"Overseas order times: Is it still a long wait?" Topic

Just wondering if anyone has ordered anything from "across the pond" recently and have it arrive in, oh say, less than 4 to 6 weeks? I want to order some minis from GZG and Brigade Models, but would like to receive them in less than 2 weeks. In other words, is U.S. Homeland Security still mucking up the mail?

Spartan 117

I just got a package from Germany that was posted on the 24th of November on Monday.
However I got a package from Brigade in England ( Small of course) on the 20th January that I order on the 29th December which for those guys is pretty late but reasonable. EDIT I am a little behind myself though . . . :)

Given that I am halfway around the planet, I'm thinking things are approaching normal, but not quite there yet.

It's still the 8th/9th of February? Depending on which part of the world you are in.

Never had a problem getting anything from GZG in record time. But, then again, I do work for DHS. :)

Dan

I usually get orders from the UK to the west coast of Canada in 2 weeks (or less). I find orders from the states actually take longer.

Orders to the States are back to taking a week according to customers who have told me they've received their recent orders

Mike

Dice ordered from companies in the US and UK on the 28th of January, showed up in Sydney the day before yesterday, and yesterday respectively. Both small packages, obviously not affected much by the recent wild weather up there. Both went through the Postal systems.

Duck

Ditto, with a couple of caveats – there are still older items making their way through the system, and larger packets are still liable to delay; presumably anything big enough that there could conceivably be a bomb in it…. With that said, smaller items being posted now do seem to be back to normal.

Dom.

Airmail or Surface ?

One takes days, the other takes weeks.

Received a package yesterday that was mailed just prior to the new year from the U.K. Five weeks of so total. Fingers crossed that a Perry package ordered at the same time makes it in this week.

Shipping delays are understandable with the new regulations and bad weather.

I'm still waiting for a package that was sent from the Netherlands to the USA on January 18.

I'm still waiting for some minis that were supposed to have been shipped the week of January 17 from England.

Thanks to Homeland Security, I'm still waiting for stuff that was posted to me end of December! I guess it might show up in the next week or so (allowing for the APO issues) just about in time for me to go on leave lol! Still never mind, worse things happen at sea as they say, especially off the Horn of Africa!

It's weird though, because I've had other stuff arrive within two weeks of shipping from the UK over the last couple months.

I have 4 international packages still making their way to me:

1. QRF order, can't remember when I ordered it, but it was a few weeks ago.
2. Forgeworld order, placed on 1-15-11, still not here yet.
3. Track48 order (this is from Canada), placed 1-18-11, still not here yet.
4. HobbyLink Japan. Just shipped yesterday.

So we're still waiting for my stuff…

Damon.

I order from both GZG and Old Crow and germany, you can expect anywhere from a month to two weeks from England. I just got a package that was shipped Jan 5th and it arrived yesterday. Germany is much quicker not sure why about 10 days. Of course snow has had a impact.
John

I am on 5 weeks now for a package from the UK. US seems to be about 2 weeks right now. I am in Canada.

@20thMaine,

Surface or by boat is no longer an option from this country. All packages, therefore are sent by Air.

There is no delay on this end as we can track when a package leaves here, so shipments are at the mercy or good graces of the various control points en route to the US or Canada.

I have not offered anything for sale as I wanted to avoid the holiday period, but had not expect delays to spill over into January.

Cheers,

The short answer is that it is getting better.

I had an interesting chat with my postman last Saturday, as he was handing me a book from Spain that I had ordered on Dec. 6th. It's not just DHS. He told me the strikes in France had a big impact on stacking up European mail last year, and the weather in the northeast US casued backlogs of up to 13 days in some of the major mail handling facilities. He felt that progress has been made on reducing these backlogs and getting the mail delivered.

Yesterday, a package from an English painter that my son had ordered in mid-December also arrived.

Rick

I received a small package from Renegade some weeks ago. It was marked 2 of 2. The larger one is still MIA. I expect it's the size that's the problem there.

I am still waiting for 2 packages ordered from Alternative Armies. 1 on the 7th of janurary, and 1 on the 13th.

I've ordered twice from GZG (UK); both times on a weekend. I received the minis before the next weekend (I live in the USA). Outstanding speed!

I've also ordered from Eureka out of Australia and got my minis in a very timely manner from them as well (not even 2 weeks).

I'm still waiting for a pre-xmas GZG order. Yesterday, I received a Pendraken order from mid January.

Don't know what to tell you.. stuff is still lost and other stuff is making it through..

Front Rank sent me an order on December 15th that I received Monday! Seven weeks! They have instituted new shipping procedures detailed on the website to address this problem, which seems to be a US problem entirely. These solutions are at no expense to the purchaser.

Front Rank's quick response, and great communications on this was a measure of just how well run a company they are. It is easy to see that good service when coupled with great figures inspires very loyal customers.

Small packets are getting through to the US in just a little longer than normal time. But anything boxed seems to be taking much longer due to all the conditions mentioned above. Parcels from Europe to the US seem to be taking about 5-6 weeks on average.

USA

Start date: 18th November
End date: Ongoing

Increased security measures delays some mail to USA

Since November 2010, the United States Department of Homeland Security has increased security measures for items carried on passenger airlines. As a result, mail entering the US from around the world, and including the UK, that would normally be sent via passenger aircraft must now travel by other means, including ships and cargo planes.

