Very Very VERY long delivery times…
It’s one of the most frustrating situations when you buy products from China.
In general most products arrive pretty fast, within 2 weeks. But recently, it becomes longer and longer.
What’s your experience?
ChinaPost is getting worse
This summer I made a lot of test purchases. Small products, often less than 5 bucks. I buy these products to test the stores mechanics, customer service and delivery time. These little things are nice small gifts to my daughters.
Because these products are that small, I do not use any premium shipping method. Only free shipping. No tracking number (if optional) and no insurance. The extra costs are often as high as the total amount of the purchase.
For what I see, the shipping times are getting worse. Up to no delivery at all! Let’s look at this chart. These are purchases I made at SammyDress, RoseWholesale, RoseGal and Everbuying.
Half of the number of purchases never arrived. And there is a HUGE discrepancy between the time for handling (#days b4 shipped) and the actual delivery time.
For example, the dragon earpiece was shipped the same day and delivered after 72 days (just last week). See the images below.
- First check the yellow circle. This is the order date. August 12th.
- Second check the blue circle. This is the date that the parcel was handed over to Chinapost. (there is 1 day difference) August 12-13th.
- Third check the green circle. This is the tracking number. Conclusion 1. It’s the same parcel.
- Fourth check the red circle on the envelop. This is the time that ChinaPost handled this parcel. October 16th!!!!! Two months later!
- It arrived at October 23th. Another 8 days later
Holding the shipments…
Last week 3 parcels arrived from 3 different stores ordered at 3 different times. This could be an coincidence, but we know better. All stores above are stores from the same owner, so probably also the same warehouse. When you check the labels on the envelops, you see these are all created the same way. So, the previous conclusion stays.
Who is to blame
I cannot figure this out completely. I think ChinaPost holds these parcels and sends them all together in bulks or something, to fill the empty spaces in cargo flights. See this blog. Free shipping.
But these delivery times are unacceptable!
I have had some problematic deliveries before with SammyDress and they always solved the situation. Or they resent the products or refunded the money. And they will probably do this the same this time. So I don’t think the problem lays there.
Maybe you think why I haven’t asked for a refund this time?
Since the purchases aren’t that big, I like to change it into an experiment. Let’s see if and when the other parcels will arrive… I’ll keep you posted!
Do you have experiences with extreme long deliveries?
Please tell me your experiences with delivery times in the comment box below!
This is it! Wishing you a great week! And thank you for liking and sharing this post!
Bastiaan
17 replies to "Extreme long delivery times…"
Ive tested a couple chinese shops in the last Years, i bought lamps, accessoires, smartphone things, house ware, watches and e-cigs for some hundreds of dollars (in my case euros, because im from vienna 😉
I have to read a lot of bad comments and hating posts about them, which confuses me a lot.
Wholesale is not my area, so im not able to talk about, but normal customer shopping, i have a lot of experiences.
And i wanna recommend one website, i know since some months now….
…http://www.gearbest.com and www . vapor . gearbest . com.
Im really happy about, to come in business-relations with the guys from gearbest.
They are always friendly and on buyers orientation, also if there are any questions and troubles, and the website is very convenient to use, stable, and full of interesting products.
The standard prices are not the cheapest, but you have to notice that they offer free shipping for each product!
If youre lucky you find an cupon code or Flash Sale, which makes gearbest-offers, the cheapest (i know) including free shipping all over the world! That is absolutely amazing.
Yes, the delivery time is long. Very long for european or US Standards, but i mean they ship from China… Two or three days by free shipping is not possible for an profit-company.
My experience is, the most orders lasts three weeks to delivery.
History of my last orders:
WW1506260033143396 on Nov 5. yes, i ordered today again.
WW1508151259545299 from Aug 16.
WW1506260033143396 from June 26.
and one or two others which i did on my second account, because i did an mistake while the paying process, which opened a New account instead using my original gearbest profile. That was my, respectivelly paypal’s fault.
Sometimes i recieved after two weeks, sometimes it lasts a little longer.
I had just one parcel, which was an mistake, about $3 which lasts more than 45 days (which is the time line, where gearbest starts investigations what happend with it).
So i opened a ticket, and they told me that my parcel arrived them back of any reason, and gearbest asked me to send again or refund.
On the next day, i had this $3 on my account.
So, out of my experience i have to say, 2-3 weeks is the Standard delivery time with gearbest.com. And honestly, thats absolutely ok, in fact of free shipping.
By the way, usually i choose “add tracking number”, which costs anything by $2 on the shipping options, because its a long way from China to Europe, and gearbest recommends that too.
There should also be the opportunity for you, to choose an shipping Insurance which costs $1,50 or $1 im not sure.
