FAQ on tracking your parcel

[lanikai]

For our newcomers.. first welcome.. most of you have felt the vibes and have already ordered your first timepiece..

Congrats.. but,.. those first few can be excruciating, and the stress wondering what will happen to your precious cargo .. How long ?.. what if ?? where's my watch ????

All common issues that after a while will seem SOP..

but to relieve your anxiety here is how it goes:

Follow the copied tracking below from a USPS site of one of mine. the tracking time line starts from the bottom up so, after you order your watch of choice you will get a tracking number.. EExxxxxxxxxCN .. CN stands for China.. and the EE or EA.. is just for record keeping when the batches of Express forms were printed.

I can go to the PO and get a hand full of express forms, give you a number.. but it will not start tracking on any site until I actually take it to the post and it is processed.. so you may get a tracking number today.... but SOP for our reps is 3 day's before it is actually processed through China Customs and leaves the country

then you will see this on the tracking.. again reading from the bottom up.

The paper work is accepted and processed and put on the plane

Origin Post is Preparing Shipment

Foreign International Dispatch, October 24, 2009, 1:28 pm, GUANGZHOU EMS, CHINA PEOPLES REP

Foreign Acceptance, October 23, 2009, 8:44 pm

Please note that you don't have to use China EMS tracking site.. once it's scanned for travel to the USA you can go directly to USPS.. I don't know about Countries outside the USA.. as pertaining to their Mail tracking systems.

Ok.. so after your package leaves China the next step will be for it to arrive in the US or whatever country you are located.

when it lands, you will view this on the screen .. again read from bottom to top.. your watch landed and will be directed to "Customs".. don't stress .. all packages from foreign borders have to be checked through customs "inbound"..

Inbound Into Customs

Inbound International Arrival, October 26, 2009, 2:22 am, ISC LOS ANGELES CA (USPS)

Next, this could take up to 24 hours.. expect things to be a little slower during the Holiday's as there are hundreds of more parcels to be screened.. this is where "documentation" is big time in the USA.. as long as the paper work is in order there will be no problem.. an occasional rookie agent may take a little longer to process it.. by law.. Customs in the US can hold the parcel up to 90 day's (if I remember correctly) and if in the event that it is seized and sent back to the sender.. you will receive a letter from Customs to reply with the "correct" documentation.. "I do not reply".. I am not telling you what to do.. just that I do nothing... "if that would ever happen".. usually due to improper documentation.

but that is very few and far between

and sometimes during busy times of the year.. someone may forget to "scan" the bar code.. don't stress the parcel will arrive even though it has not been scanned .. for example you may get a "Out bounds customs" and then nothing.. this usually happens when some bonehead forgets to scan the bar code.. when it arrives at your local PO... but you will receive the parcel all the same.

OK.. the part we all hold our breathes for: .. out of Customs .. free

Inbound Out of Customs, October 28, 2009, 1:21 pm

the next .. it will be on it's way to your local PO unit...And on it's way closer to you through another unit where the carrier will deliver it to you addy..

Delivered, October 29, 2009, 10:32 am, HONOLULU, HI 96814

Arrival at Post Office, October 29, 2009, 9:54 am, HONOLULU, HI 968xx

Processed through Sort Facility, October 29, 2009, 8:35 am, HONOLULU, HI 968xx

The full view of the tracking results.

Detailed Results:

Delivered, October 29, 2009, 10:32 am, HONOLULU, HI 96xxx

Arrival at Post Office, October 29, 2009, 9:54 am, HONOLULU, HI 96xxx

Processed through Sort Facility, October 29, 2009, 8:35 am, HONOLULU, HI 968xx

Inbound Out of Customs, October 28, 2009, 1:21 pm

Inbound Into Customs

Inbound International Arrival, October 26, 2009, 2:22 am, ISC LOS ANGELES CA (USPS)

Origin Post is Preparing Shipment

Foreign International Dispatch, October 24, 2009, 1:28 pm, GUANGZHOU EMS, CHINA PEOPLES REP

Foreign Acceptance, October 23, 2009, 8:44 pm

I hope this answers your Q's .. I post this up about once a year.. or when we get a large influx of new members ordering watches right away..

AC/Lani

[coolfire]

Wonderful, simply invaluable information you've provided, mate!

I still get all excited & hot under the collar, waiting for my watches/parts/straps.

[jchurch]

Good information for people. I remember the first one I ordered from overseas lol. Was in customs for a little while but showed up at the house eventually.

