USPS - Express International Mail; Worries

[Dynasty]

So you may have already seen my little UK import tax rant from a few days ago, now I have worries about it even happening in the first place.

I call upon my fellow HL2...ites...to bless me with thow knowledge of the curious methodology of the one they call, USPS Express International Mail.

Laptop bought on Ebay, just FYI.

US - UK is 3-5 business days according to the USPS website, ok, thats cool. Pretty efficient. Couldve chosen UPS but that was about $100 more. Paying enough as it is.

So I keep checking the package's progress via the USPS tracking site almost every day, and panic every time I do.

Here's what I have so far. Keep in mind it is currently the evening (for the UK) of saturday, 9th of July 2011.

Label/Receipt Number: EC*********US
Class: Express Mail International®
Status: Processed Through Sort Facility

Your item was processed through our ISC LOS ANGELES CA (USPS) facility on July 02, 2011 at 9:15 am. The item is currently in transit to the destination.

Detailed Results:

Bullet Processed Through Sort Facility, July 02, 2011, 9:15 am, ISC LOS ANGELES CA (USPS)
Bullet Arrived at Sort Facility, July 02, 2011, 9:14 am, ISC LOS ANGELES CA (USPS)
Bullet Electronic Shipping Info Received, July 01, 2011
Bullet Processed through Sort Facility, July 01, 2011, 6:19 pm, CITY OF INDUSTRY, CA 91715
Bullet Acceptance, July 01, 2011, 5:41 pm, CITY OF INDUSTRY, CA 91715

Thats now one week gone by with no tracking update (5 working days anyway).

Now I have no idea how efficient USPS is or how they work. All I know is that when the item is recieved in the UK, it's handed over to Parcelforce or the Royal Mail, and I've tried the parcel's tracking number on both THEIR websites, each saying that they are 'advised' about the package and that is currently in LA according to their last records (based off USPS's sent records I assume), which means that Parcelforce and the Royal Mail know about the parcel arriving (great, confirms it's coming).

Bar the 4th of July holiday (i assume thats like a bank holiday in the US where everything closes and nothing is delivered), it's been 4 working days out of the ''guaranteed'' 5 (picked up friday, miss monday the 4th, so thats tues,wed,thu and fri gone), and their tracking info shows it hasnt even left the bloody country yet????

WTF????

Even if it has (fingers crossed) and their tracking is lagging behind, since when does it take an item any more than 2 days to fly across the atlantic to the world's busiest airport (Heathrow)???

 

[Ennui]

I wouldn't worry just yet. They would have not been operating on Monday because it was the 4th, and probably they had a bit of a backup as a result. There are a lot of things besides your package that need to be shipped overseas. My guess is that it's already in your country but is still waiting to be processed (which is when they would scan it in). I wouldn't start worrying until late next week.

 

[Krynn72]

USPS' tracking system has always been pretty crappy. I used to get packages suddenly when the last update to the system was two days ago, and thats from entirely inside the states.