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Other Stuff => General Wargames and Hobby Discussion => Topic started by: dijit on 05 March 2014, 11:07:30 AM
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Over the last 6 months I've had two parcels disappear in the post, one from Ral Partha and one from a fellow LAF'er. For the life of me I can't work out how they can lose parcels in the post and why they don't accept responsibility for all parcels. It's highly irritating and totally unprofessional.
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....and, as I found last year, they don't even bother investigating....... :-[
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I have a rate of 1.5 lost parcels per year. Most of the time, the sender being a company, it's replaced. Still it's a growing problem as I've lost more parcels in the past years than I have in the 35 first years of my life! I confess I'm a bit puzzled o_o
....and, as I found last year, they don't even bother investigating....... :-[
never ! I even found most of the "lost courrier" facilities have been shut down in France ... so now they must be burning the undelivered stuff ?
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same for me in italy, i lost some parcels, expecially under christmas holydays! not to mention the 1€ orders from china, they have a 50% chances of success...
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I've yet, fingers crossed, to have anything go lost on me, either in the States or in Europe. That said, I bought from a vendor last year in Germany who said he mailed out my items, once returned and then resent, and yet, 4 months later....nada. I suspected no good after the vendor refused to give me any evidence that he mailed my order, so I complained to Paypal and got my money back. But aside from this one issue, again one I'm not convinced was on the part of the post, I'm batting 1000. Sorry to read about others less happy experiences.
I just mailed out two packages to Sweden for LAF'ers and made sure to get track and trace and then to photo and email the receipts to the buyers. That way had anything gone awry, at least they had proof postage and coverage for the loss.
Cheers!
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I've been mail ordering from abroad since mid-1980's and I have never had a parcel actually get lost in the mail. One or two claims thereof but never any verifiable evidence for the supposed lost parcel actually been send in the first place. I've had a couple of cases where the parcel has been fairly obviously rushed out following me complaining to a credit card company about the seller, and some where the seller hasn't even attempted to fulfill my order (I think I'm having one case of this latter variety right now, actually). But no, no verified instances of packages vanishing in the mail, as odd as it may sound.
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I've only had one parcel that I've sent go "missing" (touch wood, as I've just sent two off this week), but I tend to use signed-for when sending to countries reputed to have dodgy postal services.
Coincidentally, the chap in the post-office the other day was telling me that there are seven countries which are the worst - he mentioned Italy, Greece and Brazil, and then said 'Africa'. I'm not sure whether that counts as the other four... o_o
Never had any trouble sending to those so long as it's tracked though.
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I've only had one parcel that I've sent go "missing" (touch wood, as I've just sent two off this week), but I tend to use signed-for when sending to countries reputed to have dodgy postal services.
Coincidentally, the chap in the post-office the other day was telling me that there are seven countries which are the worst - he mentioned Italy, Greece and Brazil, and then said 'Africa'. I'm not sure whether that counts as the other four... o_o
Never had any trouble sending to those so long as it's tracked though.
The Russian post can be quite sketchy as well.
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Royal mail lost several for me in the past but until this week its been great. One lost item in the past two years, standard 2nd class deliveries. Of course it had to be a crooked dice order I was hoping to get for a game tomorrow night. No chance now.
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Mail going missing can be for a number of reasons. Theft being one. Dropping stuff and not realising it can be another. A major one is addresses being damaged. If an address is damaged and there is no return the package is often classed as missing.
I have heard Italian post is awful. To the point were people would recommend that if you were going to the Vatican during your visit post your mail there instead.
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In the past year and a half to two years, I have lost had more parcels shipped to me lost in transit than the previous 35 plus years. I was working for a large investigative firm in Toronto back in the late 1980s, and our biggest mail bust was a postal employee who scooped up the federal government pension cheques being sent out to senior's when they were being mailed out and snuck them into the washroom. The individual had a special tool used to slide into the envelope and clip onto the cheque which was then rolled up and slid out of the envelope near the top edge where the glue doesn't quite reach without opening the envelope. The cheque was detached and the remaining paper was reinserted back into the envelope which looked like it had come straight from the government's mailing. Quite slick, but the employee was caught by our company and Canada Post's internal security services.
