Package Sent via Russian Post - Late and No Updates in Tracking

[lmayer12]

Has anyone had recent experience with shipping from Russia to the US, passing through Germany en route?

I had purchased an item that was shipped from Russia (Economic Shipping) on June 3 with an expected delivery of July 8. It was tracking decently well until it got to Germany and there have been zero updates since June 16 ("Handed over to Germany for further delivery").

I've sent several messages to the seller asking if he had any updated tracking info or any other information on typical issues when shipping to the US from his own experience that could give me reason to believe all is fine, despite being late, but he hasn't responded to a single message.

Since he won't respond at all, I'll just move forward with having eBay assist with a refund unless anyone here has been able to track down shipments seemingly stuck in the ether somewhere. This is really disappointing as I've been looking for this particular item for a long time and was excited to get it.

Happy to provide a tracking # if that's an acceptable thing to post here. Thanks to anyone who can shed some light on their experience!

[Anonymous]

Key words..."economic shipping" = slow af

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping/Russian-Post-Delivery-to-US-Stuck-in-Germany/m-p/32015987

EDIT: Just realized that was you too 

[lmayer12]

Ha! Yea, that was me too. Was hoping to maybe have some better luck in a second post. Curious if there's even a range of time I could generally rely on before giving up entirely. I appreciate you chiming in @Anonymous !

[Anonymous]

I buy stuff on etsy from Russia pretty regularly. Even Air Mail from Russia is slow and can take a month or more.

It really depends what your tolerance for slow delivery is once the estimated delivery date has passed, which, as you stated, it has.

There is no need to post the tracking number on the forums as it doesn't really serve any purpose. I usually only post that once delivery has occurred since you never know, someone may be able to intercept, etc from the tracking number, you can't be familiar with all countries' postal rules.

If you want, you can post a screenshot of a recent status update and someone may have input or seen it before without the tracking number.

[lmayer12]

I appreciate the tips @Anonymous!

 

[mccamira]

It may have been misdirected to Germany and now it has been misplaced. Strange things going on with postal services these days. I order from Russian companies on a fairly regular basis, though not through ebay. They ship via Russia Post and it usually takes me 2 weeks to get the package (I am on the East Coast of US). They normally come directly by plane from Russia to New York. But I recently had a package take 2 months to get to me because it went to Poland, US, Belarus, Netherlands, US in that order. I thought maybe the label was illegible and that was causing confusion. When I finally got the package, the label was fine, easy to read, correct address. So I have no explanation.

You may get the package eventually, but you only have 30 days to file a claim with ebay (6 months with PayPal). Your choice if you want to wait. I recently got a refund from PayPal after I waited 2 months for an ebay package that never arrived (shipped domestically). I decided to wait beyond the 30 days because of the postal delays, but 2 months was my limit. You have more time if you paid via PayPal, but I would probably file the claim with ebay within 30 days otherwise.

[lmayer12]

Great feedback @mccamira!

I’ll assume at this point that tracking is useless and that if it ever shows up, it’ll be completely out of the blue.

I hate asking for a refund but based on the seller’s complete lack of responding, it seems like he must not care as much as I would if I were on the other side.

Thanks for the insight!