So, all in all gearbest is a really fair acting, China shop, with good prices, free shipping, and an very good customer service! with very kind people.
Gearbest.com is my favourite Shop for China, but by the way:
They started an german warehouse now (they also have for the USA!), with its own facebook profile and service.
Im happy with them, and i think, before people write/post bad ratings and comments, they should give them the chance to offer a solution! And everybody should always stay friendly, in my opinion thats the way to get in good relations.
Kind greetings from vienna/Austria,
Sebastian
Hi Sebastian, Great name!
Thank you for your long comment. And I’m happy Gearbest is of great value to you. I haven’t dealt much with them yet. But good to hear.
(PS you comment hit the spam box because you sent it 3 times on several posts)
Bastiaan
I have bought from goxcell.com for 2 shipments they are lying about the tracking numbers twice and now promised me bot shipments are in the on box,Which is way to large Now they do not have a website to chat . beware
Hi,
Please check the comments from Kamil on this Post. Also the older comments last month. It’s all about this site. You probably lost your money… But I hope you didn’t…
When it comes to ex-USSR countries, I feel like delivery time is just an utter free-for-all. People often say that there’s little to no direct flights to anywhere here but Moscow, so it takes a long time to find a suitable cargo flight for their packages, or that unregistered shipments are routinely stolen by post office personnel, however I live in Moscow and always pay for tracking number, yet still, anything goes. Stuff can arrive withing 10 days or after 5 months. My most recent purchases arrived in 3-4 weeks, but still, I’m ready to any delay when I order anything online. China Post itself though isn’t nearly as bad as it may seem: if a package doesn’t leave China within a week, it might be because a seller used a small domestic carrier that needed to have that package processed first before handing it over to China Post, happens especially often with Yanwen or WeDo Express.
You say ‘but still, I’m ready to any delay when I order anything online‘. That’s probably the best advise anyone can give. Just be patient!
Thanks for your informative comment!
Hello Bastiaan.
The last 11 product I resieve from aliExpress, have delivery-time of 19-43 days.
only 2 product with more than 30 days. one of them expired, but Ali and the seller always in contact with me to solve the problem. seller offered me full refound but 2 days later i reseived the product.
Latly AliExpress become my favorite website, it have everyting and good service, but no Paypal yet.
Until now I have order about 40 product from your china shop, and no lost yet.
I have recomend your site to some freinds already, they just love it, and they alredy made they first china buy.
We are all very greatful for all your help and edvice, shopping in china.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you Guido for the kinds words!
AliExpress is also one of my favorites, just because of the dispute system.
Great to hear you have no lost purchases so far!
With regards,
Bastiaan
This is exactly what I encounter too. I takes a very long time to leave the country. And second, registered orders have no guarantee they will be faster at all.
Yes I have long delay deliveries. Right now since September till now I have not receive my packages from different stores in china no option than to click dispute
You confirm my opinion. Let’s hope it will be better soon!
Ive ordered a bathing suit on the 12th of may on aliexpress. On the 7th of august I’ve opened a dispute and got my money back. i had contacted the seller before and the keep extending purchase protection. but in august i thought i’ve waited long enough. a week after i got my money back the bathing suit arrived and it was terrible quality so i was happy i got it for free :). The sellers name was Fook Koof. if you say that quickly it sounds like F*ck off so i was already scared i was being scammed ;).
That was the longest time waiting. mostly it takes 3 or 4 weeks.
9 items of 46 i’ve ordered on aliexpress did nog arrive at all. i think that most of the items that didn’t arrive where orders from the last 5 months. before more arrived. i also noticed that the mail is getting slower.
Funny name indeed! The dispute system on AliExpress makes it easier to get your money back. I don’t think the 9 items will arrive. But maybe…?
Dealsmachine has not delivered at 87 days from today, ordered a simple being, cost $ 13.00 UDdollar. Have written to them four times for non-delivery, but nothing has unfortunately happened or no real response from them, only to wait as will the goods. But I know better because I have been through similar past, Dealsmashine do not care about their customers!
Sincerely.
Bjorn Sjogren, Sweden
Sad to hear… DealExtreme might be a better store than.
Well, I have had registered orders from China, that took more than 2 months to arrive, just to leave China took more than a month. Why???? Because many times they’re in transit in China, they go from one city to another until they’re put on a flight to Portugal!
2 months ago I bought something on ebay (not registered), and I’m still waiting for the package. Sometimes it happens to take more than 2 months to arrive here in Portugal!
Hi Sandra,
This is exactly what the same I encountered. It takes a very long time to leave the Chinese country. And registered orders are no guarantee for faster delivery…