Slow shipping US

[zrxman60]

 I bought an item from China recently and they shipped it right away.  Problem is the small item has been in Carol Stream Illinois for the last 5 days, was in customs in US for  around 3 days.  I'd like to eventually get the item since I'm only one state over and could have hitchhiked over there and brought it back quicker than the USPS are doing..

[no_zero369]

This is one of the key problems with saving a few bucks buying stuff from China - the delivery is inconsistent and unpredictable.

PLUS your and postage fees are being used to subsidize dirt cheap shipping rates for Chinese sellers.

So if delivery times are of concern, buck up and pay a USA seller's price and get fast inside USA shipping at a fair cost..

[zrxman60]

What I was getting at is that the Chinese ship to the US faster than the Post Office can send my item less than 200 miles. I'm from Indiana and the item is in Chicago. Ordering an item from the US (which I do often) doesn't help since the USPS is the problem..

[no_zero369]

I'm not sure it is the USPS that is the problem.  Is it possible that it is waiting to go through Customs in The Windy City?  usually things move fairly quickly when the USPS gets them.

@nobody*s_perfect   any insight here?

[zrxman60]

It wasn't exactly in Chicago, it was in Carol Stream, Illinois, near Chicago for 6 days. I don't know if that's where customs is or just a distribution center or post office. I received the item yesterday after talking to our local postmaster (sure that didn't have much to do with it, local PO couldn't match tracking number). I've ordered items from ebay from the US and many times take longer to get to me than ordering from China. My other solution would have been to buy locally at a much higher price and wait for them to order it...

[myboardid]

Once the item reaches the US and passes through customs it is treated like any other package - where it comes from doesn't matter.  Sometimes they move along rapidly.  Sometimes they get knocked off the conveyor belt and lay on the floor until someone notices and picks them up. 

I have had good luck with going to the USPS site and entering the tracking number, then asking for email notifications whenever a package is scanned.   If it doesn't pop up in a couple of days, it seems like someone goes looking for it. 

Overall, I have only had one package never arrive in the last 15 years, but yes sometimes they are slow.  On the other hand, I have thousands of packages arrive very quickly, some in one day.