Missing Records - Is This Just Bad Luck

[Shaun W]

In all the years I've been collecting I've never experienced packages that failed to arrive, until recently that is : -

I've bought 1000's of records through Ebay, Gemm, UK and US dealers and many other on-line stores in the last 20 odd years and perhaps I've been fortunate in that they have all arrived safely and undamaged. There has been one or two issues with condition but the packages have always arrived. However, in the last month two packages have gone missing, both were purchases from France, and both were from different reputable dealers. The records were not expensvie, both in the £40 to £60 category, and I'm as certain as I can be that the fault is not with the dealers.

This might just have been bad luck , particularly as I've not experienced this previously, or perhaps French mail is less reliable than UK or US mail.

I was wondering if anyone else had issues with mail not arriving from specific territories and if France was more problematic than other countries.

Cheers

Shaun

[boba]

I'm in the US and I get 1-2 packages missing a year. Surprisingly, the worst place to get stuff from (to the US at least) is Canada. Half my missing packages are from Canada and it takes forever (much longer than from the UK) to get here.

[Pete S]

In all the years I've been collecting I've never experienced packages that failed to arrive, until recently that is : -

I've bought 1000's of records through Ebay, Gemm, UK and US dealers and many other on-line stores in the last 20 odd years and perhaps I've been fortunate in that they have all arrived safely and undamaged. There has been one or two issues with condition but the packages have always arrived. However, in the last month two packages have gone missing, both were purchases from France, and both were from different reputable dealers. The records were not expensvie, both in the £40 to £60 category, and I'm as certain as I can be that the fault is not with the dealers.

This might just have been bad luck , particularly as I've not experienced this previously, or perhaps French mail is less reliable than UK or US mail.

I was wondering if anyone else had issues with mail not arriving from specific territories and if France was more problematic than other countries.

Cheers

Shaun

I've had a few problems sending stuff to France Shaun but not vice-versa. I once sent a record to Belgium that took 4 weeks to arrive. That's the longest European transaction I can remember so maybe give it 3-4 weeks. I sent a recorded delivery out recently to Kingswinford which is literally 3 miles from here. The royal mail lost it.

[Amsterdam Russ]

My experience of the French postal system has been excellent. Items coming from there to where I am - the Netherlands - arrive very quickly indeed. In fact, regular post appears to travel faster than 'signed for' items. Bought two 45s on the same day a couple of weeks ago, both from different sellers in France. One was sent signed for, the other wasn't. The 45 that wasn't registered turned up in two days whilst the signed for item took a week.

Now, post from the States, that's another thing. Normally very good indeed, I've currently got three items outstanding; the most overdue having been bought a month ago.

[boba]

people complain about the italy postal system a lot in my experience...

[Guest allnightandy]

Made a big mistake once changed my pounds into u s dollars in local asian post office and handed my letters back to the guy who had just changed the money for me

needless to say neither ever arrived and as the dealers specified cash there was no other way so i never got my records

another American in new Orleans took my money for an Okeh demo but then informed me he had lost all his records in a hurricane

i tried to get my money back via paypal but nothing happened untill twelve months later when he credited my account with the money

[Stevie]

Same thing happened to me. Last few months record from France failed to arrive and another from Italy.

I'm sure the problem is down to the postal service and not the individual, however, based on this and the experiences of others I have now decided to restrict my buying and selling to UK/US only. This has cost me a couple of sales already but having to make a claim against a seller for a 'not received' is not nice and I would not like to find myself in a similar position.

[Soulgrit]

Hi Shaun, I regular buy albums from Europe and America/Canada, the one's from Europe are basically from France and Germany (various dealers) and I find that they are usually delivered within a week to 10 days, never had any problems (touch wood).

Hope your records arrive for you .

Willie

Edited February 27, 2012 by Soulgrit

[Chalky]

I recently bought from France and it arrived within the week. I got opinions though about the dealer and would do the same again for French, Belgian and Italian dealers. Many won't even ship to these countries now, seen plenty of descriptions on ebay saying they won't ship to these or they have to be fully insured and trackable.

