Shipping woes (minor ones, really)

[Dave E]

A very small rant, because this isn't exactly a massive deal in the grand scheme of things.

I ordered some straps from the US on the 26th of April (about £35 worth). On the 28th of April I got a shipping notification, which I thought was pretty good because I was fully expecting things to be slow given current circumstances. I was fairly relaxed, because I expected shipping to take a while given the state of the world, but I kept an eye on the tracking info.

On the 18th of May I sent the company an e-mail on their customer services mail, because no sign of the straps, and also nothing had happened on the tracking since the 4th of May. A relaxed mail just querying if they had any info beyond what was available in the tracking, because it had been 3 weeks by that point.

Today (1st of June), I started composing a more snotty e-mail, because 2 weeks after my previous mail I hadn't had a reply. The company is still open and accepting orders, and I've had half a dozen marketing e-mails from them in the period, so I don't think failing to answer an e-mail about an order for 2 weeks is particularly good. I decided to check the tracking info one last time while writing (it hadn't changed up until the end of last week when I last looked), and lo and behold it had actually been updated! I saw this:



On the 5th of May, my straps finally left the 'partner distribution centre' and went to Chicago, where they arrived on... the 31st of May? 27 days later!!

Wow. Realising that both of these places are in the great state of Illinois, I looked at Google Maps out of curiosity to see how far that is. Readers, it is a distance by road of less than 10 miles.

10 miles.

27 days.

Like I said at the start, I expected everything to take longer because of the pandemic, but that is something else.

Anyway, not a big problem in the grand scheme of things, but it did make me (sort of) laugh. At a guess I'll finally see my straps this week or next. I abandoned the snotty e-mail I was writing to the company today, I'll send one when the straps finally arrive and point out that not replying to customer service e-mails for weeks at a time is quite rubbish, but otherwise I think I'll just chalk the whole thing up to, "Oh well, pandemic."

(And yes, I am kind of waiting for Royal Mail to contact me with a demand for VAT plus a stupid amount of 'handling' charge, but I've always thought that might happen, so no change there.)

[KavKav]

A very small rant, because this isn't exactly a massive deal in the grand scheme of things.

I ordered some straps from the US on the 26th of April (about £35 worth). On the 28th of April I got a shipping notification, which I thought was pretty good because I was fully expecting things to be slow given current circumstances. I was fairly relaxed, because I expected shipping to take a while given the state of the world, but I kept an eye on the tracking info.

On the 18th of May I sent the company an e-mail on their customer services mail, because no sign of the straps, and also nothing had happened on the tracking since the 4th of May. A relaxed mail just querying if they had any info beyond what was available in the tracking, because it had been 3 weeks by that point.

Today (1st of June), I started composing a more snotty e-mail, because 2 weeks after my previous mail I hadn't had a reply. The company is still open and accepting orders, and I've had half a dozen marketing e-mails from them in the period, so I don't think failing to answer an e-mail about an order for 2 weeks is particularly good. I decided to check the tracking info one last time while writing (it hadn't changed up until the end of last week when I last looked), and lo and behold it had actually been updated! I saw this:



On the 5th of May, my straps finally left the 'partner distribution centre' and went to Chicago, where they arrived on... the 31st of May? 27 days later!!

Wow. Realising that both of these places are in the great state of Illinois, I looked at Google Maps out of curiosity to see how far that is. Readers, it is a distance by road of less than 10 miles.

10 miles.

27 days.

Like I said at the start, I expected everything to take longer because of the pandemic, but that is something else.

Anyway, not a big problem in the grand scheme of things, but it did make me (sort of) laugh. At a guess I'll finally see my straps this week or next. I abandoned the snotty e-mail I was writing to the company today, I'll send one when the straps finally arrive and point out that not replying to customer service e-mails for weeks at a time is quite rubbish, but otherwise I think I'll just chalk the whole thing up to, "Oh well, pandemic."

(And yes, I am kind of waiting for Royal Mail to contact me with a demand for VAT plus a stupid amount of 'handling' charge, but I've always thought that might happen, so no change there.)

