If your parcel hasn't arrived don't blame the Chinese

[shoppingbag*]

For those of you who are waiting on International parcels, thought I would just pass my latest experience on.

Purchased an item from China on May 27,  arrived in Australia June 14, delivered October 7.

This is only one of the items I have purchased from China, seems they can take anywhere from 3 to 5 months (or longer) to arrive, sitting most of the time somewhere on a wharf in Australia.   Australia Post is touted to be responsible for all incoming mail, but don't waste your time calling them, as they claim no knowledge or responsibility.

I received another parcel after being 3 months in Australia, but still no sign of the one that landed here on May 20.

I have not claimed "item not received" on any of these, as they are low cost items and I consider it unfair to the Seller seeing as they have been tracked as arrived in Australia. I can't leave feedback either, but have let the Seller know that the item has been received and thanked them.

I stopped making international purchases some time ago, and also try to make national purchases as close to home as possible.  Australia Post's delivery service is pathetic. With mail only being delivered every second day, and many parcels coming with the postman, every second week we get two deliveries, sometimes only one, because the postman took a day off.

Many years ago it only took one day to get a letter from Brisbane to Melbourne, the Postal Service just gets progressively worse while prices continue to rise.  I guess future generations will be getting a mail delivery once a month, if at all.

[*sons_and_daughters*]

Obviously you haven't seen the pictures in the news where the sorting centres are floor to ceiling with parcels? I'm sure you have heard about this pandemic and what it's done to the postal services. The amount of online shopping has gone through the roof. Way more than any Christmas in recent history. They have been struggling for quite some time to get through it all, even after employing more people. Yet people keep buying, buying, buying, making the problem worse.

You think the health system is overwhelmed with this pandemic, try working for Australia Post. 

[springyzone]

I think it is a combination of an explosion in online shopping plus the fact quite a few workers in Australia Post have at various times had to isolate so have been out of the workforce for 2 weeks. 

If you have more work than normal plus you have fewer people than normal doing the job, something has to give.

At the moment in Melbourne, we can't buy anything in the shops, except food and maybe a few incidentals that supermarkets carry. We can't even travel that far for click and collect (it was pretty dire when we had the 5km limit but we are still only at 15km.)

So we literally have no choice at all except online for some things.

Mind you, your wait times seem extremely long. All my recent orders have come well within the month. All I can think of is maybe some overseas orders are put at lower priority or maybe the sorting place those particular items land at first thing is not as efficient. It's probably good you have stopped ordering from China for a while as I think things will not get better for a few months.

[papermoon.lady]

I avoid buying from overseas too at the moment. I wanted to buy several items from a seller in the UK (I had planned to buy from them in September months ago), but then I decided to wait until January, as they are not rare items, and the situation might be better in January if the pandemic is better (and Christmas is over). Sometimes items from overseas arrive quick, but it is all too uncertain at the moment. 

[papermoon.lady]

Yes, springy, I think you are right. It is also a matter of priority.

All the parcels from iHerb for example have always arrived in about a week from California, including during the pandemic (at all stages), even if they do advise of delays "in particular in Sydney". They use AusPost too (among other options). I usually select AusPost because it is free over $40. I bought from them in September. The parcel was picked up in California on a Thursday (probably already Friday in Australia, as it was the tracking in the US) and I got it on Tuesday, just a couple of business days later... Most items sent from Australia take much longer at the moment.

[offroad7400]

It's a matter of Australia Post prioritising mail at several levels.  Under the reciprocal payments agreement of the UPU (Universal Postal Union) mail providers receive payment for mail delivery from the country of origin.  In the case of China origin, Australia Post receives as little as 17c for delivering some articles, so they get put at the end of the delivery queue.

There are 'mountains' of skids full of these low value parcels sitting in warehouses and back lots of mail centres and will take months to clear.

Australia Post will certainly give local origin delivery priority when they receive $9.30 for a 500g delivery.

[sugar249]

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@shoppingbag* wrote:

For those of you who are waiting on International parcels, t

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I am waiting on parcels from USA and Europe,  but no idea why I would blame the chinese for the delays anyhow.

[south.coffee]

You can understand why some country mail services have ceased delivery to Australia, recently USPS for some services with global delays, no ships, no planes.  I noticed some Chinese sellers no longer sending to regional Australia addresses.  No doubt to reduce potential INR claims.

Postage:

Doesn't post to VIC Regional

Located in: Shanghai, China

[sugar249]

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@south.coffee wrote:

You can understand why some country mail services have ceased delivery to Australia, recently USPS for some services with global delays, no ships, no planes.  I noticed some Chinese sellers no longer sending to regional Australia addresses.  No doubt to reduce potential INR claims.

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I think you missed my tongue in cheek comment

[springyzone]

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@offroad7400 wrote:

It's a matter of Australia Post prioritising mail at several levels.  Under the reciprocal payments agreement of the UPU (Universal Postal Union) mail providers receive payment for mail delivery from the country of origin.  In the case of China origin, Australia Post receives as little as 17c for delivering some articles, so they get put at the end of the delivery queue.

There are 'mountains' of skids full of these low value parcels sitting in warehouses and back lots of mail centres and will take months to clear.

Australia Post will certainly give local origin delivery priority when they receive $9.30 for a 500g delivery.

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Ah, that makes a lot of sense. I did wonder if there was a scale of priority because May to Oct is a long, long wait, even allowing for covid.

I have actually found local (within Aust) delivery times not too bad at any time over the last couple of years. Maybe a bit late lately but not a real problem.