"Why does China post take so long???" Topic

They have computers, barcodes, trucks, planes, airports and sorting facilities. What is the tie-up? Why does it take 3-4 weeks to get a parcel??? Sorry, but I don't know this…

Ancient Chinese secret…

Its a good rant. It does not take that long to ship iPads from China to the US.

Maybe its because of stringent inspection for every package leaving the country?

Chinese administration… They can be nice and helpful, but they just work when awaking from snooze earlier than 4.30 pm. Otherwise it is already to late, they must pack their tea pot and take away box and go home.

They probably use the proverbial "slow boat from China."

Jim

Found this but it still doesn't explain delay…

YouTube link

Hm…

To be fair the biggest bottleneck in world postage these days (well, now that Canada Post are back at work….) is getting into the US – the issue is at least as likely your end as theirs….

[Without wishing to distract anyone from the customary attack of Sinophobia whenever China is mentioned on TMP obviously…. ;-) ]

Found this but it still doesn't explain delay…

You did not mention that this is the delivery from the glass factory.

Granted I pay for it but my airsoft purchases from China get here in 3 days. They only ship express on most of the items I order, no choice.

I placed my first order from China on the 10th… I'll let you know if and when it arrives :)

If you actually watch your package through tracking it is rather interesting. I ordered an iPad direct from Apple and then tracked the journey from China to my house. It traveled fairly quickly from the point of origin in China to a Fed Ex station in China, where it was transferred to another holding point at Fed Ex in China where it missed the shipping time by a few hours to hit the next transit/flight out to the U.S. It arrived in the U.S. and sat at customs for a week awaiting clearance, was then put on a truck and through several transfer points to get to my home town. The truck which was supposed to deliver it arrived at my house, they didn't knock, they just walked up to an unused door, posted a sticky note and walked off without leaving the package. I was fuming at this because if the driver had knocked, the dog would have barked and someone would have come out to get the package and sign for it. In any case, it actually shipped out of China fairly quickly, but it slowed way down once it hit the U.S.

In another case, I ordered some of those Ebay trees (the cheap lots of trees for RR scenics) and they arrived within 8 days from Hong Kong. So it all depends on how it is shipped, and who is delivering it. The trees came by UPS, not Fed Ex.

No no no. You all have it wrong. They hire NYC taxi drivers to deliver packages to the US, while promising that the route they're taking is actually a 'shortcut'.

Postal service within China is actually efficient. A letter in the same city usually takes two days by ordinary mail .

There are two problems with international mail. The first is Chinese as only certain offices can handle international packages. At the personal level, outgoing goods have to be "inspected" to make sure no prohibited goods are going out mainly antiques and dangerous goods. Then they have to go in the correct sized package. I don't know if it also applies to commercial or bulk shippers.

China Post has different levels of shipping at various rates. This ranges from courier type EMS ( Express Mail Service) to parcel post by sea mail. If ordering from China confirm what method is being used.

the second problem is at the destination country where often overseas mail is directed to central nodes for processing and then customs.

3-4 weeks is a long time but not extraordinary. In my experience if its a big parcel it will take longer. ive just received my small packet of magnets in 16 days from Shang Hai. Nice little neodymium magnets from auction

3-4 weeks is my standard waiting time for parcels from the UK. China routinely takes 2 weeks, Ireland just 1 week. Always standard airmail, and I live in the Netherlands (next to the UK with only a small strip of water in between, go figure). Nothing surprises me anymore mail wise, but I've never been able to figure out why Royal Mail manages to ship mail from a few selected retailers (Navwar, Doms Decals for instance) in under a week while the rest gets outpaced by a snail.

Does your chinese mail always come with a string tied around it as well? Looks so retro :)

They already have your money, so they don't care?

You didn't pay for expedited delivery, so you don't care?

Nobody here probably knows, so we don't care?
-Kle.

Anyone have anymore experiences with shipping from the UK to USA? I have been waiting for something for almost a month.

Still rather a lottery – I ship regularly from the UK to the US, and some stuff makes it in a few days, others a month and more. Over 3 weeks is unusual, but far from unheard of; my "record" this year is 7 weeks – other items posted at the same time made it in 10 days – go figure….

If I get orders from the US flash to bang in under a month I'm delighted. Everybody wants stuff yesterday. What happened to patience?