Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

This was my best shot at deciding where to put this, mods please move if you think it should go somewhere else.

Last Saturday I went to a local post office - had to catch it during the reduced hours they are all operating at the moment, and tried to post three letter size / weight items airmail, one for the USA and two for Canada, and was surprised to be told that they could not accept them or parcels either for those destinations. I did not really ask them to explain in detail - the people in the queue behind me had, like me, already waited for ~ 15 minutes just to get into the shop.

During the week I took the same letters to our sorting office which opens at 7 so I was able to go there before work on a weekday. It turned out that they didn't have an in-premises post office to sell me stamps from, but they were mystified about what had happened to me at the post office.

We have an extremely diverse range of people from all walks of life here, is there anyone who can say for certain what the current (May 2020) position is regarding posting items from the UK to the North American continent? I have some parts (ICs) on the way to me FROM the USA, and I'm by no means certain that they will arrive, given the apparent situation going in the other direction.

I've been on the Royal Mail's website of course, an exercise in utter futility. There are no contact details at all - no email, no phone numbers, on the 'Contact Us' page. A classic case of a website which does everything in its power to prevent customers from directly contacting the company.

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

Take your pick:

https://contactservicenumbers.co.uk/royalmail/

Also, the Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin isn't showing much more than extended delays rather than any non-acceptance of mail to Canada and the US.

https://personal.help.royalmail.com/...5317/related/1

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

On two separate occasions recently I've sent a parcel and a jiffy bag to a vintage radio chum in Boston, Mass. The parcel had valves and other bits in it, (grub screws etc) - the jiffy bag just a couple of 2mm wander plugs and a letter in it. No dramas at the Post Office - just filled in the custom's declaration sticker, popped an air mail sticker and stamps on, both arrived in under two weeks.

Had a nice chat with him on Zoom last night. Who could have imagined just a couple of years ago that we'd be able to do that for now't! Not me, for sure.

We often send and receive letters to and from Paris which arrive in a matter of days.

How different life is there now, but that's another story.

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

International incident bulletin.
https://personal.help.royalmail.com/...ident-bulletin

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

Frank, I did manage to find that incident page but while the entries for USA and Canada say both countries are running slow, they do not say that the mail is being refused.

Terry, thanks, that first link is potentially a lot more useful.

This is the 'Contact Us' page I was complaining about.

https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/contact

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

They suspended signed for packages, was a signature required?

Did you see the number on the contact page.
03457 740 740. We're open Monday to Friday 8am-6pm and Saturday 8am-11am.

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

I just received a package from China today. It arrived in UK 8 days ago. Not sure if it was delayed in quarantine or just reduced mail processing. Special handling like 48 hour delivery or signed for may not be available but it should go through as normal post.
I'd take it back again and try a different person.

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

I regularly buy stuff thro Ebay, and find that whilst some are slow to post things, others are quick, and if is the norm for stuff posted in UK one day to arrive with me here in the Isle of Man the following day. Recently however a,most everything is taking longer than usual, though my stuff posted to UK seems to be generally next day still.
Right now, the PO and the police are spending extra time and effort checking (sniffing maybe) incoming packages. With the island having closed borders right now, no air or sea passengers bringing in the nasty stuff. Last week we posted a package of Manx Garlic (Ransoms) to my wife's daughter in Scotland. I joked that the sniffer dogs would react, and she would need to "Come to the office to collect", and have to open it to check for drugs. NOTHING can out stink Ransoms. But it was delivered without fuss.
Les.

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

Hi, I have been posting letters to the USA (California & Wisconsin) for the whole of the lockdown period and they have all got there in 7 - 10 days.

It is true that I have been putting the correct value stamps on them and putting them in a post box.

If you know the weight and the cost of your parcel, perhaps stamping it and putting a CN22 docket on it and posting it in a local letter box would save battling with the local postmaster.

This of course is only any good if the item is of no great value and you don't need a signature as proof of delivery. It also relies on the parcel being small enough to fit in a post box.