But then I saw this and was disapointed lol. (I went to the local post office and picked it up)

[lanikai]

There is a very good reason why these types of posts don't get pinned.. you can figure it out for yourselves.. without inquiring..

so we just post periodically for Noobs..

AC/Lani

[Guest Carl]

I am not a big fan of EMS for a few reasons gained by experience here in the US.

Twice I have tracked packages from the regional PO twenty miles away which left before 7:30 AM on a Saturday.

The packages arrived before noon at the local PO with Express Mail stickers attached saying "Deliver before 3PM Today".

Never happened. Should have been delivered as Express Mail the next day (Sunday) but that didn't happen.

Finally delivered on Monday afternoon as standard signed for mail with the normal delivery of the usual junk mail.

Now I just use registered mail for every watch from overseas. I use it to return stuff also. I have saved a lot of money.

If you ask for registered mail, have your watch vendor email you the sticker number as the nearly unknown feature of registered mail in the US is that once it arrives in the US and is scanned, it is trackable at usps.com.

I learned all of this the hard way and now you don't have to.

Carl

[Samurai]

Very good info Lani.

For packages inbound to Singapore....use www.speedpost.com.sg.

Typical transit delivery time from GZ to Singapore is 1-2 days.

[lanikai]

Yes.. express mail in my experience in the US.. is 4 "business" day's so if my parcel is at the airport PO on Friday afternoon.. most of the time it won't be delivered until Monday.. it depends..

but when I ship out I usually use express 'flat rate".. because to register a "Priority" parcel it takes just a few dollars more for express which gives a tracking without the extra fee.. if I go Priority I pay extra for tracking or registered..

it's a choice.. registered to Hawaii takes forever..

[lanikai]

Very good info Lani.

For packages inbound to Singapore....use www.speedpost.com.sg.

Typical transit delivery time from GZ to Singapore is 1-2 days.

Yikes you do have it the best ..

thanks Samu for the info.. it's good to posts this info for noobs every once in a while..

AC/Lani

[Guest Carl]

EMS in the US is Express Mail which is next day service 24/7/365. Supposedly.

The only variable is whether it is delivered the next day by noon or 3pm (per usps.com). Don't pay for it unless you are getting it. Understand that you can't complain to the usps without going through your congressperson. Wherever you are in the US if you see an EMS package released from customs per tracking, you should get it the next day. Supposedly.

International first class is now airmail everywhere. I'm seeing seven to ten days average.

I've stopped paying for what I am not getting. BTW registered is the highest priority and security in international mail. I've shipped cold hard cash around the world that way with no problems. Be aware that watch sellers will try to steer you to EMS as they don't have to go to the post office and be personally identified in order to ship, as opposed to sending via registered mail.

Carl

[lanikai]

I think being in Hawaii and not Conus ... we're in the middle of the Ocean.. so for us Express is 3 to 4 day's Priority is 4 to 5 day's.. one of the high costs of living here.. is we depend on everything being "shipped" in.. prices are very high on normal commodities..

[panerai153]

Great Article As usual Lani. I would like to add for those who are not exposed to the US Postal Service a few things.

According to one of our local postal workers (We are in a small town and consequently know all the folks who work at the PO. What he told me was the difference between UPS,FedEX and the USPS related to tracking is this. The USPS is notoriously bad for not scanning packages. Sometimes it's sheer laziness, sometinmes their crappy scanners/computer systems are down, but long story short, lots and lots of packages do not get scanned. UPS and FedEx being private make it a point to tell everyone along the line ,failure to scan packages is a serious job deficiency. Most folks are not going to put their job in jeopardy by not scanning packages. At the USPS that's not and issue. So if you order something that will be shipped via the USPS, don't get alarmed if your package scanning either 1.Never shows up as being scanned, or 2. Somewhere in the process the chain of posession gets broken, and your package appears to be stuck in limbo half way to you. More than likely, it's still moving along through the mail system, it's just not being scanned.

Here is what I have thus far for a package that left China on November 27th. as you can see it has either never gotten out of China, or it didn't get scanned at the port of Entry into the USA. I would probably lean toward the latter scenario, considering that this happens all the time.Here is my package and as of 1530 CST this is all that is on the USPS website.

