Shipping Delays: What's Up?

[Joan Marie]

A lot of us are waiting for decks that we've ordered or sold online to arrive and the waits are feeling very long. We all know that COVID19 is the source of the slowdown in shipping, but I wanted to provide a few details for everyone to understand a little better what is going on.

• Airports worldwide have become parking lots for aircraft. Many are running at a single-digit percentage of their normal capacity.

• Cargo shipments have been prioritising medical supplies and other essential items. Regular letters (not packages) are also prioritised.

• These 2 things have combined to create a massive worldwide backup of cargo shipments. Mountains of packages are sitting at airports and warehouses everywhere waiting for a plane out from airports running at 5% (or so) capacity. This problem has gotten so bad that a lot of countries are refusing any new packages to even be posted to them until this backlog clears.

• Add to this the mandatory social-distancing required at workplaces everywhere. This includes of course people who process all those packages at post offices, airports, customs, delivery centers etc. etc. Entirely new procedures have been implemented (sometimes daily) and everyone is trying their best to work within these new parameters but the slowdowns created are impacting the movement of everything at every single point of the process.

• Also, many places are quarantining everything that comes in from overseas before it's even handled.

• Regarding tracking, it's frankly all over the place. Because workers are trying to handle packages and tools as little as possible while also reducing contact with other humans, tracking info is not always updated promptly or at all. This is happening at every step in the process with every postal and delivery service.

For most of us outside of Asia, we think of all these issues starting in the last couple of months. But China was on lockdown back in January already and the chain reaction of slowdowns of all kinds had already begun.

These problems are not going to go away quickly, but as things slowly improve and as people and workers adapt to the new normal regarding procedures etc., we'll see improvement.

In the meantime, don't stop ordering stuff because of the delays. It will get to you eventually, like a surprise present! Please be patient. And when your deck arrives, drop a quick message to the seller if you can and let them know. It's wonderful to hear and really encouraging especially since the tracking info will not always indicate a successful delivery.

And sellers, don't be discouraged. I know we all pride ourselves on getting our orders filled as fast as possible and lately it has been really tough to see our customers waiting so long for their decks. Remember this is happening to everyone, everywhere. people are (mostly) very understanding and willing to wait. I would advise you to put a message on your web pages and etsy pages that there are currently some extreme shipping delays. This should help set the expectation for most people.

Answer inquiries promptly. I have found people to respond very understandingly and to work with you on alternate plans if/when necessary.

All of us need to remember that everyone at every point in this is doing their best in some really difficult situations.

And when the deck finally DOES arrive, well that is an extra beautiful day for everyone!

[reall]

Thank You for great topic & summary! this is exact issue I & many other selfpublished artist & other are dealing at the moment,
sad fact is international shipping is an issue worldwide from China to US & Europe & it may take a while before things are back to *normal we used to take for granted,,,, reason I'm refunding my US Orders from my EU Shop is because my shipping provider post office is like:*please don't ship anything at the moment, we are unable to keep track of all orders & it will most likely just sit at post office or airport 2/3 weeks before returning to sender!x,x facepalm hopefully I'm unreasonably pessimistic & this will work out sooner than we think! All Best! MyLuckyCard reall/Irena

[LStevens]

The Gamecrafter deck I sent for review did eventually arrive. They had received a mandate to put their production on hold for a good few weeks I gather.... My main problem with Gamecrafter is that if I order some for myself in Europe there is a massive Customs fee!

From that point of view Printer Studio is a better prospect as my orders don't get stuck in Customs for weeks on end and I don't get a that huge fee either. They don't have the crazy boxing of Gamecrafter either, though their boxe packaging alas is starting to get a little bigger too....aldo, trying to design a custom box with them is not a breeze by any means....

If anyone can recommend a POD place nearer Hungary or even in Budapest I would be eternally grateful. I used to make colour photo copies of the Pack in the day to send anyone who was interested in my Pack but I don't yet know of any POD card makers here as yet....

[HRU's Muse]

Thank you for this! It's really frustrating for people, both those waiting and for the people shipping, because the USPS is really behind schedule due to COVID, and add to that the packages not being scanned upon arrival to other countries makes people concerned that their package is lost even if it isn't. So many people are wondering why their packages haven't arrived and getting worried when they see no updates to the tracking for weeks. They will get to their destinations, but it is just going to take more time than usual and it's hard telling people that.