International mail tracking from the US

m_c

Has anybody had anything delivered from across the big pond lately?
If so, how long has it taken to get delivered once in the UK?

I'm waiting for a delivery, and according to the USPS tracking, it left Heathrow on Monday morning, yet according to Royal Mail's tracking, it's still leaving America.

I know the last tracked item I ordered that was sent with USPS came via Parcel Force, and they kindly changed the tracking number to a UK tracking number after it cleared customs, so tracking stopped once it had cleared customs.
I also noticed a delivery from China this week that had a new UK tracking number applied over the original Chinese one, but it was just a small order I wasn't in a hurry for, so I've got no idea how accurate the tracking was.

JDE

From my personal and work experience, from non-EU overseas small air freight, expect a customs invoice 5-8 working days from arriving in the U.K during January and February.
Was it definitely shipped USPS or could it have been FedEx? Sometimes FedEx and TNT change tracking numbers or card for each other when they really shouldn’t, so that can cause a delay. Royal Mail will have no record of anything until it gets scanned here at your local depot (point of issue of the customs charge) as they’re number only relates to the service they provide, which is clearing customs and going from the depot to you.
If the seller shipped with USPS I would expect a carded duty invoice next week. If the invoice hasn’t arrived with you by Wednesday/Thursday I would contact seller with something along the lines of “I know from your tracking it’s in the UK but we can be awful with issuing duty invoices. Can you check with your carrier that the goods have arrived here and that a customs bill has been raised?” 
Normally the States isn’t too bad, but we have had a few packages from the US and noticeably Australia now which are held for 10 days before a customs notice is issued. No idea why, we never get an explanation which makes any sense. “The System” is complicated. 

m_c

It was definitely shipped with USPS, as the tracking number checks out fine in their tracking.

I'm not sure if this will get a customs charge or not, as similar orders have previously been under the threshold, and generally been delivered within 10 days. We're now heading towards two weeks, which was why I was wondering what other peoples recent experiences have been.
I'm sure it'll turn up eventually.

JDE

It will turn up eventually, most definitely. Unless a zero or very negligible valuation has been declared by the shipper I would say they’re going to look to charge duty now. Times are changing! One of my suppliers once declared a £2500 drilling jig he sent to me as “metal block. $1” and it got through, but I think they’re tightening up a bit before the inevitable Brexit shitstorm. That and the fact that there are now so many more packages in-out of the EU that don’t have the correct, if any, EORI numbers that Customs are really trying to get a handle on things. 

Electro_Ham

I waited 4 weeks although it wasn't USPS. It tracked from SoCal to NY and then no word until delivery.

Myranda

I've ordered a few things on Amazon that turned out to be coming from the states. What happens is USPS or UPS manage to get everything to Gatwick in a couple of days, then Yodel or DPD throw it away and you have to call Amazon to get them to refund you so you can try again.

m_c

And as is normal for any delay queries, it went into customs, and cleared customs this morning, so it's obviously just been stuck in a queue somewhere.

Fretwired

I have experience of USPS shipping. Basically if the cheapest method of posting is chosen (no guaranteed delivery time frame) your parcel could go round the world on a container ship. The longest I can remember was about 6 months (I didn't have any tracking) to receive something.  It was a CD and went round the world.

I sold a rare guitar to a guy in the USA. He paid for UPS Expedited (or whatever it is called). From my door to him plugging it in was a little over 24 hours.