US > UK postal issues again?

I know from 1 other AG member that their item(s) from the USA have failed to appear. The member in question might post their own experience / time line, but I've been waiting for two items to arrive and they are doing a no show!

One of the items is from our dear leader and the other is from a genuinely nice couple who've just about had kittens worrying about the whole thing. I'm pretty certain neither Kev or these people are at fault.

Anyone else being humped over a hotbed of postal coals from US to UK at present or finding it just the normal 6 or 7 day hussle it usually is?

To add insult to injury eBay just sent me a 'Write a review' link for one of the items that hasn't arrived! OH:

One is Kev's from 2nd December!
Other is 18th December.

 

hey this sounds like UK - Netherlands never had any problems with US and nowadays I mostly order from US as the dollar is low.
Allthough I keep having problems with shipments from the UK, almost to the point that I ignore UK auctions all together.

 

Postage has gone daft UK wise too, look at the £25 they wanted for posting the PS2 directly to you!

The death toll of the Royal Mail as a feasible service is lingering in the air as far as I am concerned. I'd rather pay more for a courier to guarantee a delivery than hand any further packages through RM on an International basis.

The annoying thing is that often RM obtain the packages under Parcel Force (or Parcel Farce as they are affectionatly called here in the UK) as they have the contract to handle any packages going through customs in the UK. So, despite paying end-to-end with a courier, you can still end up handing it to them.

I love Japan Post, they have got to be the best followed by Deutsch Post and perhaps even the American Postal Service. The whole thing falls flat on it's arse when it reaches the UK.

 

I'm in the same boat, having waited ages for some US packages while japanese packages takes, like 4 days? 5 work days, tops.

Though I have found this shipping co that gives you a "mail box" in US and send you the package themselves. Alot of nasty ebayers refuse to send abroad. :evil:

 

Sounds interesting, any chance you could give me (and others) information on this shipping company as that sounds a good idea!

I don't blame them for not wishing to deal with 'abroad' when abroad means unreliable service and they can lose money on it.

 

Well the address is http://jetcarrier.com/ but I think they only ship to Norway and Sweden at the moment. The idea isn't bad though, there should be other companies like that. Shipping is a flat-rate €19 under five kg's via air, and via sea ~€33 for anything less than 70 kg's (!), but with a shipping time of up to 2 weeks.

 

Didn't know of them. Sounds like a good alternative when the seller don't ship to sweden.

 

Wow, the UK post system sounds EXACTLY like the spanish one!

 

Im gunna stick up for Royal Mail here, Normal letter / packet post never had an issue. Their special delivery (next day) never had an issue.
How ever Parcel force (which while owned by RM is run as a different company) 99 percent failure rate. 100 percent failure from goods sent from USA.

DHL is ok but costs too much.

If any goods are to be sent from USA i use UPS or DHL since they have there own customs clearance channels.

Nothing is as bad as the Spanish post.

 

Spain is one country I have never actually purchased anything from tbh. Now, given that glowing review of their postal service I suspect I never well! :katamari:

 

As both me and parris experienced before christmas, Special delivery is crap, it took 2 days to delivery a special delivery (supposedly next day before 12pm) parcel and when it did arrive a day late it was 11:58 when it actually arrived, suffice to say we were both not happy with the service

DHL i find to be excellent, especially if you use parcel2go as the inbetween people, costs me £6+VAT for 2-4 day service, yet everytime i have used it it has been delivered next day (in 1 case it was the same day delivery!)

I myself am currently awaiting delivery of a parcel from a AG member in the states, it was sent via registered mail, yet it left the US on the 15th december, and has now vanished, unfortunately i have been unable to get to the post office to trace it as im am stuck on jury duty at the moment (thats another story and in my opinion is a complete farce)

 

I shipped a box of PS2 games to France on November 26. They still haven't arrived... I ended up just giving a refund, so I'm out 8 or 9 PS2 games. Hopefully the buyer will let me know if they ever arrive. At the time of the transaction he said he had trouble with postage 3 times in the last couple of weeks.

I'm going to start limiting my transactions with people overseas. But sometimes I can't help it! You guys are just so nice over there and have a lot of good things on sale! :nod:

 

I think its a bit slow US to UK at the mo. Got a box of comics sent on 10/12 by priority..arrived in the UK today!

 

I guess I'm very lucky then...I received my XDK via PF from the UK, it took a while to pass customs, but that's no big deal...

 

I sent a few Marty games to the UK from the US and they took almost 2 months and I gave a refund and the buyer actually contacted me when they did arrive and re-paid me for them.

 

Incredible the amount of variation, it seems to me that it is literally a waiting game!

The whole Next Day Delivery thing between Didds and me in December was really frustrating as it involved us swiftly moving an item for a company to then pick up & delivery of a return on the same day! I paid a hefty postal fee (well, certainly a great deal more than standard postage) to have a 'Guaranteed Next Day Before 1pm' delivery and it took 48hrs, plus several telephone calls and in the end the driver had it in his van. dropped off other stuff, never saw the package despite being asked about it and the head office had to ask him to go back and deliver...

I know it was Christmas etc, but if they cannot do it then why provide a 'Guarantee' that's worth jack despite costing so much more?

In the end we had to postpone the entire thing until AFTER Christmas and I'm still waiting on the return delivery of said item. Well done Parcel Farce!

 

I bought a Mega CD from yakumo.

He shipped over AirMail.

In two days, it entered Spain.

DISSAPEARED.

One MONTH later, they call me saying that the parcel is getting returned to Japan. I asked why, guess what? they told me that the Correos intranet was faulty last days and they DIDN'T KNOW.

Arrives to Yakumo.

This week he ships again, but this time over EMS Speed Post.

IF I DON'T GET MY STUPID MEGA CD IN TWO WEEKS, I'LL SET THOSE IDIOTS OF CORREOS IN FIRE.

OH:

 

Royal Mail removes the guarantee on Special Delivery: Next day etc during december heh because they know they wont be able to deliver and they really dont like to refund money to customers when they dont deliver in time.

If only Royal Mail would allow tracking of incoming international parcels (and proper outgoing tracking!) there wouldnt really be a problem. But they are c*nts!

Shiggsy

 

Let's just hope that there isn't an actual fire by some weird coincedence and they use this as evidence :lol:

 

Got a parcel from the states sent over christmas in the last week via standard royal mail (not parcelforce) absolutely fine