Shipping. Valve Radio Stuck In The USA.

[ChristianFletcher]

I have in the last few years bought quite a few valve radios and test equipment from the USA via EBay. Never had any problems in the past but I recently bought a 1940s automotive radio and it’s got stuck in the USA by the shipping company eBay global shipping. The tracking information just states it’s held. I have heard that people have had stuff stopped because of Lead, Mercury or anything else they can think of. The seller is equally confused by the lack of tracking information or how to resolve the issue. I have heard of these problems but never had a problem myself.

Has anyone had similar issues shipping valve radios and were you able to resolve it.

Thanks Regards Chris

[The Philpott]

How long has it been held? It may be one of those cases where every so often a parcel is plucked out of the system and x-rayed or scanned to spot check what's inside is legitimate....Then there's probably a queue of images waiting to be assessed as to whether the package/s need opening or not.
(not much help really..)
Dave

[ChristianFletcher]

Hi it’s been Held about three weeks. Problem is I cannot contact the shipping company myself and the tracking gives no real reason for it being held. I think the seller is an honest guy he is just in an impossible situation with useless shipping company that won’t communicate

Exception: Undeliverable - SYSTEM_RESTRICTION

I’m hoping this will serve as a possible warning to others. This is the first I have had this issue but I understand it’s not uncommon

[BRASSBITS]

just cash ya chips in and get ya money back

[ChristianFletcher]

Originally Posted by BRASSBITS

just cash ya chips in and get ya money back

Sadly it may come to that. It’s the lack of communication that’s the most frustrating. You would think in this age of email and international call centres you should Be able to get an answer out of someone

[bluepilot]

Originally Posted by ChristianFletcher

it’s got stuck in the USA by the shipping company eBay global shipping.

I don't think that Ebay global shipping is a specific company. It's administered by Ebay but which company does the actual shipping depends on a lot of things. Stuff that I have received from the States has been dealt with by one company in the US (might have been the US Post Office, can't remember) and then by DPD when it gets to France. Can you see which company is actually dealing with the parcel in the US? You probably need to contact them to see what's going on.

Found this BTW. May be some useful telephone numbers there.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archiv.../td-p/20085726

Reading through the threads it looks like it may be too big or something and you won't receive it although the guy with the gong seems to have had good luck.

[CambridgeWorks]

Who knows what is in the minds of the agents dealing with the export shipping? Google can be quite awful when an uninitiated user is looking for advice.
A few years back I had an airmail parcel that was transferred to surface mail, because "A choke is a magnet and prohibited"! Royal mail did refund my postage in full...eventually... so moral is, describe a choke as a transformer, I imagine.
I have heard tales of valves being destroyed because the silvering inside is deemed to be mercury, when repacked or examined by the shipping agent. Don't know how true though.
Sounds plausible as I definitely know of one person who had capacitors destroyed as they "could hold a charge, same as a battery".
So, without going further ot, I think wait until say 1 day before the deadline to make a non received claim.
I am waiting for an atu i bought over 3 weeks ago. The uk seller seems decent and is keeping me fully informed and will refund, no quibble (as he must do) but I would rather have the atu! Seems the courier "inpost" are trying to find it still. He had 2 others go missing around the same time.
Rob

[Station X]

Originally Posted by ChristianFletcher

Exception: Undeliverable - SYSTEM_RESTRICTION

eBay forums have information about this. Not good news though.

[Ed_Dinning]

Hi Chris, it seems to be a common problem. There is total lack of knowledge at both UK and US ends about what goods are.
This is not an infrequent problem that I have found with transformers.They demand disproportionate amounts of duty on goods coming in for repair that are to be returned, then take 3 months to refund the money less an admin charge that need not have been levied.

The worst one was an EHT transformer sent to a customer in the States that homeland security had slashed with a stanley knife, then covered in brown parcel tape !

Ed

[factory]

I've not had many problems with them, only had one item lost by them so far, tracking ended with "shipped to international destination", filed my claim and they never even bothered to work out where it was, just refunded straight away.
A relative bought a 1920's Magneto a few years ago which was decided by them to be a restricted item, they refunded both buyer & seller immediately without needing any claim. They don't return restricted or too large/heavy items to the seller by the way.
I am currently having trouble getting them to pay for a HP 5240A that was damaged by them.

