Update – Good News!
Some people, whose packages have been shipped this January report delivery, transit time to US came back to normal: 9-13 days.
However, situation with Nov-Dec is still tense, some people report longer than usual delays in delivery – pure TRASIT time appears to be 30 and sometimes even 45 days, i.e. some January packages are being delivered earlier than the packages shipped on the first half and mid of December. Seems there is a huge jam at USPS, which just started dissolving.
This was an unusual situation comparing to the previous years, however, there is an explanation:
1) Delays are common on Christmas and New Year period. Many people send gifts and post offices in Europe (where we ship from) and United States are overloaded.
2) Due to mail bombers attacks in US and Europe (Italy, Greece, UK and some other states), which took place on October-December, postal communications have been heavily affected. All European countries and US increased security measures, which resulted in substantial delays. Even worse, it is impossible to ship parcels over 450 grams from many countries to US. And the last thing, some airmail is now being sent via sea/ground for security reasons, which resulted in transit time for more than a month (!!!). These are not empty words, we have traced several packages.
So, please be patient, we do our best to deliver your orders. Even if you go to other overseas companies – they experience exactly the same troubles, we know through our partners that even Asian shippers from China and India have been affected. If they tell you that “all is just like before” – they are deliberately lying and you’ll end up with the same delays and excuses with references to force-majeure circumstances.
3) Here is some official information from Royal Mail, UK:
Since November 2010, the United States Department of Homeland Security has increased security measures for items carried on passenger airlines. As a result, mail entering the US from around the world, and including the UK, that would normally be sent via passenger aircraft must now travel by other means, including ships and cargo planes.
Most items, including personal letters and cards, will arrive in the US within a few days of posting. The vast majority of Christmas cards and gifts posted prior to the last recommended posting date of 10th December will have arrived in the US in time for Christmas. However, these ongoing security issues, combined with the impact of recent severe weather on the movement of mail throughout the UK, are continuing to cause delays to some items bound for the US. The delays mainly affect heavier items, but also affect other items including Destination Sort bags posted under contract by business customers. We’re really sorry for these unavoidable delays and are doing everything we can to keep mail moving out of and into the UK.
We have implemented a number of contingency plans to ensure as much of our customers’ mail reaches the US as quickly as possible. Handling significantly increased volumes of mail at this festive time along with the complexity of reacting at pace to contingency arrangements, means we’re unable to track individual items for customers or identify exactly when in the current arrival patterns deliveries are likely to take place.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and are continuing to work to minimise disruption to our customers, whilst ensuring we comply fully with the US directives and regulations.