Is anyone else experiencing severe delays with shipments from the US?

I have won several ebay items from different sellers, all under $20.
Before Christmas, everything came in pretty quickly, even from Hong Kong. Now I have 3 different items that seem to have vanished. I even had one seller resend a new copy of the book I won, but 3 weeks later, still nothing.
Now, being fairly new at this, I only buy from sellers with really good reputations so either three "good" sellers decided to rip me off at the same time, or customs is sitting on my packages.

Anyone else having problems?

Jamie

Though I have had SOME delays, none recently. Recent parcels from England, Hong Kong and SIngapore arrived in decent time.

I have recently recieved two after market parcels, one from Hong Kong and the other from Poland. Both arrived within a week or two. Both were clearly identified as being model parts.

Darryl

Thanks for the response guys.
The main reason I am asking is because I am hoping to make a fairly substantial order through Lucky Model soon. I guess I'll chalk the eBay stuff up as coincidence and hope for the best. You never know, maybe I managed to upset the mail lady...
Jamie

Jamie, how did they send it? If it was sent Air Mail then you should get it quickly, but if it was sent Surface Mail then prepare for a loooong wait. Last year I had a small parcel sent Surface Mail from England and it took almost 2 MONTHS to get here. Yet items sent Air Mail were here in a matter of days.

I bought the item back on February 11th. After three weeks, I contacted the seller and they said they would send a new one as it should have arrived by then.
I assume the shipping was surface, but will contact the seller again to find out as my 45 day protection with PayPal is almost up.

The other two items are both over 3 weeks now as well. Once in a while I expect a bad shipment, but 3 at once seems fishy to me, especially from different sellers. I tried to keep the orders under $20 to expedite the Customs process as all items are coming direct from the US.

Jamie

If they were indeed shipped Surface, expect a LONG wait. Next time you order from overseas ask them to ship Air. I hope you get your stuff soon.

Yes, I won a few things on Ebay. Shipped on Feb 9-12 via USPS Air, arrived 30-35 days later.

Items from the UK continue to arrive within 10 days.

Sure enough, the day after posting, 2 of my 3 orders arrived. Thanks for all the input, faith in eBay has been restored

Now where is that credit card? I'm ready for LuckyModel...

Jamie

Figures. I've always gotten better service from Europe than North America. Enjoy, and post pictures!

Having bought stuff for the business from different suppliers in the US and in Europe, I find that generally, the stuff coming from Europe (at least so far) Customs doesn't even look at. Maybe its because its not at the volume that stuff from the US is, so they don't bother with it, or what.

Now stuff coming from the US, they catch maybe 1 out of every 6 or 7 boxes. Literally I have had orders of 7 boxes of stuff coming from a supplier in the US, and only one of them will have a customs sticker on it. However I haven't found that the boxes are being delayed any by it. As with the above said order, I got 5 of the 7 boxes on a Monday, one out of those five were hit with customs, and the other 2 boxes showed up on Tuesday, neither hit with customs.

I think it all depends on if customs opens your box or not maybe. If the value on the box is clearly marked, I think they just make up their customs slip, slap it on, charging you the proper amount of tax and/or duty, tack on their pound of flesh of $5 for doing their job in the first place, and then send it back out into the postal system.

For the most part, customs officials are located at the postal porcessing facilities anyway, so when a parcel comes through, and has to go to customs, it just goes down to customs, they assess their taxes, and send it back up to regular processing.

Now if they decide to open it and check the contents, then that is a whole new ball game.

The one thing I have notices lately though is that when they do catch one of my boxes, they convert the US currency to CDN currency, which is normal, however lately instead of charging me the usual 14% HST on the box, they have only been charging me the 6% GST on the box. Not that I am complaining, and either way, I can claim it all back when it comes tax time, but just wondering why they changed it. At first I thought it was a mistake, but then all of them that get caught now only have 6% GST on them. I am in New Brunswick, and last I checked we have a 14% HST here.