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Hello. Has anyone had a problem with the Ebay seller Red Lantern Tea otherwise known as Pentaxian67? I put in my second order with him. The first order had shipped without a hitch. This one is ten days in with no successful tracking. I just want to know if anyone else had a negative experience with him?

If your order was shipped by China Post and was not shipped via EMS, it can take a very long time. I've had orders from vendors that took a month to Thailand!

Tead Off wrote:If your order was shipped by China Post and was not shipped via EMS, it can take a very long time. I've had orders from vendors that took a month to Thailand!

You misunderstand my point. It is not showing up as "accepted" by the tracking system after 10 days, not that it hasn't arrived. Scheduled arrival is a little off but these packages generally show up on tracking between 2 to 4 days. Essentially, tracking says it was not shipped. They say it was.

China celebrates the National Day on Oct 1 annually, the country literally grinds to a halt , as the public holiday lasts a week.
The Chinese would take the opportunity to return home to their provinces, and some journeys takes over 24 hours, and they maybe gone for more than a week.
If this seller is located in Yunnan, it'll take longer for them to get back to work.

Also the post office was closed during much of this time, so even if he wanted to ship he probably couldn't.

HifideliTea wrote:China celebrates the National Day on Oct 1 annually, the country literally grinds to a halt , as the public holiday lasts a week.
The Chinese would take the opportunity to return home to their provinces, and some journeys takes over 24 hours, and they maybe gone for more than a week.
If this seller is located in Yunnan, it'll take longer for them to get back to work.

True. Even my non-tea items were delayed "severely". Ordered end Sept and only shipping last Friday.

If the ebay-er has good reputation, then it's unlikely an issue. However, as an online-seller, they have to be responsive and on top of things. At the very least, answer your queries and update their "working" status.

AllanK wrote:

Tead Off wrote:If your order was shipped by China Post and was not shipped via EMS, it can take a very long time. I've had orders from vendors that took a month to Thailand!

You misunderstand my point. It is not showing up as "accepted" by the tracking system after 10 days, not that it hasn't arrived. Scheduled arrival is a little off but these packages generally show up on tracking between 2 to 4 days. Essentially, tracking says it was not shipped. They say it was.

Ask the seller. China post have different online system to check packs and they can see where is it. The seller can ask China post fast and reply you.
But as like another told you, China post have mess in their work these days after holiday. Some part of China post had 3 days off but some start work from8.Oct.
Normaly is add to the system in 24 hours after send.

I've ordered from them several times without problems. I have had a couple of tracking numbers that only came online when they got to the US. I wouldn't worry about it.

quikstep wrote:

HifideliTea wrote:China celebrates the National Day on Oct 1 annually, the country literally grinds to a halt , as the public holiday lasts a week.
The Chinese would take the opportunity to return home to their provinces, and some journeys takes over 24 hours, and they maybe gone for more than a week.
If this seller is located in Yunnan, it'll take longer for them to get back to work.

True. Even my non-tea items were delayed "severely". Ordered end Sept and only shipping last Friday.

If the ebay-er has good reputation, then it's unlikely an issue. However, as an online-seller, they have to be responsive and on top of things. At the very least, answer your queries and update their "working" status.

The problem may be that the Chinese basically take two weeks off during this period. However, if the seller could not mail it for ten days because of the holiday he should have said so. I have opened a dispute with Ebay because I cannot get a straight answer from the seller. It is my last and final order from Red Lantern Tea. IF he would give me a straight and honest answer I would accept that. So far all he does is to reply to my emails with a dodge and doesn't say the post office was closed or much of anything else. In fact he said it should track four days ago and it doesn't.

AllanK wrote: The problem may be that the Chinese basically take two weeks off during this period. However, if the seller could not mail it for ten days because of the holiday he should have said so. I have opened a dispute with Ebay because I cannot get a straight answer from the seller. It is my last and final order from Red Lantern Tea. IF he would give me a straight and honest answer I would accept that. So far all he does is to reply to my emails with a dodge and doesn't say the post office was closed or much of anything else. In fact he said it should track four days ago and it doesn't.

The only thing really on the vendor so far is the lack of a straight answer. I have not done business with Red Lantern, and it could very well be a language issue. Tracking since it has started to become available on almost all packages has been dodgy at best, especially on the international level. Are you trying to track it with a US based vendor or are you going to the Chinese post offices?

