Hey everyone,

So I made my first purchase from the site on March 31, it shipped and arrived at New York on the 8th and has sat there since. Is this normal or do I need to contact Lucky Model? I'm not sure of the whole customs process. Thanks ks for any input.

-Seth

Unfortunately, Seth more than likely it's at ISC Bethpage and depending on how quickly Customs decides to process things they can sit for days before they get moving again. Nobody can make things move quicker there and there is no rhyme or reason to the speed they work at there. My letter carrier is the one who explained the whole process to me. Just keep checking the status sometimes they forget to scan the item and it just suddenly turns up at your house.

I've dealt with them for years and never ran into that kind of delay. Once, I did have a package from them opened by Homeland Security for some reason. They were resin figures IIRC, maybe the smell confused the 'bomb sniffers'? But I never ran into that kind of hold-up. Don't know if Lucky Model could do anything, you might be better off contacting the carrier or Customs. Al

Bummer, thanks for the info though. I guess I'll just keep playing the waiting game for a bit longer.
-Seth

Earlier this year I ordered three kits from Hobbyeasy and they all shipped the same day with airmail. I recieved two of them a week later and the third sat in customs for about two months.

Ordering from anywhere overseas is often erratic, and frustrating. When you're lucky, from placing order to model in hands, can take as little as 2 weeks. When not so lucky, a month or more.

Ok, thanks for that. This is only the second I've ever ordered model stuff from overseas and first time from Asia. Maybe I'll get lucky and have it next week.

-Seth

Erratic can certainly happen. I occasionally still order from HK or Japan. I used to order a lot from Poland and Australia when the dollar exchange was a killer. I've never had a parcel not show up.

Seth, I have ordered things from S. Korea from Amazon and they have always arrived quickly, even having to clear Customs. Some hobby items I have gotten from Russia took longer, though.

Best wishes,

Ian

I don't think it would be so bad if I wasn't waiting on the Takom T-55AM. Been wanting a kit of that for years haha

-Seth

Some things to remember, once a package has left the hands of the shipper, there's nothing more they can actually do to help things along. They can track it and tell you where it is, but you've done that yourself.

Even worse, once it's in a customs house in your country (the US in this case) there is absolutely nothing anyone can do to hurry things along. They clear whenever the customs people say they clear.

There's nothing the shipper can do to speed this up or influence it in any way and there's nothing they can do to avoid it either. The best thing is to make sure they put accurate declarations on the package and do not under declare the value as many people ask. If the Customs folks find that out, it's a surefire way for your package to sit and _then_ you get dinged for the shortfall.

Paul

Good idea for most countries but there is no duty on this kind of stuff in the US.

Cheers,

Christophe

I ordered from them March 17 and just got it 2 days ago. So a whole month. First time I ordered it was a week and a half, so it appears to be hit and miss with our customs.

Adam

It's all customs and the PO. I have had stuff sit in the sorting center for days at a time. LuckyModel are GREAT people and you can order with confidence from them.

So the package was waiting for me when I got home from work today. Impatience got the best of me. Guess they just stopped updating it when it got to NY

-Seth

Funnily enough that is often the case even to the UK. Fastest I have received a parcel from Hong Kong was four days! However the average is around two weeks. Funnily enough getting stuff from the states can be broadly similar but sending things can be quicker. I guess international shipping a kind of time warp where we have no control over any part of the process.
......Unless someone is sending an invoice....then shipping is always super fast!

That's not really a correct characterization, that the PO "just stopped". You were tracking it through the Hong Kong Post, I assume. They have no way of getting updates from inside another country. I have had some success checking the foreign tracking number on the USPS site. Some, not frequent, success. I have to temper that by saying that I haven't checked every package I've received, and when I get one in a reasonable time I don't go back to see what the tracking status might be.




Not that uncommon on model sites. By US law, sellers have 30 days to ship a purchased item, if they don't advertise a longer time frame. You be surprised how many people are up in arms when they don't receive something within 10 days of purchase, regardless of where on earth it was sourced.

KL

I was able to track it through usps once I got a tracking number from them, even in Hong Kong. Regardless, I was quite impressed with Lucky Model and will be going track to them.

-Seth