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hello dakka,

I need a bit of advice. back on feb 17th, I placed an order for some terrain bits with a small company based in south africa (I'm in the US). on the 21st, I got an email informing me that my order had shipped. all good so far.

march 9th rolled around and I still hadn't received anything, so I got in touch with the vendor via email. they replied the same day, which was awesome. I was informed that shipping can sometimes take 12-14 days and that I should wait a bit longer (less awesome, but not unreasonable).

march 17th came and went and I asked for a tracking number. I was told that since I hadn't purchased tracking service when I placed my order, no tracking number was available. a bummer, but technically on me. after a few more emails back and forth, the vendor agreed to post a replacement order at no cost. that order went out april 1st (the irony does not escape me) and this time it included a tracking number. they even emailed me a photo of the tracking slip, although the tracking number itself is unreadable in the photo; the number was pasted separately into the email.

it's now april 13th and, as far as I can tell from the tracking number provided, the package was accepted by the south african post office on 4/1 and hasn't moved since. it's simply listed as "In transit" and has had the same status for the past 12 days. it's interesting to note that tracking info only appears if I use the domestic tracking lookup on the south african postal service website; the international tracking lookup has no record of the tracking number. usps.com lists the tracking number as "Origin Post is Preparing Shipment", with no date or location information. I don't have much experience with international shipping, so I have no idea what to make of that.

I'm at a loss as to where to go from here. on the one hand, the value of my order is pretty small (under $20 US). I could just let it ride for another week or two and hope that my package magically appears. I could reach out to the vendor again, but while they have so far been very responsive, their responses to date haven't been very effective. I'm beginning to question their credibility. a more final option would be to just cancel my order and buy elsewhere. I can either try that through the vendor or, failing cooperation, just dispute it with paypal. that's pretty brutal to do to a small vendor, though, and a part of my really wants to support them despite how things are turning out.

what would you do, dakka?

(and before anyone asks, I'm not going to name any names here.)

I would suggest contacting the vendor one more time. The vendor should offer you a refund if the product isn't received within a reasonable period of time. Of course, you can offer to pay it if it is received afterwards (and you still want it).

If you can't resolve it with the vendor, and paid for it by credit card or PayPal, the onus is upon the vendor to provide proof of delivery; otherwise, get yourself a refund (through the payment provider) and let the credit card company hash it out with the vendor.

Some times you have to accept the lose

20$ isnt much and ultimately isnt worth anyones time.

trying to get it back through paypal or the bank is probably way more hassle.

IF anything give the South African post a call and ask them what the status is and try to ask them for the delivery address

if it ends up somewhere back in africa then you have been dooped.

Otherwise it can be stuck in customs.

which is such a giant kettle of fish. and can be heavily effected by weather and what not.

personally i would, like the song " let it go, let it go"

If the tracking info says it's "in transit" then there's not much for it but to wait it out. That or contact the post office maybe? I mean, the tracking number indicates a package that exists, so it's out there somewhere. International shipping can take time. Two weeks isn't a long time by international standards; six weeks wouldn't be unheard of for regular post.

Even Forgeworld says that while they expect delivery within 14 days that you shouldn't start to worry until 28 days have passed.

I counsel patience.

It is good to be cautious when ordering from overseas.

I haven't had any problems getting packages from UK, however there has been fairly decent postal systems in the US and UK for 200+ years.

Other countries not so much.

South American countries have always been dodgy, Eastern Europe is ridiculous, and if you are trying to ship to or receive anything to an African country, well you could be waiting for a very very long time as their postal services are not known for efficiency or reliability.

By the way, a credit card dispute is one 10 minute phone call and a simple form; a PayPal dispute is all online and even easier.

I do agree than $20 doesn't seem like much (and I probably would forget before I bothered) but obviously, it meant enough to varl, either monetarily or just because it bugs him that he didn't get his stuff.

In my opinion though, there is no reason to obscure the vendor's name. Just say who they are, pointing out that pehaps it was honestly lost in international mail. If it has happened to others, perhaps a pattern will emerge -- or maybe a few other people will say they got their stuff problem free, and then you can sleep better figuring it's just snail mail

There is a time limit on opening a dispute with paypal. It might be best to open one just in case. Inform the vendor what you are doing and just wait a little longer.

thanks, gang. helpful to get a bit of perspective. I'll wait it out for a couple more weeks and hope for the best.

i had stuff shipped from china once - it took ages for the shanghai sorting office to register it as processed.

It could be because of a backlog of parcels, but most likely it's the number of changeover points between them and you and customs is an unavoidable bottleneck too.

also, if it has to go on a ship that'll be 7 days minimum just to cross the atlantic

don't worry, it sounds like theyre trying to be as open as possible and as others have said, credit cards cover online transactions differently (better) than a debit account.

you may find that both arrive!

 SirDonlad wrote:
i had stuff shipped from china once - it took ages for the shanghai sorting office to register it as processed.

It could be because of a backlog of parcels, but most likely it's the number of changeover points between them and you and customs is an unavoidable bottleneck too.

also, if it has to go on a ship that'll be 7 days minimum just to cross the atlantic

don't worry, it sounds like theyre trying to be as open as possible and as others have said, credit cards cover online transactions differently (better) than a debit account.

you may find that both arrive!

I ordered some drill bits from China once, through Amazon -- it was something like $7, no shipping. Literally, nearly a year later, they showed up I had totally forgotten about them LOL. When they arrived, I went, "SWEET!".

South Africa has awful rates for postal theft

I ordered from puppetswar.eu a while back. About a £50 order. They said it would take upto 10 days to deliver. I got a bit worried that it took over a month but it arrived this weekend (friday) and I've been impressed with the models.
That was shipping from Poland to England - nowhere near the distance from SA to USA. But it was my first time ordering from an international models company so I have no idea if that was normal.

I work in an online store and have to deal with the horrors of international tracking frequently. Sometimes things get lost (I swear there's a warehouse somewhere in the world filled with our stuff), and sometimes things just take a while.

What's the tracking number? Feel free to pm if you're not comfortable with it being public.

There isnt a tracking number

A non tracked postal item from SA? Good luck seeing that again.

Is it shipping by air or by boat?

 Psienesis wrote:
Is it shipping by air or by boat?

not a clue. the photo of the tracking slip simply says "international registered letter". after a bit of research, the south african post seems to have a pretty horrific record in terms of efficiency. so, I'll just wait it out and chalk it up as a learning experience

nosferatu1001 wrote:
There isnt a tracking number

A non tracked postal item from SA? Good luck seeing that again.

I'm talking about the one shipped on the 1st of April, which the OP states was shipped with a tracking number.