[Kjw]

Same as Chalky I always try and check the reputation of the seller if it's France or Italy

I don't buy anything from Belgium - heard too many bad stories in the past

The most efficient postal service has to be Japan

[Guest]

The most efficient postal service has to be Japan

We do our best

[Derek Pearson]

I regularly sell the odd bits n bats through Ebay to anywhere in the world and as far as I can recall I don't think I've had more than one item a year go missing in the post.

Obviously it's a bit of a percentage game depending of how many items you mail out each month - if you send out say 100 a month (25 a week) there's more chance of the odd thing going awol compared to somebody that might just post say 10 a month.

As Chalky says many sellers now stipulate they won't sell to certain countries with Italy and Russia being the most frequently mentioned.

The socialist in me immediately thought "blimey it's like apartheid not selling records to certain countries" so I took the view I'd rather sell items to all countries anywhere in the world and put up with the odd ball ache if any problems do arise.

It's not the fault of the people living in those countries if their postal service is unreliable/corrupt etc so why should they be penalised?

Though I could see an opposite arguement saying well if their postal service is that bad why don't they complain and try bring about a change. Yeah right....

Once again I'd taken the moral high ground and did what I thought was right and guess what happened next........

Yep bang on cue I had 2 items go missing in the same week (laughs) - one to Sweden and one to Russia.

And because we all like a happy ending I'm glad to say the swedish one landed after 4 weeks floating about somewhere.

derek

Oh but the Russian one didn't and he left me negative feedback which scuppered my shiny virgin 100% feedback rating (smile).

I'm sure there's a moral somewhere in that story and one day I'll figure it out hahaha.

And no I won't stop mailing to Russia.

Edited February 27, 2012 by Derek Pearson

[Amsterdam Russ]

Same as Chalky I always try and check the reputation of the seller if it's France or Italy

I don't buy anything from Belgium - heard too many bad stories in the past

The most efficient postal service has to be Japan

Never had a problem with 45s coming out of Belgium. Bought something last week, in fact, and it arrived in just a couple of days.

[Benji]

Never had a problem with 45s coming out of Belgium. Bought something last week, in fact, and it arrived in just a couple of days.

Problem with Belgium wasn't the post but a bunch of pretty dodgy dealers ripping off folks. But they're long gone now, aren't they?

I'd still sell/send worldwide but would insist on signed for/insured post to the countries mentioned e.g. France, Italy, Russia.

[Ric-tic]

i recieve a bank statement from france every month, it arrives one or two days after it was posted without fail for the last 4 years

[Mrtag]

I had a record take nearly 8 weeks from France middle of last year!! had almost given up on it but the dealer kept on assuring me it would arrive!! and it finally did!!

[Wiganer1]

once lost a velvets issue on 20th century,,,hurt at the time...

[boba]

I gotta say the few guys I deal within Italy are fantastic! The Italian postal system on the other hand is not so good, a couple of weeks before Christmas I sent a registered package to Italy, on the 19th December according to the Royal Mail website it arrived in Milan, it took until early February for my package to arrive at it's destination in northern Italy by which time I had refunded my buyer as we both thought it had been lost. The odd thing with sending registered mail to Italy from the UK is that they don't seem to obtain a signature on delivery over there! This is not just a one way thing though as I've had packages from Italy sent registered and when they've arrived here in the UK the postman has just pushed them through the door, quite often the signature counterfoil has been crossed out by someone at Royal Mail, it's as if both the Italian & British postal services do not recognise each others registered mail system although they'll both gladly take your money for a service that neither provide!

I have (many times) gotten registered mail from italy to the US where I had to sign for it. UK must have some special system for some reason.

[Guest sharmo 1]

All I can say is that I regulary buy from Jamaica and they allways arrive late and it's not the postal system it's when the buggars post them ( acording to the postal dates ) although I've never lost one but condition is a little flexable !!! .i think the Ja' boy's a little too chilled sometimes (plus a little too much short term memory loss !! lol ) see ya. .s.

[Douglaschip]

I've been waiting for a Sam Dees record from Brazil ordered through GEMM since November - to be fair I am getting occasional updates from seller but not arrived or sorted yet - beginning to think I am unlikely to see it!!

