Today I thought I would share with my readers a piece I wrote to my cddstamps customers.  Why? because it may interest you.  It concerns the delivery of mail  - from my point of view of course -  and the fact I am seeing some  awfully slow mail deliveries. I know from my reading of other social media sites that I am not alone in this and I really want customers to understand that I am not responsible for actually delivering the mail. One customer I have seems to think I am, and is complaining because his orders have not arrived.  I gave refunds and lost out to this individual but still he complains about me. Of course, if his order does arrive can I hope he will then pay for the order?.   Time will tell.  Anyway his complaining does my reputation no good and is completely unjustified.  So read on if you have a few minutes.

Dear cddstamps Customer,   Hello. Thank you to all of you who have let me know how long your orders are taking to arrive. I am now including average delivery times in my emails to all customers so they have some idea how long the order may take. Perhaps you find the following of interest and perhaps some amusement!  Only takes a few minutes to read.

I want to say upfront that I do not think it is necessarily Philippine Post who are causing some of the delays. I mail usually within 12 to 24 hours of receipt of order. I mail registered mail for larger orders at no cost to my customers, as many of you will know. I mail directly from the Post Office and have a great relationship with the staff there. Built up over the past 9 months.

While I do not know the reason some of you have experienced longer than acceptable mail delivery times, I suspect the problem may be  because of the number of trans-shipment points the mail goes through. For example, to the USA we have plenty of flights but when you consider Manila, perhaps Los Angeles and then another trans-shipment point in continental USA one might see how the delivery times get extended. Similarly for Canada, the UK, Australia and NZ and mainland Europe.

If it is any consolation, one customer in Israel reported 86 days, fortunately I “know” him well and he was patient and understanding. Another USA customer reported 49 days, and one in Canada 48 days. Seems ridiculous doesn’t it. But then others have mail in 10 days (actually 8 days was quickest I have had reported back to me (UK customer) and on average it seems anywhere between 15 and 25 days can be expected.

I hope you find this worth knowing. As my customers who are on this list know  - that means I have removed some who and too bloody minded to understand that I am not responsible for the mail once it is in the post office mail bag – I cannot do anything about the mail delivery times once your order is in the Post Office mail bag. J  

  

BUT, I am trying to do something about it.

How?

Well, for some customers perhaps good news – especially for Australia and New Zealand customers – and others even.

I will be in Sydney for a few days from 16th March to 21^st March.

AND, that means any orders destined for Australia or NZ will be posted direct from there. Of course I hope that will improve mail delivery times for you, but having recently read some reports about Australia Post’s performance that might just be wishful thinking!!!.

Anyway just to let you know, and, I will be using nice older Australia commemorative stamps on the letters.

Please get orders to me at latest by end of day 15^th March and I will mail from Sydney Australia. Even if you are in USA, Canada or UK I will also mail from Australia, just to take out the trans-shipment point of Manila.

Finally, if you have got this far, I hope you have.  Let me tell you that in the past week I have read three pieces about the poor mail delivery services around the world. One from Australia as I mentioned, one from the UK and by a very prominent Dealer who is also having customers complain about his perceived slow delivery and another in Europe where it took over 80 days to get from one European city / country  to another – sorry I lost link to details.

Anyway, such is life  - please know and feel reassured I do everything I can to make sure your order is mailed in great shape, safely well packed and protected from the elements.

Enjoy the month of March -  reminds me of the Ides of March – March 15^th is your cutoff date to get new orders mailed from Australia -  accept it will be a pleasantly memorable date for you all I hope and not as it was back in 44BC when Julius Caesar was assassinated.

As for stamps – we finally got another 250 British South Africa Company / Southern Rhodesia listed. Everything from MUH, MM, Fine Used, Used and a few spacefillers.

Best wishes and thanks for being a cddstamps customer.

For the countries we stock in the Store please visit here  or through our website www.cddstamps.com or just click here to go direct to the Store.

Best wishes… Michael     cddstamps – commemorative definitive decimal stamps