Airmail to USA, since mid Nov transit time is 4-8 weeks

boombap

I'm having the same problem with the OP and it's becoming a nightmare. I've resent lots of items out but no doubt these will suffer severe delays too and I will have to send refunds.

Armitage - was the email you recently received a straight up copy of the service update that Custardly posted or did it have some further info on?

I started using PacketSort in early December (using OZ1 for all non western Europe destinations) - before that was just dropping mixed sacks off at the depot and have had missing items reported for both systems.

I am going to have to have a think about stopping sales to US customers which is something I really don't want to do. Incidentally it was on the BBC news today that Cuba has stopped mail services to the US as they're fed up with all of the returns due to security scares.

S.

chancesare_2

squee wrote: »

I'm having the same problem with the OP and it's becoming a nightmare. I've resent lots of items out but no doubt these will suffer severe delays too and I will have to send refunds.

Armitage - was the email you recently received a straight up copy of the service update that Custardly posted or did it have some further info on?

I started using PacketSort in early December (using OZ1 for all non western Europe destinations) - before that was just dropping mixed sacks off at the depot and have had missing items reported for both systems.

I am going to have to have a think about stopping sales to US customers which is something I really don't want to do. Incidentally it was on the BBC news today that Cuba has stopped mail services to the US as they're fed up with all of the returns due to security scares.

S.

Not answering this query, but do you use OLA? I often find it much cheaper than OZ1 for Eastern Europe.

boombap

Hi Chancesare,

I must confess to not knowing what OLA is - I'm still quite new to the PacketSort system and when I signed up and was 'walked through' the process by a RM Business Account advisor I was only told of two codes (and indeed only two codes appear on a help email from them) which is OF1 for W. Europe and OZ1 for all other internationals.

The vast majority of my internationals are packets weighing under 200g. Is OLA for letters or somethings?

Thanks in advance,

S.

terra_ferma

... now we can tell the men from the boys (and women from girls...) serious sellers from hobby sellers...
(says green with envy, not qualifying yet for the services above and still having to weight items individually and go through SmartStamps.... )

chancesare_2

squee wrote: »

Hi Chancesare,

I must confess to not knowing what OLA is - I'm still quite new to the PacketSort system and when I signed up and was 'walked through' the process by a RM Business Account advisor I was only told of two codes (and indeed only two codes appear on a help email from them) which is OF1 for W. Europe and OZ1 for all other internationals.

The vast majority of my internationals are packets weighing under 200g. Is OLA for letters or somethings?

Thanks in advance,

S.

Sorry op we seem to have stolen the thread.

I believe it stands for overseas letters air, but it isn't just for letters. I use it for nigh on all my eastern Europe stuff as the tariff starts much cheaper than OZ1. I had mine added in when a friend in a similar situation told me about it, can you ring your RM advisor and get him to add it on, or ring the business helpline and ask. There is a specific cut off where it then is cheaper to OZ1 but from memory it is about a kilo. I tend to be lazy and input them bith on OBA and delete the expensive one, IYSWIM.

boombap

Thanks for that ChancesAre, I'll get onto that tomorrow. Really appreciate it!

Also apologies from me aswell OP for the thread hijack!

Terra - before I was on the mailing system I am now I got all of my stamps from CostCo and that saved me a lot compared to buying from the PO - I think it was about 5p off the cost of a regular stamp. Most of my international parcels required 5 x first class and 5p which meant I was saving 25p per package which gave me great savings over the cost of the year. I don't know the rates for SmartStamp but I would recommend CostCo.

Some sellers think sticking stamps on looks unprofessional - although I can see their point to some degree when you start saving £20 a week on postage it soon starts to make good business sense. And international buyers like the 'novelty' of UK stamps too.

Right, I'm off now to refund another batch of US customers who still haven't had their items 6 weeks after postage....:(

All the best,

S.

greeneye

Is this only affecting Airmail? I.e Is Airsure getting through pretty quickly??

PeterinScotland

Royal Mail have been sending at least some of the BS1 (Priority Bundle Sort) and PS1 (Prioity Destination Sort) airmail by sea (at least they were at the end of 2010). They couldn't get access to enough planes because after the toner cartridge bombs they could no longer use passenger planes. And the US government introduced security measures on packets (over 500g weight or maybe over 20mm thick), I think perhaps both demanding extra security at Royal Mail and performing extra checks in USA.

Also the problems were exacerbated by prolonged severe weather in UK (apparently some Scottish delivery offices still had backlogs up till a coupe of days ago), and later deep snow in USA.

In mid January RM said that they were hoping to get back to 5-7 days delivery soon as a result of measures they had taken.

According to folk on another forum I'm on, RM are saying they won't compensate customers who have had their airmail sent by sea. Some sellers have said they're going to contact a programme called Watchdog (I think this must be a TV programme as I don't think the radio equivalent is called that).

PeterinScotland

Priority M-Bag sent 10 Dec 2010 to Colorado arrived 24 January 2011, that's 6 weeks 3 days.

PeterinScotland

Yay! Packet sent 17 January to Montana arrived 25 January. That's more like it!

:j

Peter