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simong

Lifer
Oct 13, 2015
2,532
15,277
UK
Anybody in the UK know what’s going on with our postal service?
About three weeks ago the mail fell victim to a ’cyber attack’ crashing their system & causing delays & cancelled services for overseas shipments.
Parcel Force have also stopped shipping abroad until further notice.
I need to send a pipe to the states & was wondering if anyone in the UK has used a different courier or could recommend one?
 

ashdigger

Lifer
Jul 30, 2016
11,378
70,056
60
Vegas Baby!!!
As someone who gets packages from the UK and has been in contact with sellers, it’s my understanding, that it only affects tracked and signed packages.

I’ve had plenty of items arrive without tracking and needing to be signed.

Mind you, even when tracking is used, I don’t track them.
 
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Jun 9, 2015
3,768
23,558
42
Mission, Ks
The last wo pipes I've bought off eBay from the UK were confiscated by UK customs and destroyed. They were both 100+ year old meerschaums 😭. I'm not buying anymore tobacco related stuff from the UK. It seems your bureaucrats are on an anti tobacco war path. They wont even return them to the seller they just destroy them. The buyer gets a refund and the seller gets nothing, doesn't seem like a great system...

Having said that, the USPS is also in shambles, we go days without getting our mail because there are not enough carriers. Packages sit in postal hubs for days without moving, packages go missing altogether.
 

ashdigger

Lifer
Jul 30, 2016
11,378
70,056
60
Vegas Baby!!!
The last wo pipes I've bought off eBay from the UK were confiscated by UK customs and destroyed. They were both 100+ year old meerschaums 😭. I'm not buying anymore tobacco related stuff from the UK. It seems your bureaucrats are on an anti tobacco war path. They wont even return them to the seller they just destroy them. The buyer gets a refund and the seller gets nothing, doesn't seem like a great system...

Having said that, the USPS is also in shambles, we go days without getting our mail because there are not enough carriers. Packages sit in postal hubs for days without moving, packages go missing altogether.
Did they go through eBays Global Shipping?

They treat everything as drug paraphernalia and actually resell it.

I’ve rescued two pipes on the resell.
 

simong

Lifer
Oct 13, 2015
2,532
15,277
UK
No, in my local post office they are refusing to accept parcels for overseas, tracked or untracked. GQ Tobacco on the other hand told me the mail ‘have’ started taking their overseas parcels. Wether that’s because they have a business account or what I don’t know.
ashdigger, have you received orders from the UK in the last three weeks? If you have, can I ask if it was from a private seller or from an online shop?
 
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ashdigger

Lifer
Jul 30, 2016
11,378
70,056
60
Vegas Baby!!!
No, in my local post office they are refusing to accept parcels for overseas, tracked or untracked. GQ Tobacco on the other hand told me the mail ‘have’ started taking their overseas parcels. Wether that’s because they have a business account or what I don’t know.
ashdigger, have you received orders from the UK in the last three weeks? If you have, can I ask if it was from a private seller or from an online shop?
I’ve received five orders from the UK in the last two weeks.

All of the orders were eBay sellers with the exception of one. The private seller shipped through UPS.
 

paulfg

Lifer
Feb 21, 2016
1,566
2,930
Corfu Greece
Did they go through eBays Global Shipping?

They treat everything as drug paraphernalia and actually resell it.

I’ve rescued two pipes on the resell.
Exactly this The GSP seems to be at the whim of whoever processes the item at the GPS depot and as you have proved the item is then resold to recover their losses I have noticed the last 2 GSP parcels were shipped using merske instead of Pitney Bowes.Unless Merske is a new name for Pitney Bowes
 
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kcghost

Lifer
May 6, 2011
13,152
21,418
77
Olathe, Kansas
I find it simply too difficult to deal with British changes to shipping parcels to the U.S. It seems like each clerk who processes shipments just makes the rules up as they see fit or necessary. Love Britain but I hate the way they treat overseas customers.
 
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simong

Lifer
Oct 13, 2015
2,532
15,277
UK
I got a parcel sent from UK last week with parcelforce and one a few weeks earlier too. Both after the the cyber attack.
Yeah, according to both of their websites they’re now accepting parcels for overseas, except that they’re not. At least not in my town they’re not.
Whereabouts in th UK did yours get sent from cobber?
 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,491
13,920
The last wo pipes I've bought off eBay from the UK were confiscated by UK customs and destroyed. They were both 100+ year old meerschaums 😭. I'm not buying anymore tobacco related stuff from the UK. It seems your bureaucrats are on an anti tobacco war path. They wont even return them to the seller they just destroy them.

You're imagining things.

England is the home of dignity, decorum, and cultural integrity, especially within the governmental services.

Short-sighted, emotion-based pandering and trend-following simply doesn't happen there.

Their police, for example, set the world standard for professionalism.

Compare the 1980's to today. I'm sure the postal service is no different.



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Screen Shot 2023-01-31 at 2.14.27 PM.png
 

simong

Lifer
Oct 13, 2015
2,532
15,277
UK

Davy

Can't Leave
Nov 22, 2022
324
880

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,602
14,666
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Toast

Part of the Furniture Now
Feb 15, 2021
659
1,312
UK
I was at the Post Office this morning (near London Bridge), they said Parcel Force was running again. Not Royal Mail & no idea when that'll restart.
 
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