Severe Japan Post SAL/EMS/ePacket suspensions due to COVID-19 + Russia's invasion in Ukraine! -> (Updated March 8 2022)

[bill937ca]

Unless there are limited flights now it looks like the next flights will not be before June.

[Lawrence]

5 minutes ago, bill937ca said:

Unless there are limited flights now it looks like the next flights will not be before June.

Well if they shut down all the bloody passenger traffic to contain this hellish virus @bill937ca there would be more room for freight 😉

I do appreciate PPE for front line workers takes priority over my kits from HS but why are passenger flights still happening, I don't get it 🙄

[bill937ca]

JAL has 9 flights a month to Heathrow.  You are lucky. It seems there are no flights to the US and Caanda other than JAL flights to Vancouver and Los Angles. June is listed as the earliest restart.

[Tony Galiani]

Jeff - sent an e-mail to MTP but don't expect to hear back until after the weekend.  Hopefully this will get sorted out but I am not too worried about it in light of  everything else going on.

HLJ is now only offering Fed Ex and one other option.  I chose Fed Ex which got my package to me surprisingly fast.

Regards,

Tony Galiani

[cteno4]

Toni,

 

how was the parcel sent from MTP? EMS? If so it’s probably stuck in the waiting for the limited cargo space que. Nariichi was not sure last I emailed to him if the shop was going to be open or not with further restrictions. He’s a good egg and will get it sorted out eventually for you. 
 

cheers,

 

jeff

[inobu]

Don't sweat it. I ordered some relay switches May 07 it will be delivered on May 12. ....................Their will call is 16 miles away....

It doesn't matter.

 

Inobu

 

[Cat]

HobbyLinkJapan just posted that they are offering 10% off DHL and FedEx costs through the end of May.

That's good timing for us.  We have a package load waiting in the Private Warehouse.  With a couple of weeks to go on the shipping offer, we'll see if any of the outlier backorder items we're waiting for might arrive in time for this order.

[roadstar_na6]

I‘m still waiting for a SAL parcel from HLJ that was shipped March 19th 😞

[cteno4]

I went to look at the two items I had in my private warehouse as hlj, a sankei house and a small cutting jig, $24/27 to ship FedEx or DHL (seems to be the minimum charge now)... funny as I did an order from hlj a few months back and it was like 1kg or so and shipped FedExFor I think $28 (maybe that was FedEx economy)! Guess the FedEx and DHL agreements they have have a steep minimum. Well guess they will stay in the suspended private warehouse and wait for SAL don’t know if I want to pay 50% of the price of the goods on shipping! 
 

jeff

[Cat]

They've both been raising their prices.  ZenMarket mentioned that when they started offering their 10% off the shipping cost, which is also currently running through the end of May.

A few days ago I was talking on the phone with EuroRail about an order.  They're  in Canada and also have an office in Washington state, so they can duck across the border and post packages directly here.  They're not re-stocking any German imports until shipping costs get back to normal; DHL from Germany has broken their contracts and pushed their prices astronomically through the roof.

On the plus side, they're doing great business while supplies last.  Everyone's staying home and modelling — last month was better than Christmas sales for them!

Edited May 12, 2020 by Cat

[chadbag]

EuroRail in Canada are good folks.  I bought several wagons from them for my Euro railways.

[Cat]

We've done business with them for years, very nice folks indeed!

[bill937ca]

Got a  note from Zenmarket today that  two cheap options  DHL Packet Standard and DHL Packet Plus.are again available 

[Cat]

Don't know if this is Covid related or not, but Rakuten Global Market is closing on 1 June, other Rakuten operations are continuing:
https://global.rakuten.com/en/event/close.html

[Jimbo]

I got a e mail from my friend Yohei at sunset blue train,,,, he can only send to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand ,Canada, an Germany,,  so I guess that leaves me out!!

[Morcs]

Anyone had any news from HS about the tonne of packages they had returned to them from the postal service?

I had requested mine be returned and refunded so I can place a revised order.

[cteno4]

It sounds like they are just completely backed up and it’s going to take a while. The last post on 5/1 was returned packages weren’t to local post and HS was worried they do not have the space to store them if they come back so they may be looking for storage space or still waiting for the post to return them. Even so going thru the pile of packages and dealing with what to do with each is going to be a huge task and they are short staffed.
 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/infodetails

 

at this point it’s going to just be patience as it could be a while.

 

jeff

[JR 500系]

Mandarake was really good this time round, although it took sometime.... I ordered a parcel from them with a kinda interesting set before the air flights got restricted and the parcel sat in the airport for quite sometime... After it finally returned to Mandarake, they actually offered me an option to send it through using DHL instead, and at no additional cost... Very nice! I was also given an option for a full refund, but as I wanted that set so I went ahead... 

 

And yes DHL still delivers despite this period; and at their usual super speed!  🙂

 

[roadstar_na6]

38 minutes ago, JR 500系 said:

Mandarake was really good this time round, although it took sometime

My parcel from them arrived in Germany 2 weeks ago and is still somewhere at the airport or the customs office in my town...

[chadbag]

I got a DHL from China with some PCBs yesterday.  Same speedy DHL service as it was picked up over the weekend at the factory.

[Tony Galiani]

I heard back fro m Nariichi and my parcel has not been returned to Model Trains Plus so it remains in limbo.  I told him that I would pay for Fed Ex or similar if it got returned to him though maybe it will eventually find its way to me from the PO in Japan.

 

Fortunately I recently purchased Construisez Presque Tout Avec Presque Rien! (Build Almost Everything With Almost Nothing!) from Loco-Revue in France.  Plenty of inspiration in there even if the projects don't relate directly to what I am working on.  Of course, if I was living on Tahiti I'm pretty sure there would be compensations for the lack of ready modelling materials!

 

Au revoir,

Tony

[Lawrence]

Well despite the debacle with my HS package, a small package with pre wired 0402 dual colour LEDs arrived from an Ali Express seller in 8 days.

@JR 500系 I hadn't come across Mandarake before you mentioned it, I can see this being an expensive discovery!

[Cat]

Mandarake's re-shipped by DHL at no extra charge package just arrived here!  Again, DHL made it fromTokyo to Boston in 2 days.  Just carefully opened the box down in the basement, but will let the Cassiopeia contents sit for another day before opening the bubble wrap since it got here so quickly.

[roadstar_na6]

My Mandarake parcel is waiting for me at the customs office to be picked up, hopefully on Monday

[Lawrence]

2 hours ago, Cat said:

Mandarake's re-shipped by DHL at no extra charge package just arrived here!  Again, DHL made it fromTokyo to Boston in 2 days.  Just carefully opened the box down in the basement, but will let the Cassiopeia contents sit for another day before opening the bubble wrap since it got here so quickly.

I see they still have a Cassiopeia EF81 for approx £23  looks absolutely mint condition. If only I needed another loco 🙄