international mail.. whats the deal?

[mantisman07]

isis and i sorted a deal whereby we where swapping a few ooths and nymphs, so we both sent off our parcels on monday/tuesday first class with the little recipt things as PofP.

still both of us have nothing. now i know that isis is in poland and im in uk, but for first class this is a little silly eh? postal services have gone downhill recently, and now we have to worry if the nymphs are going to be ok!!

i know we have proof of posting things but what if we never recieve the parcels, can we claim even though its abroad??

and i put fragile, live cargo on mine, anyone know the postage laws abroad? should i have put that?

i just dont want it to take weeks. isis said poland is the worst in europe for post, anyone else had these troubles??

mantisman07

 

[ellroy]

Not sure exactly what the postage laws are but I do not the postal service to and from the UK is very unreliable. I had a parcel of ooths sent from Denmark recently which took over a week to arrive.

Unfortunately I think the only sure way round this is to send stuff by special delivery which offers a guaruntee of next day delivery....at a steep price!

BTW, personally I would never write more than 'FRAGILE' on the parcel if you are sending it via normal post.

Alan

 

[Ian]

Hi Isis,

It can be dodgey sending nymphs via royal mail...especially in the winter, and especially in going abroad. You can almost guarantee, even if you pay an extra £8 for airsure delivery, it will not arrive in under 5 days.

I think your best bet if you want to send nymphs, is to wait for the summer...but ootheca should be okay.

Many may know I have had some terrible experience with the RM, as you can see by my previous posts, but this years best one was when I had to refund a pair of tickets (£180) because they were sent next day delivery (GUARANTEED), which was the day of the gig, and they arrived 6 days after I sent them!

If you want precise timing, use FEDEX, or TNT, and certainly not the RM.

Thanks!

 

[timp]

Yes use a 'proper' courier, dont get me started on royal mail!

 

[Isis]

Well, I told mantisboy07 clearly, that I prefer sending ooths and I cannot guarantee what is going to happen with the nymphs. I am afraid some will be dead after a week of journey, but I have a slight hope for them to come alive. You see... in Poland we have one of the worst post services in Europe and even inside the country express mail is delivered after 3(!) days, or even 5. Even though I managed to succesfully send the nymphs by packing in cotton wool, solid paper and tightly cut foamed polystyrene.

But I had no problem before when I was receiving mantids from outside Poland- Czech Republik and once from UK. They've come after 3 and 4 days without a delay.

Anyways I never put anything about live-animals, I will post some info about what I will come across at the post office when I finally receive my parcel. In any case I'm going to say there are bee queens in there. That's not far from the truth and I think it will spare me some explanations. In fact ANY mantis species apart from M. religiosa is not prohibited to import so mantisboy07 is not a criminalist

Stay tuned for the info

 

[mantisman07]

the royal mail are usually ok, but im not sure about polands isis. anyway i have faith they will both arrive soon.

royal mail actually kept a parcel i sent to a guy in luxemburg a few years ago. i didnt put a return address on the parcel, and they wouldnt deliver it as i had put live insects in transit on the parcel, i had to request the parcel back and then file for losses which took me 18weeks to recieve!!

anyway isis has a recipt and i have written proof of first class postage so if anything goes wrong we can go strait to the post office i guess.

would we be able to claim money back???

its only really the nymphs im worried about, the ooths should be just fine.

mantisman07

 

[Ian]

I think you may as well forget about first class postage, it would be much better to use international signed for, or Airsure delivery. This way you can track the parcel.

 

[mantisman07]

true, its just the cost, v expensive!

well we will see what happens anyway. just hope they are ok.

 

[Ian]

I agree, it is so overpriced...and it's not even like you get your moneys worth!

Best of luck, let us know how you get on.

 

[mantisman07]

thanks ian, hopefully we will both recieve tomorrow.

if either of us dont recieve, does anyone know how we go about getting postage money back / reimbursed for mantis??

 

[Ian]

If you want to claim a refund, then you have to pick up a claim form from your local post office. However, it is not just as easy as going in, filling it in, handing the form in, and then claiming your money. You have to wait a certain amount of time, and then I believe you have to wait a certain period for the "investigation" into the loss of the parcel.

Not the easiest process ever...a lot of times I have found it much easier to issue to the customer a refund, and not bother with trying to claim the money back.

I am sure I could go through all of my next day delivery receipts and claim back a huge amount of money from lost/late parcels!

 

[mantisman07]

well, ill see wot happens, hopefully both parcels will be recieved in good nick.