"U.S. Customs affecting orders?" Topic

After Copplestone Castings' mention of slow shipping speeds from the U.K. due to U.S. customs holding small packages, has anyone (in the U.S.) been experiencing long delays with orders from the U.K? Does Customs inspect every packet or just a random few?

I've been wanting to order some Copplestone stuff, but I'm worried about how long I'll have to wait, and it's difficult to find a U.S. distributor who actually has in stock the packs I'm looking for.

Yes. I'm still waiting for a Christmas present that my wife ordered for me in early December from Critical Mass Games. I don't know if it's US Customs or the Royal Mail.

From what I have gathered there are a number of friction points now in the process:

1. Weather
2. Homeland Security not allowing commercial packages to fly on passenger airlines.
3. Increased customs activity

and if you are a Wargames Factory customer like me you can add melodrama, corporate hijinks and plain ol' conspracy theory.

The problem isn't Customs it is Homeland Security who have removed all mail from passenger flights. this is causing a backlog with Royal Mail which has to sent them on freight flights or by sea (which can take a month or more).

Ken

We are having some difficulty, but from what we can understand it has to do with changes that came active as of Jan 1st in procedures for some shipments into the US. It seems to be random but annoying. I am sure it will settle out soon.

Yes. We just got an order from Pardulon that I had placed back in early December. Jens commented, when I emailed to let him know it had finally arrived, that it was the longest delay he's experienced with a package.

Tabletop World's stuff (ordered at the same time) still has not arrived. And neither has the very small packet containing a single figure from Collecting Citadel Miniatures.

It sounds like the logjam is finally breaking, but it also seems that newer packages are being sent through before the older ones are cleared. Maybe Customs & the Postal Service (if they're two different branches) figure everyone has already waited so long for the older stuff that a few more weeks won't hurt.

Still waiting for a late December packet from Foundry. Possibly start to worry after 4 weeks I guess?
You can't make the government move faster than they want to

Dunno if it was just due to US Customs, but it took about a month for my order to reach me – shipped 12/15/10 from UK – arrived US (WA State) 1/13/11.

Been a month since I placed an order from UK. Waiting patiently. Based on DeanM maybe I get it next week?

My last two orders from Asia came as fast as most orders from the US, so this seams to be a bigger issue for packages from Europe than it is for Asia. Both my packages made a stop in New York for customs before heading to Atlanta and they were traveling via airmail.

Jeff

I recently got my order from Forge world, ordered earlier in the month. The box had been opened.

Yes, I have several UK parcels that have taken 5-6 weeks to show up when it was usually only 1-2 weeks. Small packets are getting through with no issues however.

The problem isn't Customs it is Homeland Security who have removed all mail from passenger flights.

Yep, seems sensible. They do not want a plane with passengers blown up because of bomb in parcel.

its not been so hot shipping the other direction either as there has been 3-4 weeks delays for stuff sent after Thanksgiving.

*Very* ordinary results coming out of the US as well as going in. A thought: if USPS has abolished surface mail and charges air mail rates only, and if Homeland Security or whomever then consigns the items to a sea container – are you able to claim the difference back, since you have paid for one class of (reasonably quick) service and been given its antithesis (and coming to Australia, surface mail will take the best part of three MONTHS)?

Yeah, I am waiting on an order from Foundry as well. I figure that after 30 days I should get it traced. Between snow and the holidays I figured it was being delayed.

I've gotten three or four packages from the UK and Germany in the last month, no delays here. The one from Moonfleet was superfast.

I ordered from the UK in early December, still waiting for it to reach me in the US.

Yes. The folks at Brigade Models mailed me a package about a month ago and it still is in limbo. I've never experienced delays this bad before. It does appear to be a US based delay.

Yep, Still waiting on decals from Dom shipped in early December. At least I'm not alone! :p
-Steve

My QRF order took approx a month to get here, but I also ordered right before Christmas, so that might throw things off. I made a small Peter Pig order, and that came in around 2 weeks IIRC.

Damon.

The Pardulon package Neotacha mentioned was shipped on 8 December, the day after she ordered it (the date was stamped on the package). It took one month and 10 days to reach us. As she said, the order from Tabletop World she ordered at the same time still has not arrived. I expect it is sitting in the States, somewhere. On the other hand, the figures from Lead Adventure Miniatures I ordered came in about 10 days.

It's not just the US. I received this email yesterday from a customer in Italy:

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAH finally I got them…. It took amost 3 months… but your minatures are really nice… "

Yes Italy and the USA both seem to have delays at the moment, Italy alwys seems to (well 4x out of 5) but the USA up until now has always been fine in general.

Seems to be a bit "luck of the draw" with the USA at the moment, I have posted packages to the USA of the same size on the same day and some have been there in 4 days others have taken as many weeks!

Jo:)

I'm waiting for a parcel from a US customer. It was mailed on November 25 from the US to the Philippines but nothing yet.

It hasn't entered the Philippines yet so for once I can't blame Phil Post. I'm starting to think it's on a ship somewhere.

I think we can speed things up a bit. Simply stencil "No Bomb Inside" to the package.

I'm still waiting on a package from Tabletop World shipped mid-December, and a package from England shipped early December arrived just the other day. On the other hand, a package from Australia arrived within 2 weeks.

It's tough on the companies I've purchased from, as it's really out of their hands.

>It hasn't entered the Philippines yet so for once I can't blame Phil Post. I'm starting to think it's on a ship somewhere.

Could still be the Philippines postal service. In order for it to show online they would have to scan it when it arrives. They are pretty unreliable. That is one reason I didn't set up there. Hope it turns up.

Still waiting for Doms decals from a December order also.

I'm still waiting on a few packages from December but a small package for a single figure mailed from London January 8th arrived in Chicago January 13th. Big packages definitely are being delayed.

I wonder if UPS is different?

Waiting on a couple big boxes of Mantic Dwarfs from Maelstrom. Shipped December 22nd.

I'm getting my 2011 Christmas prezzies ordered now so I'm sure to
have them arrive before I've polished off the last of the mince pies.

As for stenciling "No bomb inside", the box might go to the head of the
inspection line if a ticking clock is included. They'll open or X-ray/scan, clear it as safe and send the parcel on it's merry way, while the others just gather more dust and cobwebs.

An order from Maelstrom placed on 11/29/2010, for two boxes of figures, arrived last week and an order placed on 01/05/2011 for the Skaven picture book arrived today

Thats what is confusing a lot of customers. Orders placed later (with the same or diffrent company) are arriving sooner.

I'm still waiting on a package from Tabletop World shipped mid-December

Just thought I'd follow-up and let folks know that the package arrived today, in case anyone else is waiting for a package from last December.

Any more intel on this UK-US Post Office/Customs/Homeland Security Frakk Up !!?!?! I had 2 small packages sent from the UK to me in the US, in early Jan. Like the first week of Jan … still MIA ???!?!? Who do we complain about this to ?? Besides UBL and the rest of his moslem loonies …

More bad news … TMP link