Has there been any major post delays in the US/Iowa over January?

[Tulip]

Just asking as a buyer on Etsy dinged a star from me because a package took 'at least 4 weeks' to get to her. I posted it 3 days after the order was placed and heard nothing back from her until she left the feedback. I sent her a message asking how long it took because I hate being held accountable for shipping times that I have no control over! I always give parcels from the UK to the US at least 2 weeks.

So i wanted to ask, has anyone had delayed shipping from the US over january? (I posted the item on the 9th Jan)

Thank you for any help you can offer!

[Dainty]

There has been a lot of snow january-feb, so it's possible stuff was delayed!

[NoDivision]

Yes, we have had some very snowy weather so that's a possibility. But shipping on international mail is always kind of random - anything from a week to 2 months in my experience, so I think it's a bit unfair that you received bad feedback over that

[Tulip]

Thank you to both of you, I'm just trying to find a civil way of telling the customer that it's not my fault it arrived so late, and that it is unfair to hold me responsible for it.

[NoDivision]

Do you have something with the proof of when you shipped? I would maybe say something simple like "I am sorry you had a longer wait for your item than you were expecting. This item was sent within the 1-3 business days that is stated in the listing. Unfortunately once an item leaves my hands I cannot control how long it takes for the package to be delivered to its final destination."

[himmie]

I had a couple things take quite a while from overseas. A couple months from Germany, actually. December - February has been pretty slow in many cases.

[Galactica]

There have been shipping delays for some international packages due to the extreme weather on the East Coast recently-  but its true that international mail is unpredictable.

Could you let her know when you mailed it and ask her whether she will revise the feedback? 

[Vertefae]

The mail has been moving very, very slowly out of New York which is a major customs house for the United States.

[babylofty]

The midwest in general and the east coast of the U.S. have been blasted with storm after storm. I don't think Iowa has particularly (except for this week's storm), but yeah, the major hubs on the east coast (where we'd be getting mail from the UK and Europe) has just had some seriously bad weather to contend with. During and after the major storm that we got in the Washington, DC area, we didn't have mail for TWO DAYS.  I'm still missing a valentine card from my sweetie, and he's IN the U.S.

Considering that, a month is GREAT. It takes about that for me to get stuff from overseas. There is absolutely no reason she should have dinged you.

[Filthy]

I'm currently waiting for 2 packages from US which are "late" from the usual 'arriving schedule'. Just by couple of days, but probably will take a bit longer still. One of them has been stuck in US for 5 days according to tracking, the other hasn't been updated since 14th. Normally it takes 6 days for regular First Class from US to my doorstep.

[Tulip]

Thank you for your help, ladies. I will construct a reply today from the information and wording help you've given me x

[ponylady]

I know it's etsy but eBay just sent out this email:

Dear ebelievespecialties1,

We're writing you, a valued eBay seller affected by the winter storms that hit the Northeast and Midwest in early January, to let you know about the steps we've taken to protect your transactions completed between December 30, 2013, and January 10, 2014. Consistent with our feedback removal policy, these protections include:
•Any low detailed seller ratings for shipping time that we determined were solely the result of these storms were removed from your seller performance rating.
•Any negative or neutral feedback for slow shipping that we determined was solely the result of these storms has been removed.
•Any eBay Buyer Protection cases opened for Item Not Received that we determined were solely the result of these storms were not counted towards your seller performance rating.
•Affected eBay Top Rated Sellers shipping from these regions have been protected from any changes in status based on a temporary inability to upload tracking information.


Amid challenging circumstances like these, we hope it gives you some peace of mind to know that we're doing all we can to help you stay protected. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have questions on specific transactions or there's any additional support we can provide. As always, thanks for selling on eBay.

Sincerely,
 eBay Customer Support

I would imagine if eBay is making folks aware of the situation that Etsy would also. Or one would think. It's not really fair to leave bad feedback for something that was totally out of your control.