Current shipping status (Ebay, Giantoy, KGHobby, etc)

Thanks all for the advice on this! I'm going to contact the original seller today and hope for the best. I'm really hoping they'll just refund without making an issue out of it, since it's been over a year, and they just can't send it. It seems a pretty fair ask.

Stryker, I don't think AliExpress will let me use Paypal, but I've ordered through them before, so they already have my credit card, and I feel like they're reasonably reputable anyway.

GubernatorFan, I so appreciate the vote of confidence, but man, I want this to come out of the box photo ready. This is suposed to save me some work, not add another project. My bigger fear is it'll come and be like 1/12 or something terrible, although the listing does list dimensions, and they match the original, so I'm just being nervous. And who am I kidding, it'll probably get modified eventually either way. Nothing is safe in this houses...

Skywalkersaga, that is a good point about messaging to confirm. I'll have to make sure.

Jaztermareal, yeah, it was unfortunately Paypal right from my bank account, so probably no dice there. But if I have to get ebay involved, I at least have a long record of correspondence with the seller full admitting it hasn't shipped, so I hope that holds some weight.

And seriously, appreciate you all chiming in on this. Man, I just so badly want to get this in hand. Been so excited since this got posted, and dying to photograph.

^
Maybe a bit late to this, but in my experience on AliExpress it varies from seller to seller if they accept PayPal or not, and you often don't find out until you get to the Checkout. If things do go wrong, they're reliable enough in getting your refund to you in the end, but I can testify that the customer service interface and language barrier make it a very real, very frustrating slog to get one authorised. Be prepared to continually explain the problem in tedious and finite detail anything up to a dozen times during this initial process.

ELSEWISE:

Seems churlish of me to moan in these 'extraordinary times' but the UK postal system is running in fits and starts here (y'know, like the rest of society because... y'know). Good thing I work from home, as mail can and does arrive at any time of day (or not at all) now.

Long waits aside, my first real shipping disaster of the crisis has just occurred. I just got a package of 1/6th clothing from China 'finally delivered' to me... in Amsterdam. I, however, am in the UK.  It's not the usual ebay tracking scam because I've dealt with the seller before with no problems. It's a shipping foul-up, purely because they've used a different and less reliable carrier than usual. The seller however could of course care less until the shipping window closes at the end of next month and I can get my refund.

I was also wondering where my most recent Monkey Depot delivery had gotten to, until I remembered the current Covid-19 Reality Check situation that seems to be only just kicking in now in the States, and the likely knock-on effects to the Postal Service.

DISCLAIMER: I do realise that not every US citizen was in need of a Covid Reality Check. Just the one in charge of running stuff, mostly.



SPOOKY EPILOGUE:

I just now, right this five minutes ago, received a package of stuff from China that I'd long written-off, and even gotten a refund for.

Ordered it back in February.

Sooooooo my replacement Punisher War Machine from KGHobby arrived today. They came through in the end and it arrived quite fast via EMS shipping. Moral of the story: Do not trust UPS to deliver anything or to help out when things go wrong.

Relieved to finally have Punisher on display 1.5 months after original scheduled arrival day.

jaztermareal wrote:Sooooooo my replacement Punisher War Machine from KGHobby arrived today. They came through in the end and it arrived quite fast via EMS shipping. Moral of the story: Do not trust UPS to deliver anything or to help out when things go wrong.

Relieved to finally have Punisher on display 1.5 months after original scheduled arrival day.

UPS suck unmentionable body parts - they never deliver on time, their drivers are the surliest a-holes I've ever encountered (when that is they can be bothered to even knock on your door at all instead of just leaving a 'sorry we missed you' card), and their idea of 'a nearby pick-up point' is a post office associate fifteen miles away. I have never had a single pleasing encounter with them - so much so that I now take the trouble to find out if a seller uses them as a carrier before buying from them.

Glad to hear you finally got your Punisher.

GeeWillikers wrote:

jaztermareal wrote:Sooooooo my replacement Punisher War Machine from KGHobby arrived today. They came through in the end and it arrived quite fast via EMS shipping. Moral of the story: Do not trust UPS to deliver anything or to help out when things go wrong.

Relieved to finally have Punisher on display 1.5 months after original scheduled arrival day.

UPS suck unmentionable body parts - they never deliver on time, their drivers are the surliest a-holes I've ever encountered (when that is they can be bothered to even knock on your door at all instead of just leaving a 'sorry we missed you' card), and their idea of 'a nearby pick-up point' is a post office associate fifteen miles away. I have never had a single pleasing encounter with them - so much so that I now take the trouble to find out if a seller uses them as a carrier before buying from them.

