Reply With QuoteIt took 51 days for a part to arrive from Hong Kong, so long that I opened a dispute with PayPal. All resolved now so maybe not to worry.
I know because of the pandemic postal services struggling to keep their time schedule, especially with international destinations.
Still, I purchased a watch from the UK and delivery to Germany was expected today.
However tracking says the parcel didn't even make it to Heathrow yet, after 5 days!
(In fact didn't move at all.)
Therefore I thought to ask if others experiencing similar delays? Is the shut down that bad, or this is unusual even in these turbulent times?
Thanks for any suggestions.
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Last edited by witti; 9th November 2020 at 10:58.
It took 51 days for a part to arrive from Hong Kong, so long that I opened a dispute with PayPal. All resolved now so maybe not to worry.
I’ve had Fedex 24 hour delivery, from Belgium to the UK, take 5 & 6 days on the two occasions I have purchased from Brussels this year.
Similar scenario from China. Seller posted within two days. One day later it's exported. Tracking says it still hasn't arrived in the UK 8 days later.
Don't think things are worse than usual TBH, think OP just unlucky.
Had a few deliveries the other way (from Germany) recently and all here in a few days.
It may depend on the carrier. I ordered a strap from the US earlier this year, normally takes about a week and this time it took six weeks. The reason given was that USPS usually use cargo capacity on passenger flights that either aren’t running or are running with much reduced numbers causing a backlog.
I sent shoes to repair to UK from Latvia. They arrived in 4 days.
I absolutely understand that and thought it's a good reason for international delays.Originally Posted by Danstone
(However this particular package didn't reach airport even.)That's exactly the reason of my thread.
It seems in Germany at number of postal services it's just business as usual, at least within borders.
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I had a package from Japan take over four months.
This is the reason for a lot of delays. Cargo flight numbers are roughly constant yet capacity to load freight in the belly of passenger aircraft has been massively reduced and as a result prices have skyrocketed. It’s the only reason transatlantic passenger services continue to run at all as passenger load factors are practically non-existent.
I also understand during a recession like this, cargo operations tend to resort to sea and land based transport, if they are able, in order to save money. You might find that is the cause of long delays if you don’t have guaranteed express delivery.
Last edited by Christian; 9th November 2020 at 11:38.
Fellow member posted watch for me on 3rd via RM International to CZ and it still has not left London.
A watch to Sweden arrived in 11 days from UK via Royal Mail.
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Similar here. Package was accepted on the 4th but no signs of any movement since then.
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I bought a watch from a US seller, and he told me USPS is currently quoting a 4 week delay and no tracking for parcels into the UK.
He sent it Parcelhero and it was in my hands within 4 days.
I think DHL did the final delivery
Well to be entirely fair it is sort of moving:Similar here. Package was accepted on the 4th but no signs of any movement since then.
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Tuesday 03 November
11:40am
Accepted at Post Office
Barn Hill Post Office
Tuesday 03 November
06:59pm
Item received at
Greenford MC
Friday 06 November
12:41am
Item Received by Royal Mail
LANGLEY HWDC
Friday 06 November
01:44am
Item Leaving the UK
LANGLEY HWDC
Now it changed tracking to different couriter (GLS) and tracking there reads:
09/11/2020 11:22
United Kingdom London
The parcel was handed over to GLS.
That is definitely more alive than mine...
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RM doesn’t always update tracking at every stage, might be further than indicated.
I thought some would find this kind of funny:
This is RM tracking:
And if I click on more Continue tracking:
So hoping it is in Czech Republic and not Hungary :D
Recently got a watch posted by royal mail special delivery. Took about 5 working days, considering its guaranteed next day I was surprised, but not shocked considering current lockdown + no shops open for Christmas, everyone is shopping online
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This would be quite a journey on road if the plane landed Budapest instead of Prague...I thought some would find this kind of funny:
This is RM tracking:
And if I click on more Continue tracking:
So hoping it is in Czech Republic and not Hungary :D
I didn't detect too much delay with RM in lockdown-1 but I am noticing a bit of a wobble right now.
You're right, as I say I think this lockdown, aslong side Christmas run up is causing slight delays within Royal mail atleast
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During lockdown 1 a number of things took months to arrive - I bought a phone from Tomtop and it took so long (2 months) with no sign of it being progressing through the shipping process that I got a refund - It turned up a month later!
Other things also took many weeks, but last month I bought a watch from Kommandirskie.com in Russia and, despite their warnings of 1 - 3 month shipping time, opted for the free Russia Post option and it was here in 20 days, which was fine for me.
I've got another on the way from them and their tracking is very good.
M
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
That's correct. GLS now says it was handed over to them in the UK, but RM tracking don't want to recognise this.
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Had an extremely quick delivery today - 21 hours - from the Netherlands by ‘Serious Watches’.
