Gear Purchase from European Website

[Manatee Diver]

Make sure the shipping is something other than postal shipping. It took almost 3 months for a package to come from Germany to the US via air mail. Over half that time was in the US, as everything is running slow. The back log is so massive that the USPS is sometimes just throwing the non-priority air mail into containers and shipping them.

Now DHL express packages are still pretty fast, I had a shipment come from Japan using DHL express and it was three business days. But those come a completely different route through Cincinnati and clear customs in hours instead of days/weeks. But DHL Express can be pretty pricey.

Shipping, with DHL, on the other hand, becomes an often pricey consideration (and that parcel temporarily disappears into a DHL pocket universe, where physics are horribly awry and no one knows or can really be sure of its immediate location or even potential existence -- regardless of any illusory "shipment has arrived in the destination country / destination area" update -- until it actually manifests itself at your front door)

Most of that pocket universe is on USPS's end. Your package disappears into the customs center, and then a near by sort facility. Before COVID it was for a few days at each location, now it is 3 weeks at each location. And don't bother trying to call about a status, literally there is nothing you can do.

 

[rjack321]

Now DHL express packages are still pretty fast, I had a shipment come from Japan using DHL express and it was three business days. But those come a completely different route through Cincinnati and clear customs in hours instead of days/weeks. But DHL Express can be pretty pricey.

DHL from Europe has usually taken 3ish weeks for me. The packages having tracking numbers but they also just seem to sit for weeks at a time in the system.

 

[Manatee Diver]

DHL from Europe has usually taken 3ish weeks for me. The packages having tracking numbers but they also just seem to sit for weeks at a time in the system.

Was it delivered by the USPS? If so that is regular DHL. Every package I've had shipped through DHL Express was a few days at most. Of course I paid quite a pretty penny for that speed.

 

[taimen]

Many different shipping products are sold under DHL brand in Europe. DHL Express is the fast one.
Outgoing deliveries from Germany are often branded DHL but are actually carried by regular postal services after leaving Germany.

 

[Manatee Diver]

Many different shipping products are sold under DHL brand in Europe. DHL Express is the fast one.
Outgoing deliveries from Germany are often branded DHL but are actually carried by regular postal services after leaving Germany.

Isn't DHL and the Deutsche Post owned by the same company?

 

[taimen]

Isn't DHL and the Deutsche Post owned by the same company

Yes. IMO they sometimes use the DHL brand confusingly since many people associate that with express delivery.

 

[mmcmah]

Agreed. My experience with DHL has been very good when it is an Express shipment. I have gotten things in 1-3 days once it reaches the exit point in the country where the package is coming from. That's usually the longest part, if a seller is in a remote part of the origin country.

 

[Manatee Diver]

Yes. IMO they sometimes use the DHL brand confusingly since many people associate that with express delivery.

I noticed that, the postal package that took 3 months was a DHL package. But I figured out pretty quickly that it was postal as the tracking sites are different.

 

[rjack321]

Was it delivered by the USPS? If so that is regular DHL. Every package I've had shipped through DHL Express was a few days at most. Of course I paid quite a pretty penny for that speed.

Correct

regular DHL = Deutsch Post to USPS