Still, how do so many parcels go missing? I believe a lot of them are lost at Customs. Has anyone ever seen Border Security on TV? Parcels are flung all over the place when agents are looking for drugs, illegal smuggling, etc. so that they can inspect them or the drug sniffing dogs can. Once they find the illegal items, it never shows them return the packages back into the containers or back into the system for sorting....
Makes you wonder....
Regards,
Hitman
8)
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Not too slick when the check has to eventually be cashed...by someone.
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I had one parcel within the UK that a customer claimed had never arrived, whereas I knew for a fact it had.
I also had one parcel to Canada that went missing for a while and was then discovered after I made a lot of calls. It was returned to the UK after I had forgotten to put my own address on the outside as the sender (pity they didn't open it, because my address was on the paperwork). I eventually managed to get it back after some good guy in a Liverpool warehouse manually checked all the returned parcels from Canada and found the one I was describing.
A few parcels damaged in transit (mostly over Christmas) but other than that, fingers crossed (since I have one in transit right now to the Netherlands) nothing too serious.
I put it down to human error every time. Mine, the customer's or the courier's employees. It's a shame, but I will now never post anything over £20 value without full insurance and preferably a tracking service (which costs a lot).
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Two Amazon book orders years ago that the vendors claimed was delivered and no one, (Vendor/Amazon/USPS,)seemed to care to follow up on; two Ebay items (several years before they tightened up their Ebay/PayPal processes) that the USPS claimed they "delivered" by dropping on the porch - even though my snoopy neighbor and her retired postman husband who spends a lot of time outside with the grandchildren, never saw them on the steps - when the mail slot was (admittedly) too small for book sized parcels (but the front porch door was unlocked which the current mail woman seems to be able to open easily,) which almost turned me off EBay and if there had been a viable alternative to the USPS...
Last Christmas a "Furby" the wife ordered as nostalgia gift disappeared but she got her money back from the Amazon vendor.
I think there are several possibilities:
1) #1 in my personal frustration index is it never was sent. Three Ebay vendors I ordered from failed to deliver, and [probably not coincidentally] Ebay closed them down, in the last 12 months. And while I got my money back I would rather have had the items. Years (5?) ago a person was openly violating IP and the response from Ebay (after closing the seller down) to a least one shafted buyer I knew was - tough luck, it was an illegal activity.
2) "Delivered" to the steps/in front of an outside door, [and yes some mail persons do that, I used to find that all the time with prior mail men/women,] and "acquired" by a passing individual (my neighborhood is much better than 20 years ago.)
3) Issues with the labels causing it to go into the "Lost Mail" system... USPS doesn't release statistics on that... and becoming, well, undeliverable... a web post on an old forum had this (unconfirmed IMO) statement:
The USPS processes 200 billion pieces of mail per year. 5.5 billion (3%) aren't deliverable as addressed -- 1.3 billion are returned to sender, 2 billion are discarded, the rest are forwarded.
While those numbers don't specifically deal with "lost" mail, it looks like about 1% are thrown out.
4) It is being "processed" due to multiple factors and eventually shows up much later than it should.
from that same forum:
I once got an unimportant domestic business letter more than a year after the postmark. On the front, someone had used a rubber stamp to imprint a message like "found between a shelf and the wall."
I presume the USPS didn't get such a stamp made if such a thing happened once every 10 year.
Last year a library in a nearby town was remodeled. The building had been a post office back in the 1950s I think. Anyway, during the redo, someone found a letter postmarked during WWII from a service man in Europe.
