Shipping via USPS: Will I ever get it?

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IzZzy

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So after a few episodes of Suits, I was feeling inspired and ordered some cufflinks from the States (and TM Lewin shirts from London).

They "sommer" dispatched the cufflinks via USPS (even after requesting a courier).

Will USPS make use of SAPO? If so, am I doomed to never receive the cufflinks?
 
if the item was sent registered mail, then it should arrive. do you have any sort of tracking number? if you do not, then it is a lost cause, and I would be getting in touch with the seller or your credit card company right about now if I were you.
 
No tracking number at all. I also had a grim view that I would never receive anything at the end of the day.

Seller seems ... a bit slow.... because after asking what courier they will use and to let me have the tracking number, she said "fine will do" but nevertheless proceeded to ship via USPS, which doesn't carry a tracking number.
 
IzZzy said:
No tracking number at all. I also had a grim view that I would never receive anything at the end of the day.

Seller seems ... a bit slow.... because after asking what courier they will use and to let me have the tracking number, she said "fine will do" but nevertheless proceeded to ship via USPS, which doesn't carry a tracking number.
Click to expand...

Of course USPS ships with tracking numbers. It's just SAPO changes them and they don't know where the HOE their parcels are so why bother? Seller probably never shipped with a mode that offers a tracking number. Why pay for a service you don't get?
 
Ja, I think you will get it. Should be about 3-6 weeks. If it says cufflinks on the package, I don't think the thieves will know what they are. :confused:

I get stuff shipped from the US but ask my contact to ship USPS Express Mail. Its trackable. Takes about 10 days. But not cheap. Flat Rate envelope with documents cost $38. I think it is worth it as being trackable - well I don't know what happens when it gets into the SA system - makes it a little less attractive to steal.
 
My priority mail parcel has been sitting at the sort facility for 9 days...

Edit: Actually it was "processed through sort facility". They mean it's been sent out?
 
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I once waited 8 weeks for something sent via USPS and that was with tracking.
 
Last thing i brought in as part of a birthday gift was this....

http://www.indiemerchstore.com/item/12130/

... hoodie. It was going for $50 on Amazon, so i scored a bit. Anyways, it came in a plastic package with the colours nicely exposed in the 2/3 rds clear plastic part of the package. The part of the package that wasn't clear plastic was the shipping advice. Left 15 March arrived 3 April. Winter was on it's way... Everything flys from the States. USPS did away with surface shipping years ago. Sometime before the Rinderpest, i think.

Just a slight correction and i apologise for the previous inaccuracy:

It's not SAPO who change the tracking number, they're at the mercy of Customs. Cusoms in turn are at the mercy of the "steak holders" who provide the system. The "steak holders" are the large shipping companies who in turn own the courier companies and of course they have no tracking problems. Whatever the case, changing the number is still absolute fraud. Don't know what doing this without advising anyone officially about the proceedure on either website is, but i find it utterly disgusting! AND IT'S JUST BEEN LEFT TO CARRY ON THIS WAY FOR YEARS! There is no reason why the databases can't be bound and the correct information parsed to ANY system, so that the chain is left unbroken. There is tons of open source and Kermit is not only a frog. Some dirty shyster will put another R127 million pathetic system on the books and in the SAPO Director's back pockets to fix it up and anyone could do it in a couple of hours flat with a PC costing less than R10000 and a R339 pm line rental/ADSL connection. Man landed on the moon with 10000 times less processing power than what a gamer wants today.

Haven't seen anyone wearing cufflinks for ages. They were big in the 60's and the 70's, so i think you can keep your hopes up. If it doesn't arrive i've got about 6 pairs somewhere and you would have been welcome to take your pick, but now i'm talking drivel. i think i bought the first pair when Markhams opened a branch in the town i grew up in and i inherited a couple of pairs. Never wear them. Sorry, more drivel....
 
Both USPS international post options have some degree of tracking. The basic one will only show you whether it has left the US, but that can at least give you some idea. The other is basically a slower courier service. I always get a tracking number regardless of which option I use. The seller should be able to give it to you.

In regard to things getting lost I'd worry just as much about USPS messing things up.

I've yet to encounter issues with the locally assigned tracking number. Either customs or the post office can give you the local number if you give them the international tracking number. Customs are usually the quicker option.
 
My US shipper ships about 20 USPS Priority Mail International packages all over the world every month. They generally take about a maximum of 2 weeks to reach the recipients. They are mostly in Europe, but also Australia, Argentina, Japan. I have one package that has get "stuck" in Germany at the moment with no further movement on the tracking site since the end of August. My experience is that packages seldom get lost, they eventually turn up.