Regards
Trevor.

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

On this page, the 'Personal Contact Us' page...

https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/contact

No, unless I am going blind there is no telephone number or email address on that page. There is a 'contact us' link at the bottom which takes you back to the page you are already on!

Thanks all for the information gained, gleaned or provided by means -other- than the website's Contact Us page.

The items were just airmail letters which did not require a signature at the USA / Canada end.

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

Try here:-

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/general-enquiry#/

It was the Post Office which refised to accept your letters, not Royal Mail. A thin dividing line I know, but true nontheless.

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

Good point, I still think of them as the same thing (and why would they not be)?

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

Good afternoon,

A little OT but today I received a package posted from Germany, (A Tefifon music cartridge) without any difficulty or delay.
The only difference is that the Deutshe post tracking didn’t update as normal after the package had been accepted at the post office.

Christopher Capener

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

I think it's Royal Mail's responsibility to update the tracking information once a package from abroad arrives in the UK. I imagine RM's ability to do this has been curtailed by the current staffing challenges.

Alan

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

A view of the situation in reverse: Lacking any awareness of problems in the other direction at the time, I ordered some ICs from the USA, which, despite my trepidation, eventually arrived in the UK.

Unfortunately the system was still functioning well enough to decide that duty had to be paid on the package, and then to charge me more than the cost of the duty for collecting the duty. >:(

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

My $0.02:

A medium size parcel sent "priority" via US Mail to me from the USA March 10th finally arrived here today May 15th after languishing in various depots en route, getting covered in coronavirus. Yummy. Now wash your hands :)

Another item bought on the auction site and sent from the USA via the GSP courier programme arrived in ten days, i.e. as normal.

A UK parcel sent to me two weeks ago still hasn't materialised.

But the several dozen other items I've sent out and received have arrived mostly as normal.

So my conclusion is, it's a bit pot luck at the mo.

Phil

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

I’ve continued to receive parcels from around the UK and China over the last few weeks without any problems other than being perhaps a day or two later. Indeed this week a parcel was delivered at 7:09am, never had one that early before, the wife had to go and open the front door ... ��

The only non delivery has been a very small packet of micro drive felts from Italy ordered on 25/3. That could be understandable, received a refund anyway.

Peter

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

Last week I received a package from the states containing a used encoder for my FT 840, it seemed to be the only one in the world, certainly the only one I could find. hence the purchase. It arrived a few days late but I thought the service was pretty good in the circumstances.

Peter

Sending items abroad.
 

Not sure where to put this and hope the moderators will allow this thread to stand, it being pertinent to our hobby/interest.

Sent some vintage spares to a forum member in Australia 6 weeks ago and they've still not been delivered. I wondered if other forum members have had similar experiences. i know there's a big backlog and plane travel is disrupted, however the chap sent me a parcel at the same time, mine came three weeks ago. One would think the Australian postal Service faced the same issues as Royal mail, but maybe to the volume from the UK is bigger?

So, not complaining, just dipping a toe in the water to gauge the temperature as it were. Have sent various spares to members in the UK and apart from a short delay in one or two cases all have got there ok. Also had a PCB from Belguim arrive ok.

What are fellow forum members experiences, has anyone had trouble getting spares from certain countries? Andy.

Re: Sending items abroad.
 

I am finding European orders certainly slower to arrive than normal, one in particular is now over a month (may have got lost).

David

Re: Sending items abroad.
 

I'm still receiving the odd small eBay item (e.g. Bluetooth modules) direct from China as quickly as ever.

Re: Sending items abroad.
 

A set of PCBs sent to New Zealand four weeks ago still haven't been delivered.
Neither has a set to Canada sent late last year, which I gave up on and sent a replacement which did arrive.

Re: Sending items abroad.
 

I do wonder if some post was/is sent using space in the hold of passenger planes, which are obviously not running much or at all in some places.

