Hey all,
I just had someone buy a yoyo from me who lives in Russia. I sent it out on the 14th of March (so it’s only been gone 5 work days). I got a message from my buyer today saying that since I sent it to the Russia mail system (I sent it USPS) it will take months to arrive. Any one familiar with Russia Mail system have any tips to getting a yoyo to Russia?
I still think that the best solution is patience. After 10 work days, then I’ll start worrying.
I’ve never shipped anything to or from Russia, so I can’t relate on that level.
Shipping to/from the UK can be as little as 4 days to 21 days in my experience. I find the average hovers around 10-14 days. To and from Germany is around the same in all aspects, but once something took a few days longer, which was no big deal.
With a vendor I buy from in Hong Kong, it can take 10 days but it usualy takes 20-28 day for stuff to arrive, but my latest order took a full month.
India I dislike. I shipped something via overnight(cost me $600 to do so) and then the stupid government made it sit on a loading dock for 6 weeks. I had the client who bought the equipment screaming at me daily, and I said “here’s the tracking, you can see it’s at the dock”, which didn’t help, but it did prove it was where said it was.
Vietnam is a mixed bag. It’s really depended on how we choose or need to do things. We’ve been doing stuff “by the palette” recently, where we can load up to 200 pounds onto a skid and then it literally travels “slow boat to China”. Serious. It hits China and then is sent to Vietnam. I never get numbers for how long that takes because it’s never time sensitive. But, smaller parcels often take around 20 days, but we did have some stuff take a week.
When a sister in law was in the Peace Corps, it took on average 2 weeks for a box to get to her. We had to “booby trap” all the packages to check to see if they helped themselves, which they always did. I’d enclose a packing slip on both TOP AND BOTTOM, and I’d do other stuff like inner tapings with signatures for security and security stickers, plus the same tactic on the outer tapings PLUS emailing a packing list for further quality control. She never once received an intact package. She was working in Kenya and Zambia, I think I know she had to bug out of Kenya due to fighting nearby, so she was relocated to I think Zambia. She “checked her laptop” on a plane trip, and I know as soon as that hit the belt, it never made it to the plane. They also broke into her house while she took a Chistmas break to steal everything. It’s not like the region has made itself trustworthy.
I know some countries are better than others. I don’t know anyone currently who is in Russia or comes from there(that last contact moved to another area for his job and I don’t have his new number). I can’t imagine it taking months though. Weeks, yes.
Patience and good communication are key elements. USPS Tracking breaks down as soon as a package leaves the country. I’m not sure how well USPS insurance covers things once they leave the United States as well. I have had good luck with FedEx and UPS for more sensitive things, even if time wasn’t a critical factor. I know they’ll insure a package from receipt to delivery. I know, too late now.