My point is that in most parts of the world the mail system works. And yet, here in SA we seem to have problems. This makes doing business here difficult. How can the economy grow and SA business expand worldwide if we don't have a well functioning mail system?

And our postage rates are expensive. It is cheaper to ship a package from California to Greece than from SA to Greece. And it is probably half the distance.
 
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SAPO is on a go slow strike. Been waiting a week for Speed Post from Pretoria and it has now just reached JHB. I normally get it within 50 hrs.
By the way, I recently had to pay R860.00 customs duty for a clothing present from my kids in the UK. The contents were worth R500.
 
Boxy said:
Last thing i brought in as part of a birthday gift was this....

http://www.indiemerchstore.com/item/12130/

... hoodie. It was going for $50 on Amazon, so i scored a bit. Anyways, it came in a plastic package with the colours nicely exposed in the 2/3 rds clear plastic part of the package. The part of the package that wasn't clear plastic was the shipping advice. Left 15 March arrived 3 April. Winter was on it's way... Everything flys from the States. USPS did away with surface shipping years ago. Sometime before the Rinderpest, i think.

Just a slight correction and i apologise for the previous inaccuracy:

It's not SAPO who change the tracking number, they're at the mercy of Customs. Cusoms in turn are at the mercy of the "steak holders" who provide the system. The "steak holders" are the large shipping companies who in turn own the courier companies and of course they have no tracking problems. Whatever the case, changing the number is still absolute fraud. Don't know what doing this without advising anyone officially about the proceedure on either website is, but i find it utterly disgusting! AND IT'S JUST BEEN LEFT TO CARRY ON THIS WAY FOR YEARS! There is no reason why the databases can't be bound and the correct information parsed to ANY system, so that the chain is left unbroken. There is tons of open source and Kermit is not only a frog. Some dirty shyster will put another R127 million pathetic system on the books and in the SAPO Director's back pockets to fix it up and anyone could do it in a couple of hours flat with a PC costing less than R10000 and a R339 pm line rental/ADSL connection. Man landed on the moon with 10000 times less processing power than what a gamer wants today.

Haven't seen anyone wearing cufflinks for ages. They were big in the 60's and the 70's, so i think you can keep your hopes up. If it doesn't arrive i've got about 6 pairs somewhere and you would have been welcome to take your pick, but now i'm talking drivel. i think i bought the first pair when Markhams opened a branch in the town i grew up in and i inherited a couple of pairs. Never wear them. Sorry, more drivel....
Click to expand...

The SAPO system still tracks the incoming foreign tracking number.
http://ems.sapo.co.za/EmsWebSite/IPSTracking.aspx
You can use any tracking number there, such as LC....US, or EJ.....JP etc. Priority, registered and EMS mail works. However, SAPO don't always scan all foreign tracking numbers. Last month they completely ignored a large box sent via registered airmail. They also skip the USPS Priority Airmail tracking numbers often enough. But if the item is EMS or registered, it should appear on that SAPO website and the foreign website should also have information from South Africa.
 
noxibox said:
Both USPS international post options have some degree of tracking. The basic one will only show you whether it has left the US, but that can at least give you some idea. The other is basically a slower courier service. I always get a tracking number regardless of which option I use. The seller should be able to give it to you.

In regard to things getting lost I'd worry just as much about USPS messing things up.

I've yet to encounter issues with the locally assigned tracking number. Either customs or the post office can give you the local number if you give them the international tracking number. Customs are usually the quicker option.
Click to expand...

You mean EMS. Express Mail Service is a type of international courier service forced on the local post offices by the global body which governs mail exchange among postal services. It's a cheap, (optionally) insured and fast system. It is traceable in the outgoing country and inbound country, and sadly not traceable while between these countries. It takes 5 business days or less. Right now there are delays however and it looks like it will take 7-8 business days because of truck strikes and / or post office strikes.

For some reason EMS is not available from Korea to South Africa.
 
Boxy said:
Everything flys from the States. USPS did away with surface shipping years ago. Sometime before the Rinderpest, i think.
Click to expand...

Everything does fly but packages from the States sometimes take 2 months. Japan Post still uses surface mail however 2-3 months, a combo of surface and air which is called SAL - which goes at about 4-6weeks, airmail and EMS. Packages from Malaysia by air also take long about 1-2 months.