I've not have anything that hasn't arrived yet, the longest wait was a small part sent by economy mail from Australia, taking about six weeks.

Also just received a HP counter bought from Spain a month ago, the seller had lots of problems getting it collected due to local restrictions, it only took a week to deliver once the carrier finally collected it.

David

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

It's reassuring to hear that apart from smallish delays forum members are still getting parts/parcels. Unfortunately the parcel I sent wasn't tracked, I couldn't afford the extra £7, same with the parcel I sent today; I'm on a tight budget the "extra's" like signed for etc for International parcels often add at least a tenner.

One thing I have noticed is that on UK bog standard 2nd class parcels there is no longer a number that can be used to track parcels. There used to be a long # preceded by letters which if entered into the RM's "track and trace" found your parcel, even though tracking wasn't asked and paid for, this is no longer the case. However they still enter the postcode and there's a reference # of sorts.

I agree finding any info with RM is frustrating, RM's customer service is dire. i asked the lady who served me about my parcel today, she basically said it could take months for the parcel to arrive, if it doesn't turn up, I'm screwed. International shipping aside, if you send a parcel in the UK by courier, tracking is standard - not an option there are numerous collection options and pricing is roughly comparable for medium parcels.

"I do wonder if some post was/is sent using space in the hold of passenger planes" Pretty sure that is the case.

Andy.

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

Being at Osterley Park today below the Heathrow flight path there are certainly fewer planes but there did seem to be plenty - probably around a third of the usual number. How many of those were carrying post I don't know of course. Not bought or sent anything abroad but QST from the USA seems to arrive just as punctually as normal.

Dave

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

I ordered a small package from china, according to the tracking information it took only a few days to reach the UK, but has been stuck at the "UK distribution center" for over a month.

Two packages from different eastern European ebay sellers arrived safely but took over a month, rather than the usual 10 days.

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

Hmm, its nicely hidden!

- Click "Complaints & Claims"
- Click "I'd like to make a complaint"
- Click the "Still need help - Click here to get in touch" Link at the bottom

That finally opens up a "Call Us" and "E-mail us" options. What a blinkin palaver!

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

I didn't click through that path because I wanted to make neither a complaint nor a claim, I just wanted to know why it was that I couldn't post an air mail letter to the USA or Canada at my local post office.

As I said, burying those options like that is typical of a company using a website to defend itself from being contacted by customers while still ostensibly seeming to be contactable

If they really wanted customers to be able to find the contact email / telephone numbers they would be at the head of the main landing page and at the top of every other web page on the site as well.

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

Australia Post is the same, much digging to find telephone numbers and half the contact forms don't work, they just keep landing on a blank page with no option to input anything (for some reason the CEO's number is reasonably visible and I've used it recently).

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

So an update today!!
I am the "aussie" that Andy ( Diabolical Artificer) was referring to. His parcel that I sent took about 14 days to reach GB and be delivered. It was a LARGE box!! about 15" cube, and weighed around 3.5 kilos. Cost $85!!!! NOT cheap. Andy has posted me a couple of LP's that are very hard to source in AU. Now I think about seven weeks and nothing. Pretty sad for postage I would say!!!, and its not limited to USA/CANADA.
Just my vent for the day. Apologies all.
Joe

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

I have the same experience with a part order coming from Greece, the seller is advising 6 weeks delivery due to air mail cost/availability

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

"If they really wanted customers to be able to find the contact email / telephone numbers they would be at the head of the main landing page " More or less every big company I deal with hides contact info or re-directs one first to a FAQ section, then through endless pages in a Alice in Wonderland-esque surreal nightmare.

It's a s*d when you have to google "big company contact number" in the hope someones posted it somewhere. You can understand companies wanting to cut down on trivial, easy to answer calls, like Dr's triage patients but still. I remember years ago trying to trace a lost parcel and more or less having to go undercover to find sorting office phone numbers.