5) Your neighbor doesn't care that they got your mail. When a prior "permanent temporary" (the term came up in discussion with the local USPS agent during the vacation so I assume it was a valid title) postman went on two weeks vacation I was delivering mail for the entire time that came to my mail slot:
A) the right house number on the wrong street - 1234 Fox Ct. when you live a t 1234 Ox Ct.,)
B) the wrong name with the "right address" - the USPS staffer I took it to seemed irritated {"What am I supposed to do when that is a valid address?"} I actually get one person's notices about 'travel miles accumulated' according to the exterior message on the envelope at regular intervals.
C) The numbers are the right ones but not the right order (1234 Fox Ct. when it should be 3124 Fox Ct.,)
D) It belongs to the neighbor next door (I assume it sticks to the item above it in the pile.)
E) best ever - When I had subscribed to "Hispanic" magazine I frequently got the "Latina" (sometimes quite risque covers comparatively- try explaining that to your wife when she sees it from across the room the first time,) magazine for a neighbor in block with a similar address - (1235 Dog Ct.)
Had I tossed those items in the trash/shredder no one would have known.
Gracias,
Glenn
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Weird Glenn, I had subscribed to 'Latina' magazine and kept getting 'Hispanic'...spooky... lol
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I have never had anything go missing but recently I received a parcel from the US that had ended up in Brazil before being sent back to Canada by the Brazilian postal officials.
How it got from the US to Brazil I will never know but I suspect that many legitimately lost parcels may just end up places where they ought not to be and people don't have the wherewithal or processes to send them back.
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There are a whole lot of reasons.
Twice this past year I have gotten packages from Europe that horribly mangled the address when they copied it onto the package. Fortunately I have a Post Office with long time employees who went the extra mile.
Several years ago I got an order from Eureka in Australia that had been damaged in transport by a purple liquid that had obscured most of the address and dissolved one end of the package. It took six months to get here and it was a miracle that I got it - somebody else had shipped shampoo or something that broke and spilled. In fact only the zip code on the postage was legible, I was lucky that the carriers here go through the undeliverable mail on occasion to see if it matches a customer.
Finally as a landlord I also frequently see piles of mail for past tenants, improperly delivered mail, and random packages that the tenants just throw in a corner or leave on the mailbox where it blows away or falls onto the lawn (especially bad when there's snow on the ground) instead of notifying the post office.
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Weird Glenn, I had subscribed to 'Latina' magazine and kept getting 'Hispanic'...spooky... lol
Strange coincidences in my life are seldom mathematically impossible. ;)
[cue Twilight Zone music]
I received a notice about a 1968 class reunion (the same year I graduated from another school in SoCal) to my Mother's alma mater where there was, apparently, a graduate with my exact first name, middle name, surname, and patronymic. It took some time to convince the disappointed sender that they had the wrong individual... :(
I also, years later, had an individual in the rental house across the street with no phone and my exact first name, middle, name, surname, and patronymic. ::) He had older relatives in the South US who were not healthy and their children had access to the area's phone book and since the address was one digit different assumed I was he. I think some never believed I wasn't him. :-[ I have no clue if they were the same person but given their accent, 'ethnicity' and economic status it is unlikely.
I also suffered from an individual in my home town of my approximate age and (from comments) quite similar in appearance who was observed by several girl friends over the years kissing other females - >:( - or, given who my ex-girlfriends are today, perhaps I should be :) lol
Gracias,
Glenn
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(knocks wood) I've only ever had one parcel go missing (since I started mail ordering things, about 17 years ago). I do get once or twice a year a parcel that is mangled, sometimes beyond recognition*. Funny how posties seem to have two standard responses to such events: Either hand over the package like there is nothing wrong in the world, while carefully averting your gaze. Or doggedly demand that you sign off "inspected and recieved in good order" before they will even take the package out of their van so you can see it.
Worst I had was a package that was marked on the box as 50x30x15cm being delivered closer to (on average) 45x25x7cm, in a roughly "s"shape, held together by 3 layers of packing tape with the delivery company's logo...
Oddly enough, the postie in question opted for the "nothing wrong in the world" response and actually seemed relieved to let me write "mangled beyond recognition" in the field where I had to note my reason for refusing the package.
