Vintage Gown Lost in Mail

Delaney52

Delaney52

Registered Guest
Hi everyone,
the early '60s gown I ordered from Ebay for my prom dress appears to have been lost in the mail or stolen. It is not something I can replace, so I am very upset that the USPS has been careless enough to lose my package. It was coming from the UK to the US, is there any chance it could still be in customs after three weeks? Have any of you had a vintage item lost by the mail service before? I so, what should I do? Does anyone have an identical gown?

Thanks!
-Delaney
 

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I'm so sorry for your disappointment, that IS a beautiful gown. Unfortunately, I don't have anything similar to offer you.

I, too, experienced a lost UK to US shipment. I purchased a UK football club T-shirt for my son for a Christmas gift and it never arrived. Luckily, the seller was willing to ship another. The replacement didn't arrive until a week after Christmas but better late than never. I wish you luck in finding a second gown!
 
I don't know about UK mail, but since I'm in Europe too... Anything I ship from here to the US that I don't send by priority mail usually takes around 5 weeks. There have been exceptions, but they're few and far inbetween. And nothing has ever been lost, it just took lots of time to arrive. And from what I've seen, it just seems to take so long once it has arrived somewhere in the US, and then to get to the customer. I personally would give this some more time.
 
Hi Delaney,

I'm really sorry that your package is delayed. It must be terribly frustrating and stressful since you need the dress for an important event! Yes, packages can take longer than 3 weeks to arrive here in the states, particularly if it was not shipped via Priority Mail. It may not be lost or stolen just held up in customs. Hopefully, it will be processed soon and will be at your doorstep in time for your prom. Fingers crossed for you!
 
I have often shipped from the uk to USA. It can take longer than expected because of customs and I've also never had anything get lost, just delayed. Although it's usually quicker, three weeks isn't that long it could definitely still be on its way. Nowadays I usually send tracked, but I used to risk regular untracked airmail. Do you know which postal service your seller used?
 
The last time I purchased from US to UK the parcel was held in customs for a month. So don't fret yet.
If it was posted with Royal Mail they will not consider the parcel lost until 25 working days (Mon-Fri) have passed since posting to an international destination outside of Europe.
If you have the tracking no. you can see where it has got to using http://www.track-trace.com/post Choose track with options and select United Kingdom, and then go back to select US to see which has the latest info.
 
As some one who posts about 30% of my items over seas from the UK I agree that a few weeks is not that long,

If the seller has used a traceable service then it takes about two days to leave the UK and just several days to be delivered into the US, as Melanie says you can track it and see where it is, Royal mail or Parcel force will I feel have more details than appears on the web site and it could be worth contacting them about it.
If the seller has used a non tractable airmail service then for some odd reason parcel do seam to take take weeks and I think that down to customs.
I have never lost any thing sent to the US or Northern European countries, Spain and Italy are well know for things going astray.
Apart from the advice given by Melanie, or stuck in customs another avenue to explore is not that the parcel been stolen but badly addresses they cannot read the address or the label come off so it could be just stuck on a shelf somewhere, there whole department that opens parcels and see if there is a clue as to who has posted the parcel so it's worth contacting them to see what they can do apart for just for compensation.
 
Hello everyone, thank you for your help! It was being shipped via Royal Mail standard with tracking, but now should be in the hands of the USPS. I plan to call, but I'm usually not home during their operating hours. Maybe if I call the facility where it supposedly has been sitting, someone will look for it?
 
Royal Mail International Standard does not have tracking, if that's the service you mean.

If it was sent with International Tracked, you should be given a tracking number, which the track and trace link above will track in the US as well as in the UK, and so should tell you where it was last seen.
 
It finally arrived; I inquired within the USPS who must have located it (wherever it was) and sent it along :)
 
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