Glad to hear you finally got your Punisher.

I have long ago learned to despise UPS.

I actually have more problems with USPS than I have UPS. I’m currently waiting on an item from Amazon that should have been here Friday, and I’ve watched it make it to my town (after getting stuck in the Twin Cities where a-holes have destroyed 1,000 buildings — including the Main Post Office), and then go BACK to the Twin Cities — where it’s currently (supposedly) still at. Now I’m wondering if the item is on its way back to the shipper in New Jersey.

GeeWillikers wrote:^
Seems churlish of me to moan in these 'extraordinary times' but the UK postal system is running in fits and starts here (y'know, like the rest of society because... y'know). Good thing I work from home, as mail can and does arrive at any time of day (or not at all) now.

Yeah, post has been very inconsistent lately but then again we haven't had all that great a service here for years now. at least stuff is moving for the most part.

GeeWillikers wrote:
Long waits aside, my first real shipping disaster of the crisis has just occurred. I just got a package of 1/6th clothing from China 'finally delivered' to me... in Amsterdam. I, however, am in the UK.  It's not the usual ebay tracking scam because I've dealt with the seller before with no problems. It's a shipping foul-up, purely because they've used a different and less reliable carrier than usual. The seller however could of course care less until the shipping window closes at the end of next month and I can get my refund.

Could two tracking numbers have gotten mixed up? or they copy/pasted the wrong one for you??

GeeWillikers wrote:
I was also wondering where my most recent Monkey Depot delivery had gotten to, until I remembered the current Covid-19 Reality Check situation that seems to be only just kicking in now in the States, and the likely knock-on effects to the Postal Service.

DISCLAIMER: I do realise that not every US citizen was in need of a Covid Reality Check. Just the one in charge of running stuff, mostly.

I feel like I am alone sometimes in taking Covid seriously. I was tracking it long before it left China due to in laws living there and read LOADS of info about the virus over the months and it does have me concerned. Don't get me wrong, it is a huge relief that the mortality rate is not as high as first feared but even if we were to assume that it is only as deadly as seasonal flu that is very bad because it is so virulent and can be caught the same time as flu making the combo more deadly than either alone plus it is the kind of virus that will mutate into many strains
The combined deaths yearly for flu and SARS CoV-2 will be more than double... Covid has already killed about the same number of folk in half a year of spreading that Flu does annually, and that is with it not being endemic at the start and lockdowns/social distancing measures etc reducing the speed of spread...

So yeah, reality check needed for many folk who aren't taking it seriously, or worse yet, claiming it does exist. Just hope effective treatments and vaccines are developed soon though as I do want everything to go back to normal and the global economy cant last with repeated shutdowns and travel restrictions. I am hopeful though.

GeeWillikers wrote:
SPOOKY EPILOGUE:

I just now, right this five minutes ago, received a package of stuff from China that I'd long written-off, and even gotten a refund for.

Ordered it back in February.

It is actually nice when that happens as rare as it is. I am still daydreaming that one day my lost UPS parcel will magically arrive though I know it almost certainly won't given how it disappeared (obviously stolen).

GeeWillikers wrote:
UPS suck unmentionable body parts - they never deliver on time, their drivers are the surliest a-holes I've ever encountered (when that is they can be bothered to even knock on your door at all instead of just leaving a 'sorry we missed you' card), and their idea of 'a nearby pick-up point' is a post office associate fifteen miles away. I have never had a single pleasing encounter with them - so much so that I now take the trouble to find out if a seller uses them as a carrier before buying from them.

Glad to hear you finally got your Punisher.

I am very wary of them now. previously my issues with them were to do with the 'sorry we missed cards' that they left WHILE I WAS IN WAITING which happened a few times but this was the first time they 'misplaced' my parcel and they basically refused to help because I wasn't the sender and I am willing to bet they don't treat the sender much better either

Stryker2011 wrote:I actually have more problems with USPS than I have UPS. I’m currently waiting on an item from Amazon that should have been here Friday, and I’ve watched it make it to my town (after getting stuck in the Twin Cities where a-holes have destroyed 1,000 buildings — including the Main Post Office), and then go BACK to the Twin Cities — where it’s currently (supposedly) still at. Now I’m wondering if the item is on its way back to the shipper in New Jersey.

watching vids online / news on tv I kept thinking that such things would happen with postal service there. whole situation in the US recently seems bonkers.