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I was living in a house converted into a triplex. There were 3 " front" doors and an out of the way side door that the tenants didn't use it. I waited and waited. Nothing. Then waited some more. Then I checked the online tracking. it had been delivered 10 days prior. I thought my stuff was gone. Just for shits and giggles I walked around the property and checked the doors. My package was in the out of the way side door. Now I imagine if I had less than honest neighbors. That would be how parcels "disappear".
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Over the last 6 months I've had two parcels disappear in the post, one from Ral Partha and one from a fellow LAF'er. For the life of me I can't work out how they can lose parcels in the post and why they don't accept responsibility for all parcels. It's highly irritating and totally unprofessional.
I recently spoke to someone who send out many parcels a week all over the world. His complaints are the same as yours dijit. Now mail getting lost/disappearring is nothing new but i too am under the impression that it's on the rise. Apart from certain incidents i think that this activity of parcels disappearing is being 'organised'. Add it all up, the value of the lost stuff and the number of parcels and it point only in one direction.
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I've never had a package disappear in the post (yet). I've had a couple dodgy close calls though. Have had packages arrive obviously opened by human hand (and not in an official capacity: when that happens they reseal it with special tape), but thankfully nothing stolen (dunno why). Postal service in general has been going downhill in recent years due to budget cuts in the USPS, resulting in more late packages and mistreated or sloppily delivered packages.
USPS used to be the best in my area. UPS and FedEx always had very consistent issues. UPS packages always arrived bashed up, always. FedEx drivers just flat out wouldn't do their job. They'd stick one of those "you weren't home" slips in the mailbox without ever actually coming up the walk, forcing you to drive all the way out to their depot to pick your package up (seriously: they'd do the slip-in-the-mailbox thing repeatedly on the same package, so it was either pick it up or let it be sent back). USPS stuff would always arrive clean on time, and with proper drop-off methods. Not so much anymore. Between the recession and electronic communication outmoding paper communication, the postal service is getting scraped thin, and quality of service is being noticeably effected.
Funny thing is, despite all that, the only times stuff has arrived damaged, it's actually been the sender's fault. Either the item was damaged before it was packed, or else was damaged because the sender cut too many corners on packing (i.e. sticking something fragile in an unpadded paper envelope, and suchlike).
I despise the principles behind postal insurance. There's no way to get around the fact that it's a responsibility dodging scam.
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I blame the poor service on the move to privatize these services. Anytime anything gets 'privatized' it means two things happen almost immediately... Service tanks and costs skyrocket. My idiot countrymen, still drunk on the wonderful privatized medical system the US enjoys, want to privatize the USPS.... Idiots.
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Yeah, there's so many things I could rant along with you about in similar/related directions, but it'd be breaking the "no-politics" rule.
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I have never had anything go missing but recently I received a parcel from the US that had ended up in Brazil before being sent back to Canada by the Brazilian postal officials.
Interesting... last fall I was wondering where my Reaper BONES were and I checked the USPS site with the tracking number.
It was stuck in Brazilian customs.
International logistics can sometimes be illogical, but I still fail to see how sending a package from US to Finland through Brazil AND going through customs there is a good idea.
Once I got a package (a padded envelope really) that was slit open and missing all the contents. Luckily the seller was gracious enough to send me replacements.
Other than that nothing has ever been really missing if it was verifiably sent... but sometimes Royal Mail takes ages to deliver. I wait the 8 weeks, complain to the seller and get a replacement... and then after I get the replacement the original package finally shows up.
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Yeah, there's so many things I could rant along with you about in similar/related directions, but it'd be breaking the "no-politics" rule.
That's why I tried to restrict my comments to economics :D Living in the Netherlands with TNT and coming from the States with the USPS, I'll take the Publicly run postal system everyday of the week. Cheaper, better service and a national treasure!
