UK-Aus Mail Services

[Stuart Down Under]

An enquiry of my Aussie colleagues.

Is anyone having problems with mail from UK? We have been used to getting deliveries within 7 to 10 days, but I now have orders which were confirmed as sent by reputable suppliers over 3 weeks ago, and nothing has arrived! 

[Bealman]

I haven't done any orders of late, but I'm still waiting of my copy of the NGSJ #2/2020

[railsquid]

I can't speak for Australia, but globally there are far fewer flying machines winging their way from A to B, which is definitely impacting international postal services.

The latest NGS journal arrived here in Japan only slightly later than expected, but it scraped in just before UK/Japan flights were slashed to a minimum. I am currently aware of four items which are theoretically on the way from the UK to me  and which would normally have arrived in 3 ~ 10 days max (letters always faster than parcels) but now all are well "overdue".

[longbow]

I'm still waiting on an order from Hattons despatched on 20 March ie 31 days ago, rather than the usual 8-12 days. My Australia online orders are also badly affected - a tracked package from a Melbourne model shop has just taken 14 days to reach me.

I assume there must now be a mountain of mail in transit which will increase the odds of something going astray. So I've stopped ordering anything online that's not urgent. 

[Graham]

Still anxiously waiting on a delivery from Revolution which according to my account was marked as complete around 14th March.
Still waiting on the latest NGS mag 2/20
Still waiting on a delivery from YouChoos ordered shipped 25th March
Still waiting on a delivery from Rails shipped on 26th March
HOWEVER a shipment from DCC Supplies shipped on 28th March arrived mid last week, ironically I cant use the parts in this order until the order from YouChoos arrives.

There was a bit on the news this evening about the large backlog of parcels in Australia Post, maybe they could employ a few more people to help shift them, given all the poor people who have been put out of work by this blasted virus.

We paid for express shipping between 2 Melbourne suburbs for the youngest granddaughter's birthday  and it still took 11days instead of the normal 2 for a parcel. Perhaps I should have broken the stay at home rule and delivered it.

Rant over.
Stay safe everyone.
Graham

[jpendle]

Still anxiously waiting on a delivery from Revolution which according to my account was marked as complete around 14th March.

So not Oz, but my HOA order was marked complete around the same date and no sign of them yet.
I ordered a DRS bookazine about the same time and that just showed up.
My RM for April arrived this past weekend.

I'm just working on the assumption that, as @railsquid says, less flights means mail delays.

Regards,

John P

[railsquid]

FWIW the "Royal" Mail has a brief country-by-country overview: https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5317/~/international-incident-bulletin

[longbow]

No indication there as to how long the UK-Oz delays are. Hatton's don't seem to know either.

[Stuart Down Under]

Even if/when parcels arrive in Australia, it looks like they just get caught up in the huge local parcel backlog. Australia Post have announced today that they are reducing letter deliveries to every second day so that they can redeploy 2,000 posties to the parcel delivery service. 

[1936ace]

Normally quick but not at the moment. As others above have said, I'm still waiting on my NGS journal and some orders from hattons

[longbow]

As is customary, my parcel turned up the day after I contacted Hatton's about the delay. So that's 33 days after despatch.

Let's hope I don't need to return it like the previous Dapol loco they sold me.

Incidentally Hatton's told me that the waiting period for a non-delivery claim is still 25 working days, but I thought it rather unfair to make one so soon given the current situation.

[jpendle]

FWIW the "Royal" Mail has a brief country-by-country overview: https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5317/~/international-incident-bulletin

Thanks, that's more information about the USPS than you get on the USPS website 

John P

[red_death]

Even in the UK the postal system (despite the best efforts of all involved) is being severely strained.

Anything going by air is heavily delayed (and at an absolute premium price) - dedicated cargo flights only provide a portion of total air cargo as a lot goes in regular flights which are nearly all suspended.

Even when things get to destination country I get the impression from some reports that matters are incredibly variable.

Cheers Mike

[Doc Pye]

Royal Mail is a pile of crap at present. Our regular postie has been really good but I had to give him supplies of gloves (a good thing us modelers are well prepared with masks and gloves) as Royal Mail hasn't bothered to do anything for their workforce. In fact, as part of Royal Mail's silly 'social distancing' they have made their posties travel on public buses with their loads. Our postie has told us that the sorting offices have had a lot of 'sickies', some legit but some not. The coronavirus does indeed live on paper and cardboard for longer periods of time than many materials.

In our area - London - the mail has been hit and miss, with more miss than hit. Our mail deliveries have been less and less frequent. I had a package sent from the US to me on 21 March with commercial samples. Yet, only late last night Royal Mail found it at Heathrow....and to add to that long delay, UK customs has the balls to charge me £29 quid on the package, which should be subject to any VAT/Duty! Of course, £8 of that is Royal Mail's own 'handling fee' that they extort from anyone daring to ship things from overseas!

Sorry but Royal Mail is just a disgrace as a provider. Our local postie is a good guy who does his best but the company doesn't deserve any 'Royal' title. Now I have to argue with UK customs over their blatant stupidity being not able or willing to read a customs declaration. UK Customs and Royal Mail won't stop the massive flow of narcotics coming into the UK via the mail but they are happy to charge irrelevant fees on customers!

As for Oz, I have had an order for model kits coming out of BNA Modelworld that according to Royal Mail has been in limbo since 23 March. Let's hope they don't lose it...

Sorry, rant over...

As stated, fewer planes are indeed flying and some countries have closed off their borders. So yes, some things are clearly going wrong. 

[njee20]

Service is oddly variable within the UK, but something i had shipped from China was actually extremely quick once it got here, and I've had other things sent from Europe at a normal speed. Meanwhile a loco posted last Tuesday remains MIA, annoying too as it was split from a set and not normally available!