Delivery times of shipped goods are all over the map! Your experiences?

Especially lately, it makes very little sense. These are my experiences, all using Canada Post.

1) Australia to me ; 2 weeks.
2) From me to NYC ; 1 week.
3) From me to Buffalo ; 3 weeks and counting.
4) From an office 15-min away from me ; 3 weeks.

This is just in the last month. For the 2 instances where I shipped something out, it was using the same carrier and service.

What are your experiences, lately?

 

About a month ago I ordered 7 items from 7 sellers, eBay and non eBay, on a weekend and all arrived on the following Thursday. Everything I’ve ordered the last two months have taken at most 10 days once tracking shows package handed over to shipper, only one package took a tour of the Midwest before arriving at my mailbox late.

 

Pre-ordered the Idle Race expanded Birthday Party CD from Amazon. It departed the warehouse - but never made it to the USPS facility nearby for shipping. The tracking number stopped dead in its tracks, so to speak. After about three weeks, Amazon declared it lost in transit, and said it could not be replaced or reordered. I can buy it from other sellers for two to three times the Amazon price, I guess. Where the hell could it be??

 

Since everyone has been sheltering in place for the previous 10+ weeks, most individuals are ordering online and the post office is completely swamped. I've had a couple shipments arrive a day or two early, and just as many arrive a day or two late. All in all, my orders have been relatively consistent, although I'm in the U.S. (California) and *only* ordering from the U.S.

 

I ordered several items from Target at the same time last week. The one that they claimed shipped first (via USPS) still says that the tracking number was issued but the package has not yet been received. Others that shipped within the next day or two are en route. Once a shipper has a package, my experience is that things are taking about the same length of time to deliver as usual.

My one question mark is a replacement credit card that I have no way of knowing when it actually shipped. It did take much longer than I expected to arrive.

 

I sent two records to a friend in Colorado. Here was the package's journey. In case you're wondering, the address label was perfect. My friend verified that after the package finally got to him. It was not misaddressed.

5/8 - dropped off at my local post office in southeastern Minnesota
5/8 - arrived St. Paul, Minnesota
5/9 - arrived Des Moines, Iowa
5/11 - arrived Denver, Colorado
5/13 - arrived St. Paul
5/14 - arrived Des Moines
5/17 - left Des Moines
5/18 - arrived Denver
5/19 - left Denver
5/21 - arrived St. Paul
5/21 - left St. Paul
5/25 - arrived Des Moines
5/26 - arrived Denver
5/28 - arrived Steamboat Springs, Colorado
5/29 - arrived Denver
5/30 - delivered Ward, Colorado

That's three times through both St. Paul and Des Moines, and four times through Denver. Beat that!

 

My experience is similar to yours, all over the map.

At this point I'm just grateful when I see it actually arrived in Canada. Some stuff is taking weeks and weeks just to get here and then more weeks before CP manage to get it to me.

I have a record coming from the US that was sent on the 18th. Took two days to get from Burbank to LA. Then sat in LA for 6 days. It apparently left LA the next day for Canada.

A record that was sent on May 5th from the UK arrived two weeks later.

Two other packages coming from the Netherlands, sent on May 4th only just arrived in Canada on June 1st. Although those appear to be sent with Hermes that I have read many not so good reports about on the Discogs forums.

 

Things have been equally all over the place for me. Still waiting on a book I ordered from New Jersey on April 5th and an LP from Japan which left on May 8th. On the other hand, domestic shipments (I'm in Canada) have arrived ahead of schedule.

 

Has the mail system been overly slow since last fall up to now? I have a CD on order from the UK and it's been 26 days since it was mailed out. Is this the norm right now since it seems due to the Corona-virus and other events, I'm assuming the worldwide mail system is under a heavy burden and things are very slow as of the last few months. Have others here had to wait almost a month or even more for a package to arrive from the UK to the Midwest USA?

 

Bought from Australia at the end of March: never showed up
Bought from Australia at the end of April: showed up beginning of June
Bought from UK: showed up a week later
Bought from PA: showed up in 3 days
Shipped from NC to NY: shipped on Friday, was in the town on Sunday, delivered Monday
Bought from Canada: month and a half
Something else from Canada: two weeks
Something from the west coast (Oregon I think): week and a half

It's a gamble. I think the post office is using virus/riots/insert excuse of your choosing here to avoid doing work.

 

I bought a CD (fairly cheap) on ebay from Japan and it took about 6 weeks to get here. When I received the package it was partially ripped open and inside a bag from USPS saying sorry that it was damaged. When I opened it the CD was literally in about 30 pieces.
I'm currently waiting on a book from ebay that was shipped from Fairfax, VA (to MI) on 5/29. It moved to Greensboro, NC on 5/29 and the tracking hasn't been updated since.

 

Lovely update: This arrived today. And according to the seller, it was mailed out on April 15th. I was going on memory, "end of March" was a too-early guess. At any rate that's a long time for delivery... but hey, I got it now.

 

The only story I have is from about 10 years ago. I sold an LP to a guy in Peru. Mailed it from California and about a month later he emails me and says he still hasn't received it. I refund his money. Much to my surprise, a full six months later he emails me and says it just arrived in perfect condition and resubmits payment. His honesty was very much appreciated!

 

Actually, that's normal. 8-10 weeks on "surface" service is pretty standard for faraway countries like that.

 

I had a delivery from the U.K. take six weeks. The seller issued a full refund, and it showed up the next day. I returned the refund.

 

Meanwhile, a different delivery from Australia was shipped Friday morning and arrived today! Paid for on June 11, shipped June 12, arrived June 17. From Australia to USA!

 

Depends on the service and carrier chosen. Also depends on the size/weight of the package as some services are off the table after a certain point. Glad you experienced that fast a delivery.

 

From Oregon to Oregon, the delivery made a big u turn to Seattle, Wa. Aouuuwh. 8 days.

 

It’s getting to the point where one needs to check where something is coming from... and then make a purchase decision.

If it is anywhere near Jersey City USPS distribution center, well I think the 2020 Christmas shipping deadline has passed...

 

I just had one arrive at the Jersey City distro....

 

My most anticipated delivery in months has just landed here.

 

Well, I can only repeat what I wrote two weeks ago in another thread. I have three USPS 1st class parcels that got stuck in their US facilities in April and their tracking logs have not registered any movement for the past 2 months. One of the sellers dropped me three weeks ago the following note:

Fortunately the tracking log of the last Grateful Dead's Dave's Pick showed some sign of life a few days ago, after one month and a half of hibernation in a USPS distribution centre.

For the moment I have started to request the packages to be fully tracked from the US, if possible bypassing USPS entirely, until the budget USPS 1st class route becomes reliable again.

 

Hot damn, not only did it get out of NJ, it's actually left the main sorting facility in NC. It's on track to arrive tomorrow, a day ahead of schedule. (But, what are the odds that USPS won't find some way to screw it up and deliver two days late?)

 

Colorado to Greece: just took 8 weeks. No more overseas shipping.....the fighting these people about held up mail is not worth it. T he "where's my free $15 tracking number" is another waste of my time.

 

It's domestic and not international like so many in this thread, but a record I shipped Media Mail just before the PO closed on Monday was delivered this morning 600 miles and three states away. Went through three different USPS distribution centers like prunes through a duck.