Thursday, July 03, 2008

The vagaries of international mail

China and the U.S. are among a handful of countries that have linked up their postal systems, so that a package from China can make it to the U.S. in a miraculous 3 days (less time than it takes the U.S. Postal Service to deliver something coast to coast here), and for not a lot of money.

The system works well most of the time, but sometimes not.

This week, not.

My current stressful situation: An important customer is freaking out about the color of a hat they have ordered, because they are worried it will not turn out to be the shade of teal they need it to be. We had the factory in China send out a sample on Friday, and it should have gotten here on Monday or Tuesday.

Unluckily, it got stuck at customs in Shanghai. By comparison, another package sent to us by the same factory on Monday is already in Los Angeles - and scheduled to be delivered today. The factory will send out another color sample today, but with my luck I bet it will not arrive until after the main shipment of 20,000 hats.

=*(

2 comments:

Laura said...

Commenting on my own post. I don't think this conveyed the amount of agony this matter caused me. I'm not a good enough riter.

Klaus Varley said...

No, you are. But if you come off too harsh, it looks like you're bashing China.