Problem with delivery from German Ebay Seller?

[kosmo]

Not sure where else I should try to post this?

I'm in the US.  On, March 30, I placed an order through fleabay for a not-so-special (meaning, the dealer had multiple available) Victorinox knife from a dealer in Germany.  It is the green Cellidor Bantam.  The expected delivery shows anywhere between April 7th to April 23rd.  Other than an initial tracking number (an irregular looking number: #RL*********NL) there has been no update to tracking on Ebay.  The notation says UPS is the carrier, but I am not sure it is accurate.  When I try to look up the tracking number via UPS there are no results.

It is not a high value item, but I would like to take action before Fleabay or Paypal says I waited too long for reimbursement.

What has been your experience with long slow deliveries to the US from Germany?

How long would you wait to contact Seller?  Ebay? Paypal?

[bmot]

First, In my experience shipping to and from the Netherlands, international shipping times can vary from a couple of days up to a month or more, certainly when your package gets stuck in customs. Therefor, long shipping times (2 weeks is longish, but certainly not that much over average I think), aren't necessarily a sign of bad sellers.

That said, my experience is mostly with normal national postal services, so that could make a difference. Have you tried searching the number through the German UPS site? Or maybe try a googling of the tracking number and see what comes out of that?

[kosmo]

First, In my experience shipping to and from the Netherlands, international shipping times can vary from a couple of days up to a month or more, certainly when your package gets stuck in customs. Therefor, long shipping times (2 weeks is longish, but certainly not that much over average I think), aren't necessarily a sign of bad sellers.

That said, my experience is mostly with normal national postal services, so that could make a difference. Have you tried searching the number through the German UPS site? Or maybe try a googling of the tracking number and see what comes out of that?

Thanks for the advice!  I tried looking for ups.de but it just sends me to ups.com (no results).  I then tried just googling the tracking number and it gave me results!  It is not UPS, it is USPS and it is out for delivery TODAY!   

Thanks again!  Hope this suggestion helps others.

[captain spaulding]

First, In my experience shipping to and from the Netherlands, international shipping times can vary from a couple of days up to a month or more, certainly when your package gets stuck in customs. Therefor, long shipping times (2 weeks is longish, but certainly not that much over average I think), aren't necessarily a sign of bad sellers.

That said, my experience is mostly with normal national postal services, so that could make a difference. Have you tried searching the number through the German UPS site? Or maybe try a googling of the tracking number and see what comes out of that?

Thanks for the advice!  I tried looking for ups.de but it just sends me to ups.com (no results).  I then tried just googling the tracking number and it gave me results!  It is not UPS, it is USPS and it is out for delivery TODAY!   

Thanks again!  Hope this suggestion helps others.

Glad you got it figured out and it is out for delivery. USPS takes the package from UPS and takes it on its last leg of delivery quite often.

[bmot]

First, In my experience shipping to and from the Netherlands, international shipping times can vary from a couple of days up to a month or more, certainly when your package gets stuck in customs. Therefor, long shipping times (2 weeks is longish, but certainly not that much over average I think), aren't necessarily a sign of bad sellers.

That said, my experience is mostly with normal national postal services, so that could make a difference. Have you tried searching the number through the German UPS site? Or maybe try a googling of the tracking number and see what comes out of that?

Thanks for the advice!  I tried looking for ups.de but it just sends me to ups.com (no results).  I then tried just googling the tracking number and it gave me results!  It is not UPS, it is USPS and it is out for delivery TODAY!   

Thanks again!  Hope this suggestion helps others.

Very well    Always remember Google is your friend

[enki_ck]

A lot of us ordered from that seller, mine arrived within a week.

I use http://ips.posta.hr/ to track my shippments but any tracking service should do.

In the US https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction should be good. And yes, 2 weeks is average for EU to US and vice versa. Sometimes a bit longer but no reason to worry. 

[ColoSwiss]

I've had US Customs sit on an item for over a months on several occasions. Don't know if its some obscure security thing or what.

Worst thing I've encountered was the Ukrainian postal system. Had a package in transit for over three months. Finally managed to get a refund from the dealer, and then had the package show up two weeks later.

[ToolJoe]

I shipped an item to Spain from the states and it got there faster than some things I've shipped in the states. My return package never arrived and the Spanish Postal Service seemed like they didn't want to do anything to help..

[kosmo]

First, In my experience shipping to and from the Netherlands, international shipping times can vary from a couple of days up to a month or more, certainly when your package gets stuck in customs. Therefor, long shipping times (2 weeks is longish, but certainly not that much over average I think), aren't necessarily a sign of bad sellers.

That said, my experience is mostly with normal national postal services, so that could make a difference. Have you tried searching the number through the German UPS site? Or maybe try a googling of the tracking number and see what comes out of that?

Thanks for the advice!  I tried looking for ups.de but it just sends me to ups.com (no results).  I then tried just googling the tracking number and it gave me results!  It is not UPS, it is USPS and it is out for delivery TODAY!   

Thanks again!  Hope this suggestion helps others.

Glad you got it figured out and it is out for delivery. USPS takes the package from UPS and takes it on its last leg of delivery quite often.

Looking at the packaging, although Fleabay says UPS, the package was shipped through the postal systems.  And as someone else noted, although the Fleabay dealer is from DE the package shipped from NL.

[bmot]

First, In my experience shipping to and from the Netherlands, international shipping times can vary from a couple of days up to a month or more, certainly when your package gets stuck in customs. Therefor, long shipping times (2 weeks is longish, but certainly not that much over average I think), aren't necessarily a sign of bad sellers.

That said, my experience is mostly with normal national postal services, so that could make a difference. Have you tried searching the number through the German UPS site? Or maybe try a googling of the tracking number and see what comes out of that?

Thanks for the advice!  I tried looking for ups.de but it just sends me to ups.com (no results).  I then tried just googling the tracking number and it gave me results!  It is not UPS, it is USPS and it is out for delivery TODAY!   

Thanks again!  Hope this suggestion helps others.

Glad you got it figured out and it is out for delivery. USPS takes the package from UPS and takes it on its last leg of delivery quite often.

Looking at the packaging, although Fleabay says UPS, the package was shipped through the postal systems.  And as someone else noted, although the Fleabay dealer is from DE the package shipped from NL.

Could very well be someone living just across the border who figured out Dutch postal services are cheaper? I don't know if that's true, but it could very well be

[kosmo]

I think I came across another clue to decipher tracking codes.  USPS lists "RA 000 000 000 US" as an example of "registered mail".  The tracking number on the package I had shipped to me (#RL *** *** *** NL) was probably related to the example code. Which likely means registered mail of some kind and shipped from Netherlands, but not via UPS as Fleabay led me to believe.