SAL Shipping

[cteno4]

I also wonder if at times customs gets backed up. In that case I'm guessing SAL is the last to get looked at as I'm sure EMS and regular airmail get priority. My last long package that had the registered tracking showed it sat on the US side for a lost 4 weeks.

 

Larger sized packages may take longer to get on the plane, for a long time I use to get little single tram packages by regular SAL in a week and the regular sized packages right at 12-14 days like clockwork. Now all are 2-3 week with a few exceptions. But again the savings pays off in the long run and I actually like the random delivery surprise than the scheduled drop!

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

[Sascha]

I second Jeffs guess. I just had a registered package stuck at customs for 8 days. That was the longest ever.

Edited October 31, 2015 by Sascha

[Eurostar25]

Is that similar to this package I've got on the way?

I've never seen "retention" before... Guessing this means it's held up at the border?

[Sascha]

Is that similar to this package I've got on the way?

I've never seen "retention" before... Guessing this means it's held up at the border?

From what I know, If you get retention on a tracking page, it means that it arrived in the post office and it's being kept there until they give you the paper to come and pick it up.

[EF65 1100]

Is that similar to this package I've got on the way?

I've never seen "retention" before... Guessing this means it's held up at the border?

Usually, when a package arrives in the destination country, it is best to track it on the destination country's post office website, in this case, New Zealand Post - https://www.nzpost.co.nz/tools/tracking/item/RR386907288JP

 

The exchanges between different country's post system sometimes are interpreted incorrectly or simply don't make sense in another country... :)

[Eurostar25]

Thanks for that, I never thought to plug it into the local courier's website. Definitely a bit more relieved now.

[Robert46]

I also have one parcel with Registered SAL still in customs retention.. normal total days for delivery could take 10-20days.. but the last parcel was the longest one, around 1 month or more.. this was because Customs asking for official documents such as invoice etc to assess the tax value.. and for the last one I got taxed pretty high.. the procedure is for posted parcels with the value higher than 50USD will be taxed.. but not necessarily practical as for now even parcels with value below 50 USD was also taxed too.. pretty confusing with our customs regulations here these days..

 

Do you guys from US, Australia or Europe also got taxed when receiving parcels whether it be SAL registered or unregistered or EMS?

 

In addition, I myself always prefer to choose shipping option with tracking facility so I can monitor the status of delivery...

[cteno4]

Luckily toys from Japan to the USA have no tariff! Things like linear accelerators do have a 1.5% tariff though!

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

[katoftw]

Got another 26 days old.  Not too worried this time since the last took 35 days.  Mustn't be many parcels JPN to AUS recently and they shipments are getting drawn out.

31 days this time.

 

Tomytec Romaning Sage Kiha 125s

Tomytec Shell Petrol Station

Tomix Shell Petrol Trucks.

[cteno4]

Bummer, looks like a slowdown maybe in aus customs like we had in the us last winter (even EMS slowed to 5-6 days). I'm sure SAL is the last in line getting processed at customs as well as getting on a flight.

 

I wonder if AUS post has changed the domestic shipping to the lowest rung for SAL. We have lost our slow parcel post shipping here in the states so it's all either priority or express so I assume the SAL parcels must just go thru the us domestic shipping as priority mail now.

 

Jeff

[Fenway Park]

Moving house earlier this year meant one SAL packet went AWOL. The local postman was a nightmare!!! If you were not at home, you were not guaranteed a card through the letter box. So as far as I was concerned it was somewhere in the system. 

 

Recently received an E mail from HS to say it had been returned to them. Now on its way again to a new address.

[cteno4]

Well I may have had my first Package from Japan go bad. It was SAL so not insured. It was water damage... Box with some tomytec mechs in them got soaked and box then crushed due to soggy cardboard. Box held together, but the tomytec boxes fell apart inside some and mechs a little scrambled due to tomytec boxes coming apart and the exterior box crushing. I've been able to reassemble everything and drying them throughly so will see if they will work. Hopefully not moist for too long for corrosion to start or get into the motors much. Luckily the can motors are pretty sealed up. Outside was pretty well dry but the core pretty soggy so did not happen on the last leg locally, but not sure where/when it got wet. Unfortunately the tomytec boxes were not wrapped in plastic inside the box.