I order overseas a lot, usually from the UK. It's getting faster, and many, if not most, of the orders get to me within two weeks. My most recent order was to Pendraken, and IMO, those guys are great. I ordered a few packs from them, and at the end of that week, I received an email telling me that the package had been sent. It arrived within 7 days of that email. I've gotten similar quick service when I've ordered from Irregular, Hasslefree, and Copplestone.

Service overseas has been getting cheaper too, at least for some companies. It used to be ungodly expensive, but Copplestone's only been charging me 10%. It is a small world, after all.

To me, it is not much better. I ordered something on Dec 27th. The company, for some reason, did not ship it until Jan 17th and I still haven't got it yet, three weeks after it was mailed. IMHO we live in a highly civilized countries, does it really take a month for something to fly from Great Britain to the US? Really?

Most of ours are getting through in the usual 7 days-ish now, but we had quite a few delayed, and still have one or two outstanding, from December. They do tend to turn up eventually, it's just a pain having to wait.

QRF order, can't remember when I ordered it, but it was a few weeks ago.

Placed 16/1, despatched 27/1. I would think it should be there in the next week, or two…

I'm in Australia, I ordered books recently from the UK and paid airmail delivery to Australia. Still took over 4 weeks to arrive and package had been opened for inspection.

I think the "homeland security" is used a little too often. I actually had one company blame "homeland security" for an order I made in the US, from a company in the US, and delivered to a US address. It took almost eight weeks, and when I asked they said it was due to "security" requirements.

On the other hand, I've made several orders from Warlord Games, in the UK, and I've had my figs within two weeks!

As I mentioned in another thread, I got a package from Jez at Old Crow in less than a week.

It was postmarked 2 FEB and arrived yesterday, the 8th.

Has anyone ordered from Critical Mass recently? Are their shipping times averaging the same as other companies in the UK to the US?

Six weeks from UK, 10 weeks (or so) from Spain. :^P

Dale

Cross-fingers, just placed an order to Minifis UK – their web site says about 21 days to US…

P.

Pretty much everything I ordered since around Christmas from the UK (5 or 6 different orders) has not yet made it Stateside.

Lost Pict sigh!

I got an email stating my package was mailed from the UK on Dec 14, still waiting here on the East Coast USA.

I have 2 packages from the UK sent to me in the first week in Jan. … like the 3rd and 5th … No Joy !!! Another 5 were sent only 1 or 2 weeks ago … So I'll probably get them in Spring !!

I think the "homeland security" is used a little too often.

To the contrary, I don't think it's used enough. I'm going to add it to my regular rotation of excuses:

"Why were you late picking me up?"
"Ah, you know…Homeland Security."

"I asked you to clean up this garage an hour ago! What happened?"
*shrug* "Homeland Security."

Anyways….

I guess I'm not getting the same results from ordering overseas as some of you guys, and I order a LOT of British stuff. Everything seems to get to me pretty quickly. The main exception to that has been when I order from Old Crow, but he says right from the start that it takes him about a month to cast the order, and I'm ok with that.

Are you guys maybe ordering "surface" instead of "air mail"? That's going to make a huge difference. Also, we just got through the holiday period, and that usually creates a backlog of a month or more. Just a thought.

Just got my packages from Old Crow and eBay as well as other sent later in Jan … so I guess the system works !!!

I have a friend in France who has sent me an auction catalog and figures. They were mailed Jan.4…..still haven't arrived.
A French journal I subscribe to has yet to appear. It has been available in France for over 4 weeks…..still hasn't arrived. In years past I always had received the year's first
the 3rd week of January.

Waiting for two orders(1 UK 1 Germany) made Jan. 6th.

I know it's kind of subjective but would those of you who say you get your packages quickly care to estimate if they are small parcels or large? I think that may account for the differences in fast or slow.

For example, the package that came to me from Renegade was just big enough to hold one of their regiments (about 30 28mm figs). It's going to be much smaller than the other package they sent which has the other 4 in it.

I've usually got stuff to the UK from the States or Canada in a week or so – unless the Post Office decides I ought to be paying tax on it, when they hold it up for a couple of weeks and charge me more than the actual tax amount as a "handling charge".
My Texan sister-in-law recently sent her parents some stuff from the UK to Texas and it took nearly a month to arrive.
Not sure whether it's our end or US Customs looking for contraband Kinder Eggs and Cuban Cigars!

I know it's kind of subjective but would those of you who say you get your packages quickly care to estimate if they are small parcels or large? I think that may account for the differences in fast or slow.

Good point. I order frequently, but I've kept most of the orders small. They typically arrive in one of those padded envelopes or a very small box (Smaller than a USPS Priority Mail "small" box). That probably makes a difference too.

My orders shipped from mid January by multiple UK manufactures have still not arrived. Previously it was a 1 week delivery, now it's looking like 4 weeks. Late December and early January orders arrived in 4 weeks. I should point out the time is from posting to delivery, not including order processing. Normally packages I order are small and they are always shipped airmail. It would not surprise me in the least if there is discrepancy between various parts of the country with this issue.

Well shipping times must be getting close to the norm we have been accustomed to. Yesterday I received an order I placed 2 weeks ago to Brigade Models(Thanks Tony!). Last thursday I received the order that shipped on January 7. The order that came yesterday was heavier/bigger/bulkier than the other order, so maybe HomSec has sorted it's mess out(hopefully).

Spartan 117

I've been waiting 3 weeks now on an order From Peter Pig, and have been informed by the U.S Postal service that Homeland Security in the United States is still going bonkers over a Package"Problem" from 3 month ago in Greece.