Does anyone know about issues regarding shipping to Australia?

[mozartbach1971]

I have a buyer from Australia who says around 3 orders still have not arrived.  I went to the USPS website and I think it said something like Australia is currently not letting mail in or out. Does anyone know if this is true?

[pburn]

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@mozartbach1971 wrote:

I have a buyer from Australia who says around 3 orders still have not arrived.  I went to the USPS website and I think it said something like Australia is currently not letting mail in or out. Does anyone know if this is true?

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You can always check here for the latest delays:

USPS International Service Alerts 

The latest from that page on Australia:

Australia

4-22-20

Australia Post advises that it has declared a situation of force majeure for all inbound and outbound letters, parcels and express mail service items until further notice. Precautionary measures imposed by the government to curb spread of COVID-19 are affecting daily operations and services offered by airlines and other transportation providers. This is having a direct impact on service quality for both international inbound and outbound mail. Customers should expect delivery delays.

[chapeau-noir]

They would need to check with their own country postal service to determine the status of inbound mail - the USPS can only report what Australia post tells them.  Right now it's to expect delays as Australia post has declared force majeure (situation out of their control) impacting inbound/outbound mail until further notice.

[fashunu4eeuh]

Hi, yes, it's true. I have a package held up for 6 weeks so far.

[slippinjimmy]

It's very slow to Australia via USPS these days.

USPS has been using sea freight to Europe recently but I've seen nothing going from the west coast that way. No doubt piling up waiting to get on one of the few planes flying to Australian (that is the bottleneck).

@mozartbach1971 

Good to see you are still around, used to see your posts on the PS board back in the day. I see you are still doing reasonably well and sticking to your "classic eBay style".

Congrats on your eBay 20th!

[mozartbach1971]

It's very slow to Australia via USPS these days.

USPS has been using sea freight to Europe recently but I've seen nothing going from the west coast that way. No doubt piling up waiting to get on one of the few planes flying to Australian (that is the bottleneck).

@mozartbach1971 

Good to see you are still around, used to see your posts on the PS board back in the day. I see you are still doing reasonably well and sticking to your "classic eBay style".

Congrats on your eBay 20th!

Thanks, I hope my buyer understands everything that is going on.

[duncanvr]

Very few flights to here in Aus our airports in lock-down but we are getting mail its just very slow esp parcels. Some mail regular being sent via other countries to get here. If your sending parcels they can take up to 3 months + to reach here. The only option is to international courier parcels to AUS if you want your buyer to get their mail faster. Courier or Express would likely fly out of La Calif to get here as that seems to be how I am getting my courier parcels from UK to here. First stop from London England to  Cincinnati Ohio, next stop LA then finally Sydney. There seems to be only direct flight path being used from USA to here for express / courier mail. Expect if you sent regular parcel to Aus they have to wait unknown time several months. It would get here in the end (weeks / months) but suggest you write to any international buyers and warn of unknown lengthy mail delays.  The downside of international selling right now if your buyer becomes frustrated waiting you may have to refund them even if they get the item in the long run. Don't send anything regular tracking either. 95% of my buyers in USA and UK I am sending airmail letters and seeing 3-8 weeks delivered. My buyers a regulars and happy to wait.

[darkeyedman]

Australia customs may be the problem. I got scammed out of a $300 watch because customs evidently informed the buyer they had the item, but it was not scanned delivered until he picked it up. He filed a item not received claim, ebay refunded, then the item showed delivered the very next day after the refund.  I did wonder if I could have inquired with customs on the status, but this was after the fact.

[mozartbach1971]

Very few flights to here in Aus our airports in lock-down but we are getting mail its just very slow esp parcels. Some mail regular being sent via other countries to get here. If your sending parcels they can take up to 3 months + to reach here. The only option is to international courier parcels to AUS if you want your buyer to get their mail faster. Courier or Express would likely fly out of La Calif to get here as that seems to be how I am getting my courier parcels from UK to here. First stop from London England to Cincinnati Ohio, next stop LA then finally Sydney. There seems to be only direct flight path being used from USA to here for express / courier mail. Expect if you sent regular parcel to Aus they have to wait unknown time several months. It would get here in the end (weeks / months) but suggest you write to any international buyers and warn of unknown lengthy mail delays. The downside of international selling right now if your buyer becomes frustrated waiting you may have to refund them even if they get the item in the long run. Don't send anything regular tracking either. 95% of my buyers in USA and UK I am sending airmail letters and seeing 3-8 weeks delivered. My buyers a regulars and happy to wait.

I used stamped first class mail to most of my shipments to Australia.  I hope they are easing the restrictions as this week I received a lot more international orders than the previous weeks.

[bar-29368]

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@mozartbach1971 wrote:

It's very slow to Australia via USPS these days.