 

Oh well, hopefully they will work, but even so I'm so self insured with SAL savings after hundreds of packages it was bound to happen.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[katoftw]

Better wet than lost. Maybe.

[Melandir]

Better wet than lost. Maybe.

 

I agree with Kato,

 

it's better wet than lost, at least you can always try to fix it

[katoftw]

So after the 31 day SAL package.  I receive a 12 day SAL package.  Confused!

Edited November 12, 2015 by katoftw

[cteno4]

That sounds like the backlog got cleared and hopefully its back onto a more normal schedule! guessing customs and destination country SAL gets low priority so if any slowups they get hit the most.

 

jeff

[kvp]

Imho SAL is batched, so it can wait around until a large enough batch gets collected to the next hop and/or enough unused space is left over on one of the carriers. The number of hops, the average amount of traffic going that direction and the frequency of the carrier service determines the wait times at each hop. Best case is EMS speed and i think there is a worst case (or largest delay) defined somewhere.

[cteno4]

Most of the Sal delays appear to be on the destination country side. This has been the case on all the tracked SAL shipments iv had. SAL goes when there is space on the plane. From the tracked packages it's at the Japanese airport 1-3 day max and is off. Then the rest of the time it's all destination country customs, processing, shipping and delivery. This is where I see the hold ups could vary a lot as first you need to deal with local customs, in some countries Sal seems to slip blow the radar here if small and not too expensive, others I could see it getting lowest priority in customs over first class and EMS. With the US we don't have any customs/duty on most everything coming from Japan, but I expect it still has to go thru some sort of quick sort at the entry point.

 

Then it will go out for the in country delivery and I sure in most countries it gets processed and shipped at the cheapest package shipping option and thus slow speed...

 

All in all it can give rise to some variation in shipping time. In the last 15+ years I'd say 90%+ of the packages were pretty dead on 14 days to the us here in DC. The rest were 15-30 days, and usually these were in bunches which leads me to believe it was from some slow up for a period of time here in the us arrival/customs/processing.

 

i still believe it's a great way to go if you can wait a bit as I've saved many thousands of dollars over the years! This can go into more trains! Or sushi!

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[katoftw]

2 years ago it used to be a 14 day turnaround with SAL.  In in that 2 years, it has been getting progressively slower and slower. ie 4-6 months of 17, then 21, then 24, skipped 27 days. Where the last few months have been 30-35 days.  Then bang, back to 14 days.  Will have to wait and see after then next order.

 

The one positive aspect is that it has slowed down my purchases.  I tend to wait for the previous order to come in before I make another order.  So good for my wallet, not so good for my patience. haha

Edited November 12, 2015 by katoftw

[cteno4]

Good for your patience, patience takes practice! Instant gratification leads to little patience!

 

same thing happened here in the us last year and seems to have for the most part reset, but a couple of later boxes but for the most part back to 14 days. I also noticed the few EMS boxes I did do were more like 5 days, when it was always 2-3 in the past.

 

Jeff

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Never lost or late.

[JR 500系]

must be the festive period... the parcels are taking longer than usual. usually SAL reaches me within 2 weeks, it is now the 3rd week for this ~ Glad at least there is a tracking for this option...

 

 

[bill937ca]

It takes longer and things are about to shut down for the Winter holiday.  

 

Hobby Search orders must be paid by 6am December 26th.  Then HS is closed December 30-January 4th.  Order processing resumes on January 5, 2017.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/info2017_e.html

[Rod.H]

A few of my recent Hobby Search shipments made an appearance in Sydney yesterday or today, one went for a customs examination too. Most of them were sent out in November, I'd other items from them sent to me around the same time beat it here.  

[cteno4]

Bummer, that's a long time. Sal got very variable here for a while but seems to have settled down to just around 2-2.5 weeks to DC here. But I just oand out from our postman that our zip code here is the second highest package per address in the nation! Don't know if that would speed delivery or make it worse though...

 

Customs I'm sure plays a roll in the speed. Ive never had a package opened by Costoms here but a few EMS packages that seemed to be taking their time tracking showed the extra time was the package sitting in Costoms here in the us.

 

Postal services are kind of the twilight zone. Luckily overall I have great luck with stuff from all over the world here.

 

Glad the packages showed up!

 

Jeff