather than contradicting it.

The useful distinction on parcel stationary is between what was measured and what was inferred from it. Both end up in the same sentence and only one of them has error bars.

I had written a reply contradicting post #24 and deleted it. Here is what survived.

Peak periods and public holidays affect this more than any other factor and are entirely predictable in advance.

The variance between people here is larger than the effect being discussed.

Confirming post #24 from a second method, which matters more than confirming it from a second person.

I changed my mind about parcel stationary after someone here asked me for the source and I could not produce one. That is worth saying out loud because it is the ordinary way it happens.

Import restrictions by jurisdiction: what is legal to import for personal use varies enormously by country. Some jurisdictions are quite permissive; others are not. Checking your own country's rules before ordering is prudent.

Customs holds: if a parcel is held at customs and you can contact customs directly, declaring your personal use and providing documentation (order, labelling) can help. Most customs officials are reasonable when they know what they are dealing with.

Written in the hope of being told what I have missed.