The other thing is drop shipping. Some drop shippers use Swiss Mail and Deutsche Post (not DHL). I even once had a US drop shipper use a South African re-mailer, the item arrived in SA and was reposted and sent using a local shipping label. Not sure who was paying the customs charges, but it wasn't me.
 
http://www.cargoinfo.co.za/customs/search.asp

IzZzy, "Cuff Links and Studs" are Customs Tarrif Heading 7117.11 in the above link, so now you can do your sums for what you are going to be charged in the meantime, if you haven't done so already. You need to use your browsers search facility for the word, or phrase. The "word/phrase" input box on site's page doesn't work in my browser, but it might do so in yours. Click on the number 7117.11 for a pop-up showing the customs tariff. It looks like a nice number and i'm not into numerology, or suspicion, but at the time cuff links were popular there was a cheap aftershave called 4711. i was given some by someone on my 21st. It was never opened and it followed me around for 20 years. By that time i had forgotten who gave it to me and although it was never opened half of it had evaporated, before i could "let it go". Soon after i threw it out, people i knew at age 21 started dying... Now that's really drivel, but it's true.

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/496401

Based upon marco's testimony and because i recalled that abzo had previously given him an explanation which i happened to see and remember from another thread, "prying open my third eye"......

"Tax on clothing is 40%. Not sure how it got to R850 either. There's a service fee of about R35 too."

..."Question authority...." prompted me to check things out...

abzo would have been absolutely correct if the goods came from the US. i'm not sure that marco mentioned that they came from the UK in that thread, but because he does now and the UK is a member of the EU, (even though they do not use the €) the Customs Tarrif for most clothing articles originating from the EU is 20%.

http://www.state.gov/p/eur/rt/eu/c12191.htm

marco, If things are not adding up, i'd definitely ask for a re-assesment if i were you. People are only human and they do make mistakes, onto which they also add VAT, just to make it a complete stuff up. Still, it doesn't make it fair that one should be taxed on gifts from their loved ones, especially when kids have no choice, but to leave the Country to find a decent job, because of some stinging bee, but it's more like a wasp, because it will never die and it just keeps stinging, while people who leave school this year without any text books, were born in the "New South Afica" and in a "Rainbow Nation" and while elite travellers and jet setters get R5000 tax free every 30 days amongst other "incentives".

Thank heavens they only hit me with 20% on the hoodie and thanks again to marco for bringing it up again, because now i'm fully aware. It looks like i should be the one complaining, but why am i smiling? Can Customs come after me now and say they made a mistake, or will they just nail me double next time, what with the IVS Section 113 and all? i know, i know, i shouldn't be putting ideas in peoples heads and you never know who lurks here. Now where is my setraline?!?!

i wonder if one starts with a clean slate every year on this IVS and if their year would be January to December, or would it be March to February? Ceasar's legions are getting out of hand. They're starting to rape and plunder now and not merely collect tax. Do we need a law that will only allow them to keep info for a certain period as there is for the recording of one's Credit Card chargebacks, (which go against your Credit record - even though scams and thieves abound on the Internet in the "Global Economy") and what should it be? Thing is, who would even be there to represent "the man in the street", let alone file a proposal. "Underoath - Who will guard the guardians?" The law only protects the elite and "the man in the street" is just a "skaapie" and the only green he is supposed to see is the grass, my puppies, but he's not allowed to walk on it and there aren't any signs to be found anywhere saying, "Don't walk on the grass!".

www.investec.co.za/.../Import Verification System.pdf

...now why did that suddenly disappear? Not to worry....

http://ebookbrowse.com/import-verification-system-pdf-d309443112

http://constitutionallyspeaking.co.za/who-will-guard-the-guardians/

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
 
Just an update: 4 weeks have passed, still no sign of the cufflinks :(
 
IzZzy said:
Just an update: 4 weeks have passed, still no sign of the cufflinks :(
Click to expand...

Did it ever arrive? I'm waiting for a parcel from the US but the the USPS tracking sites still indicates it's in the US so I don't know how accurate their tracking is. I also phoned SAPO with the tracking number but it's not their system.

Should I log a dispute with ebay/paypal? It was shipped exactly a month ago
 
marco said:
SAPO is on a go slow strike. Been waiting a week for Speed Post from Pretoria and it has now just reached JHB. I normally get it within 50 hrs.
By the way, I recently had to pay R860.00 customs duty for a clothing present from my kids in the UK. The contents were worth R500.
Click to expand...

Slight correction for you. Impossible to pay 100%+ Custom's Duty.

Custom's Duty on clothing is calculated at 40%, plus you must then calculate VAT at 14%. All cost above that will be considered import clearance charges. Depending on freight terms, this could include part of the freight/handling/delivery.

Import Clearance = Framing the import entry for the cargo + all other documents to be processed to bring the commodity into our borders.
 
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