The MLP Arena
TCB => Trader & Shipping Support => Topic started by: plushroo on December 19, 2020, 04:41:25 PM
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I have had several buyers interested in my items who are not in US but with the Covid restrictions, I am hesitant of opening my sales to worldwide. Does anyone else in US still ship worldwide during this mess and if so what precautions you take to ensure you don't get chargebacks because the item is delayed or impatient buyers? I can't really risk losing money now since I'm unemployed and finishing school.
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At this point in time, even shipping domestically feels like a risk. XD
I shipped something back in September to Canada and it seemed to arrive alright, even fairly quickly. I would hold off until the clog of holiday packages has subsided.
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I'm not in the US and I can't ship anything at the moment anyway so this may be a useless answer, but from a UK perspective, Royal Mail are reporting slowish deliveries right now (normal at Christmas, but worse this year). That said, I have received items from overseas in the last few months without problem, including from the US.
If you're talking about ebay it might be worth using the Global Shipping option. I would never say this in normal times but it seems to be a more stable path at the moment. Certainly courier services here are doing much better in meeting deadlines for deliveries, even from overseas, than the domestic mail carrier.
That's only a UK perspective, and I don't know where your potential buyers are from, but something to consider.
Still, doing any shipping over the holiday period is fraught with risk. I don't know about over there, but here there are a whole bundle of no-post days around Christmas (Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Bank Holiday in Lieu of Boxing Day (because it's a weekend), New Year's Day) and that always clogs up the mail even without COVID. SO I would probably wait till January either way.
Oh yeah, also if it's the UK, who knows how messed up our incoming is going to be come Jan 1st because of Brexit and the fact our government are muppets. That of course won't apply to other places.
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Lately, I’ve shipping all over the world; Canada, Australia, Finland... I haven’t had any impatient buyers, as I’m sure we are all aware of the delays the holidays and covid has caused. I haven’t had any issues as of yet. I guess I haven’t taken any precautions or gave it much thought. I provide a tracking number as proof the item is shipped. Unfortunately once it leaves my hands...it’s out of my hands :(
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If you can wait, I’d wait for the holiday rush to end before shipping anywhere. Every year the mail goes nuts around Christmas, but this year is much worse than usual. Some sorting centers have more than a month’s worth of backlogged packages with more arriving every day.
https://www.inquirer.com/business/usps-package-tracking-delays-philadelphia-christmas-2020-20201218.html
Hopefully things will clear out by mid to late January. Until then, if you’re worried about package delays causing unhappy buyers and returns, I’d hold off on selling until the rush is over.
It’s like playing Russian roulette right now. Some packages make it fine. Some get delayed by a few days. Some get hung up for weeks. You never know what’s going to happen to your package once it leaves your hands. I’d wait for the mess to clear out if at all possible.
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It's slow but moving.
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This is from a buyer's perspective but....I recently took the bull by the horns and ordered something from America (first time in ages) because I really wanted it. I resigned myself to not seeing it until next year sometime. The seller used the Global Shipping Program and the parcel arrived more quickly than some things I'd ordered on the same day from the UK :O so that restored my faith in international shipping.
The Royal Mail is definitely slow at the moment (my international parcel came with Hermes). I'm sure that's the case with other postal services in other countries. Any buyer would have to be living under a rock not to know about Covid and Christmas, so hopefully they won't be impatient/unreasonable?
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Beginning of November I shipped a package to the USA and it took 4 weeks to arrive. My good friend trading partner shipped at the same time to me (The Netherlands) and it only took 2 weeks.
As others said, ask to buyers to wait until after the holidays to ship. Even locally the webshops are mentioning long delays now that we are in lockdown so abroad it's no difference.
I can imagine because of Brexit UK buyers would want to have it shipped earlier so the shipping price would stay low. They have to keep in mind it could take longer.
I would also offer track & trace only so you can follow your package.
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It's slow but moving.
This. Delivery times appear to be really erratic, too - some parcels make it super quickly, others take at least twice as long as they normally would. I think it's because there are fewer flights and some mail is delivered via sea routes instead. I've sent several letters & parcels to the US recently and they've all made it in about 2-3 weeks. :) Of course it may be best to wait until the Holiday backlog has been cleared, if possible.
Our national post has a list of countries to which delivery is available, it might be worth checking if the USPS website offers some information about Covid & international mail?
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At this point in time, even shipping domestically feels like a risk. XD
This. Domestic mail is wretchedly slow atm. All of my packages have had a 2+ week delay. A friend of mine has waited 4 weeks for a package, it took 3 weeks for it to move 30 miles. :(
Anything that gets shipped internationally right now is going to be hit with the extra USPS delays..
Also -- do not ever assume that a buyer is understanding of delays! Sure, a majority will get it. But there will always be some nasty people who really don't care.
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From the UK perspective, since everyone is shutting off transit in and out of the UK at the moment on a very late kneejerk to the new strain, and the fact that we're expecting clogged up customs after the Brexit transition (not to mention tariffs), I would be very wary sending to the UK until probably some time next month.
I hate saying it but right now is not a good time to be shipping into the UK.
I still have a package from France which is in transit somewhere, whether it will get here before new rules or whether it is caught up in the current issues is anyone's guess. It's not expensive so I don't expect it to incur a charge either way, but I'm resigned to not seeing it for months now :/
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From the UK perspective, since everyone is shutting off transit in and out of the UK at the moment on a very late kneejerk to the new strain, and the fact that we're expecting clogged up customs after the Brexit transition (not to mention tariffs), I would be very wary sending to the UK until probably some time next month.
I hate saying it but right now is not a good time to be shipping into the UK.
I still have a package from France which is in transit somewhere, whether it will get here before new rules or whether it is caught up in the current issues is anyone's guess. It's not expensive so I don't expect it to incur a charge either way, but I'm resigned to not seeing it for months now :/
In light of the very recent developments I would have to agree not to ship to the UK at this moment. The combination of delays and closing borders could make a huge mess.
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Just to add to this, Royal Mail have suspended all deliveries to Europe because of most European countries shutting down transit from the UK at the moment. It may have a similar impact on incoming into the UK although I think flights to and from the US are still running in some capacity.
...The whole thing is ridiculous because if it's been in the UK since September, it's in the whole EU already.
But this is what we're dealing with.