Anybody been sending to the USA?

[viewmont1071]

It appears 15 to 20 working days minimum and express only with no signature and minimal tracking.

Is that the practical experience or worst case scenario?

sounds like a great way to get a non delivery shafting to me

https://auspost.com.au/about-us/news-media/important-updates/coronavirus/coronavirus-international-u...

International delivery information 29 May 2020

Australia Post is experiencing international delivery delays in all destinations due to limited airline capacity and government restrictions as a result of COVID-19. Australia Post is working with partner airlines and other postal operators to move items as quickly as possible and clear backlog.

Please note: We've suspended our “Economy Air” international delivery service for parcels and Economy letters containing merchandise to all countries, territories and regions effective 3 April and until further notice.

[digital*ghost]

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@eol-products wrote:

I have been in contact with DHL and have been told US delivery times are well under a week. I gather they may under state delivery times in a hope for me to sign up for a contract so either the service they are offering me is different than what you use with them and hence cheaper or I may be no better off then express with Aust. post. 

I think US rates start at $32 plus fuel levies for 500grams but as they have their own plane for those deliveries times should be still fast.

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I use their e-commerce service, which is much cheaper, but takes longer. (It also has limitations on size, weight and compensation available, but I don't have to keep packages under 2cm thick like you do with Aus Post letters).

There are currently surcharges in place so it's not as cheap as it used to be - I don't have exact rates for costs right now, but pre-covid I could send a tracked package to the US from about $8, and untracked from about $3 (50g weight - they charge by the gram).

Average delivery time before was around 3 weeks, but I'm not sure what it's going to be like now as I only started sending again last week - others have been saying 6-7 week average, with some taking up to 9 weeks, but none will go by sea mail. 

I have access to expedited services, one of which is not that much more than tracked but only available to the US, and they deliver directly rather than hand the mail off to local postal services when it arrives in the destination country - from about $12 maybe? Pre-covid it was supposed to take 5 days, but I tested it out with my last shipment before I stopped sending internationally and it took 4 weeks. That could have been my fault though - I forgot to include the HS code on the package and it's required, since DHL handles all the clearances for this service I'm guessing it's processed as a commercial shipment so leaving it off might have delayed things. 

I receive through DHL a lot - it used to be 2 business days (which is an optimum time I presume due to my location - I have a friend in Tas and their stuff always took a few days longer), now it's about 5-9, mostly due to delays in Hong Kong and / or Singapore, so it may not be as bad from Au to US. 

[lm-entertainment]

i also received a lot of items via DHL Worldwide Express - all coming from the US. usually it takes 3-4 days to me in perth, but recently as digi has said it's taken around 5-8 days with hold-ups in singapore.

since i'm in perth i have noticed more recently (past two weeks or so) they've been coming straight from europe to perth and having no asian stopovers, so that has sped things up. they are however travelling through more UK-based locations.. ie parcels will go US -> GERMANY -> UK -> AMSTERDAM -> PERTH or US -> GERMANY -> AMSTERDAM -> UK -> PERTH. 

[love_of_cars]

I'm starting to get multiple INR requests now from items sent off early to mid-April but am hoping the forced tracking will save my ass.  I was going to stop selling overseas but I've done some research in my sending history which shows that shipping times have come down to about 3 weeks using Standard International (at least to the US).  But now with the rioting going on, I guess that could potentially be a new cause of delays.

There's also a huge gap of no updates while the item seems to be in transit between two countries, which is nothing new.  Suddenly after a week or two of silence it has arrived in the other country.  Not even AP customer support can tell me where exactly it is.

One thing that jerks me off is that MyPost is showing so many tracked overseas parcels as simply "Initiated" and with "This tracking ID cannot be tracked due to a technical error" on every single one.  Does that happen to others?  I have to manually lookup each ID in a different browser type which isn't logged into MyPost to see the actual status that it has been delivered.  Such a **bleep**py system.

[davewil1964]

I'm not silly enough to post overseas in the best of times, so, no, I'm not experiencing your issues.

I certainly wouldn't have been still selling overseas in April.

[tathraman]

I had a US buyer who wouldn't wait despite my lengthy explanations. She was refunded, said she'd repay if it turned up. I don't believe her. but what can you do when eBay favours the buyer? 

[love_of_cars]

I had a refund request from the USA and eBay ruled in my favour. I am so surprised.

[homeopathmichele57]

I stopped selling overseas quite a few years ago because of the postage costs which I'm paying fees to ebay on. Sick of it.

I posted a parcel to my daughter in Finland on March 27th & it's sill not there.

[jellybirddesigns]

I stopped all international shipping at the beginning of May once I started getting a couple of INR's. 

Overseas sales account for 30-40% of my volume, so it was a big hit to take, but not worth the risk.

For now I'll just focus on my domestic sales as they have been increasing these last few weeks.

[barney_rubbles]

just wondering what the airmail postage times to the USA are like in the last few weeks & if anyone experienced items not getting there? Even if it arrives on their shores, with all the riots & people destroying property i wonder if that might include postal facilities? at the least maybe destroying residents letter boxes, so that is a concern too.

I usually post magazines via airmail letter as its alot cheaper than parcel rate. But i don't even know if Aust Post are letting us use that method, the last update i can see specifically for USA mail on their website is the 12th June!

https://auspost.com.au/about-us/news-media/important-updates/coronavirus/coronavirus-international-u... 

the last time i sent a large airmail letter to USA was back in May & it took about 4 weeks.

[padi*0409]

Not sure if this helps but I've recently bought 2 items from the US, one from Denver coming via GSP sent 25th from Denver and left the US on the 31st. The other one sent by USPS from Postland Oregon on 25th and left the US on 31st from San Francisco.