2020 has been a weird year

At least I received a full refund from Amazon (this morning) for the item that is now apparently lost by the USPS. What really pisses me off about the whole mailing issue is that it was sent through USPS, and made it all the way to my local PO, but was then sent back. I found that out when I called my local PO, which is 3 blocks away from my house, and was told it was too big to fit in any of their vehicles, so they sent it back — I’ve never heard anything so stupid in my life. How the hell did it get all the way from New Jersey, to Minnesota, to Wisconsin — all thru the USPS — but couldn’t make the last three blocks! I chewed that woman’s ass when she told me that, particularly since they could have put a slip in my mail box to ask me to come and get the item. This is what just makes me mental about government employees: lazy, stupid, and unable to think outside the box — but no way to fire these worthless idiots.

Stryker2011 wrote:At least I received a full refund from Amazon (this morning) for the item that is now apparently lost by the USPS. What really pisses me off about the whole mailing issue is that it was sent through USPS, and made it all the way to my local PO, but was then sent back. I found that out when I called my local PO, which is 3 blocks away from my house, and was told it was too big to fit in any of their vehicles, so they sent it back — I’ve never heard anything so stupid in my life. How the hell did it get all the way from New Jersey, to Minnesota, to Wisconsin — all thru the USPS — but couldn’t make the last three blocks! I chewed that woman’s ass when she told me that, particularly since they could have put a slip in my mail box to ask me to come and get the item. This is what just makes me mental about government employees: lazy, stupid, and unable to think outside the box — but no way to fire these worthless idiots.

I've often felt the same way about postal employees here in Canada,

Just received an order today from zmonkey Depot that I ordered back on Apr 23, so about 10 weeks ago. I know....First World problems right?

Ha! Well, at least it finally arrived.

Stryker2011 wrote:At least I received a full refund from Amazon (this morning) for the item that is now apparently lost by the USPS. What really pisses me off about the whole mailing issue is that it was sent through USPS, and made it all the way to my local PO, but was then sent back. I found that out when I called my local PO, which is 3 blocks away from my house, and was told it was too big to fit in any of their vehicles, so they sent it back — I’ve never heard anything so stupid in my life. How the hell did it get all the way from New Jersey, to Minnesota, to Wisconsin — all thru the USPS — but couldn’t make the last three blocks! I chewed that woman’s ass when she told me that, particularly since they could have put a slip in my mail box to ask me to come and get the item. This is what just makes me mental about government employees: lazy, stupid, and unable to think outside the box — but no way to fire these worthless idiots.

sheesh! sounds like an excuse made up on the fly..... that is such a ridiculous situation.

I remember a similar situation I had few years back. I had ordered an item via ebay and after many weeks with no arrival I contacted the seller to ask if there was any tracking info since nowt had arrived. When I got the reply with a tracking number I checked and it said delivery had been attempted a couple weeks prior and was now on it way back to seller. After a lot of back and fourth it turned out that the postal service never left a "sorry we missed you" card to inform me a delivery had been attempted (assuming they did indeed attempt a delivery) and so it sat in delivery office for a week then got returned to sender (despite the rule that the office was supposed to hold for 3 weeks before returning to sender) and I simply had no idea any of that had happened until I was sent a tracking number. Seller did re-post but it really pee'd me off at the time. First world problems but it is kinda true that it is the little things in life that bug the most at times

Waiting on an item from Giantoy that I ordered June 3rd. I ordered a Sinful Suzi body from ebay that seems like it's stuck in China. The shipping status hasn't updated since May 30th- starting to think I won't get that item. It's not the seller's fault, though.

I've heard from some places that DHL is probably best for international delivery right now? If I order something from China in the near future, I might ask the seller to ship the item through them instead.

Yeah, DHL is the best. They have their own planes so aren't hampered by flight restrictions, and they have stitched up deals with many customs stations so their stuff gets fast-tracked through.

my TNS order arrived safe and sound today, took 11 days from posting date to arrive (obviousdly was sat waiting for ages for HK post route to resume first but actual time to arrive from physical posting date was good)

even though I paid the $19.00 pre-order, I got a notice saying I have to pay $239.00 for ToysEra The Tank from Giantoy due to the size and dimensions of the box. The arrival date they said it would come to them around August 3rd. Which means I might get it August 10th-ish.

My latest GianToy order was slightly slower than usual but tracking indicates that was here at the UK end, where it sat at South-West DC for a few days longer than usual.

Otherwise, I'm finding a select group of eBay purchases from various sellers in China are now taking forever to reach me here in Blighty, and the common factor is one courier - namely SFC. Multiple purchases from one seller are now often sent by multiple different couriers and the difference is surprising, not to say highly annoying. Of the couriers who carried my items, a tip of the hat here to Orange Connex, who usually get stuff to me in a fortnight or less.