27 days for your parcel to travel less than 10 miles just tells me that some snoozer over there needs firing! Best of luck with the rest of the journey.

[mmgg1988]

Something I sent on the 17th May to the EBay Global Shipping Centre appears to have made it to the national distribution hub for the courier on the 20th May has travelled no miles in 11 days!

It doesn’t appear that it has been lost as it was scanned again after I called the courier to ask why it hasn’t moved on the 28th May but doesn’t seem to have made any progress again since then.

Fortunately the buyer is quite relaxed about it and there are similar issues in Finland where it is headed so he says!

[Neil.C]

That's a weird journey.

Hope you like your straps when they arrive Dave.

[Metalic Mud]

I ordered a couple of straps from the USA recently. About the same price.
Customs via the post office needed an additional £18. Think £12 of that was a handlings fee.

There was a time they weren’t bothered recovering duty on low cost items.
That has kind of changed now.

[Franco]

It used to be no customs up to 18 gbp. Above that was taxable - and unfortunately the handling was the worst bit.

A bit like the fines in a foreign country on a rental car.

[Thewatchbloke]

I ordered some parts from the USA in April and they took 35 days to arrive. https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfi...=LZ261298433US

I put it down to the pandemic but the odd thing was I'd ordered various other bits and pices from the USA after the 8th April and they all took the usual week or so to get here!

[Kingstepper]

It used to be no customs up to 18 gbp. Above that was taxable - and unfortunately the handling was the worst bit.

A bit like the fines in a foreign country on a rental car.

It’s £15 now.

[lewie]

I ordered a couple of straps from the USA recently. About the same price.
Customs via the post office needed an additional £18. Think £12 of that was a handlings fee.

There was a time they weren’t bothered recovering duty on low cost items.
That has kind of changed now.

I’d dispute that the official fee is £8

[50kopek]

I'm having the same issue. Ordered a watch bracelet from the US. Took five days to get from Oklahoma to Chicago, which under the current circumstances is fair enough. But it seems to have stalled in or around Chicago for over four weeks now, on its way to the next facility, wherever that may be.

[Liner33]

I ordered a watch from Canada recently , its coming using UPS so I have been able to see its journey from Quebec into the US and across it, flying to the UK and to Essex and finally to my local depot which is 8 miles away ready for delivery today but no its delayed due to unforseen circumstances

[PhilipK]

Customs via the post office needed an additional £18. Think £12 of that was a handlings fee.

Won't that have been Royal Mail? Totally different organisation to the Post Office.

[Dave E]

It used to be that Royal Mail charged £8, ParcelForce charge £12, but that may have changed.

I assume someone got sick in Chicago, or a facility got shut or something, and my straps sat on a van for a few weeks. They apparently arrived in the UK on June the 1st and were handed over to the local carrier (whoever that turns out to be) on the 2nd, so we'll see!

[lewie]

Defo £8 RM it’s on their website
It’s to cover the admin and advanced payment RM make on your behalf to cover the customs charge

[Mr.D]

I find customer service with smaller American companies to generally be quite poor , not all of them but many. Larger companies tend to be fine . I think we get much better customer service in the UK generally from smaller companies compared with their US equivalents.

Saying that I have had exceptional service from small independent US companies : including ordering a new YKK brass zip on ebay from NY which got to me less than 72 hours after ordering.
A shop in Soho (London) wanted double the money for the same item and claimed to not know when it would arrive as it was a special order from Japan. ( total pillock the owner)

[Dave E]

A small update, I may be nearly at the point where I get my straps! Tracking ground to a halt again on the 2nd of June, when they were 'released to carrier' in the UK. I rather suspected that meant they had been sent into the black hole of Customs, and today (11th of June) I got the expected card through the door. I'll pay it today, and hopefully I'll finally get my straps in the following few days!

I should say, the card is dated the 10th (yesterday), but was delivered today. The earliest I can book the redelivery is the 13th (Saturday). And, of course, I paid more to Royal Mail in fees (£8) than I did in VAT (£5.69).