Anticipation...International shipping...

Tsani

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Jane Austen said that anticipation is “..that sanguine expectation of happiness which is happiness itself”. If so, I ought be absolutely delirious with joy. I bought an Excelsius (Antonio Pinto Carvalho - APC) soprano ukulele on June 18th. It is one month to the day later and the ukulele (a gift for my son) is still in transit.

To be fair -

1. It is coming from Portugal.
2. It came safely from over the seas and now is in the "gentle" (ahem! :rolleyes:) hands of the United States Postal Service.
3. We are still within the window of the delivery time predicted by ebay, which runs all the way to July 26th.

I am following the USPS tracking tool (and before that the CTT tracking tool) the way a desperate gambler follows horse race results. I check the site first thing every morning and multiple times during the day. It's pretty pathetic actually.

The uke sat in a New York sorting facility for a solid week. I will not ask why - because I know that some aggrieved postal worker will tell me that I have no idea of the complexities involved in moving an international package through the myriad of regulations and processes necessary for delivery in the U.S.

All I can say is that when that thing shows up on my doorstep it will be received with the excitement generally reserved for a date with a super-model.

Nothing to do but continue to wait...
 
I posted one the the UK on July 8 using international Priority Mail and the USPS tracking shows it has just today been processed through and cleared by UK customs.

I don't know how long it will take now to get to the recipient in London, but 10 days doesn't seem too bad. The PO actually claims 6 to 10 "working" days.
 
I posted one the the UK on July 8 using international Priority Mail and the USPS tracking shows it has just today been processed through and cleared by UK customs.

I don't know how long it will take now to get to the recipient in London, but 10 days doesn't seem too bad. The PO actually claims 6 to 10 "working" days.

This is the ukulele I'm hoping that will turn up tomorrow! Thanks Fred!

I'm always impressed by the speed from the States. It's our Customs that sometimes hold things up. I find most ukuleles spend longer in customs than they do travelling.
 
I once ordered a Mainland.
Had it about 2 weeks later. Shipment from US to Europe though. Not sure if there's a difference

Good luck! :)
It will turn up soon!
 
This is the ukulele I'm hoping that will turn up tomorrow! Thanks Fred!

I'm always impressed by the speed from the States. It's our Customs that sometimes hold things up. I find most ukuleles spend longer in customs than they do travelling.

You're most welcome, Matt. I hope you love it. It is a sweetheart! I'm glad it will have a good home.
 
Mine may be coming in today! The tracker says that it has arrived at my local postal distribution hub. It might be on my doorstep when I get home. I am a little concerned that it is coming "registered mail". My wife and I are both at work. I hope they don't take it back to the post office because they need my signature. :eek:
 
Woohoo!!! It has arrived! I had to go to the post office this morning to get it because it came registered mail, but it is in my hot little hands! Can't open it though, gotta leave that for my boy, whose ax it shall become. Very happy that it has arrived. Cannot wait to see how it sounds!
 
Glad you got your uke, and since I do a lot of international shipping using the USPS, I thought I'd post this for future reference.

Most delays are caused by customs offices at the destination country. The recipient blames the postal service, of course, but in reality they have no control over that part of it. Much of Europe not only delays inbound shipments, but adds a (sometimes very significant) tax or fee before delivery, so no only does it take a couple of extra days or weeks, you have to pay to collect your merchandise. Shipments entering the US still have to clear customs, but there's generally not a fee or tax imposed in most cases, and it's not quite as slow.

Shipments FROM the US, such as first-class or Priority mail, will appear to be stalled, because once they leave the US, no more tracking info is received. Express mail or UPS/FedEx will have tracking all the way, but you pay for it.

I once sent an Express mail shipment to a customer in the UK, and tracking showed that it arrived very quickly in London, almost overnight (from the US west coast). Then it sat there for nearly 2 weeks while ParcelForce got around to processing it. Since it wasn't the USPS's fault, they referred me to the offending party, at which point I dropped it, because the best I could hope for is a refund of $30 postage, which may take several hours of effort to file and (maybe) collect.

FedEx and UPS ship internationally at a very high cost (small package around $100 US) with tracking and 2-3 day delivery, and may have their own customs agents on board to avoid the delay, but that's a lot to pay for being in a hurry. Otherwise, patience and not worrying is the best...in over 3 years of regular domestic and international shipping, I've seen only 2 packages lost out of thousands.
 
This is very true. I've ordered many an ukulele from the States. Most take about 4 days to get here and then customs keep them for about a week. Parcelforce delay it even longer then because you have to wait for them to post you a letter with the customs charges (though I normally ring up and try and pay them more quickly). You have to be very patient. I'm not complaining too much though because most of my favourite ukes came from abroad.
 
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