Anyone else place an order during “shutdown”?

DragonOfTheSea said:
As the OP I am delighted to share my good news that I have finally receive my shit! The shutdown is now "officially" over 🤣 (in my book).

Arrived today, and already reconstituted / blended what I've been waiting for.

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Smiter, I was def. a little uneasy this time around with all the current talk about seizures and revocation of various status'... But, here we are, thankful and already pinning my shit.
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I'm genuinely happy for you and hope it all works better than you hoped. I'll have to find a workaround for myself. No clue where to begin.
 
DragonOfTheSea said:
You’ll pay more stateside, but have significantly stronger peace of mind. I was definitely half regretting my order and praying to the powers that be, that I wouldn’t get flagged.
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Precisely what I was thinking. Sometimes, that peace of mind cannot be overvalued, especially when the medicine you're targeting has the chance of increasing stress.
 
morrisultra said:
I'm waiting too for an order placed 04/10 (order from a vendor that if I had known everything that is coming out these days, I would never have ordered from it, but that's another story).
Got tracking 04/12. Since then tracking still shows "your package is waiting to be picked up by the carrier".

Now, I can understand that there can be troubles about shipping, freigh forwarders etc, I can understand that tracking could be tricky sometimes, but what I can't stand is the lack of communication about it. The day after I received the tracking I started to read about shipping delays, then I asked the rep about it and I was told that they would update me later. Obv I got no update, so today I asked again to check my order, at least to know if it's been sent or not, and I got another laconic answer. Note that befor placing the order communication was great.

I don't know if I have too high expectations or not from grey vendors, maybe my order is on its way and will arrive soon, maybe products are great etc but sure that I'll never order from this vendor again. This is my second grey order (not from the same source), even in the first I noticed a difference in communication between before placing the order and after.

Maybe it's all part of the grey game 😒 and we have to accept that we're not purchasing from legitimate companies.
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UPDATE

I received my order yesterday, took 24 days from China to Italy.
 
charliebrown1 said:
Been piecing this together and figured it was worth a post. Two things a lot of people get wrong: what’s actually behind the recent export-side seizure wave out of China, and what “US warehouse” really means when sellers advertise it.

Why China is cracking down on exports right now

Three things stacked together:

-Patent politics. The core GLP-1 compound patent in China expired March 20, 2026. Domestic biosimilar makers are just now ramping up legitimate production. Authorities have every reason to crack down on gray-market exporters undercutting the newly-legal domestic industry and still infringing on patents in destination countries like the US, where the patent runs until 2033.

-Diplomatic pressure. Major Western pharma companies have secured ITC exclusion orders targeting counterfeit imports. An INTERPOL operation from Dec 2024 to May 2025 ran across 90 countries including China, netting hundreds of arrests. Big pharma is pushing through diplomatic channels and China has reasons to look cooperative.

-Domestic scandal prevention. Probably the biggest driver. Chinese authorities are scared of counterfeit product killing people domestically, which would be a political disaster right as the legit domestic industry is launching. Cracking down on export labs disrupts the same operations serving the Chinese gray market.

Retail sales of this stuff are still technically illegal inside China outside licensed channels, which is why most of the overseas-facing activity specifically targets foreign buyers.

What a “US warehouse” actually is

Nothing like a mainstream fulfillment service.

Almost always a small third-party reshipping operation. Sometimes a legit bonded warehouse storing pallets for multiple overseas clients in an industrial unit. Sometimes a garage, residential address, or rented storage space run by a paid US-based contractor. Range is huge, down to a guy’s spare bedroom.

Workflow: seller bulk-ships via air or ocean freight with a US importer of record on paper. Once cleared, it sits at the domestic node. You order, operator prints a domestic label and drops it in the mail. Looks domestic, 2 to 5 days.

This space skews informal because mainstream fulfillment companies drop the account once they realize what’s in the boxes. A lot of actual warehousing is legit cross-border e-commerce operators quietly taking one gray client on the side.

Do multiple sellers share the same warehouse?

All the time. A single operator might fulfill for 5 to 20+ clients at once. Two competing “brands” can easily ship from the same building, sometimes the same shelf. Segregation is only as clean as the operator. A pro setup with warehouse management software keeps it straight; a guy in a storage unit with a spreadsheet is grabbing from whichever bin is closer.

If two sellers source from the same Chinese lab and fulfill from the same US operator, you’re literally getting identical product with different labels at different prices. Also explains why “our US warehouse is down” outages often hit multiple brands at once. One raid takes down many.

Seller and US agent trust

Shakiest part of the setup. Agent doesn’t hold leverage, they don’t own the inventory and can be swapped. But their exposure is real: name on the lease, address that could get raided. Motivated not to skim (ongoing payout beats one-time grab) but motivated to bail fast if law enforcement sniffs around. If an agent steals, seller has zero recourse.

What holds it together: reputation in the logistics network (word travels fast), hometown/clan ties for some, staggered payments so the agent’s always owed something, and running multiple agents in parallel to absorb losses.

Makers vs. middlemen

Most misunderstood piece. A minority (usually bigger, longer-running operations) are actual makers or tight with one specific lab. Real synthesis, own quality control, own vialing, consistent quality, can do custom orders. Most are resellers, sourcing from one or more Chinese labs, rebranding, switching suppliers on price. Quality drifts batch to batch. Middle category: started as middlemen, got close enough to one lab to be effectively vertically integrated.

Signals closer to a real maker: batch-specific lab reports, consistent purity and identity data across orders, non-catalog items on request, answers technical questions directly. Signals middleman: catalog mirrors other sellers, inconsistent presentation, “let me check with the lab,” labels and fill quality change between orders.

