When can I start to be concerned about international mail delivery times?

Skelig · Post by **Skelig** » 28 Apr 2020, 22:21

Expecting two international deliveries from Singapore via Singapore Post and the USA from USPS, both of which have had the status on Royal Mail's tracking page "item leaving overseas" since the 8th of April and the 6th of April respectively, and the statuses on the origin sides' websites each say they were dispatched on those dates.

I understand delays to pretty much everything are going on right now due to the COVID-19 situation, and that flights carrying international mail especially are running in severely reduced numbers, but does anyone know (preferably with recent experience receiving international post during this crisis) how much longer I should expect to wait? Three weeks without any updates is starting to get really worrying.

runningwithquills · Post by **runningwithquills** » 29 Apr 2020, 10:05

I'm in the same boat. I sent a parcel from Singapore to London and it was shown to be despatched on April 1st. But no arrival scan at Langley whatsoever and RM is saying they can't help until it's in their system. I've asked Singpost to follow up but I'm not sure if they can even chase customs? Sigh. I just hope customs won't be dumping parcels and shrugging their shoulders since there's a massive backlog. Seems to be it's easier for them to abdicate responsibility than to just send those parcels to RM for further processing.

edit: the parcel was delivered today! It wasn't Singpost or Royal Mail's issue-- the shipment was sitting at Customs for a month before they finally processed it on Saturday. RM then promptly delivered it on Monday morning. Super grateful to the posties! My sense is that customs finally processed the parcel because I filed an enquiry with Singpost, who then followed up with the UK side.

Whitejas75 · Post by **Whitejas75** » 29 Apr 2020, 13:52

Im the same boat as ye.27th march leaving langley going to ireland+no update since.id love to know if they langley are slowly getting through the back at all?.
At a date they hopefully expect to get it all shipped out.i wouldnt mind so much.

mister3030 · Post by **mister3030** » 29 Apr 2020, 14:00

Whitejas75 wrote:Im the same boat as ye.27th march leaving langley going to ireland+no update since.id love to know if they langley are slowly getting through the back at all?.
At a date they hopefully expect to get it all shipped out.i wouldnt mind so much.

That sounds like a really long time. Does your tracking say "arrived at langley hwdc" or "leaving the UK". If it's stuck on "arrived at langley hwdc" then they probably seized or lost the package. Apparently they do random security checks there and packages which don't meet postal regulations are picked out. What was inside the package?

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 29 Apr 2020, 14:11

Whitejas75 wrote:Im the same boat as ye.27th march leaving langley going to ireland+no update since.id love to know if they langley are slowly getting through the back at all?.
At a date they hopefully expect to get it all shipped out.i wouldnt mind so much.

Anything in it that could potentially cause problems? The most common thing that can cause problems is any package with a lithium battery in it.