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I'd like to know why if I order something from the UK (to California), shipping cost will be fairly comparable to ordering from within the US, and it'll arrive within two weeks of post, but if I order from Japan, the cost is 3x at minimum, and it takes almost a month. And why does shipping from France cost so much more than from other European countries? Last time I was looking at buying from a French company, it was like 20 euro to ship a single 3 euro figure, which scared me right off. Seen other French vendors/manufacturers that were better, but still weirdly high compared to neighboring countries.
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I'd like to know why if I order something from the UK (to California), shipping cost will be fairly comparable to ordering from within the US, and it'll arrive within two weeks of post, but if I order from Japan, the cost is 3x at minimum, and it takes almost a month. And why does shipping from France cost so much more than from other European countries? Last time I was looking at buying from a French company, it was like 20 euro to ship a single 3 euro figure, which scared me right off. Seen other French vendors/manufacturers that were better, but still weirdly high compared to neighboring countries.
It's because you're dealing with a multitude of economies, all with their own tight and slack sectors. Postage in the Netherlands is quite high as well.
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but if I order from Japan, the cost is 3x at minimum, and it takes almost a month.
Your seller is using the wrong carrier. I order semi-frequently from Hobby Link Japan and their postage rates are quite reasonable and the stuff gets here pretty quickly.
Since I have to order almost everything from abroad, I have a fair bit of experience of this. What I've found is that typically postage rates are highest with sellers who are not used to selling abroad. They don't care, they couldn't be bothered to find the best shipping options, buyer pays shipping so why take the effort to find the best deal, they'd rather not take money from foreign devils in suspected terrorist countries at all...
Meanwhile sellers in e.g. Hong Kong who basically sell everything abroad have very good and reasonably priced shipping -- they have no domestic market to fall back on, so they must make the export side work to survive.
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Your seller is using the wrong carrier. I order semi-frequently from Hobby Link Japan and their postage rates are quite reasonable and the stuff gets here pretty quickly.
HLJ is one of the better ones, but not immune. I order from them maybe 3 times a year, something like that (just received one of these (http://www.hlj.com/product/WAVKM-21/Sci), which I may post a review of in the Sci-Fi boards if anyone's interested). To their credit, their cheapest shipping option these days (it used to be more) is only a bit more expensive than what I'd pay to have something shipped from, say, Hasslefree in the UK, but it usually takes almost a month. Next cheapest option is... not cheap at all. So it can be affordable, or timely (maybe: I've never tested), but not both.
I've ordered from other Japanese companies in the past, which have generally all been much, much worse (picture paying 20$ to ship a single DVD... and it takes a 5 weeks to arrive).
What you're saying about vendors not being experienced with and not wanting to work for outside markets makes sense. It kinda fits culturally too, in (well, with Japan I know from experience, France only from vague stereotype-ish reputation, so that may be wrong).
But I guess I'm wandering off topic.
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A lot of things I get from China are postage free, and it usually arrives in 7 - 10 days....
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If the Royal Mail is to believed, the parcels don't disappear they, actually, are so badly damaged by acrylic paint spills that the only thing they can do is to dump the parcels in a bin and swear they have never seen them. Of course now they have limited the number of acrylic paint pots that can be shipped in any one parcel this problem will disappear and in the future all parcels will arrive safely, though possibly smelling of whiskey due to yet another breakage of a glass litre bottle of whiskey in the post. :)
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I think I only ever lost two paarcels: One from a local eBay seller (it was a cell phone sleeve, no big deal) and once a 20 USD package from Hong Kong somehow ended up in Italy I think, it never got to me. Both were no big deal though. Every package I have ever send around the world and inside Germany has always reached the recipient without any problems. I mostly use DHL, and once Hermes, I think DHL is a great company which I gladly entrust with my shipping goods.
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I would never trust Hermes.
I have had 4 parcels "delivered" by them.
On three occasions I was out, they dropped one parcel over my garden gate (6 feet high), they left one outside my front door in the rain, they left one in my dustbin (on bin collection day, but I got home before the bin men).
