Where did you lose your packages? Who's lost packages as buyer/seller?

I don't think, as a buyer, I have ever not received a package. One took a very long time because they had addressed it to Austria rather than Australia.

A couple of years ago one was very late, so I complained and they re-shipped it. The package finally turned up about three months later. I contacted the seller and offered to return it, but we agreed the shipping cost exceeded the value of the package.

Wow, either you are all very lucky or some of my customers are not telling the truth :roll_eyes:
I've lost 4,5 packages since I started shipping internationally. No package was lost within USA, thanks to paypal free delivery confirmation (?!). So about 2 per year but recent 6 months have seen 3 lost packages. I'm pretty concerned.

When I do a project as consultant, I always ship priority or per request and put insurance on them (sometimes $1K value). That's because they can afford the charge. Not with someone buying a $30 kit.

CrossRoads, does international flat rate priority have insurance or tracking as options at all? I'd be unwilling to ship UPS/FeDex/DHL etc. I live in a small city. There is one post office. These chain stores are spread out across a 10-15 mile radius and I get off at 5pm. If I get off early I can make it to the post office, that's it.

I have bought from Ebay many times with no problems from both US and International locations.

I have sold only a few items and the only place I had trouble with was Australia because I think I did not get the addressing proper on the package. In my case the package was held-up in customs and the buyer was able to get the package after a few weeks of delay.

Everything I've ever ordered has arrived (mostly domestic U.S.). I believe the longest anything has taken was three weeks; a T-shirt from Norway.

I used to sell a shareware component. I can tell you there are definitely thieves in the world. I find it truly amazing that people tried to steal a $10 component. (Huh. I just remembered. The Norway T-shirt was actually payment for the component.)

Sending to UK makes me nervous. I've lost a couple of packages going there. They need to get their act together there.
Even my UK customers tell me their own Royal mail sucks donkey ass.

Yeah I agree. I often see this pattern. Worried customer reports not getting the package and needing it for a project. I refunded and offer express mail option and the response from that customer stopped after the refund. Because these incidents (their fault or postal fault), their neighbors and countryman/woman will pay more for my stuff. That's sad.

vasquo:
Sending to UK makes me nervous. I've lost a couple of packages going there. They need to get their act together there.
Even my UK customers tell me their own Royal mail sucks donkey ass.

I second that opinion. I buy a lot of biking and sports goods from an UK e-store called Evans Cycles. Not only the Royal Mail offers a lousy service, but by default their international shipping does not have a tracking number. I've had orders from Evans take up to 65 days to arrive and know way of knowing where it was. I know it isn't Evan's fault: it is just Royal Mail that sucks big time.

Another e-store called Chain Reaction Cycles, located in Ireland, from whom I also by loads of mountain-biking apparel, has tracked parcels and their packages arrive in less than 15 days.

It doesn't cost that much extra to get registered or certified mail. Less than $2 from Hong Kong to US.

Using the royal mail is like challenging Dirty Harry to a shootout. Do you feel lucky, punk, do ya?

Seriously... like many aspects of life in Britain, expect to pay top first-world coin for service that would make most third-world service providers blush with shame. Even in the deepest darkest post offices of India (with their legendary red tape and all that) I always had faith that the stuff would arrive - and it did. Ship packages from England or France and you're taking chances. 7 out of 9 packages shipped after B-school were meticulously opened with a razor knife, looted, and then re-closed using mailing tape made exclusively for the postal service (i.e. not available to the general public).

Given where morale is headed in the USPS system, I can only hope that the postal police will keep that kind of behavior in check in the US.

Constantin:
Given where morale is headed in the USPS system, I can only hope that the postal police will keep that kind of behavior in check in the US.

I did mail an Xbox 360 to someone and have it arrive looking like it fell out of an airplane...during a hurricane. Not sure what the postman was thinking when he dropped it off. Probably "not my problem". The little punk that received it tried to blame me for the damage too, filed every complaint form he could find with Paypal and Ebay. I don't usually waterproof my shipments.

It seems that if a package is greater than 22 Euro and has no bill (exact content and price I guess) then German customs will just withhold it. One of my packages eventually was claimed by the buyer after receiving letter from customs and forced to pay tax and show proof of purchase. Maybe something to be prepared for if you ship a package to Germany, either mark as lass than 22 Euro or gift, or include details of the package.

