USA surface mail

charlies_mum

CouponWoman wrote: »

If you send a parcel by surface mail (which takes over 2 months) your buyer can do a chargeback via paypal for non receipt.

You cannot prove delivery so they win everytime, and even when they get their parcel 8-10 weeks later how can you then get your money back.

I made this mistake once, won't do it again.

According to Baffcat, it is taking that length of time to arrive whether you send by airmail or surface.

If the buyer is honest and lets you know the item has eventually arrived, you can issue a payment request through Paypal.

DirtPoorGuy

I called Royal Mail last week regarding an item that was being sent by Airmail, I was advised by them that although they advertise 4 day delivery more than half the items being sent are being stopped at customs and taking 2 months to process, those that are lucky enough to not be delayed are taking around 7 days, needless to say I have dropped the USA as a postage option.

It seems to me this is another example of US protectionism, under the guise of security, American buyers will only end up buying American goods if they cannot get items from oversees in a reasonable time, good for the US economy.

martindow

I'm finding that items posted to the US before Christmas took a very long time (6-8 weeks). More recently they are taking about 10 days which is what used to be the normal time. USPS has always been rather slow even to major cities.

soolin

Admittedly the items I routinely send to the US are usually less than 1kg but i have not noticed any slow down of my delivery times, about a week to 10 days normally for Airmail. I'm still even getting the occasional 3 or 4 day delivery which always surprises me.

baffcat

Here are a couple of links to the threads on ebay.co.uk & ebay.com regarding VERY slow deliveries by airmail post to the US.

Link to Ebay UK forums thread

Link to Ebay.com forums thread

These are only 2 of many threads complaining about not only slow deliveries, but also the lack of publicity about it.

peden

baffcat wrote: »

If you send it airmail, tracked or not, at that weight, it's going to be a VERY long delivery anyway.

Since US Homeland Security brought in new measures at the end of November, anything over 454g (1lb) can't be sent on passenger aircraft to the US.

It's still not clear what RM are doing, but most mail I sent early in December is still in limbo somewhere, maybe in a dark room, maybe on a ship.

I've refunded 8 customers there already, and only today had notification of receipt of a package I sent on 20th of December, which arrived 10th Feb. Interestingly, that package was only 90g in weight.

I've added the US to my list of destinations I don't ship to, as US buyers don't seem aware of the new restrictions and the impact they're having. It's a real pain, as I probably send 2 packages a day there usually.

The only reliable way of sending to the US at present is via FEDEX or DHL or similar, as they use cargo aircraft, often their own. A benefit is it's tracked, but it costs too much for most of my items.

Ever heard of Parcel2go.com, they use DHL and other couriers and are usually cheaper than Royla Mail or Parcel Farce anyway, I find it very annoying I cannot get surface mail from the US anymore, as most items I would rather wait and get it cheaper than get it quickly and more expensive

soolin

with apologies I am closing this thread as it is very old and has been bumped.