The very worst offender though is SFC. Slow, and I mean S---L-----O----------W. Not only that, they give blatantly false tracking info. And not only that again, but twice now, they sent my items to THE WRONG COUNTRY, where they have promptly disappeared forever.

Heh, I just noticed I've already moaned about this upthread. But now that it's happened a second time, I'm naming names!

On the plus side, that Monkey Depot package did finally show up.

Sorry for all your frustrations, GeeW. What does SFC stand for?

skywalkersaga wrote:Sorry for all your frustrations, GeeW. What does SFC stand for?

Ooh, I dunno. It only ever comes up as SFC.

GeeWillikers wrote:

skywalkersaga wrote:Sorry for all your frustrations, GeeW. What does SFC stand for?

Ooh, I dunno. It only ever comes up as SFC.

Oh, gotcha -- I just wasn't sure if I was missing something/supposed to know. I'll bear it in mind though when it comes to shipping options!

PRE-EDIT: Come to think of it, it's probably the ordinary China surface post or something. They have a bare-bones website somewhere that's hard to find and to navigate and is full of complaints.

I think the most you can do is ask a seller not to use them, but whether or not they take notice is another thing entirely. The 'courier lottery' seems to be a recent development - time was that a particular seller would use a particular carrier, but hopefully if enough ebay sellers have to give out enough refunds due to SFC's general incompetence, they'll stop using them.

That's SFC.

I would assume SFC is surface snail mail, so 2-3 months. I do not for a fact that it stands for surface but makes sense.

jaztermareal wrote:I would assume SFC is surface snail mail, so 2-3 months. I do not for a fact that it stands for surface but makes sense.

Yes I'm thinking so too, now I've taken the trouble to actually think it through rather than just complain about it.  

It's odd though, that in the current uncertain situation some sellers seem to be actively choosing to send some items from a single order by the slow route and others in the same order by faster carriers.

Warehousing at different locations, and stock availability I suppose. It proves that the pandemic situation and its knock-on effects are far from over.  Still, it's very irritating.

Theboo-bomb wrote:the one that concerns me the most is the one coming in from China that since July 6 has had no updates whatsoever other than it left a distribution center

Same here, even the same date.

What's annoying me most about all this is that right now there's no way to predict which carrier a seller will use until it's in the mail - and even then a seller could well be using different carriers for different items in the same order.

Of the 5 recent Ebay orders I made (4 from China, 1 UK):

Order on 31st July (2x empire toys statues): arrived today
Order on 1st August (boxed clothing set): arrived today
Order on 2nd August (a head): departed China today
Order on 4th August (a body): Departed China today
Order on 5th August (a mini bust, UK seller): awaiting dispatch

Seems the first two orders from China arrived within about 10 days from date of order. one was from Guangzhou the other from Shanghai.

Meanwhile, the next two orders were sat waiting a while before leaving china. both from ShenZhen which neighbors HK so perhaps there is a backlog there. They could also be lower priority due to being smaller parcels/packets.

All 4 were posted via Speedpak.

The 5th order is from a UK seller so no surprise it isnt dispatched yet. In my experience I usually receive items from Asia faster than from I do from local sellers due to slow dispatch.

So, so far things seem to be moving fairly normally for me at the moment.

jaztermareal wrote:Of the 5 recent Ebay orders I made (4 from China, 1 UK):

Order on 31st July (2x empire toys statues): arrived today
Order on 1st August (boxed clothing set): arrived today
Order on 2nd August (a head): departed China today
Order on 4th August (a body): Departed China today
Order on 5th August (a mini bust, UK seller): awaiting dispatch

the final 2 orders from China via ebay arrived yesterday (11-13 days to arrive).

Meanwhile, the UK based seller still has yet to mark the item dispatched (10 days and counting) and has not responded to polite request for update. Will see what happens.

another quick update:

two weeks after paying for the UK sellers item via ebay I still have no item and no reply to my messages asking for update.
I checked the sellers recent feedback and it seems another buyer who won one of the other Iron Man busts had same issue.

At first I thought maybe something bad had happened to the seller but I saw other recent feedback where items were received while there was a much older negative feedback for an Iron Man figure stating the seller hadnt posted and no communication, so I came to the conclusion that both busts had sold for less than he hoped and he had just sat on them until buyers cancelled, presumably so he can re-list later and sell for more.
My suspicion seemed to be confirmed when I left feedback and opened a case a short while ago today, within minutes he refunded to close the case, yet somehow could not reply to any of the polite requests for update over the past 2 weeks.

Seller ID:
tesseract_seller (Darren Brown)

Be cautious if bidding/buying as items may never arrive.