Long story short, tracking is incredibly reliant on either an individual taking the time to scan your package, or the tracking getting scanned by a machine in the shipping area, both of which can not happen for various reasons. There have been times I have not gotten a single tracking update on a package from the moment it was said to be shipped, until the day it said it was out for delivery.

Honestly right now it is your word against theirs, and I am calling neither of you a liar, but using tracking as your evidence of wrong doing is rather weak. After all I am pretty sure all postage companies make you pay to ship the package to even get a tracking number.

AdamMY wrote:

AllanK wrote: The problem may be that the Chinese basically take two weeks off during this period. However, if the seller could not mail it for ten days because of the holiday he should have said so. I have opened a dispute with Ebay because I cannot get a straight answer from the seller. It is my last and final order from Red Lantern Tea. IF he would give me a straight and honest answer I would accept that. So far all he does is to reply to my emails with a dodge and doesn't say the post office was closed or much of anything else. In fact he said it should track four days ago and it doesn't.

The only thing really on the vendor so far is the lack of a straight answer. I have not done business with Red Lantern, and it could very well be a language issue. Tracking since it has started to become available on almost all packages has been dodgy at best, especially on the international level. Are you trying to track it with a US based vendor or are you going to the Chinese post offices?

Long story short, tracking is incredibly reliant on either an individual taking the time to scan your package, or the tracking getting scanned by a machine in the shipping area, both of which can not happen for various reasons. There have been times I have not gotten a single tracking update on a package from the moment it was said to be shipped, until the day it said it was out for delivery.

Honestly right now it is your word against theirs, and I am calling neither of you a liar, but using tracking as your evidence of wrong doing is rather weak. After all I am pretty sure all postage companies make you pay to ship the package to even get a tracking number.

I agree with Adam here, especially since even if Red Lantern shipped right away, you still wouldn't have gotten your package now - it takes a few weeks for stuff from China to arrive and it's got that long holiday in the middle. Maybe you should be a bit more patient and drink a cup of tea in the meantime? If you don't like waiting and uncertainty, only buy from US vendors.

Just FYI, these are the holidays for China this year. You ordered your stuff on Oct 3rd? It wasn't possible to ship anything until the 8th, at least, and usually on those days the place is jam packed with people trying to fill orders/send stuff from the holiday week. Chaos reigns for a couple weeks before and after the golden week (which is why they're finally talking about scrapping this system)
http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/china/

I've sent and received stuff before that only had one tracking scan the entire way. I've also had items that got stuck in customs for literally two or three months before delivery. In a funny case some tea I sent a friend went to New York, returned back here, then got sent out again - taking a five day detour for no reason. Things happen in mail and usually they arrive, eventually. Red Lantern doesn't seem like it's out to scam people - their feedback would be terrible if that's the case.

Gotta contact the seller.

China had holidays during Oct.1st~8th, but shipping had no problem (they had a discount celebrating Oct. 1st I ordered some) the ordered stuffs arrived normally. They didn't take days off like the Chinese New Year..

chrl42 wrote:Gotta contact the seller.

China had holidays during Oct.1st~8th, but shipping had no problem (they had a discount celebrating Oct. 1st I ordered some) the ordered stuffs arrived normally. They didn't take days off like the Chinese New Year..

That's assuming the seller didn't take the holidays off though.

MarshalN wrote:

chrl42 wrote:Gotta contact the seller.

China had holidays during Oct.1st~8th, but shipping had no problem (they had a discount celebrating Oct. 1st I ordered some) the ordered stuffs arrived normally. They didn't take days off like the Chinese New Year..

That's assuming the seller didn't take the holidays off though.

I had 4 orders during the holidays (1st~7th). They came normally...

There was only one lazy shipping company (Zhongtong, the cheapest) who took daytime off (only worked in the morning)

chrl42 wrote:

MarshalN wrote:

chrl42 wrote:Gotta contact the seller.

China had holidays during Oct.1st~8th, but shipping had no problem (they had a discount celebrating Oct. 1st I ordered some) the ordered stuffs arrived normally. They didn't take days off like the Chinese New Year..

That's assuming the seller didn't take the holidays off though.

I had 4 orders during the holidays (1st~7th). They came normally...

There was only one lazy shipping company (Zhongtong, the cheapest) who took daytime off (only worked in the morning)

Oh from the same store? Interesting. My experience with golden week is don't expect anything for a while. Maybe going overseas is different though.