One of my funnier experiences with the (generally awesome) German postal system was sending a gift package to my god-daughter over there... except it didn't arrive... instead, the mother got a notice to pay up... long story short, the Droid at the customs hall took a look at the contents listed on the customs form, noted "gift", read it in German (in which case you're shipping 'poison') even though the package came from a English-speaking country and items shipped internationally are always declared in English, and decided that a duty applied.

A terse letter from the mother regarding the English-reading skills of the droid in question unlodged the package without the need for duty payments. Naturally, without comment.

Sh#$#@t!

Constantin:
One of my funnier experiences with the (generally awesome) German postal system was sending a gift package to my god-daughter over there... except it didn't arrive... instead, the mother got a notice to pay up... long story short, the Droid at the customs hall took a look at the contents listed on the customs form, noted "gift", read it in German (in which case you're shipping 'poison') even though the package came from a English-speaking country and items shipped internationally are always declared in English, and decided that a duty applied.

A terse letter from the mother regarding the English-reading skills of the droid in question unlodged the package without the need for duty payments. Naturally, without comment.

So it is okay to ship anthrax to Germany, as long as you pay custom duties, right?!

When my sister was on vacation in Europe, she brought back a few tulip seeds from Holland. When returning to Brazil, she was asked if she was bringing biological substances. She was fool enough to say yes and the tulip seeds were confiscated never to be seen again.

The funny part is that you can buy them from the internet and have them delivered to your doorstep (as long as they aren't shipped through UK's Royal Mail, in which case they'll never be delivered!)

Most countries I know of have some tight customs law against importing seeds. Just think about a foreign plant replacing some native plants or even staple grains. Maybe the mail system is not as tight as the boarder controls.

More to it than that. Theoretically, all seeds that may be imported have to go through a process of verification / etc. to ensure that the seeds are biologically 'clean' (i.e. do not import diseases unknown in the destination country), are on an approved list of seeds to be imported (i.e. with USDA/etc. approval in the USA), bonded, etc. Vendors can ensure that (they have the scale and means to ensure that seeds are clean, that the paperwork is OK, etc.) while private folk jetting around do not.

For example, the US Agriculture industry is saving billions of $$$ every year because they do not have hoof and claw disease to deal with and hence do not have to vaccinate for it. Similarly, mad cow disease is virtually unknown and also does not have to be tested for regularly, etc. Some countries like NZ are even 'cleaner' than the US and hence preserve that status by having very stringent inspections at border crossings (i.e. no dirt on shoes, disinfecting baths for dirty shoes and all that). It only takes one lugnut to destroy that status and cause widespread costs as herds are innoculated or preventively slaughtered.

So I understand why statutes are what they are. Also consider how often fauna and flora inadvertently finds its way into broader nature, i.e. the Burmese python infestation in the FL everglades, longhorn beetles in the NE of the USA, kudzu in the SE of the USA, the cane toad in Australia, introduced rats throughout the world leading to massive declines in bird populations, etc.

My biggest gripe about uk post is that if you import and have to pay vat or duty , they levy a charge for collecting said duty which is sometimes more than the worth.
Would not trust anything valuable to posite at all, best to keep to letter size,even small packet can dodgy, TNT,FedEx etc are my preferred.

Constantin:
...kudzu in the SE of the USA, the cane toad in Australia...

But those were deliberately introduced. Also the multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora) or asian beetle (Harmonia axyridis). So sometimes it takes a whole government full of lugnuts.

OK, time for my Friday afternoon tale of woe...

Over the last couple of days, I have been getting strange pieces of mail from the USPS... a donation letter from a Maine museum in July 2012, our home mortgage tax documents, etc. - all in unsigned envelopes from the USPS. I thought it was just plain weird until I got a cheerful phone call from a dentist in Medford, MA who asked me if I wanted my tax documents back... it appears that the USPS not only shredded the envelope that my tax documents were traveling in, they also appear to have added these documents willy nilly to the packages / envelopes of other people who were similarly inconvenienced.

Long story short: even if your past experience with the USPS has been stellar, now is the time to rethink that stance. I am kicking myself for not sending the letter registered mail, because then there would be a USPS employee who would be personally responsible. Instead, I just sent it with a delivery confirmation request. It's just great to know that everything a identity thief would need to set up fake accounts is now freely available to them... SSNs, domicile data, etc. Just great. :fearful: