Update 7/17/20:
Order #1 (hzj ebay, shipped 2/22 via China Post): Still in limbo. I'm figuring it'll never show up at this point now. (been lost for 143 days so far)
Order #2 (ShowzStore, shipped 6/9 via Newgistics): Delivered on July 17. Box was packed well with extra padding on the outside and then wrapped again for extra protection. Total shipping time: 38 days
Order #3 (eyou-collection, shipped 6/13 via CNE): Delivered on July 5. Box packed securely and with plenty of padding. Everything in great condition. Total shipping time: 22 days
Order #4 (SirToys, shipped 6/19 via EMS): Delivered on July 15. Box packed well though not as much padding as others. Everything was in good condition though. Total shipping time: 26 days
Order #5 (bababobo, shipped 6/29 via epacket): Delivered on July 17. Packed with minimal padding but no damage to the box. Total shipping time: 18 days

So finally all my China orders have made it besides the lost one from hzj on ebay. Newgistics was by far the slowest, and I'm impressed that bababobo's shipping method was so fast. It did cost extra but only about $17.90, which along with a $10 coupon came to only $7.90 for extra shipping. Not bad for 3 week turnaround!

 

What state are you in? if you don't mind me asking.

 

I've surprisingly had no issues getting stuff shipped from China on eBay but I have an order from TF-Direct from May 16th that still has not moved. The tracking number has said "Origin Post is Preparing Shipment" with no updates since. I've emailed TF-Direct about it twice and the last time they told me to request my money back from Paypal so wtf?

 

Wow really? I made an order with them last month and I had to reach out to them (which I didn't know at first) and they were asking for extra shipping costs that changed daily. They did ship my item and I did get it, but them telling you to dispute the charge on Paypal? Did you have to pay extra for shipping? They had to send me a brand new invoice.

 

I wish I had. I took the free shipping option and apparently that put it at the bottom of their priority list. I don't mind waiting for stuff but this is the first time something I've ordered has just disappeared into the ether.

 

Wow, well I hope it gets figured out, hopefully you get the item you ordered one way or another. Best of luck to you!

 

So you ordered in the past 30 days & got them already? How does that work? I ordered back in March & my shit is still stuck in Shanghai. So are they just ignoring older packages & giving the new stuff top priority? Or did they just throw my stuff in the ocean?

 

 

Yes indeed. Depends on the seller and the shipping method. EMS is fastest. Just had another hit NYC from Shanghai, China... in... wait for it... 8 days. Pretty quick. I refuse to deal with sellers that take 5 days or longer to ship, and then another 30-60 days to get my stuff. Too long and too risky.

 

yes, that's exactly what i've been told. and from past experience, didn't get my package from shanghai for over 4 months with no updates. any backlog gets set aside until they can get to it. during peak around xmas, ppl could possibly wait up to 6 months.

 

Is EMS different than epacket?

 

Update #3 - Mostly good, but not without some fucking hoops to jump through.

Order #1 from Baba - FINALLY showed up this week. I'd been going back and forth with USPS and then UPS, trying to get a response out of UPS Mail Innovations. After being told UPS CS was escalating it with UPS MI, I hear nothing and ping UPS CS back. They respond with a half-assed "Sorry, we don't have your package"/we basically just checked the tracking again without paying attention to the email chain-explanation, I respond in surly fashion, and finally get a direct response of sorts, albeit an unhelpful one, that UPS MI cannot respond directly to me and only to the seller, Baba, even though I told them they're in China (I don't sell anything via eBay, so maybe that makes sense to someone). I ask Baba if he can check, Baba responds quickly that the mail carrier said USPS should have the package, I respond that that's part of the confusion, and Baba responds again saying don't worry, the mail carrier is investigating. I don't know if someone at UPS MI or USPS finally realized they fucked up and were sitting on the package for a month, or if UPS MI was just really behind and finally handed it off, or if Baba contacting somebody actually did something, but voila, the package magically showed up the next day.

Fuck me.

