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Is anyone else getting more and more problems with the mail? Recently, almost half of the things bought off eBay, from both UK and US, haven’t arrived. I hope it’s just a delay, but I fear it isn’t. They’ve all been sent out over a month ago.
I don’t understand this. This never happened before, with one or two exceptions over the last years. Normally, more than 99% of my packages arrive fine.Does anyone know where missing packages go? Do you think they’re still in the country of origin, or might there be a problem with the Belgian post system?
For some packages, I can live with it, but others make me really sad. And this experience makes me hesitant to buy anything else online.
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I have been out of town, and so I’ve been experiencing the same sort of apprehension regarding my items showing up. I can’t walk to the mailbox everyday to check! That, and I have a new, very strange address.
Have you contacted the sellers? I would start there and ask for shipping codes and whatnot.
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Yes, I’ve contacted the sellers. One is really nice and will send me another copy. (Lucky me!) The other one agrees that it should have arrived by now, but what more can I expect? It’s not their fault an item gets lost in the mail.
Also, I normally don’t ask for registered mail, because it’s usually such a hassle (I’m never at home when the mailman comes). So I doubt they have shipping codes.
I might check with my local post office. But I don’t think they’ll be able to help me.
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Anyway, I was wondering, is this a general problem for other people in Europe, or was I just very unlucky?
I’ve noticed some time ago that more and more sellers on eBay started adding the warning that they would only ship insured to Italy, due to too many missing packages, and more recently, I’ve seen that list being expanded, also including France for example. This might be because more and more packages are getting lost (maybe stolen?). I don’t know.
What are your experiences?
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I’ve ordered numerous items over the last couple of months online and have not experienced any troubles with the mail here in The Netherlands, everything has arrived and quite timely too.
It may be a local problem or something with your national mail?
Whatever the explanation for the loss or delay of your packages, I can feel your frustration and hope the items do turn up. Good luck.
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I haven’t had any problems at all, except 1 time where i never recived the cd.
If i win/buy something expensive i always ask the seller to ship it as registered mail, so im sure i receive the stuff.
You should do the same Bram, even though youre not home when the mailman arrives, but you can always go and pick it up on the post office the day after. -
For expensive items, yes, I should start asking for registered mail. I never did that until now, because it didn’t seem necessary. Nothing ever got lost, no matter where it was shipped from. Registered mail was just an extra cost that caused extra hassle.
For cheaper items it seems a bit crazy, because then the shipping makes the item too expensive (even if it was almost free without shipping).
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It only occurred to me once. I bought The Frogs My Daughter The Broad cd for $5. It says the seller shipped it in late january. Haven’t recieved it yet. I’ve mailed him twice the last week but he hasn’t answered. What to do? Should one leave a negative feedback? That’s a bit harsh ain’t it.
Otherwise….. it hasn’t happened me yet.
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Due to the hightened security lately and such, it could just be they’re sitting in Customs. Sometimes, if you have several packages due at any one time, they see the pattern and take a batch looksie.
I’d often been advised to steer clear of Spanish transactions entirely, unless the item’s mailed in something that looks Business-related. The same for France, as I’d lost items from both Countries. That said, French items from eBay (for example) are usually sent ‘signed for’ now; judging by friend’s experiences.
Over the years, I’ve ‘lost’ items from the USA also, yet never (yet) Australia, Canada or Japan.
Sure, sometimes there’s a rogue on the loose stealing what they can, but people I know in the Postal trades say they’re exceptionally strict in this way now.
I hope they arrive for you soon Cake, it’s a crappy feeling to trust the mail system 100% – like we have any real choice.
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that sucks Bram. i think i have only been screwed over once with shipping stuff. i think it was a transaction with a crappy American seller though.
but yeah, if its expensive i like things to be registered. better to be safe then sorry, because being out a few bucks is better than being out a bunch if something doesn’t arrive. and i also like delivery/ signature confirmation and online tracking.
also i don’t order from Italy, Spain, and certain other places and i also pay attention to feedback regarding shipping, which i’m sure others do too. i didn’t know France was touchy though. i have only ordered a couple items off of their ebay. and i have never had problems with Asia, the UK, Australia, and Canada. and i have ordered a couple items from Ukraine before and had no problems, although i’m sure Eastern Europe is probably touchy shipping wise. they just had excellent feedback.
and i agree that people get suspicious at the post office sometimes over frequent deliveries. and with all of this extra security crap now, probably even more so. sometimes in the past when i was ordering a lot of CDs they would give me looks when i went to retrieve my stuff even though my packages were CD shaped.
i wish you the best and hope your stuff arrives.
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This reminds me, that 1880s almanac, that had the same picture as the BWBW cover, never arrived either. I believe that was last summer. I doubt I’ll ever find another copy of that again.
Amongst the recent victims is an unnumbered Strange Fruit 10\". This one was quite expensive. I actually ended up winning it for my maximum bid. It was one of those \"ok, this is a bit too much, but this is what you do if you want to fill the holes in your collection\" bids. Which is all fine if all goes well. But now that it’s gone missing, it makes it extra annoying. Nomsayin?
I’m going to stay away from eBay etc. for a while.
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ooh, sucks about that picture.
and yeah, maybe you should use people around here when you can. because if you buy something in the US it has a good chance of making it to a US address and you could arrange shipping to Belgium just how you want it i’m sure after that, tracking and whatever wise. and you would have no problem getting it then hopefully.
that really sucks about your mail situation. i would be super frustrated.
