Somewhat lol. I just made a post about this on one of the Discord servers. Sometimes I think that we'd be better off without and tracking at all. It causes so much unnecessary anxiety and frustration for people, especially those who have little or no experience purchasing from most of these suppliers.
I try to remind people of a few important points regarding purchasing our hobby-related products from overseas:
- This is not like buying from Amazon. You need to adjust and temper your expectations or else you are setting yourself up for needless anxiety and frustration.
- Regardless of how nice and helpful the reps seem, they are well-trained in getting Americans to buy their products and are not your friend; it's 100% a profit transaction for them.
- Shipping our products from China to the US and Canada require the packages to take one or more circuitous routes which often result in unexpected delays. Air cargo has limitations both in space and scheduling, and there will be times when your order could very well sit in a container at an airport somewhere in the far east for several days. The supplier and their 3PL (Third-Party Logistics) provider have no control over this, and the supplier rarely has the ability to get any detailed information especially if the containers have passed between multiple 3PL companies.
- The USPS tracking numbers that reps provide is often completely useless until the package is physically in the hands of USPS. The 3PL providers that the suppliers use to get packages to us have the ability to "update" (or manipulate) the tracking information if/when it's convenient or they want to make it seem like the package is moving (often when it isn't). Just because a tracking number was generated shortly after you paid, that label isn't actually going to get put on your package until after the cargo has cleared customs and been delivered (by truck, rail, or both) to the 3PL warehouse in the US for sorting, labeling, and distribution.
- Never expect 7-10 day delivery, even if the rep "promises" it or you've received other orders in that time frame. Sometimes you may have to wait up to 6 weeks, especially if there are Chinese holidays on the calendar, if there are major events bringing any kind of attention on China/US relations, or if there's been unusual border activity like a recent big fentanyl bust or such that could disrupt the flow of cargo.
- The best way to avoid getting upset is to sign up for USPS Informed Delivery and just wait for the notification that your package is out for delivery.
- The USPS has it's own set of issues, so sometimes they will be the cause of additional delays, etc. It's disturbingly common to see packages take a nonsensical route around the US, tracking to stop updating for several days (I've even seen 2-3 weeks) and then have the package show up in your mailbox, or be marked as delivered when it's still sitting in the mail truck or at the post office. This is a USPS problem and while many suppliers are willing to re-ship in the case of a lost/seized package you need to be patient if they ask you to wait a couple of weeks or so to see if the package does eventually get delivered. 95% of the time, being patient eventually pays off.
- If you were fortunate enough to pay with a "protected" method such as card/PayPal/etc., don't be in such a rush to file a dispute. Remember that doing so is one of the main factors that causes those kind of payment methods to become unavailable to us, especially since all credit cards allow for at least 60 days to file a dispute, most are 90 days or more, and PayPal allows up to 180 days. Any of those time frames provides plenty of time for missing deliveries to show up or for suppliers to get a re-ship to you.
If all else fails, buying from domestic vendors or Chinese suppliers with stock in US warehouses will always be much faster and for many can be well worth the added expense to avoid anxiety.
Final words: Don't lie to yourself. You are buying grey-market products from overseas that could have questionable legality. Think of it like buying pills from a dealer on the street; expecting guarantees and refunds will lead to great disappointment, and maybe worse. I'd rather be out a few hundred bucks and take it as an important life lesson rather than some of the alternatives.
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