Customs & USPS

[BrianJohnston]

Well, either USPS or customs got my address wrong, and now the instrument I ordered from Europe has been forwarded, possibly returning to sender... One digit wrong on my zip code due to someone elses incompetency. It's not the sender's fault because they showed me a photo of the address they were sending it me, and everything was beuno.

Anyone else deal with stuff like this? Man is it confusing & frustrating... Yes this is a rant.

[harrisonreed]

Yes. I ordered $300 worth of mutes from Sweden that got eaten by customs. It wasn't the seller's fault, and they are such a small business that trying to get a refund would have probably caused them a lot of trouble.

I'm sure if I wanted to be an *** they would have gotten refunded from the shipping company and got my money back, but it's not worth it to me to be a jerk to someone doing good work just for some chump change.

If it's a lot of money you should try to get the shipper to pay up or at least tell you where the item is.

[Bach5G]

I once sold a mpc and shipped via USPS where there was an error in the zip code. Through tracking I could see the package went on an extended tour of the US, but it eventually made it to the proper destination.

Maybe I’ve been lucky but in over 20 years of buying and selling trombone gear on the Internet I’ve only had one problem and that was when a horn I purchased was shipped in its case which, in turn, was loose inside a box with only a scrap of bubble wrap for protection. The vendor said the damage to the bell was my fault.

If your package is crossing borders, the tracking can break down while the package goes through customs and in the handoff from one postal service to the other.

[ithinknot]

Tracking logs and reality don't necessarily correspond. We're all familiar with "delivery attempted" when it definitely wasn't, but often enough something is still showing as "delayed" and yet is somehow already in my hands.

I've only ever had one thing truly vanish. Everything else got sorted one way or another, even if it involved walking several miles to an airside cargo terminal during an airshow when the surrounding roads were closed. I made it clear that I would be leaving with my parcel and, though it took a couple hours for them to find it, I did.

Just resist the urge to keep hitting F5. Most things don't disappear off the face of the earth, and Return to Sender is a lot better than Lost.

[Doug Elliott]

It doesn't even need a wrong address to be returned. I've had things returned to me that were addressed correctly, and there's absolutely no chance of getting a refund from USPS. It usually takes about 2 months to get something back.

[SwissTbone]

So far I consider myself pretty lucky. 2 or 3 mouthpieces may have vanished but other than that I'm okay.

But here's a true horror story I can share:
I bought a MV Bach 50 some years ago in England. After bringing it to the post office, the seller sent me a picture of the parcel and my heart stopped: instead of Switzerland, the address said Swaziland!

Fortunately it was a small post office and the agent was able to correct the mistake.

[Elow]

So far I consider myself pretty lucky.

Yes, that 50 only took a week to get to me from Switzerland Very happy with my purchase

[Lhbone]

Has anyone ever done a credit card dispute with USPS when you're the shipper who paid for postage?