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Teas lost in transition

Posted: Mar 6th, '10, 22:43
by skilfautdire
Has anyone not received their ordered teas ? I think it just happened to me. Usually I get an Hibiki-an order in about 5 days (free shipping option - no tracking). That's two weeks now and I haven't received the teas. I already got an order on Monday from Yuuki-cha placed the very same day (also no tracking) as Hibiki-an.
How long should I wait before really declaring (eg. convincing myself) it lost ? Has any vendor in this case shipped extra teas ? I guess not. I wouldn't.

So I wonder what are the practical risks involved. Does the majority of people use the tracking option at a more expensive fee ? In the years, how many orders were not received ? As for me I only started last year, so I haven't place that many orders yet. Thanks for any feedback - cheers.

Re: Teas lost in transition

Posted: Mar 6th, '10, 23:02
by Chip
I virtually never use the more expensive option for international TEA orders, thus no tracking. I have only lost one order, it was Hibiki-an. They replaced the tea.

Teaware I virtually always use EMS, well from Japan anyway. I want the Hagi asap! :mrgreen:

Most vendors want to see the package missing around 21 days or so. You can drop them a line and inform them prior, but they usually ask you to wait a bit longer.

Re: Teas lost in transition

Posted: Mar 7th, '10, 01:26
by Victoria
Well the New Year Celebration my be slowing things down.
On the other hand I had a vendor say a lot of SAL shipments
were very delayed or lost lately.

I don't mind paying extra for EMS shipping for teaware but
I typically don't for tea.

I have been waiting on an order from Royal Puer
placed on February 6th. :?

Re: Teas lost in transition

Posted: Mar 7th, '10, 04:39
by tenuki
Victoria wrote: I have been waiting on an order from Royal Puer
placed on February 6th. :?
Expect it to take about 2 months. :)

Re: Teas lost in transition

Posted: Mar 7th, '10, 11:16
by Victoria
Arghhhh really? They said 10-15 days.
Oh well at least it's puerh.

Re: Teas lost in transition

Posted: Mar 7th, '10, 14:05
by skilfautdire
It's recomforting to learn that at least once Hibiki-an has re-shipped the missing teas. After all, I think I would resend teas not received by a customer... unless the post system is really untrustable, which is seemingly not the case. If I had such a business and a customer would report teas not received after some reasonable delay, I'd resend them.

Re: Teas lost in transition

Posted: Mar 7th, '10, 14:25
by olivierco
Chip wrote:I have only lost one order, it was Hibiki-an. They replaced the tea.
+1
It was about 50$. They replaced it via EMS including a free package.

Re: Teas lost in transition

Posted: Mar 7th, '10, 19:38
by skilfautdire
I've already wrote to Hibiki-an on Friday about me being afraid that the order is lost. That's only 10 days work days (or 14 including weekends) so maybe there's not enough time passed yet. Didn't got a reply yet. I'm still hoping the teas will show up early this week. Since I started last year I was quite impressed by receiving the very first tea order (Hibiki-an) in a bare 5 days using their standard free shipping. Same with the second order. So maybe it was a set of circumstances that made it happen so fast, the average receiving time being longer than that.

Re: Teas lost in transition

Posted: Mar 10th, '10, 19:39
by skilfautdire
I got my teas from Hibiki-an yesterday. Since I started ordering teas only mid last year, and that the two previous Hibiki-an orders were received very fast (within 5 working days), I might very well not have a good enough average of postal delays yet ! This order took 18 days. all orders were made using the 'free shipping' option.

Re: Teas lost in transition

Posted: Mar 11th, '10, 01:37
by IPT
A lot of people don't know this, but when the post office says 10-15 days, they mean 10-15 days to reach the country, not the destination. I found that out when I called the USPS. I ship a lot of items to the US from China and when one package was very late I called and that's what they said.

Re: Teas lost in transition

Posted: Mar 11th, '10, 09:30
by Victoria
Ok, but even using 15 days - and at that using "working" days, it still is late.
I have never had a problem with Tea Spring before and since this company says it is related, I'm surprised.

Re: Teas lost in transition

Posted: Mar 11th, '10, 09:32
by IPT
I'm sure it's not the company's fault, but the shipper. All shipping in Asia has been behind lately due to the Chinese Spring Festival. As I said, normally it takes 10-15 days for my packages to arrive in the US, but lately it's been taking 3 to 4 weeks. Things get really backed up this time of year.

Re: Teas lost in transition

Posted: Apr 6th, '10, 14:50
by Victoria
tenuki wrote:
Victoria wrote: I have been waiting on an order from Royal Puer
placed on February 6th. :?
Expect it to take about 2 months. :)
Well here we are the 2 month mark exactly.
Still waiting ...

Re: Teas lost in transition

Posted: Apr 6th, '10, 15:32
by gingkoseto
Sigh! Good luck.

I never understand how mails work so differently in different countries. Parcels from Japan by sea or SAL have tracking information. Parcels from China by sea doesn't have tracking. SAL from China has something on USPS website, but it only says the parcel leaves China, and will not change even after I receive the parcel. USPS doesn't have mail by sea anymore. I wouldn't mind if the mail goes slowly, but tracking info. can save me from a lot of stress :(

Re: Teas lost in transition

Posted: Aug 31st, '10, 09:25
by tjsan
I put this because I am afraid that my order was lost and I do not know what can I do now.
Almost three weeks have passed since my order from o-cha was shipped.. and nothing. This is my first order from this seller because the whole situation is even more frustrating :cry:
Is there any chance that my order arrived? Meanwhile, two other packages from Japan arrived to me after 6 days ..

Sorry for dig old topic