"Figures Lost in the Mail" Topic

I mailed some figures to a professional painting service in Eastern Europe 3 weeks ago and they still haven't arrived. I've mailed figures to this company several times in the past without any problems. The last time I sent them some figures to paint it only took 10 days for the package to get there.

I have two questions. What is the longest you've had a package take to arrive overseas?

Have you ever had the US Post Office put a trace on a missing package sent abroad and what were the results?

I'm trying not to panic but I'm really afraid these figures might be lost.

How were they mailed – ?

If sent First Class the US Customs Number will only track the package up until it leaves the US. No claim can be put in for First Class Mail.

If sent Priority Mail (Insured) the tracking is the same but a claim can be filed for reimbursement of the stated value on the Customs Form.

The 3-4 times this has happened to me over the past 10 years the items shipped were lost, no recovery.

I've had some overseas shipments go "lost", but they all have eventually returned to me within about 4 months.

When I mail an order, I wait for four weeks and if the customer has not received it by then, I send a replacement order. However, the missing order almost always gets returned to me so there is no loss.

Top three lies.
1. The check (product) is in the mail.
2. Were here to help.
3. This won't hurt.

Regards
Russ Dunaway

I'm in the UK and the longest it has taken a parcel to reach me from the USA is about 2 months. Normally they take about a week/10 days.

If you are lucky, then they have just been delayed somewhere, probably Customs…

I mailed them first class. I didn't insure them because I've never had this problem before. Of course, this is the first time I've sent painted figures to the painter so he could match the paint job. I should have known that Murphy's Law would kick in.

I'll wait a few months before I order replacement figures. Thanks for the advice.

It has happened to me. The longest was a rule set I ordered and after two months wasn't here. I contacted the dealer and he sent me a new one. Then a couple months after that the first one actually arrived! So roughly four months wait for the first one.

I have had two parcels disappear in my mail ordering life. One I suspect I was just ripped off – an ebay purchase back in the 90s. I don't think the guy actually sent the item. The other was a small order of Hinterland miniatures that never arrived. They sent me a replacement order (it was like four figures).

@Joe,

Not true about tracking with First Class postage. If you purchase the postage online, you can track it outside the US. I do it all of the time. For example, here is an order I sent recently to Switzerland

link

Right but you cannot track the first class package once it get into Switzerland with First Class postage.

Did you actually look at the link?

It shows where it hit customs, left customs, and was delivered. As long as the receiving postal office scans the items, it can be shown at least delivered.

And if you are shipping to Canada now, the customs label, either purchased online or at your local post office, can be tracked to show delivery.

Years ago I sent an entire Painted army in four boxes to Florida from California. I insured each box for $750.00 USD. The boxes never arrived. I eventually got the insurance payment from the USPS, so my money was recovered and I was able to send the customer his money back that he purchased them with. My Postmaster kept me informed as to what was happening as they sent Postal detectives into the Florida branch because other packages seemed to be disappearing too. They finally found the culprit who was stealing the boxes and recovered my army. I contacted my customer and they were delivered to him and he sent me the payment so all ended well. Nothing was broken because I had packed them so well.

Ordering by mail is always a risk. Packages get lost.
My worst experience was in 1988. I sent 11 boxes via UPS to a show in San Francisco (Pacificon) and I am in Alabama.

Only six of the 11 boxes made it to the show. Two were returned to my store. Two went back to the manufacturers who had mailed them to me. One was lost and never recovered. I have always suspected that it arrived at the hotel after the show and they never bothered to inform me. The amount of money lost did exceeded the cost of the show.
My last major show that I shipped product. Now if I cannot drive to the show, I do not go.

I sold 60 very well painted Artizan 101st Airborne figures to a chap in Texas, they never arrived. He knocked on doors in his neighbourhood, nothing.

Another time a box of figures from Front Rank took 8 weeks to get to western Canada!

Historique,
My bad. This is a brand new development but a welcomed one as I have spent a good bit of time on the phone with the USPS over the last few years trying to track down packages overseas and until this link you sent have never been able to see what happened once the package landed in the other country.

David
splinteredlightminis.com

Hey David,

No worries. It's something that I have learned and thought I would share. Now, if you call them and ask about tracking, they will tell you that they can't trace a package overseas. You sometimes have to 're-educate' them and have them track a package that you know has been delivered to show them that, yes, you can trace and track it. I do all of my shipping via paypal (it's actually cheaper than going to post office for overseas packaging as well, a LOT cheaper).

I've sent figures to Kiev, Ukraine but always priority mail, usps boxes. My e perience has shown a varied duration from 10 days to well over three weeks, and once, longer.
The other game is declared value…..savings on customs vice insurance reimbursement if lost.
Like the Dirty Harry movie….well do ya feel lucky?

Sent package to Russia. Tracking and Insured. Got hung up in Moscow. I called USPS. A friendly call from the USPS agent to the Russian Customs freed it up and was sent on to it's destination.

Three weeks is not that long for a shipment to Eastern Europe. I recently bought some terrain from a Polish company, and shipping took about 2 months (not the seller's fault, these things just take time).

Always, always and I mean ALWAYS use a tracked, signed for form of shipping. It is more expensivebut you will be able toknow what happens to your stuff.

Historique: thanks for that info-I was unaware.

Historique – for First Class it depends on the country to which you are shipping as some do not offer tracking. But the tracing they would do does not happen for first class anymore. It has not in quite a while. You must add insurance if you want any help from USPS.

When it goes USPS, international typically takes 10-12 days. It can take 28 days with fair regularity that I have seen (about 1 shipment in 10). Once you are past 28 days, it is very unlikely that you will see it again. Attempts to trace will result in "It's in our system, don't worry." And attempts to identify where will result in "It's in our system, don't worry." Further pressing will result in a louder statement of the above.

I do not know of many people having success making insurance claims.

Going through this myself, sent an order to Canada tracked and signed for. Checking its progress it was on its was to Vancouver, then it disappeared. Subsequent checks with the tracking number only brought up error messages on both Royal mail and Canada mail systems basically saying the tracking number is not recognised. I've tried to get a trace started with Canada mail but this requires a post code of the sender and the system does not recognise an English post code. The last time I had this happen was a few years ago again in Canada, about 3/4 months after the order went missing it was returned to me it appeared to have been in customs for ages and was then retuned to sender.

I'm pleased to announce that my package arrived in Ukraine exactly 4 weeks after I mailed it. I have no idea why it took so long. I'm just glad it made it there.

Ukraine you mean a county which has been invaded by Russia twice recently!

Richard, when did Russia start invading counties? And in what state were these counties?