Current Mail / Postage situation due to Covid-19

[Stipsi]

20+ days for two packages from Finland and UK (I'm in italy)
After the lockdown things seemed better for the first two weeks.
Now are worse than ever.

[Urban Noise]

Sent a package to Ukraine, left Portugal on the 30 of March... still nothing arrived to it's destination.
Everything else is working fine without much delays at this point.

[TordonLjud]

Hadn't realised that Royal Mail in the UK had updated their postage prices yet again this year on July 1st until I saw the recent post by Harbinger Sound on their RJF reissue thread. Normally it's an annual occurence (last one was on March 23rd) but now they've adjusted postage to factor in an substantial increase in price for Small Parcel* orders sent specifically to the USA, or 'World Zone 3' (the new third world?). Not sure if courier services will be any cheaper in comparison, but it's certainly worth looking into as an alternative to Royal Mail for UK sellers now, even for orders under 2kg...

Zones: https://www.royalmail.com/international-zones
New prices: https://www.royalmail.com/sites/royalmail.com/files/2020-06/royal-mail-our-prices-01-july-2020.pdf

*Orders larger in size than 25 x 35.3 x 2.5cm. Carry on as normal if you're sending, say, 2 CDs or 9 cassettes side by side, or a small stack of 7" singles. But if you're sending one or multiple 12"s/LPs/large box sets, then postage gets costly...

I read the same info a couple of days ago on the RM website. Thought I had misunderstood something. But this basically means the end of shipping LPs/parcels to USA via Royal Mail. (£15.18 for one LP!) Strangely, large letters are still pretty cheap to send to USA.

As for the current postage situation things seem more or less back to normal regarding both inbound and outbound mail. Been waiting a few months for something from Japan but that's the only nuisance at the moment.

[WCN]

Deutsche-Post is still not shipping to the USA from Germany in what seems to be carrying on indefinitely, so as a workaround the honorable Luke Tandy at Skeleton Dust Records in Dayton, OH is helping out. WCN can now ship to the USA! Orders couriered in bulk to Skeleton Dust and from there forwarded via media mail. Still no shipping to Australia/New Zealand but hopefully that changes soon.

[holy ghost]

DHL from Germany to Canada working just fine.... received packaged from WCN and Total Black very quickly evening by pre-COVID standards.

Got a package from Hospital as well which arrived in under a week which surprised the ever lovin' shit out of me.....

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

Has anyone else within the US experienced MASSIVE slowdowns with Media Mail in the last couple of weeks? It felt like everything was getting back on track domestically a month or so ago, but I have two packages I sent out that have been sitting in sorting centers for 2-3 weeks each... I have one I mailed on July 16th that is still supposedly sitting at the original post office!

I've been following the news about changes at the USPS and wondering if others have had similar experiences. This could massively impact the operations of labels and small businesses.

[NerveGas]

Has anyone else within the US experienced MASSIVE slowdowns with Media Mail in the last couple of weeks? It felt like everything was getting back on track domestically a month or so ago, but I have two packages I sent out that have been sitting in sorting centers for 2-3 weeks each... I have one I mailed on July 16th that is still supposedly sitting at the original post office!

I've been following the news about changes at the USPS and wondering if others have had similar experiences. This could massively impact the operations of labels and small businesses.

Yes. During the height of COVID shutdown it took a media mail package over 2 months to reach me. Now it's not at that level, but still noticeably longer than usual. On bigger orders I've just been putting up the extra couple bucks for priority. I've also heard some fellow record buyers in the U.S. say they've had similar issues. Suprisingly I haven't had anything lost during all of this. But I did wait 3 months for a package from Japan that I purchased prior to things locking down officially in a lot of the US.

[Eigen Bast]

I heard media mail is being filed as the lowest priority as the usps pushes through a backlog of first class mail. Shit is dire. I am only getting mail delivered two days a week and media mail stuff is taking 3-4 weeks on average. I had a record sit at the original post office a week, sit at my regional po a few more days, then it went to new jersey for some reason, now its en route back to the regional po.

[CannibalRitual]

I sent a package from Germany to Canada and it arrived within two weeks! I was really surprised as the Deutsche Post website claims it will take a lot longer than usual.

Shipping to USA it still not possible at all unless one pays for a 5kg parcel with some extra Corona fees on top, leading to shipping costs around 50€ for a stupid tape or whatever you throw in.

[Theodore]

As far as i know shipping from Japan to EU is only possible via a registered surface mail option which costs little less than 20EUR. Guy thought simple surface mail is working but nah, they told him only with registered surface. I think this apply to every EU country since they have common policy towards third countries. Or not ?

Anyway, please anyone in EU recieves from Japan with standard airmail or surface, or from Japan sends to EU, update us, so i know it's open again. I have a tape i was looking for years waiting, i cant pay 20EUR shipping, so patience is all i can do.

[Mattias G]

Ordered a tape from Japan and it took around 2,5 months to arrive here in Sweden. Packages I've sent to Japan lately seems to arrive like normal. Most packages I sent lately actually seems to arrive as usual post Covid except a few to some of the states in USA that may has taken a few weeks longer than usual.

[CannibalRitual]

Starting 15.9. Deutsche Post is shipping to USA again!

[Hatefukk]

Starting 15.9. Deutsche Post is shipping to USA again!

Just heard this too!! Finally get to have my copy of the new Scatmother special edition vinyl.  It feels like i've been waiting for fucking ever for that thing to finally ship!  I'm sure the distro is going to be backed up for quite a while shipping out all of the held orders so it will still take a bit but at least it's on it's way!

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

I just FINALLY received a CD I ordered from Finland back in March. The postal stamp shows it shipped as of March 30th and I never thought the guy was trying to screw me. I'm guessing it was stuck in the very bottom of some large sorting pile and the postal workers just NOW got caught up six months later. Crazy, so if anyone is still waiting on something there is still hope!

[Stipsi]

I m waiting a pedal from us from 5th of August.
Nothing yet.
I m in Italy?
Someone in the same situation (us-eu or eu-us)?