Order #3 from Uncle Billy - Been "in transit to the next facility" since mid-week, slowly matriculating its way down from Oakland to SoCal. Hopefully sometime this coming week?

Order #4 from Uncle Billy - Apparently had its own tracking number the whole time and I didn't realize it at first, but it showed up with no warning the same day as Order #1 from Baba. That order was made on the 29th of May, arrived in Shanghai in early June, and gets to my door a month and a half later, but beat comfortably by Order #6(A) from Uncle Billy.

Order #5 from Uncle Billy - Still no update since early June in Shanghai.

Order #6 from Uncle Billy - Uncle Billy split this up (two TFC Snaptraps) and the first already arrived a bit ago, before Order #s3-5. The other Snaptrap, shipping separately, hasn't updated since Shanghai on 12 June. So 6A is here, early, but 6B is pending.

 

Yes. Much faster. Different service.

 

Pandemic or not, they should be sending the stuff in the order they received it. If it's true that they're giving newer items priority that's total bullshit.

 

Not done an order on ebay since March so I do not know about them.
Aliexpress was fine during the outbreak untill May, that order was in it's way for 4 weeks and my order from June arrived after 3 weeks.
Hope they get back to normal shipping soon and go back to just 10/12 day shipping.
China is my only option, sites here have outrages prices, NA car bots $40, NA Megs $75 (no new hips), NA Turtles $135, MST Reflector $97 + $9 shipping on it  

 

I finally may be getting my weathered gigapower slag soon finally. Shipped March 23rd from Showstore.... lol no updates for 2 and a half months I thought it was lost forever and just the other day it got to Canada! Hopefully its not like totally trashed.

 

like it or not, BS and all, if that's how ChinaPost ePacket system runs, what are you going to do? you can't change that. so instead i've been steering clear of buying from retailers usind ePacket, and instead sticking to ones on eBay using SpeedPak. there's still been some minor delays here and there, and mostly after it has landed with clearing customs processing and hand off to local postal service for delivery. but nothing remotely even close to the troubles with ePacket i've experienced several times earlier this year.

 

I know, that's what I said at the beginning. I had 2 packages from ebay get here in the normal 2-3 weeks using speedpak.

What I'm doing about the epacket orders is getting refunds. Aliexpress has been giving me refunds 1 item at a time. I don't know why they do it like that but so far I've received 3 refunds out of 9. One item says wait 3 more days, another says wait 10 more days etc. I ordered everything together at the same time & everything shipped at the same time. So I don't know WTF they're doing. But whatever, as long as I get all the refunds I'll wash my hands of this nonsense. If the crap ever actually does get here I can always repay the seller.

Another problem I'm having is on ebay the stuff I ordered from Aliexpress is more expensive & a lot harder to find. I could reorder all the stuff & have it sent through Speekpack but I'll be paying double or triple. And if I do that, then the original Aliexpress packages will finally get here.

And another problem is that Showz is constantly out of stock on everything & never seems to restock. I've thought about using them but it seems like all TF collectors go there so everything is wiped out before I have a chance to order. Sirtoys is another option I could try.

 

as frustrating as it is, it's not non-sense. it's just the fact that this pandemic has thrown global shipping into chaos with drastic reduction in flights, as well as staff and how much volume can be processed at custom/postal facilities in China and locally. eBay SpeedPak works better than standard ChinaPost ePacket because OrangeConnex is contracted to logistically handle and make sure shipments get out on China properly. i don't know why Shanghai is such a black hole, but i've found SpeedPak has been diverted around and away from that port, and any other areas where problems crop up to get packages out of China in a reasonable amount of time. ePacket on the other hand just gets sent to the nearest port out as cost savings effort i think and there's no real logistic involved other than that.

 

And after all this trouble with epacket the sellers still insist on using it.  

 

At this rate, we may assume any XTB replacement parts from the non-shipping Shanghai area are going to float away down the flooded Yangtze into the East China Sea long before an ePacket courier will touch them.