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Seeing this mail situation’s really pissing me off, the few times I spend Bux I expect (and deserve) to receive items.
Assuming you haven’t already, Cake, make an official complaint to who runs your postal service/s…
Not really likely to cheer you up much currently, but: I spoke to a friend who works for England’s Royal Mail to speak about your post:
She says Customs are able to hold onto things for up to six months sometimes!
Thinking back, The Future Embrace CD I once won on eBay; arrived five months later.
In a worst-case-scenario, if stuff was being outright stolen, then it’d unlikely be just yours. I’d expect several people will have complained.
Hoping something sorts soon for you.
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Assuming you haven’t already, Cake, make an official complaint to who runs your postal service/s…[/quote:3rjvilij]
what good is that going to do? they probably never received those items.
and since it wasn’t sent registered, they’ll throw their hands in the air and claim there’s nothing they can do. -
Assuming you haven’t already, Cake, make an official complaint to who runs your postal service/s…[/quote:2vhabtsc]
what good is that going to do? they probably never received those items.
and since it wasn’t sent registered, they’ll throw their hands in the air and claim there’s nothing they can do.[/quote:2vhabtsc]To tie in with other people that might have things ‘missing,’ etc. If they have other people who are complaining, then they’ll have to look into what’s going on. Yeah, they’d say there’s nothing they can do all right, but it might smoke out somebody who’s working for them, you just never know.
I’d say do it to let off some frustration, I have before and they log everything in case people take legal action, stuff like that… Something from original mailing to you has happened and screw that; let them know about it, imho.
As an aside: It always intrigues me that whatever mail option you take, items mostly go through the same people and places. Seems many people think packages have special treatment if they’re Registered… Not necessarily, no.
Ah, enough from me, it’s bringing my bad side out.
I know I’d have to whine big-time about this, anyway. 
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Good point. I was already thinking that there could be something wrong on my side, especially since nobody else noticed an increase in missing stuff.
Maybe there’s a new mailman who is messing stuff up? I had a bit of a mailman mess-up a couple of weeks ago, but luckily I didn’t loose anything there. The people at the post office had to go through all the packages in order to find mine though. The mailman left me a note for a vinyl that didn’t fit into my mailbox, but somehow didn’t put a code/barcode on it, which made the package virtually disappear.
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Other examples in my experience: A signed-for package was posted through my door last year sometime. How was it signed for, when I was in the US at the time? Obviously I was really happy it arrived, but supposing it was left outside… That way the Post Office would think it’s delivered, yet anybody could have walked off with it. Turns out that the Mail fella signed it for me! Nice, yet not really legal, etc.
A German friend of mine here was recently sent computer parts from Germany (who’d a thought it!). Inside were also -three- small tins of Sauerkraut, two arrived… Customs had opened that, so maybe they were hungry?
My biggest whinge was when another friend mailed me IAGWrong and some Oreos for Xmas 2008. Never arrived. The only change I noticed was Temp Xmas workers were delivering around that time… Most Postal workers are good people I’m sure – it’s a big responsibility though and not everybody’s loyal ‘n trustworthy.
One item here and there, okay… More than one? Hmmm.
I hope your stuff’s just sitting in Customs, they’re not bothered whether you’re waiting or not.
Stfu Dazey, geez.
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Weird… My experience is kinda different… I think 70-80% of my Smashing Pumpkins collection was send to me, only a small part I found at record stores and – fairs. I had, if I remember well, 2 issues only over the years. 1 eBayer with almost zero feedback disappeared and never send his stuffs (cheap compilation thingy anyway) and his feedback went to negative the weeks after, since more buyers had the same issue with that seller. Bad luck, but out of hundreds of items that were send to me… can happen…
The other issue I had was a promo CD being send to me from the UK, and it arrived broken in many pieces. Seller took full responsibility, but didn’t have a second copy however (which is understandable) and instead, he send a more expensive, rather rare Nirvana CD single (Sliver, UK release).
And I remember that Canadian photo of Billy, 1 of the pride and joy pieces of my collection… It took several months to arrive, and I started to worry big times! The seller said not to worry, as it was shipped the cheapest way, which means it was slowly floating over the oceans towards Europe…
Even from the weirdest countries on the globe, including countries in Africa, South America, Asia… it has always arrived sooner or later. From commercial sellers mostly to be honest, but from many individuals trying to earn a few bucks also! So, overall, my experiences are quite OK so far.
If you are buying from within the US, you could always use me as an address. I have a stash for Arthur currently and one CD for Ayoe should be arriving to my house soon as well. Just throwing it out there as I’m not experiencing the same mail problems you are.[/quote:35jtqhm8]
And this is THE trick for non-US collectors to buy eBay stuffs that are shipped US only. Derek only keeps the most rare items, and he will always ship the rest, right Derek? -
that reminds me of that copy of live in chicago 23.10.95 that arrived broken. the seller, from france, sent it to me in a regular paper envelope. a rare cd in a cardboard sleeve, sent in a fookin’ envelope!
it’s such a shame to see a nice promo like that go to waste. on top of that, the seller claimed that he was not responsible for this. can you believe that? he sent it in a paper envelope. jebus!
that’s probably the only time i left negative feedback on ebay.
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