The fourth one (a book) was left outside in the rain, but I was in the house at the time and heard the "you were out" card drop through the letterbox, so got to the door (and book) fairly quickly.
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HLJ is ... but it usually takes almost a month.
Weird. My HLJ packages usually get to Finland in 2 weeks or less, often faster than packages from UK. Maybe they smuggle them onto the Moomin planes or something...
Plus I have to say HLJ's private warehouse thing is pure brilliance.
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I have never had anything go missing but recently I received a parcel from the US that had ended up in Brazil before being sent back to Canada by the Brazilian postal officials.
How it got from the US to Brazil I will never know but I suspect that many legitimately lost parcels may just end up places where they ought not to be and people don't have the wherewithal or processes to send them back.
Something similar happened to me too - US to Malta went to Malaysia instead - the alphabetical proximity probably explains that. Hats off to the Malaysian postal services though, as they sent me a letter explaining that the parcel had been delivered there by mistake, as well as the parcel itself at no charge. It took some time and a very long trip to get here, but my 60 metal Epic scale knights did arrive safely in the end.
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My HLJ packages usually get to Finland in 2 weeks or less
That is my experience as well. I've never used anything but SAL with them either so it's not as if I'm paying extra to get them that quickly.
Maybe some countries' mail system or customs office or both have "special treatment" reserved for stuff from Japan o_o
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I've just been scammed.
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Well, my parcel to the Netherlands got there very quickly, but not so safely. You'd have thought perhaps the dozen or so 'FRAGILE' stickers might have given some clue as to how it should be handled. Perhaps this was seen as some kind of challenge by the Royal Mail staff. It cost me (well, it cost the customers, since they are paying it) £53 for the priviledge .... I'll be using DHL next time after the recommendations on here.
It was bashed in one side and one of the models within lost his spear, but what worries me is that the receiver said this is absolutely fine and better than the way most arrive.
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Well, my parcel to the Netherlands got there very quickly, but not so safely. You'd have thought perhaps the dozen or so 'FRAGILE' stickers might have given some clue as to how it should be handled. Perhaps this was seen as some kind of challenge by the Royal Mail staff. It cost me (well, it cost the customers, since they are paying it) £53 for the priviledge .... I'll be using DHL next time after the recommendations on here.
It was bashed in one side and one of the models within lost his spear, but what worries me is that the receiver said this is absolutely fine and better than the way most arrive.
As an 'Honorary' Dutchie who orders a great deal from the UK, I have to say I've never had a problem with the Royal Mail...aside from the outrageous cost and the fact that it takes as long to get something from the UK as it does from the States. Never had anything destroyed or damaged, but nothing very quick either...
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How bizarre. They quoted me 3-5 days and it got there in 2, so I was happy with that.
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How bizarre. They quoted me 3-5 days and it got there in 2, so I was happy with that.
Maybe just lucky...aside from the outside damage that is...
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I've had in general about 1 in every hundred parcels sent go missing. Including 2 which were sculpted greens for manufacturers... those really hurt.
According to the women at the Post Office, the stuff just gets nicked! They told me not to used insured or registered services at Christmas time, because that just tells people they might be worth stealing... :o
Well, my parcel to the Netherlands got there very quickly, but not so safely. You'd have thought perhaps the dozen or so 'FRAGILE' stickers might have given some clue as to how it should be handled. Perhaps this was seen as some kind of challenge by the Royal Mail staff.
I used to work as a postie, and there were a couple of guys there who would literally play football with anything they found marked 'Fragile'. Some of them also carried magnets to wipe stuff marked 'Magnetic media'. Just total scum, really.
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There was a painting service in Prague whose parcels routinely went missing in the post. Far too much to be coincidence not sure if he s still in business.
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Recently, talking with my postman, she told me things have changed in the last two years.
Two years ago the biggest part of the mail was commercial mail, but now the recession made the companies cut budgets on commercial mail.
So, the mail (at leats the Spanish mail) is paying more attention at small parcels to individuals, since it seems to be their last source of work.