when will my order arrive?
about mail shipping classes

in many european countries (also in switzerland from where i ship), there are two classes for mail: economy and priority.

economy (also called B class mail) is cheaper, but takes about 2 weeks in europe and up to 2 month overseas (usa, canada, australia etc.).

priority (also called A class mail) is more expensive (about factor 1.5), but takes only about 1 week in europe or 1 to 4 weeks overseas.

you can chose the shipping class in the check-out section of the webshop.

despite of the fact that i mentioned this circumstance in the “i know you don’t like it, but still: please read this before ordering” section at the very top of the geocoin order page, customers keep asking me the same question. please kindly understand i cannot reply to this question in personal emails but rather refer you to this page here which will answer most questions.

all coin items i sell via ebay are always shipping by priority mail – unless requested otherwise. (shipping by economy mail would result in too much negative feedback as it simply takes too long.)

best regards,
ernie.






the problem with mail to the united states
and other countries

mail to the u.s.a. often takes a very long time or even goes lost. what are the reasons? what can be done?

i send mail/parcels out daily to most different countries of this world. unfortunatly, mail to the u.s.a. keeps creating customers complaining about shipping delays and loss. it is not rare that stuff takes six (6) to eight (8) weeks, in rare cases even longer, to arrive at the final addressee.

these dalays are caused in america itself, as it looks, at usps. one of the reasons is that – for “security reasons” – every single peace of everything that arrives in the u.s. is checked very thoroughly (scanned and even unpacked). this can take a long time and creates backlogs. this has all worsened with the homeland security act and there is probably no soon change in this regard.

for mail, there are either the private services as ups, fedex, tnt, dhl. they are fast and reliable – but expensive. hardly anyone is willing to pay $65.00 and more just for the postage to ship a few geocoins. so the only alternative are the postal services by the respecitve governments (partly privatized in some countries and having a monopoly in most countries, hence no real competition, like usps in the u.s.a., deutsche post in germany, etc.).

ernies/zengarten offer the two categories that swiss post (the official postal service here in switzerland) offers: economy and priority mail. (many countries’ postal services also offer those two categories for mail, some have just a different name).

economy mail is the cheaper service. but it takes longer. and might not be treated as important in the destination country. so mail often lies somewhere in e.g. new york or chicago, wating for further processing. i have experienced that with registered (and hence trackable) mail.

priority mail: more expensive (about +80%), but faster: takes only about a week to the united states – if everyhing works fine. it usually goes well for single coins and other small envelopes up to 100 grams. but even priority mail can take up to six weeks on the u.s. side sometimes. all coins i put on ebay are shipped by priority mail (unless otherwise desired by buyer).

officially, priority mail should take one to two weeks, and economy mail two to four weeks. reality proves that it often takes much longer.

sometimes, parcels/envelopes go lost – not often, but it happened several times in the past, to following countries: unites states (>10 lost), united kingdom (2) and germany (2). only envelopes/parcels that are registered are insured and trackable. please keep this in mind. only in that case i can replace coins or refund money paid for them.

the surcharge for registered mail is around $5.50 (about €4.00). i always recommend registered mail, especially if you order a larger quantity of coins (>3) of if you paid a lot for an ebay item. registered mail = upon receipt, you will have to sign (proves that you got it/them). and in case of loss the post has to indemnify for the lost items.

for all persons waiting: please report to me every two weeks when you feel your coins are heavily delayed.

i truely appologize for that inconvenience, but it is beyond my control. i also appologize that i am not further able to write long e-mails to explain this matter or justify myself. please don’t consider this offensive. i try to offer the best service i am able to, but this world – and its postal services – is not perfect. i still hope your coins will eventually arrive safe and soon at your place (most do, but some don’t).



april–june 2009: he problem got even worse. many customers in the u.s. complain about delays and envelopes that never arrived. i am not happy about this situation. i have to ask you to take the “registered mail” option. registered mail never* got lost so far and even if it would, it is insured.

(*update as per 2009 10 20: one got lost so far and i got paid for the lost items so they could be sent again without having to take the full loss myself).





