COVID International Delays

Despite us remaining open and shipping orders during COVID-19 pandemic, unfortunately some international shipments have seen SIGNIFICANT delays, well beyond anything we could have expected.

Due to the nature of "Economy International Shipping", it's.. well.. economy and is less than stellar tracking or priority within the shipping world.  It is through a service with UPS that combines UPS, USPS, and your international mail carrier.  Under the best of conditions, the tracking is somewhat limited other then "Leaving US, Arrived in Other Country, Delivered".  It's definitely not ideal, but it's the only way to offer very low cost ($5 - $10 USD) shipping to most countries around the world.

Generally, these packages go by plane to the destination country and then are delivered by your local mail carrier.  Starting around early to mid April 2020, USPS starting diverting mail that was destined to go via plane to go via sea because of a lack of flights to international destinations in the US.  Originally, we were told it would only add a week or two to shipments, but ports got congested and everything has slowed up significantly.  Some packages are now taking upwards of 6 weeks to arrive at their destinations.

To make a long story short, COVID sucks and has massively delayed international (and some domestic) shipments.  Depending on the destination country, it is now taking upwards of 6 weeks to be delivered to your home address. 

We're coming up with some way to make this right by everyone, but sending replacements won't work (they'll get stuck too) and refunds for everyone isn't really feasible if we want to be able to stay open ourselves.  In the meantime, please don't hesitate to contact us with other questions, but please know we won't have any more information than what's in your tracking at this time.

Thanks for all the support 👊,
Teak Tuning

 

FAQ:

Q: UPS Says "Package processed by international carrier" and USPS says "Pre-Shipment Info Sent to USPS, USPS Awaiting Item" ... what does that really mean?

A: It means it's currently on a ocean freighter or airplane in route to your country.  It could be at the beginning of that journey (being loaded onto a ship) or at the end of that journey (being unloaded and sorted).  We don't have a definitive answer to that other than looking at timelines.

 

Q: Are current orders facing the same delays?

A: We are not sure when the shipping delays will ease up and under the assumption that current shipments will face the same delays.

 

Q: Why can't you just ship everything for free by another carrier?

A: Almost all carriers are facing similar delays and the only way to avoid it is to pay $50-100 USD per shipment... which, as you can imagine, isn't really possible for us to do for all shipments.

 

Q: I ordered something from the US and it's also taking longer than expected, is that normal?

A: Yes.  We're still shipping as fast, but USPS has put out guidance that most packages are being delayed up to 3-4 business days (especially First Class packages).