Foreign International Dispatch, November 27, 2009, 12:11 am, GUANGZHOU EMS, CHINA PEOPLES REP

Foreign Acceptance, November 26, 2009, 8:05 pm

Origin Post is Preparing Shipment

At this point, I am expecting to get the package within the next few days. Since this is Express mail, it should be expedited. Should I not get it or receive a tracking update by say this Friday, Which would give it at least 10 working days, I will Email the shipper and alert hinm that it hasn't arrived.

These are some of the problems we face with the USPS. I'm sure lots of other countries have the same or similar problems. If you want assured tracking and the ability to see where your package is every step of the way, then you will have to use one of the private shippers such as UPS or FedEx. More expensive, but good tracking.

Arthur

[lanikai]

One thing to add Arthur.. since most of your collection is vintage genuine .. in which case Fedex and UPS is the way to ship for the insurance liability.. but these carriers have their own Customs brokerage "in House" and really scrutinize the letter of the customs law to the T, so you may actually run into more problems with these carriers than you would with USPS..

just a thought

AC/Lani

[panerai153]

Lani, You are absolutely right. FedEx or UPS is great for genuine. With Reps unless it's parts such as a dial, case, movement, etc I wouldn't use them. They will pass parts on, because they don't have a way of valuing them, but if you ship a DSSD by USPS or FedEx, likely you are going to get hit with a big customs duty fee.UPS and FEdEx will value the watch according to what they have in their system for a Rolex DSSD, so you may get a bill for 500-600.00 USD in customs duties if the watch is coming in from another country. Also they are much more aware of the counterfeits coming out of china, so they will be very suspicious of a Swiss watch being shipped to the USA from China.

This is not a really big problem with Reps, but I have a terrible time sending genuine watches to certain areas of Europe. Many of the countries have very regressive and expensive customs duties. Naturally, the buyer wants to get around the duties by valuing the watch at a much lower value or shipping as a gift, etc. Unfortunately for the seller, you can only buy insurance up to the declared value. So if you value a 3000.00 USD watch at 500.00 USD you can only insure for 500.00 USD. If it gets lost stolen or damaged, they would only pay 500.00, but the customer expects to receive a working watch.

This is one of the reasons that many watch sellers will not ship overseas. The customers want the watch down valued, but you are at risk If you do.

Another facet of the perils of shipping

Arthur

[lanikai]

Sheesh the tariffs in some EU Countries are incredibly high, ridiculous is more the word I'm looking for..

there is really no way around that.. members post for advise on how to gain an advantage over the duties... but anything short of lying will not help.. and lying about the value of the item will be a no win situation for the seller.. nothing can be done except be totally honest with the value.. it's sort of waiting for the first punch to land knowing you cannot do anything to prevent it..

All my genuine watches coming from overseas have been opened and inspected by the in house brokerage of Fedex and UPS..they are more courteous, and careful in repacking than USPS has been with reps.. but that gives you some idea of how they view the declaration of the content.

and an fyi.. I don't attach 'tracking' to my priority that I ship out(it's added cost).. but do get the same type of tracking number off the documentation, and save that.. so if in the event that it is lost in the system .. USPS can use that to track the parcel.. it just won't appear on a tracking site for the sender and receiver.. and it will show "proof" of the item and the actual mailing of the parcel.. so if I were to say.. "I don't know I mailed it out".. I can actually "prove" that I did and not the opposite.. good to back up your word with proof.. always..

[ImScaredSarge]

Lani, thanks so much for posts like this. You're the best.

Edited December 28, 2009 by ImScaredSarge

[lanikai]

the issue to remember and one we get PM often about..

even if you get your tracking#.. it will not show on whatever tracking website you use until at least 3 day's after you first receive your # .. UNLESS, the # was given to you after it was handed over to the origins post.. which is not often

[HATORI HANZO]

lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllThe problem I am having with my tracking is that my package has been stuck in China since the 15th of this month. It says origin post is preparing shipment and has said that for 5 days now.I guess all I can do is be pat pppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppient.

Edited January 20, 2010 by HATORI HANZO

[HATORI HANZO]

The problem I am having with the tracking is that my package has said the same thing for 5 days. It says it is being prepared for shipment.

[HATORI HANZO]

The problem I am having with the tracking is that my package has said the same thing for 5 days. It says it is being prepared for shipment.

Mine just landed in New York

[lanikai]

Good example of not getting scanned or posted.. did you us the USPS site .. ?? or just the EMS web site??

fyi.. you can go tot he USPS web site as soon as it is posted on EMS.. but these occurrence is not abnormal