UPS picked it up from them at 5pm local time yesterday (Tuesday), it then passed though Heerenveen in the Netherlands, to Cologne in Germany, then Castle Donington in England, then Newtownabbey in Northern Ireland, and to my door at 1pm GMT today. Not bad at all.
It was via UPS Express though, so maybe the clue is in the ‘Express’.
Superb service from ‘Serious Watches’ too - really fast communication & beautifully packed (with a classy hand-written note & caramel stroopwafel too).
I feel like it is mandatory to purchase a carton of caramel stroopwaffles whenever in Netherlands :D
Absolutely! A new watch and free food in the one package - hard to beat that, really.
My watch was posted from central Germany with DHL at 17:30 yesterday...delivered to my house in Manchester at 9:45am today...how good is that?
it's the Royal Fail and our customs where the problem lies...
We only get two letter deliveries a week at the moment around me due to staff shortages, no sharing of vans etc, I'd expect parcels to be even slower, so ordering nothing, unless it was extremely urgent, like a watch or strap?
I bought a watch form “www.meranom.com” on 9th Nov and the watch left Chistopol(Russia) on 12th Nov, travelling via Kazan and is now somewhere near Moscow. It’s UPS so I believe it will fly from Vnukovo to Cologne/Bonn, and then probably to East Midlands Airport. The expected delivery is 16th Nov to the North East of England…….Not too bad…..
Bought from US.
7 days to heathrow
So far another 7 days languishing at LANGLEY HWDC ... :0(
I bought a Marathon bracelet for my JSAR from a very reputable dealer in USA so not the same but it took over 2 months to get here safely and the tracking was totally redundant and never updated even a week after delivery. I only knew it had arrived because I received an unpaid import charge from Royal Mail.
All down to delays associated with covid, the seller was very apologetic but absolutely nothing he could do having stated it should take around 2 weeks.
My latest addition came from near Köln in around 9 days, 2 of which seemed to be sat in a warehouse or on the back of a van in the UK. I think most of the time for the delivery was in the UK, and not its time making its way into the UK, even ignoring the extra time in a van.
When it went back for regulation it seemed to get there and back again in 4-5 days each time on economy FexEx, which was pretty tolerable.
Given the lack of commercial flights and their cargo carrying capacity in normal times I can see how delivery times for international deliveries can go up.
At the same time, logistics companies have got increased demand for deliveries.
This is just a side effect of the times we live in, and I’m happy to wait an extra day or two if it means things come to me.
I have 4 incoming shipments from UK and US and their status so far is:
1. Shoes back from repairs - shipped on 10.11 via Parcelforce, delivered today by Fedex. No idea where and when they switched carriers.
2. Barton strap from US - shipped on 5.11 via USPS. Last status update - 14.11 package is in Frankfurt.
3. Package from my friend - shipped on 10.11, no idea where it is because of there is no tracking number
4. Watch from UK - sent 11.11, currently sitting in Heathrow.
Main surprise is Barton. In summer my strap was travelling between different warehouses in US for 3 weeks and it took another 5 weeks to reach Latvia.
Last edited by Normunds; 16th November 2020 at 15:59.
Had two different items (not watch related admittedly)both had been sent through Yodel , both items didn’t turn up on the respective dates , both items had the delivery date changed by customer!! , except I didn’t change a thing, I think they’re getting round delays by changing the details themselves.
Yodel have been doing that for years, long before any lockdowns. Along with the online tracking changing to 'Delivery attempted - no answer' etc, while you sit on the front doorstep with binoculars and a butterfly net ... a standard experience for the Yodel-victim.
I recently sent two watches to Germany in separate packages, Royal Mail recorded delivery. The first took 5 days to arrive, the second one took 14 days.
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
I recently sold a watch on here to a member in Ireland (ROI), was supposed to take 3 days, has been over a week now and still no sign of it. Tried calling Royal Mail yesterday, after working which options to press that wouldn't get me cut off after a recorded message, I waited nearly half an hour before giving up. Christ knows how I'm going to get on if I need to make a claim, the term p*ing in the wind springs to mind. I would stongly advise not buying or selling internationally at the moment.
The postal service in my locality, which had been excellent over the past few years, is suffering at the moment because a significant number of staff are having to isolate owing to the Covid situation, it’s really taking its toll. Our regular post- lady said they were knee- deep in mail last week. No easy answers, the virus situation is impacting many services.
Never knew that but I’ll be asking which courier the supplier uses before purchase next time.
Aye, it's the system really, i.e. the drivers are often expected to make more deliveries than they can in a given time, so they catch up by saying they tried to deliver but there was no answer. The disproof - apart from being in and knowing no one called, cctv showing no one called etc - is the tell-tale absence of the card through the door.
On the tracker it never left the warehouse down south till two days after it was meant to be delivered,when I received the parcel it was hand written on the parcel that the delivery date had been changed by the customer.
Two day delivery became seven day.
Poor by anyone’s standards.
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