US legal side, briefly

Nothing here is a scheduled controlled substance, so possession isn’t a drug crime. But under federal law anything intended for human use that isn’t approved is technically an unapproved new drug, and selling for human consumption is illegal. “Research use only” is essentially fiction. Regulators look at how the product is actually marketed. Buyers at personal-use quantities basically never get prosecuted. Sellers are where enforcement ramped hard in 2025 to 2026.

The question: how much should “has US domestic stock” factor into trust?

Some value to it. A stocked node proves they’ve cleared customs at least once, rules out pure fly-by-night. And domestic shipping kills customs risk on your package regardless of quality. But the signal’s weaker than it looks: warehouse photos are easily faked, shared warehouses obscure whose inventory is whose, international freight and the last-mile domestic label are totally different skills, and the “US contact” is a paid contractor who burns out or disappears.

Domestic stock is mostly (a) customs insurance for you and (b) weak signaling of real infrastructure. The actual reliability predictors (years operating, recent consistent reviews, responsive comms, clean reship history) come from reputation, not stock status.
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Well goddamn. That was awesome!
 
I've got a semi positive update after the crappy initial experience. The second shipping of the package is past the CN customs and about to fly out of CN. So made it farther than the first try. Now to get past US customs. Eta says another 11-13 days. All in all it's set to be a six week experience for my first order from China. And now more 3p tests are coming back on ERPs SS31 10mg that are apparently not good but because they didn't refund the last batch of failed purity or whatever I'll probably not use the ss31 I ordered. Sad day.
 
Hello.
I've placed my order on March 31, and still no movement to Chile 😔.
I don't know if I should keep waiting or ask for a refund (The communication with the Provider has been fluid and transparent)
 
Mastpac said:
Hello.
I've placed my order on March 31, and still no movement to Chile 😔.
I don't know if I should keep waiting or ask for a refund (The communication with the Provider has been fluid and transparent)
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IMO, if you don't see any action by Monday, I'd reach out at least to see what they say about what's going on.
 
If the shutdown is really going on, then I am lucky.

I ordered 20 vials of 60mg reta last week. The vendor didn't send me a tracking number for a "security purpose." I am not sure why. I did get it, and they later sent me a screnshot of USPS page without the tracking number.
 
lastresort said:
If the shutdown is really going on, then I am lucky.

I ordered 20 vials of 60mg reta last week. The vendor didn't send me a tracking number for a "security purpose." I am not sure why. I did get it, and they later sent me a screnshot of USPS page without the tracking number.
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that sounds like best friends forever style
 
I ordered ~ 4/27, and was told ‘Had to go a different way and will take longer , maybe 3-4 weeks. 6 kits.

I did receive shipping #’s, but they aren’t live yet.

( The consolidator has them still , 🤞)

Has not landed yet, but have used this CN vendor multiple times w/o issue.

Stay tuned for the continuing saga…
 
J Arbey said:
I ordered ~ 4/27, and was told ‘Had to go a different way and will take longer , maybe 3-4 weeks. 6 kits.
I did receive shipping #’s, but they aren’t live yet.
( The consolidator has them still , 🤞)
Has not landed yet, but have used this CN vendor multiple times w/o issue.
Stay tuned for the continuing saga…
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Just got a note that my pkg has landed in the US...
Yay !

( Isn't it nice when your vendor follows thru, Life is good. )
 
lastresort said:
If the shutdown is really going on, then I am lucky.

I ordered 20 vials of 60mg reta last week. The vendor didn't send me a tracking number for a "security purpose." I am not sure why. I did get it, and they later sent me a screnshot of USPS page without the tracking number.
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Maybe the tracking # could be traced back to the consolidator
 
In other news...I still haven't gotten my package. It's been in the US since may 14th. Released from customs on the 18th. But now the tracking (usps) is showing weird and inconsistent updates without any locations. Just 'departed airport' and 'departed airport' with no arrivals or other info. Usps shipping is usually 3 days to me from either coastline. 42 days since ordering. Furthermore it is giving updates that don't add up. Example: I checked at midnight on 5/25 and there was an 'arrival' posted for 8 am of 5/25. Which was 8 hours before the actual time in America. Almost like it's using china time or something? That's the only excuse I could figure.
 
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There is another "inspection" going on today and tomorrow. At least what LNP Telegram is saying.
 
Received my pack late yesterday...

They said they are back to using FedEx again now.

Longest it has ever taken, I ordered 4/27 - arrived 5/25
 
amosmylove said:
In other news...I still haven't gotten my package. It's been in the US since may 14th. Released from customs on the 18th. But now the tracking (usps) is showing weird and inconsistent updates without any locations. Just 'departed airport' and 'departed airport' with no arrivals or other info. Usps shipping is usually 3 days to me from either coastline. 42 days since ordering. Furthermore it is giving updates that don't add up. Example: I checked at midnight on 5/25 and there was an 'arrival' posted for 8 am of 5/25. Which was 8 hours before the actual time in America. Almost like it's using china time or something? That's the only excuse I could figure.
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Update for me is it apparently DIDN'T clear customs like the tracking showed and the vendor messaged me saying it cleared. It was sent back to China. Guess I'm on the naughty list now. Such great luck I've had with my first grey China order. Emmy from ERP submitted a refund request after much prodding which I appreciate. Hopefully that goes through and I can put this episode to bed. I'm tuckered out on overseas ordering for a bit I think.
 
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