David

[crackle]

Only 4 weeks! there is still hope. Take a look at this shambles, the parcel was stuck/lost in the couriers depot for 5 weeks. https://www.parcel2go.com/tracking/2611781284335982 scroll down the page to see the details.
The parcel was finally delivered out of the blue and not damaged about 4 days after Parcel to Go had paid up on the insurance claim..

Mike

[ChristianFletcher]

Thanks everyone for the advice and the contact information. I will do a little more digging and let you know if I resolve it and receive the radio. I have imported loads of stuff and never before had a problem but cannot really advise anyone it’s just the roll of the dice. I’m pretty sure I will get my money back but it’s my lovely valve radio I want. The only thing I have noticed is that it’s easier using higher cost shipping agent like Fedex or DHL. I have had problems importing parts for my 1953 Chevy but don’t have problems using the above but it can cost three times as much to ship.

Best regards Chris

[Radio Wrangler]

Based on condition of received goods, I think the expensive shippers employ a number of advanced techniques like landing the aeroplane before taking the cargo out.

The whole concept of goods never being returned to the sender but sold off strikes me as very wrong.

We use UPS a lot at work for sending high value packages all over the world. We have very few problems and pretty happy customers. We could use cheaper shippers and it would seem more profitable, but the costs of problems are disproportionate. The good shippers seem to act as if they want your future business, the cheap guys work on the assumption that you have nowhere else to go within your budget.

Oh, and the post office behaves as if they're doing you a mighty favour taking anything at all. They don't seem to have twigged that they no longer have a monopoly.

David

[vidjoman]

My last experience was the purchase of a new transformer from Digikey. Ordered via UK office late Saturday afternoon and 20 minutes later confirmation of order packed and awaiting courier collections. This came from their facility in Minnesota USA. 2 hours later it’s at their courier depot for onward transit. Next goes to a customs clearance in another state. That took 14 hours to clear. Flight to Castle Donnington arriving at 2.00am. Then to Stanstead arrived at 5.00am, onward to Gatwick at 7.00am and on my doorstep at 9.20am.
I was very surprised to get it so quickly and their prices include all shipping costs and VAT. The price you pay is on the screen when you order in UK £’s and no extra charges.

[jamesperrett]

Originally Posted by vidjoman

I was very surprised to get it so quickly and their prices include all shipping costs and VAT. The price you pay is on the screen when you order in UK £’s and no extra charges.

It wasn't always like that with Digikey - I gave up buying from them for work when we always seemed to be stung by some fairly high admin charges from their UK courier. Mouser were always much easier to deal with so I guess Digikey realised how much business they were losing and went the same way.

[kalee20]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

Based on condition of received goods, I think the expensive shippers employ a number of advanced techniques like landing the aeroplane before taking the cargo out...

The good shippers seem to act as if they want your future business, the cheap guys work on the assumption that you have nowhere else to go within your budget.

I'd second that. At work we regularly send and receive packages to Tunisia.

We use a fairly local, quite small business. We have had few problems, but when they occur, the company has bent over backwards to resolve it.

Six years ago we had a cold call from a larger company, guaranteeing to beat whatever we currently pay, automated instant email alerts, etc etc. Sounded great. We sent a the next shipment by them, it disappeared for a week.

Teething trouble with a new account maybe... Contacted the rep who initially called and she was most apologetic. We sent the second by them - again there were problems, automatic email alerts were all endorsed 'do not reply to this email, the sender's account is not monitored.' Trying to find someone to speak to was a nightmare.

Back to the small company, manned by humans (and knowledgeable ones at that) we went. And there we have stayed.

[ChristianFletcher]

I think the problem is more likely the package contents declared as being a valve radio. The carriers just start think dangerous chemicals nasty we are going to die etc etc Mercury lead etc etc. It’s just really hit and miss the whole importing business.

I buy a lot from Digikey never had a problem stunningly fast shipping quite amazing.

I have asked my EBay seller for a refund but the have gone quiet on me so may have to escalate via eBay PayPal in a few days.

Chris

Chris

[Graham G3ZVT]

I bought 20 mercury tilt switches from China on the basis they were only £1.12 delivered and they'd come in useful one day.



The customs declaration was very honest


It wasn't intercepted.

[Herald1360]

Looks like it was only 5% honest

Hopefully they didn't come by air!