USPS has been using sea freight to Europe recently but I've seen nothing going from the west coast that way. No doubt piling up waiting to get on one of the few planes flying to Australian (that is the bottleneck).

@mozartbach1971 

Good to see you are still around, used to see your posts on the PS board back in the day. I see you are still doing reasonably well and sticking to your "classic eBay style".

Congrats on your eBay 20th!

Thanks, I hope my buyer understands everything that is going on.

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Good buyers will. I have one in France that already knows the ETA on his parcel is between sometime in June & sometime in August, but he wanted it and couldn't get it there so is prepared to wait.

[duncanvr]

Stamped 1st class mail to Aus 3-6 weeks. I don't think they will do regular international flights for some time.

[sin-n-dex]

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@duncanvr wrote:

Stamped 1st class mail to Aus 3-6 weeks. I don't think they will do regular international flights for some time.

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All international mail is slow...

My partner made about 100 purchases on his new account on eBay (new coins and banknotes for me to collect, sewing supplies and patterns, hair accessories and accessories for my new (used) bicycle). About a third of that stuff is coming from China - as you can expect, in four weeks nothing has arrived.

The seller in Taiwan messaged me to tell me he can't mail me the banknote because the post office won't accept mail to Canada. There were four coin listings that came from Lithuania, and a few from Latvia, Estonia, Moldova, Ukraine, etc. None of that has arrived.

We did get all our Canadian letters very quickly (even though they are terribly overworked right now), and some USA shipments arrived as well, but that took 2-3 weeks. And lastly, one letter from Germany finally arrived today (after 3 weeks).

We're leaving all sells 5 star feedback and indicating that the items showed up on time. Very little is coming with tracking, so it's up to me to say they arrived on time. (Banknotes generally don't ship with tracking if they are low value). And stuff from China generally doesn't ship with any tracking (the $2 with free shipping hair accessories).

C.

[duncanvr]

The slow mail is a global problem never the sellers fault but I still warn every buyer to wait unknown time. I had a parcel take 3 months from UK to Sydney. I managed to get a letter sent to USA in 2 weeks but others taking 5 weeks. So its very random right now. I don't think its fair to neg any seller on late shipment at the moment. I think eBay would remove the neg. If your customer is in a hurry send item express mail. Or if your buying ask the seller for courier option. Regular tracking is not being tracked properly. I hear coins and banknotes are going to be banned under managed payments. Don't know why.

[sin-n-dex]

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@duncanvr wrote:

The slow mail is a global problem never the sellers fault but I still warn every buyer to wait unknown time. I had a parcel take 3 months from UK to Sydney. I managed to get a letter sent to USA in 2 weeks but others taking 5 weeks. So its very random right now. I don't think its fair to neg any seller on late shipment at the moment. I think eBay would remove the neg. If your customer is in a hurry send item express mail. Or if your buying ask the seller for courier option. Regular tracking is not being tracked properly. I hear coins and banknotes are going to be banned under managed payments. Don't know why.

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I canned international shipping (except Canada, because I live here, and I ship my USA packages from New York), unless I'm contacted by someone about the item. If I feel it's fair to risk it, and I'm comfortable with the buyer, I'll let them know of the situation and agree to sell it to them. So far they've left positive feedback and got their items in a fairly reasonable amount of time (given the circumstances - I think the one to Hong Kong took 3 weeks).

For incoming stuff, I'm prepared to wait. I'm sure everything I ordered was shipped and will eventually arrive. Seeing as how no international packages have arrived (except one letter from Germany), I know this is a general issue with the mail.

My partner has an office in Ukraine and we need to regularly ship computer parts over there (things that are manufactured here that need to be used there, and then shipped back). DHL was charging $1300 for a shipment to Ukraine, instead of the $219 I used to pay. I went with FedEx, they charged $341. We have always used very secure methods to ship with courier companies ever since the $900 computer board got stolen by Ukrainian customs/post after I shipped it out via Priority Express (with tracking to the door, it wasn't the first time I did this type of shipment, but I never did it again after our item went missing).

C.

[bar-29368]

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@duncanvr wrote:

The slow mail is a global problem never the sellers fault but I still warn every buyer to wait unknown time. I had a parcel take 3 months from UK to Sydney. I managed to get a letter sent to USA in 2 weeks but others taking 5 weeks. So its very random right now. I don't think its fair to neg any seller on late shipment at the moment. I think eBay would remove the neg. If your customer is in a hurry send item express mail. Or if your buying ask the seller for courier option. Regular tracking is not being tracked properly. I hear coins and banknotes are going to be banned under managed payments. Don't know why.

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How about outgoing mail from Australia to say the US? Is that having the same delays do you know?