Sea/surface mail from UK

[sprinklespowerpuff]

Hello, I have been waiting for a parcel from the UK since end of January. Instead of airmail the seller advised that she had been given the wrong postage quote at her local Royal Mail which made the item way too expensive for her to ship by that method so she sent the package surface/sea mail. She was quoted 6 weeks to arrive here. I am still waiting. My AP courier lass told me more like 3 months. Anyone had any experience with sea mail packages? I'm not very hopeful now that it will ever arrive.

[howie696]

Open a dispute at 45 days and repay the seller if and when it arrives, they were silly to use sea mail

[putney32]

...since the end of January...... sorry your 45 days to open a dispute are well and truely past.

but that is what you Should have done.

however, I have known UK parcels to take 3 or 4 months, yours is at the outer end of that scale now, so possibly it is not going to arrive and you have absolutely no where to turn for help after such a long time.

😞

[lane-ends]

When I used to send or recieve surface mail from UK it was 9-16 weeks. So never do it anymore.

[sprinklespowerpuff]

Yes Putney. I was well aware sea mail would negate a Paypal claim but she acted in good faith and obviously thought she was doing the right thing.  She was given a quote of around $23.00AUD postage which I paid then upon her return to the post office to ship was quoted a far higher amount. Obviously, in hindsight it would have been better if she had refunded my money and re-listed the item. The irony being she said she had to "pay the difference" to even send sea-mail so I assumed she had to spend some of her own money as it was. She sent me a message saying she didn't think she would post to Australia again after this although she had posted to the US. I felt bad but it wasn't my fault any more than it was hers for the discrepancy.

[sprinklespowerpuff]

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@lane-ends wrote:

When I used to send or recieve surface mail from UK it was 9-16 weeks. So never do it anymore.

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Thanks, Lane-ends. Wow, 16 weeks.  That Royal Mail employee who originally quoted the seller should have been hauled over the coals. Any idea what goes on with packages on the cargo ships or whatever? I was wondering if the parcel could be in a "dead letter office" somewhere - my address made illegible by water damage, ha ha.

[chezzy]

Too late for Paypal etc now. I'd be suggesting you lodge an enquiry through the Post Office, I think it is best for the seller to do this although the addressee might be able to do so too. Here is some information I found on UK's Royal Mail website about the process and compensation etc (note Surface Mail is now called International Economy)

http://www.royalmail.com/personal/help-and-support/royal-mails-claims-process-for-loss-damage-and-de...

http://www.royalmail.com/personal/help-and-support/available-compensation-for-lost-or-damaged-intern...

http://www.royalmail.com/personal/help-and-support/claims-process-for-international-items

[cq_tech]

Have you emailed your seller yet to let them know your item still hasn't arrived, just in case it was returned to the sender for some inexplicable reason?

[lyndal1838]

Even if the OP had not missed the cutoff time for a dispute, he would not have won it as paypal does not cover items sent surface mail whether the seller can prove postage or not.

[lizzyamelia]

It can take 4-5 months via sea mail from UK - have had many heavy items sent to me this way from sellers I regularly buy from.

Your seller should have contacted you first before sending via sea mail as you had agreed on airmail and were expecting them to do this.

I would still be contacting the seller advising non receipt of your items.

If you paid via paypal using a credit/debit card but have missed the cut-off time for a claim you may still be able to claim back though your credit/debit card provider for non receipt of goods.

Also find out if there is any paperwork you can fill out here for AP to do a search for it - may be floating around at a PO somewhere awaiting delivery/collection.