Deteriorating service from Asian shipping companies?

Hi everyone,

This post isn’t specific to the order fulfillment time of any particular vendor, but rather about the logistics and service of the shipping companies once the package is in their hands.

Has anybody noticed a significant worsening in service from the Asian shipping companies recently? (Singapore Post, China Post, 4PX, etc.)? I’m no stranger to the intricacies of the international shipping networks, and I actually find it quite fascinating the way that packages generally arrive despite all of the chaos and hand-offs that occur during the long and convoluted process. Since I started BLF, I’ve received hundreds of packages from Asia, and not a single one was ever lost. Delayed, yes, but lost no. But now, with various eBay orders that I made in the June - July timeframe, for the first time ever I’ve received reimbursement for two lost orders, one by a no-name shipping service for a very cheap and small parcel, and the other for a larger and rather expensive item that Singapore Post lost. And now several other orders through Singapore Post appear to be experiencing delays just like the other lost package did.

I know that Singapore Post has mentioned on their website that the hurricane season has caused trouble for them due to suspension of flights. But it seems like a deeper issue than that. A GearBest rep also suggested here that international shipping from Asia is a mess at the moment. Am I the only one? Or have others noted a significant deterioration in shipping service recently?

I ordered a thorfire s70s at the beginning of the summer from a “trusted” AliExpress seller. I did finally receive the flashlight but that was only after waiting exactly 59 days after the package was marked as shipped by the seller. I have heard other members here and other forums where there seems to be anecdotal evidence of overall longer shipping times from China based companies.

Order and forget
At any moment there are parcels on route so we get stuff regularly
For some items the wait seems longer though (Q8 and a small 16340 light I am really looking forward to)

Would be bad if a big player has serious issues so thanks for the topic, hope others know more.

sb, I think there has been a lot of pressure on China to stop, or lessen the subsidizing, and for the UN Postal Union to stop treating China as a third world country when it comes to preferential postal pricing.

I’m sure there are a lot of politics involved, especially when China holds a lot of debt with many nations, especially the US.

It’s very possible the Chinese government is putting the squeeze on conventional shipping , forcing Chinese vendors to find ever cheaper ways to mail something. I’ve received a few packages from China via DHL lately. They arrive in 3 days, but I paid dearly for that service.

@RobertB: hmmm interesting, thanks for the insight.

yes i noticed that too, before june or july order from China is fast and tracking is reliable. I thought i am the only one who experience this recently all the orders that i have take unusually long time and also increase not only transit time but handling time.

Yeah i had a couple of small packages from Ali never arrive.
Also some broken pocket clips (probably stepped on…)
And the parts for the S42 can’t seem to find their way to my address.

No, it’s as bad as ever :sunglasses:

I can also report some issues, namely these last two years and when going super cheap on certain stuff. A package of cheap eBay CR2032 cells arrived home after almost 3 months, money was reimbursed already. A couple shipments never arrived, one from AliExpress and another from eBay; don't really know what to think, the eBay one probably was never shipped (tracking number never worked), getting the seller a two month loan (LoL!).

Correos (Spanish mail service company) made an agreement with Sinotrans Logistics Limited nearly a couple years ago. I started seeing sellers promoting “Correos whatever” as shipping method for a tiny additional fee in AliExpress. Now I just select “AliExpress standard” and it's the same thing without apparent surcharge, packages arriving home within 2 weeks. Awesome!

Cheers ^:)

I’ve had several packages delivered in the past several months and personally not noticed a decline. I still get some packages as soon as a couple weeks after ordering, even without paying for more expensive shipping. I think it largely depends on who you order from and who they are shipping through.

I haven’t noticed anything worse recently. If anything, it’s a lot better than it was late last year and early this year. Some stuff I get in as little as 2 weeks (with just standard free shipping). Sometimes it takes well over a month. Even for stuff ordered the same day in the same order, if they split the order, I might get half in 2 weeks, and the other half in 2 months. I have no idea why, but that has always been the case for me.

