air mail from china?

[Frederick Avery]

hey guys, just wondering, im waiting on an airmail parcel from shen hao, by air mail.

just a set of red bellows, nothing heavy weight.

im tracking, and i have the following information

Location Destination Country Date
posting GREAT BRITAIN 2010-10-12
departure from outward office of exchange GREAT BRITAIN 2010-10-14
arrival at transit office of exchange GREAT BRITAIN 2010-10-14

it seems to have got stuck somewhere along the line. the information is basic to say the least.

how long should i be anticipating it would take? parcels from japan and australia have taken far less time.

im at a loss as to how to get anymore information.

anyone else have experiences with airmail from china?

cheers

frederick

[Ed Moss]

Most likely stuck in customs, my Toyo took 13 days to get through

[Frederick Avery]

nightmare. it seems customs sit with something staring at it to and willing it to turn into chocolate buscuits before they finally realise it wont. then they send someone to the shops for some, before they have the energy to send you the letter telling you theve had the damn thing in their posession for the last 3 weeks and you owe them what amounts to largely an admin fee for dragging their feet.

[vanman]

I would go along with the hold up being with U.K. Customs. You're dealing with a bunch of incompetent cretins who seem to operate without any knowledge of "Customer Care" in a totally unregulated manner. An "Investment in People" qualification would be a miracle.Gawd help us all if they get hit by the Government cuts on Wednesday, they'll get even worse than they are now and use the "Cuts" as an excuse for their gross incompeteance. With me their record was six weeks to get my Burke & James from California to The U.K. midlands.
Vanman

[Frederick Avery]

wow. thats a long time. doesnt take them long to get their grubby hands on your cash though.

[vanman]

They even charge VAT on the postage & packing. How they work out the value of second hand boxes and third hand polystyrene beads I'll never know.
Vanman

[Frederick Avery]

ach.

perhaps theyt should privatise them after all.

[IanG]

ach.

perhaps theyt should privatise them after all.

We don't want them getting more efficient

At the moment many items come through some airport/customs hubs with no Duty & VAT, it seems hit and miss depending on which one. So some people get stung on almost all items while others rarely get charged at all. In 70+ transactions I've only paid Tax twice in about 6 years with normal sized packaged (including 3 5x4 cameras). I expected to pay tax on two large packaged containing 10x8 cameras as they weren't airmail.

Ian

[Georges Giralt]

Hello !
I'm a French living in France, so consider my comments accordingly.
Last year I had a parcel stuck somewhere between the sender and my mailbox.
Having the tracking number I started to call the local post office to ask for help.
They gave me a couple of phone numbers at the dispatch center in Roissy airport for parcels. (remember they count in thousands of tons of mail per month ...)
These people said to me they thought the parcel was into customs' hands. They gave me a phone number for the Customs Officer.. I called her and she said she will clear the parcel herself, which she did in a a couple of hours. By the next morning the parcel was home. And the tax tag was very manageable too ... My parcel was about 500 gr and small, so she was not too bad finding it in a couple of hours
So you may try to place a couple of phone calls .... Who knows ?
Last but not least, I had a couple of parcels for which I paid air freight. The sender put them in the surface mail bin. You know what ? A plane is waaaaayyyy faster than a ship .... And sometimes they wait for the container to be full to ship it. No kidding....

[Oliver]

As others have said, it sounds as if your hold-up is at the UK end. Your tracking information suggests that the package has reached inbound UK Customs, and experience shows it can sit there for quite some time before it moves. I don't think you can blame the Chinese!

If they decide it should attract duty, the next stage is for it to go to ParcelForce, Customs' delivery agent, who will collect the duty on Customs' behalf and who will charge you a hefty and iniquitous service fee for the privilege.

[Frederick Avery]

ARRIVED!!! thank elvis for that
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=6 ... =538335916