[Guest David Ryan]

I've been fortunate everything has turned up although condition has been questionable-baby Washington with a crack thru it from the states - ive had stuff show from the u.s in 4 days,Germany 3 days! And France 3 weeks!-I take no chances when I sell-recorded everytime

[Ceejay]

I;ve personally found that although France is geographically closer than the UK, postal wise^{................France is much slower.......and Germany!!}

^{Tend to find that records from the States always get here quicker!!!}

[Suzannek]

I;ve personally found that although France is geographically closer than the UK, postal wise^{................France is much slower.......and Germany!!}

^{Tend to find that records from the States always get here quicker!!!}

I can concur about Germany, it took 8 weeks for my copy of Lois Blaine 'Here Am I' to come from there quite a few years ago. The bloke said he wasn't a professional seller so it had taken him weeks to send it, I felt like replying I wasn't a professional buyer, but I still paid him straightaway!

Suz

x

[mikeysoul]

Not really had a problem from overseas packages, however, I ordered a 45 mid-January from Rainham (28 miles from me in Southend). This has never come. Was only £7.50 and the seller kindly refunded, but strange when all the overseas ones are received. I would rather have the record as it had been pretty hard to find.

The seller said 3 packages from the same batch had not been received. Might be lucky and its just got stuck somewhere but doubt it.

Mike

[Marc Forrest]

post in germany is sadly not what it used to be anymore. since years I am having a po box. when the german post stopped to have their own offices in favour of having licenced/franchise "offices" in petrol stations, super markets and newsagencies (part of globalization affecting your every day life I guess..!) I ended up with a po box in the backroom of a local newsagency. It was when I noticed more and more post adressed to other parties arriving in my po box that I started worrying same thing will (..must) happen to some of my post as well...currently missing two packages that are looong overdue (over a month), a uk seller did send me a package in september which never arrived. this plus the ever increasing greed of our customs will let me more and more decide on ups or fedex as postal options for more dear items. as a sender I lost three packages in more than 20 years, one in germany, one to england (although this was found again by the royal post ... only to went lost again) and one to the us.

[Weego]

I'm from France and in about 15 years of buying and 2 years of selling a few records, I've never experienced anything wrong. I usually tend to buy or sell pricey records registered for safety, but every record arrived to its destination. One thing is very surprising is that packages from France to U.S and vice-versa often go way much quicker than UK to France (and vice-versa).

In my experience, french mail is very reliable, although its reputation...

[Cheapsiderecords]

Canada Post is terrible. They offer registered but you cannot track it once it crosses the border? I get a couple of emails a week from UK buyers asking for an update. Also, I have already had 3 no delivery claims this year!!! One from Mexico, one from Japan and at the moment one from US.

[Guest Lobster Madras]

Well this is further evidence that I'm going to look at UPS and other freight firms as a means to send my expensive 45s ... I've very lucky to not have lost a parcel in 1000s of orders sending out since the late 80s and lost only 1 sent to me since the mid 70s but recently it looks like I've lost a £75 record to the UK.. The french postal system here is normally reliable, slow but stupidly expensive for recorded and insured services; I have a number of dealer/collector friends here who mail out big 3 figure discs all the time to all over the world and it works more than 99 per cent of the time....I didn't insure this one recent parcel and the buyer claims its not arrived so the seller loses.... I'm sticking to only posting cheapies from now on unless I know and trust the buyer..

Edited February 28, 2012 by Lobster Madras

[trog]

Same as Chalky I always try and check the reputation of the seller if it's France or Italy

I don't buy anything from Belgium - heard too many bad stories in the past

The most efficient postal service has to be Japan

Agree with all of this...everything from Japan arrives super fast. I had a 45 from the U.S. arrive in four days last week too!

Slightly off topic but one thing that really gets my goat is sellers who charge you for 1st class postage , then post the item ten days or so after payment!. The way i see it, they might as well send it 2nd class and just get their arse down the post office a day earlier! ....or just strap it to the back of a tortoise the day i pay!...

[boba]

Well this is further evidence that I'm going to look at UPS and other freight firms as a means to send my expensive 45s ... I've very lucky to not have lost a parcel in 1000s of orders sending out since the late 80s and lost only 1 sent to me since the mid 70s but recently it looks like I've lost a £75 record to the UK.. The french postal system here is normally reliable, slow but stupidly expensive for recorded and insured services; I have a number of dealer/collector friends here who mail out big 3 figure discs all the time to all over the world and it works more than 99 per cent of the time....I didn't insure this one recent parcel and the buyer claims its not arrived so the seller loses.... I'm sticking to only posting cheapies from now on unless I know and trust the buyer..

