Any recent experiences with SF Express (courier)?

I recently placed an order that the seller shipped via SF Express.

I had never heard of them before, but apparently, they were an intra-Asian courier who have expanded internationally.

The website looks nice, and there is tracking, but user reviews are polarized.

I’m also curious whether they do the last mile delivery themselves, or hand it off to another carrier like USPS or UPS in the U.S.

When given a choice, ePacket has been my preferred method, but none was offered in this instance.

Just trying to gauge what to expect…

Well, since I’m now in a position to answer my own question, I’ll do so for the benefit of the search results…

SF Express does indeed hand off their packages to another carrier (USPS in my case) for final delivery.

The 12-digit waybill number the seller supplied provides tracking from start to finish. Their website tracking function is kinda flaky, between the captcha service timing out and own server sometimes not being available, so it’s more reliable to use a service like 17track.net instead.

The package did have a USPS label with their 26-digit number on it, which covers the origin point, then the segments in their care. Not sure whether the seller ever had easy access to that number, since the label was probably applied when the packaged was handed off. No CN22/customs declaration at all.

All in all, it took eight business days to go from Shenzen/HK to the U.S. Not bad, and since it goes directly to the local USPS facility, it bypasses the ISC purgatory altogether.