Well just got a Christmas card postmarked Dec 11th yesterday from 3 states away from me. I still have not got my motorcycles with sidecars ordered back on the first week of December from Germany and I am now corresponding with the seller through Ebay to try and find out about them. I ordered a wood workbench organizer from British Columbia just a week ago and it is already in Richmond 60 miles away.
Well two orders made at the same time, one to a Japanese vender and one to a Atlanta Ga. vendor. Received both shipping notices the same day. The Japanese order through DHL is in Ohio, with delivery to me scheduled for this coming Monday. The US order does not show anything other than receipt pending on the USPS tracking site. My money is on DHL. An order from Germany made in November and shipped still is not on the radar.
It finally arrived! Shipped on December 2nd and arrived January 22nd, Ohio to Maryland. Oh and what was the item? A B&O boxcar for Sentinel Service. The postal service didn't exactly provide Sentinel Service! Next time maybe I'll request B&O to ship it.
Perhaps things are easing a bit. I think I mentioned a package took more than a month to reach here at UMTRR HQ -- longer than it would take the seller to walk here, drop it off and walk home-- from a location in Western Connecticut. Well, I placed another order with the same seller and the box arrived in two business days.
I just ordered some windows this afternoon from Atlanta so will see how long it takes to arrive in Broken Arrow OK. . Joe
John, Did your order ever arrive? I have an order from Germany that was placed on December 7. All Deutsche Post tracking shows is the order was handed over to the international logistics center for shipment to the U.S. on December 9. USPS tracking simply shows "Origin Post is Preparing Shipment". I am guessing the container with my models is still on a ship somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. Carter
My order made back in mid November last year has finally made it to the US and I may get it tonight or tomorrow night.
Thanks John, that is encouraging that my order might still show up. My order contained three models I wanted to photograph for the March/April 2021 issue of the N Scale Enthusiast Members Magazine. Fred emailed me today about the photos, and I emailed back that my article will need to published without the photos of those three models. Carter
Let's dredge this one up one more time...grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr !!! Soooooooooo...FedX & UPS ! They both use the same playbook ! Tracking shows the package 'On The Truck out for delivery' in the AM for delivery by 9:00 PM. By 7:00 PM tracking says 'Delivery Pending'. 8:00 PM still shows 'Delivery Pending'. 9:00 PM I get one of 3 excuses on the tracking page... 1) "Customer unavailable or bussiness closed" We have been home all day and all night !! The packages and invoice clearly state "Ok to leave on porch".... 2) "Delivery delayed untill next day due to weather" Lets see ...it was 68 degrees and sunny all day. No wind....no snow...no rain...just beautiful !! ... 3) "Uncontrolled dogs" Excuse me ? The dogs are in the house behind a closed door or in the back yard behind a 4 foot fence....AND...the dogs are shiba inu klee kai mix and stand roughly 14 inches at the shoulder !!!! And OMG...they bark !!! Thats what they are supposed to do !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!... Grow a pair FedX & UPS...and just do your job...stop with the lame A$$ excuses !!! ...
USA to east coast of Australia with USPS is currently very good. Micro-Trains shipped by USPS and it was here in 6 days ......... Yes 6. Florida to Australia by USPS is 12 to 15 days ... pretty good and I am happy with that because I won't open a parcel for 14 days after going into the postal system. UPS, DHL and Fedex are definitely dearer and at the very best only as fast as USPS. We get the excuses from couriers too ..... the "dog in the yard' one is annoying considering old Gus passed away about 7 years ago. I hope I don't have to bury him any deeper ! I should get a saltwater crocodile and give them something to really complain about ! Our Australia Post delivery people, both postmen and parcel delivery drivers are great, parcels are looked after and not dumped in unsafe places. If they see me in the yard they will deliver it directly to me. I think the reason express courier parcels from the USA are slow here is there isn't many dedicated courier aircraft coming into our city, Brisbane, which is the 3rd biggest city in Australia. Until the virus struck I worked at Brisbane International Airport out on the tarmac so I got to see first hand international arrivals. To see a Fedex or DHL freighter was an unusual event at an airport busy enough to justify building and opening a second runway in 2020. Most US freight seems to arrive in Melbourne or Sydney, 2000 and 1000 kilometres away and then its got to get from there to other capital cities. Ebay's Global Shipping Program is avoided when ever possible. It definitely is a deal breaker. Cost of postage via USPS under Global Shipping Program is definitely dearer for some mysterious reason. The other highly questionable problem is Ebay adding Australian GST when the vendor is a member of the Global Shipping Program. The GST (Goods and Services Tax) is 10% ..... I'm OK with that. The problem is a $15 N gauge boxcar with $16 postage ends up with $8 GST added to it ......... uuuuurrrrrrr ??? I won't let anyone working for Ebay do my tax return !!! To be fair that inflated 10% GST is not Ebay's idea. This was instigated by Australia's Federal Government via a businessman, Gerry Harvey. He lobbied for years to have ebay purchases add GST so that Australian business's like his could "compete" with imports. It changed nothing. Shipping from Germany is taking 11 to 13 weeks currently ......... it is slow. Shipping from the UK is taking 3 to 5 weeks. Shipping from China / Taiwan / Hong Kong is taking 3 to 10 weeks.
Shipping seems to be a bit random these days and I can never work out when something will arrive. I've sent stuff to NZ and paid for the faster delivery, took nearly 3 months so must have been by boat or spruce goose. Stuff I've sent to the US was suppose to take 7-10 days, turned out to be closer to 25-30 - I'm guessing UPS had to send it to New York, then Florida before actually sending it to its final destination. Then again I've ordered a lot of stuff from China and quite often its arrived within two weeks, which is pretty good. Got some stuff on the way now but with the boat that went sideways in the Suez I'm not holding my breath for a quick delivery this time.
I also find shipping to be slow but, I've gotten two in two days. A new smart phone and a small shopping cart from Walmart. The rest being much slower I'm wondering how long it will take to get an electric moped from China (Seattle, WA). Richard
Living as I do in a small town where the wind comes sweeping down the plain . . . that's so poetic, somebody should write a song about that, but I digress. I order virtually everything that's not available from Wal Mart, which is anything hobby related. Be it from e-bay or Amazon or Hobbylinc if it shows "In Stock" and it is not coming from China then it usually arrives within days. I have never had a note or e-male left with some excuse as to why it wasn't delivered as expected and I have had exactly one small item ordered from an e-bay vender go Dorothy Gale on me.
I had an Amazon package get not delivered 3 times in one day. The first time it was raining, and the driver marked it undeliverable while the GPS had her in front of my house in the Cul-de-sac. This also was the location for the next attempt. The 3rd attempt that same day the van even pulled into my driveway, parked right behind my truck (I was out having dinner with my family) and this was confirmed by 2 neighbors and it too was marked undeliverable. The last time was after sunset, and I have a porch light always on and a motion light that would have come on when she was in my spot, so being unable to see (is what she wrote on the notes) was a bunch of BS. This also was the day after a delivery attempt which the GPS took the driver down a road that is no longer able to access my neighborhood. The driver didn't read the notes in my file that states this. So I guess that is 4 attempts. Each one had me calling asking why it was not delivered, and each time I got some lame excuse, which pissed me off and after a manager talked to me I was offered a credit on my account to cover their mistake. I eventually got my items 3 days after my next day delivery, and I had enough credits on my account that those items were basically free... and so was the vinyl album I ordered with the credit... but that is another story for another day...
