Ladies & gentlemen, the era of the LHS is O-V-E-R. They are closing or else hardly carry anything any longer. If you aren't going to take advantage of online ordering, well, I don't know how you will stay in the hobby unless you go to shows (and increasingly the selection of kits at shows has fallen off from previous years).

Well, I have a different nightmare story, which I wasn't going to share, but another modeler told me I should. It involves two domestic shippers (USA). The first is Weta Workshop. When the new 1/32 Wingnut Wngs Sopwith Camels were announced for "preorder" back on January 2nd 2017, my wife ordered one through thier Weta shipper, which happens to be 27 miles from my home. They took an $11 deposit/shipping fee on my credit card. The kits were then released to Sprue Brothers models in February, and began shipping immediately from that distributor. I waited patiently for my kit, and finally started emailing WnW and my wife started emailing Weta, we kept getting replies stating the kits had not arrived yet (my correspondence with WnW was more positive, and it seemed they too were exasperated with Weta). We waited through March, April and finally, after threatening to go to our state's fraud office, the kit showed up in early May-- unfortunately not the kit we ordered, it was a comparable kit though-- one of thier other Sopwith Camels. They charged the same amount of postage to ship it 27 miles than I would have paid to ship it 500 miles. To make up for the problems though, a few weeks after I received my "wrong" kit, they did send out one of thier fine Windsock monographs on the Sopwith at no charge, which was a surprise. What I find ironic though is the package with the monograph took two days to ship from New Zealand while the kit took nearly 5 months from 27 miles away!

I see these threads from time to time, and I wonder why I have been so lucky. Yes, there are unscrupulous vendors out there, but a little research here should help one avoid that.

And the other place is BNA Modelworld in Australia. I've ordered from them before, but this time it's taking much longer.

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And the other place is BNA Modelworld in Australia. I've ordered from them before, but this time it's taking much longer.

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I've waited as long as three-four weeks from BNA, and other times, I've gotten stuff in 10 days

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And the other place is BNA Modelworld in Australia. I've ordered from them before, but this time it's taking much longer.

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I've waited as long as three-four weeks from BNA, and other times, I've gotten stuff in 10 days

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BNA Modelworld is my favorite supplier. I always see my order within a week. But I live in Australia.

I regularly ship gifts to family in the US. I choose the shipping method that costs the least but still offers tracking. This is the guarantee I get from Australia post:

Guaranteed that the packages would reach the US in ten days. After that, the parcels are under the mercies of the US postal system.

Sometimes it takes less than another week, sometimes 4 weeks.

Unless you pay for the highest rate, your overseas shipment may be delayed by your local mail service.

Gaz

Its slightly off topic but I do wish someone would start a lobby to have US reintroduce surface mail as the air mail rates are out of control.
I usually dont care of something takes months to arrive, especially modelling, have plenty to build and can always use air if needed. It has become almost impossible to support US with the restrictions, excepting the large chains that manage the postage globally like Amazon.
I know its only non US it hurts but surely it also impacts on US retailers who must have lost international customers.
Is there amechanism to have this reintroduced?

I see these threads from time to time, and I wonder why I have been so lucky. Yes, there are unscrupulous vendors out there, but a little research here should help one avoid that. I have ordered TONS of stuff from Hong Kong. The only problems were from the US Post Office who occasionally doesn't leave a slip when they don't deliver something (last week they didn't attempt the package pick-up I scheduled).

Ladies & gentlemen, the era of the LHS is O-V-E-R. They are closing or else hardly carry anything any longer. If you aren't going to take advantage of online ordering, well, I don't know how you will stay in the hobby unless you go to shows (and increasingly the selection of kits at shows has fallen off from previous years).