I would research the reliability of the service (UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc.) before using it, it might not be a better alternative. In my experience in the US, UPS is horrible and will throw a package out the window of their truck anywhere within a block of your house. My neighbor once found a package of mine soaking in a puddle in the back alley where it was raining hard. It wasn't even in any secure area. The worst is their phone customer service, it's like some kind of practical joke where you get transferred all over the place to confused people who have no connection to the previous people. Once I was talking to one of their support people and they gave me a "reference number". The next person I talked to said "there's no such thing as reference numbers." WTF????

[John Moffatt]

The worst experiences I've had were when, on two occasions, our wonderful British Post Office couldn't deliver parcels from the States because I wasn't in, didn't leave a failed-to-deliver card, and promptly returned both to the sender. I eventually got both records about nine months late thanks to the honesty and professionalism of the US sellers involved. Otherwise, apart from a couple of minor delays I've never had an issue sending to, or receiving from, anywhere in the world. Ok, that's only maybe a couple of thousande transactions over ten years, but it's not a bad record from posties generally.

John

Edited February 28, 2012 by John Moffatt

[nickp]

A recent 45, which I had purchased through Soul Source, went missing and was only coming to Scotland from England !

However, the seller, CHICKENBUCKET,not only sent me a replacement, but included an extra jazzy 45 for free because of the inconvenience.

Respect.

Nick.

[Shaun W]

Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

One of the missing records arrived this morning.

[Mike]

are there any "official" figures on the % of royal mail stuff that does go missing ?

(eg that they know about and owe up to)

[Fuzzyjonclay]

I ordered a 7" from the USA a few months ago, and after 5 weeks it hadn't arrived. I contacted the seller who swore blind that he'd posted it Airmail. The very next day it turned up absolutely soaking wet... and I mean ABSOLUTELY!! The record had been just slipped in bubblewrap in it's sleeve which had disintegrated due to the wet.... still played though Lordy knows what had happened to it on its journey!!

Apart from that I've never had stuff missing that's come to me, although I have had stuff go missing that I've sent out to people outside the UK. With this in mind I always now obtain proof of postage from the Post Office (you can download a form from the Royal Mail website). Of course, this doesn't make it any better for the buyer, but at least it proves you sent it when it comes down to a Paypal query or insurance refund.

Despite all the mentions of problems with Italy & France, I have never ever had an issue. Saying that though, an Italian friend of mine confirmed that the Italian postal service (especially in the Naples region) is absolutely rife with theft....

[Pete S]

I ordered a 7" from the USA a few months ago, and after 5 weeks it hadn't arrived. I contacted the seller who swore blind that he'd posted it Airmail. The very next day it turned up absolutely soaking wet... and I mean ABSOLUTELY!! The record had been just slipped in bubblewrap in it's sleeve which had disintegrated due to the wet.... still played though Lordy knows what had happened to it on its journey!!

Apart from that I've never had stuff missing that's come to me, although I have had stuff go missing that I've sent out to people outside the UK. With this in mind I always now obtain proof of postage from the Post Office (you can download a form from the Royal Mail website). Of course, this doesn't make it any better for the buyer, but at least it proves you sent it when it comes down to a Paypal query or insurance refund.

Despite all the mentions of problems with Italy & France, I have never ever had an issue. Saying that though, an Italian friend of mine confirmed that the Italian postal service (especially in the Naples region) is absolutely rife with theft....

I had one of those recently - a soaking wet parcel, record was alright, most of the cardboard had disintegrated

[Amsterdam Russ]

are there any "official" figures on the % of royal mail stuff that does go missing ?

(eg that they know about and owe up to)

A quick trawl online turned up this courtesy of someone's request through the Freedom of Information Act. Just to be clear, these figures relate to the UK's Royal Mail (so figures are in pounds Sterling).

Mis-delivery... now if ever a term was conjured up out of a PR exec's hat..!