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here is an example of some coins (shipped by registered mail):

to receiver: d. in california. tracking no. of packet: RF094581956CH

– brought envelope to post office on july 14, 2008
– left switzerland on july 15, according to tracking details on post.ch
– july 16, the tracking feature at usps.com says: “Your item arrived in the United States at ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS) at 8:13 PM on July 16, 2008. Status: Inbound International Arrival”
– august 6, customer sends an e-mail to me asking where the stuff is. we keep corresponding back and forth.
– august 21: customer writes: “Hold the search! The coins showed up today at my door.”

this envelope took “only” 5 weeks, of which 4 in the u.s.
other delayed envelopes show similar patterns.

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another example (shipped by registered mail, priority):

tracking no. RG405686272CH

– Delivered, July 12, 2010, 2:42 pm, XXXXville, CA 923XX

– Arrival at Unit, July 12, 2010, 7:41 am, XXXXville, CA 923XX

– Inbound International Arrival, July 02, 2010, 4:18 pm, ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS)

– Foreign International Dispatch, July 02, 2010, 1:50 am, ZURICH 1, SWITZERLAND

– Foreign Arrival at Outward Office, July 02, 2010, 1:49 am, ZURICH 1, SWITZERLAND

– Foreign Acceptance, July 01, 2010, 8:00 am, SWITZERLAND

this envelope took 12 days of which 10 days in the u.s. alone.

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das problem mit post nach deutschland
und in andere länder europas

generell gilt es zu beachten, dass grenzüberschreitender postverkehr immer länger dauert als domestischer, vor allem deshalb, weil mehrere postfirmen das ganze verarbeiten und noch ein postzoll dazwischengeschaltet ist. zengarten/ernies bieten folgende zwei postbeförderungsarten (der schweizerischen post) an: economy mail (auch b-post genannt) und priority mail (a-post).

economy* ist günstiger, dauert aber etwa 10 arbeitstage – das sind zwei (2) wochen –, bis das paket beim empfänger ankommt. diese frist wird manchmal auch überschritten. bitte erst reklamieren, wenn zwei wochen überschritten sind.

priority* kostet etwa 50% mehr (also faktor 1,5), kommt dafür in etwa 2 bis 4 arbeitstagen (meistens nicht mehr als eine woche) an. wer also seine ware schnell braucht, muss diese option wählen.

* priority-mail wird jeden tag direkt an das zielland weitergeleitet. economy-mail wird zuerst in containern gesammelt und erst wenn diese voll sind an die post im zielland weitergeleitet (durch diese maximale platzausnützung wird geld eingespart). im zielland wird economy-mail meistens nur mit 2. priorität weiterbearbeitet.

post ist nur verfolgbar, wenn man sie (gegen aufpreis) eingeschrieben schicken lässt (artikel «registered mail – einschreiben» im shop.

immer problematisch ist auch die einfuhr/verzollung bei der deutschen post, die es sehr genau nimmt. jede sendung, die waren über 22 euro (inkl. porto) beinhaltet, unterliegt der mehrwertsteuerpflicht, wenn sie von außerhalb der europäischen union kommt (sonst ist die mwst. schon drin). für sendungen aus der schweiz, norwegen, usa usw. ist also mit einem aufschlag (auf warenwert inkl. porto) von 19% zu rechnen (und evtl. weiteren kosten), der nachzuzahlen ist bei zustellung oder abholung. dies kann übrigens die auslieferung ebenfalls – teilweise stark – verzögern, sowohl für economy- wie auch für prioriy-post.

http://www.zoll.de/faq/postverkehr/postverkehr/index.html

http://de.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080503081530AAhez3p




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track & trace mail here (only for registered mail):

royal mail (uk): http://track.royalmail.com/portal/rm/track

deutsche post (de): http://www.deutschepost.de/dpag?tab=1&skin=hi&check=yes&lang=de_EN&xmlFile=1016933

swiss post (ch): post.ch

united states postal service (us): usps.com

post canada (ca): http://www.canadapost.ca/Personal/Tools/Track/ItemSingle.aspx

last update: 2010 07 14