I was pleasantly surprised to receive a Microcosm Hit and Miss engine in 7 days from ordering to delivery...came by DHL.
BEFORE I ordered from China...I ordered a couple of items from Karsten Gintchel in Germany...that order was March 15th and he posted them by DHL within 3 days. I followed the tracking number thru several stops within Germany...then it seemed to spend a week more in Germany going nowhere's. It was then "transferred to destination country" per tracking. All progress trackingwise seemed to stop at that point...then I get an email yesterday saying it is due to be delivered tomorrow April 12th.
1 week via DHL from China
3+ weeks via DHL from Germany
Hard to fathom why the huge discrepancy.
Rog
Never a fun time waiting is it?
I had an engine from South Africa go missing for 3 months last year and one day an update appeared on the tracking and it was here just a couple days later.
Tried that several years ago, when i put in Kevin´s first ever "export by mail" order... You even lucked out, with nearly one month faster shipping than i Nick.
On the other end is the "Black Hole Interdimensional Package Connection", found inbetween Indiana and Jutland, where parcels rarely spend more than 4 days in transit, something Rog and i have been pretty impressed with on more than one occasion. The record for that run is 3 days, which in most cases is faster than our domestic mail system here.
So you´re spot on Rog, as there´s no rhyme or reason to it at all.
A few years back, I sent an item from Ontario, Canada to a town in Michigan. It disappeared completely, and it took Canada Post over four months to acknowledge its loss and offer me reimbursement. However, on the very day I received the offer of reimbursement the item appeared undamaged at its destination. Weird!
Jan, it would appear you and Rog have a private wormhole for package transport!
Great stuff!
Gil
I guess the best thing that happened to me was the strike at Canada post last year, did a bit of research and discovered Chit Chats, a company that lets me buy US postage, I drop the parcels at their local depot and they transport them across the border to the closest US postal office. Service is cheaper and faster than Canada postal service and insurance is available for a very reasonable price.
I once had a special calendar mailed to me from my brother not 300 miles away, which didn't arrive until about six months later with several tire tracks running across the outer wrapper.
Another time I had a couple of smallish old collectors books sent to me, and when the package arrived a couple of weeks late .... it was empty. All that got delivered was the padded envelope with the whole bottom seam torn out.
Then there are all the rustbucket water filled boiler packages that I've received over the years, even though I specifically mention draining the boiler thoroughly ... to be believed!!!
There are other tales of mystery and woe that I could share here, but suffice it to say that the above examples are somewhat representative.
I was pleasantly surprised to receive a Microcosm Hit and Miss engine in 7 days from ordering to delivery...came by DHL.
BEFORE I ordered from China...I ordered a couple of items from Karsten Gintchel in Germany...that order was March 15th and he posted them by DHL within 3 days. I followed the tracking number thru several stops within Germany...then it seemed to spend a week more in Germany going nowhere's. It was then "transferred to destination country" per tracking. All progress trackingwise seemed to stop at that point...then I get an email yesterday saying it is due to be delivered tomorrow April 12th.
1 week via DHL from China
3+ weeks via DHL from Germany
Hard to fathom why the huge discrepancy.
Rog
My order from Karsten Gintschel was shipped via DHL on March 18th, tracking ended three days later with "transferred to destination country", then nothing so I finally sent him an email yesterday to see if he knew more but turned out he didn't but thought it would be soon. Sure enough got an email today from USPS that the package would be here Saturday - must have taken a three week customs enforced holiday!
JK....I'm experiencing DHL shipping problems and I
hope my story is like yours. Left Germany by DHL
in just 3 days, then the 'what the heck' zone.
It has been 27 days since it left Germany, so,
SEND IT TO ME ALREADY, for crying out loud.
Any commiseration is appreciated...
Wayne