I can't speak for other countries, but I ordered three MINIs with each shipping option to my door just as you guys would because I wanted to test things. I got the first one on the 9th (7 days from ordering), the second on the 13th, and the last on the 24th.
I had to sign for them.
I did not have to pay any duties. (Go team USA!)
All boxes arrived in superb shape.
Now customs can be tricky...it doesn't matter which shipping option you paid for, sometimes things can get stuck there for a while depending on the load. There is nothing anyone can do about that. In my case they were processed quickly, but I didn't get good tracking updates, which unfortunately we can't do anything about. We COULD switch to using DHL, but the cheapest option would be like $60 and the most expensive would be $350. No thanks.