Royal Mail delivery times and customs

[PV5150]

Hello lads

I am expecting two items from the UK...one posted on the 4th and the other on the 5th of April, consecutively. I have tracking numbers for both items, but yet when I check Parcelforce on their progress I get this:

Your item, posted on 05/04/07 with reference R* **** **** *GB has been passed to the overseas postal service for delivery in AUSTRALIA.

Now the weird thing is that this message has been showing ever since I received notification of shipping from the retailers concerned.

I've contacted Australia Post about the message and they have confirmed that the tracking numbers indicate that the parcels are in fact still in UK Customs (and I thought Australian Customs were tough). Now I can appreciate that Easter has no doubt thrown everything into some sort of organised chaos, but the holding time seems extremely excessive.

Would this be a fair assumption on my behalf? All other goods that I have gotten internationally in the past have passed through customs here in Aus, in roughly an hour max. Weird...

Is this typical for UK international post?

 

[Rastalovich]

From my experiences:

Pay postoffice £60+ to post a parcel to the US.

up to 3 days for it to go from Cardiff to Newport.

up to 7 days for it to go to *I think* Coventry (somewhere like that)

w8s up to 5 days in some custom area, refered to as something like "transfer to overseas mail", some bizarre name.

takes anything from 3 to 4 days to fly over the atlantic ????

spends anything from 5 to 7 days in dfw customs.

take 1 to 2 days to deliver to final destination.

So for my £60+ it can take my parcel anywhere between 3 weeks to over a month to Texas.

The other way, for a similar parcel, costing up to $60, it takes about 2 weeks/10 working days to get from Texas to my door.

 

[PV5150]

Oh ok np's thanks Rastalovich. The period doesn't seem excessive then...apparently the norm

 

[Rastalovich]

I`d say it`s the norm and excessive. I have no idea how they get away with it. Well I do, Brits don`t like to complain and when they do some idiot says something like "UK post is the best in the world" - replace post with hospital, police etc etc.

If they were completely privatized, I think they`d have to get their act together. I thought that was a plan, but it apparently was just a breakup of their services into sections - so each one can be crap individually.

(Cardiff to Newport, center to center is about a 20 minute drive - debatably)

 

[outrunner]

I sent a game to New York 6 weeks ago in a DVD box, as an Airmail small packet with the Royal Mail, it was there within 5 days, so it can be done.

 

[Rastalovich]

Yeah I`ve sent a small item in a jiffy bag before now and it takes about a week.

I`m refering to boxes about the size of a monitor.

 

[PV5150]

Ok cool np's guys and thanks for the heads up. I guess Easter has had a lot to do with it too