Having said all that my postie is a diamond, he'll go out of way to help. I spoke to him a week or so, he said they were snowed under, lots of folk off, he was doing two rounds, so lets not forget all the sterling work our posties do.

In my particular case I was curious why a parcel from Oz to the UK took 6 weeks, whilst my parcel posted on the exact same day has disappeared; does Ozpost deal with parcels differently?

Andy

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

I have had some mixed results with International post. Anything from the USA can turn up either fairly quickly (about normal) or at a snail's pace. I have a magazine subscription which seems to deliver at the normal rate, but two back-issues ordered months ago are not here yet, maybe still in the USA. Another small item is also delayed.
A book from the Channel Islands (I think) took about the expected time to arrive.
Mind you, a couple of items from China arrived surprisingly quickly.
I'm not sure what this says to us...???
Colin.

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

As I understand from the I-Telex community, there are serious problems with sending items both to the USA and Australia - the current advice is that deliveries to these countries are not advised.

Certainly the service from JLC to the UK is terribly slow at the moment - but the hold up is in Germany - DHL seem to be operating at a very reduced capacity.

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

Absolutely agreed! Has anyone tried using the chatbot on Hermes? My first reaction was that it is unbelievable that it could be considered fit for purpose, but then thinking about it in this context, perhaps from their perspective it is..... I had noticed parcels taking slightly longer than usual recently with them and the collection was a day late but the customer services number (once I eventually found it) was not contactable and the chatbot is a joke! Can't fault my local collection/delivery lady though.

I think this is probably about companies not being able/willing to fund large call centres and using tactics like this (my previous employer did actually have a fancy name for it) to keep whatever calls they do get to levels manageable by the reduced resources that they have actually retained on their payroll. It probably works for 90%+ of basic queries, but makes things difficult and frustrating when the company chooses not to post the relevant information and one really does need to speak to someone to resolve a problem.

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

I've had parcels from outside the UK arrive adorned with tape indicating that they've been opened and inspected by The UK Border Force. Whether this can happen with parcels outgoing from the UK I don't know. Perhaps in he current situation (Covid-19) stuff is being stockpiled for inspection?

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

I've found things to the US are not taking more than ten days, and have had a delivery from across the pond too without issue or excessive delay.

Bizarrely, our postman is coming earlier than he used to by a number of hours. It's not first-post-over-breakfast yet, but we can dream of the Just William days!

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

I've recently received an item from the US - took about three weeks.

Had a problem a couple of years ago. The company (not the same as above) is normally very good and packages usually arrive in a few days - obviously air freight. When after waiting a couple of weeks I enquired of customer service they tracked the package as far as Customs at Stanstead. "No problem, we'll send you another one." This duly arrived in usual time. Then, about a fortnight later the original packet arrived. The item was worth about £80. I got back in touch asking what to do. "No problem - keep it or donate it on to someone who might find it useful."

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

My PCBs arrived safe & sound in New Zealand yesterday, having taken about a month.

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

There is an update from the 19th on the RM website for post to Australia, all imports are arriving through Sydney, it mentions delays related to getting items to their destinations and higher volumes of post (June 2nd).
https://personal.help.royalmail.com/...5317/related/1

David

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

Well, I sent a small parcel to Canada on the 2 April, as of today, it, according to Aus Posts tracking info, is still in Melbourne.

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

Update - the parcel I sent to Oz arrived yesterday, it took 48 days. The parcel sent to me from the exact same address I sent mine to, took 16 days, IE two parcels sent on the same day, one from Mareeba in to Sleaford, one from Sleaford to Mareeba in Oz, go figure.

Anyroad, hope all parcels folks are waiting on arrive soon, Andy.

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

I posted a small parcel of ten transistors to a forum chum in Boston USA last Tuesday afternoon.

It arrived there this morning - just six days.

Re: Current State of UK -> USA/Canada post?
 

I ordered two things on Ebay, one from China and another from the UK, the one from China arrived first - by about a week!

Peter