Most of my orders are made in AliExpress, some in Gearbest, and less in Banggood.
Depending on the type of shipping methods available or chosen, I guess that in 1 year buying only 2 order were lost from AliExpress. All the other arrived well, just like you saide, sometimes delayed, but not lost. And only 1 got really damaged (my Sofirn SP10).
Most of them have tracking numbers, so it is possible to track them almost everywhere.

Time of delivery is about 20 to 35 days (medium), and the longest (sometimes due to my country’s customs) 60-70 days.

Recently I’ve been paying more attention to this issue, namely to be able to track my items, and sometimes I don’t mind paying a “extra” fee to have that number!

The fastest parcel I’ve ever received was from Rey (WWEFANS), that took only about 9-10 days! :smiley:

My first and second reimbursed packages ever were from an american kickstarter and ebay, posted by the US mail, but they ended up arriving many MANY months late. Over the years I’ve had little trouble with china post, and always getting timely reimbursements after the delivery deadline had been missed (delivery deadlines to Brazil start at 60 days and go up to 120 depending on the seller) but yes, there are ever increasing new shipping companies out there and many sellers on Ali only let you choose 1 cheap method against the expensive express ones (dhl, fedex, etc), or not choose at all.

As far as statistics go, with China post, HK post, NL post, I trust the item will arrive, even if a little late, and tracking is always spot on. With no name shipping companies, those I fear from the time I make the order to the time I get the refund (or the time I occasionally get the package)

A lot of Chinese vendors used to use e-packet a lot more than they do now. My packages from Fasttech would arrive within 6 to 8 days. e-packet was/is some sort of agreement between China Post, Hong Kong Post, and the USPS. USPS found they were paying way more than what China Post or HKP was contributing, so the deal was re-negotiated not too long ago. I believe Chinese vendors have to pay for it now (at least some of it) which is why we don’t see it much anymore as a “free shipping” option.

Thanks to everyone for their experiences.

World is changing
Chinese companies export abilities growth
This amount of goods forces national post servises to meet big problems
Then they (post services) need to change their rules and laws to avoid became bankrupt
Chinese cargo services and other private shipping services start offering their shipping way as option
Schemes are very different. Sometimes they have own warehouse in destination country, sometime they lease part of forwarding capacities. Few years ago most EU memebers first met situation when their goods are reshiped from other EU country (Netherlands or Finland), but with right tracking known from China seller. In Russia, we have most variations of shipping from China due lots of private companies that have special allows to cross the border to China and few companies that can deliver this goods to the address. So, all depends from destination country.
In my experience, non-China asian parcels are always better (faster). HK post or Singapore post are not so common for national post services and they might not have some limits. Just imagine, amount of incoming to your country parcels is 10-20 times more than 5-10 years ago. New shipping ways, “special lines” and private cargo companies are defently required, otherwise your postman will need joints replacement soon.

Most of my orders are from Gearbest, AliExpress, ebay (Asian sellers), asian stores (i.e. sainstore, semiconductor stores) - so far every single item came through. I order about 12-15 items per week / max. 60 per month and about 70-80% are very small envelopes.

Didn’t notice anything different with shipping time lately.

It’s average 20 days.
End of last year and beginning of this year it was about 30 days average.

One thing I have noticed, particularly on cheap items is that there is now sometimes a shipping fee instead of free shipping.

Agree with that! Lately I bought some TIR lenses (in AliExpress stores) that cost ± 0,30€ ! Shipping fee was 2,20€! :open_mouth:
Also, for Li-Ion batteries I bought recently (even without boxes) I paid extra fees for shipping. These have been shipped through PostNL or Sweden Post and no problems emerged so far.

Despite being different methods, only occasionally the mentioned above are faster than China Post Registred Air Mail, China Post Ordinary Small Packet Plus, AliExpress Standard Shipping. Singapore Post and Bpost International, along with “E-packet” are less used (in my orders) and they are very inconstant in deliveries, from 10 to +30 days delivery.

Honestly, the packages that normally tend to take longer times to arrive are from Simon (Convoy store), but I don’t mind waiting for them as I now quality is assured :+1: