Question About Shipping From China To USA

Greetings,

I ordered an item from a site in China that sent a tracking number beginning in "EE" that was shipped Express Mail International via the US Postal service.

The package was "Accepted" on 12/30/11 at 3:35pm and "Processed Through Sort Facility" on 12/30/11 at 9:05pm. A little while later (no time and date on the tracking) it began showing "Origin Post Is Preparing Shipment" and has been that status since.

Since some time late 12/30/11 or early 12/31/11 there has been no updates to the tracking.

Is the lack of updated tracking information for 3 or 4 days normal for shipments from China to the US? Does this indicate my package has left China but not arrived in the US yet?

Any thoughts or experience is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Glenn

GAtkins said:

Any thoughts or experience is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Glenn

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1. Take deep breath.

2. Stop checking tracking info every couple of hours.

3. Forget you even ordered a laser.

4. On month from now when it arrives, act all surprised and happy!

Origin Post preparing shipment basically means it's in a crate somewhere, waiting for more crates, before they are all shipped together to the US.

Especially right around this time, shipment might take a little while longer. Best not to stress over it, unless it's been at least 3-4 weeks.

Great advice, thank you. Not stressing at all, just curious if it was normal and kinda suspected it was. Thanks for confirming.

Glenn

Edited to add: I have also noticed that even on domestic (within the US) shipping via USPS, the tracking information is rarely up to the minute and lags other carriers by a wide margin.

I did exactly what you did and found that the tracking info never changed from its initial "dispatched to US" type message (i don't remember how it worded it) until it arrived. USPS has the worst tracking system of any couriers IMO, and it's even worse when you're trying to track international shipments. Don't worry, even though it's excruciatingly slow, it seems almost always the laser does eventually come, even though it may not feel like it.

Good luck

Same advice as every one has given. The tracking won't update until it reaches the US and sometimes even then the tracking won't update until it has arrived.

Ok, now it says "Processed Through Sort Facility" in San Francisco and the next (later) line item says "Inbound Into Customs."

Is "Inbound Into Customs" bad for me or is this the routine next step? Just trying to learn....

Thanks.

Glenn

Completely routine. All packages go through customs, it's nothing to worry about.

Yes, all packages goes through customs, but it's only a few percent of them that actually gets checked.

But remember that >5mW lasers are illegal in the US!

jellex900 said:

But remember that >5mW lasers are illegal in the US!

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Just a correction; >5mW Pointers or Handhelds without FDA required safety features are illegal. You can own whatever power module or handheld with safety features you wish.

The only safety feature I don't like is the headphone nub thing at the bottom. Just feels/looks silly. Other than that, I wouldn't mind a safety host.

jellex900 said:

Yes, all packages goes through customs, but it's only a few percent of them that actually gets checked.

But remember that >5mW lasers are illegal in the US!

Click to expand...

Not true. You could own a 500,000mW hand held pointer if you want but it is illegal to sell them without FDA approval and FDA safety features. Actual possession of one is not illegal.

EDIT- sigurthr beat me to it.

Ahh, don't worry. China takes a while to ship. Consider arranging a flight from China to the USA. All the way around the world for a low price of shipping... not to mention sometimes free. If you like to check often, check every 1-2 days at 4-5pm, because they scan usually at 2pm and it takes a few hours for the website to synchronize.