How Long Should A Shipment From France To Florida Take?

Heat84 · 2025-07-06T03:04:34+00:00

I ordered a new cable for the derailleur on my bicycle. I didn’t know until after I ordered it, but it’s coming from France. But it’s taking as long to get here as it would if it was coming from China, maybe longer. I ordered it on 6/21 and it’s scheduled to get here on 7/14. Assuming they shipped it around the time I ordered it, why would it take so long to get to South Florida? What is that? 4000 miles? Something to do with tariffs? Before shipping and taxes, it only cost me $3.95($6.31 with shipping and taxes), so I don’t think that has anything to do with it. When the tracking number for the item wasn’t working, I asked the seller about it and they said it wasn’t a tracking number. It was just for customs. Have any of you guys ever gotten a tracking number that was just a customs number? Here’s the number if you wanna play with it: LA POSTE: UD065261787FR LA POSTE is French UPS or USPS, but they say their own number is invalid. I assume it’s their number. Another question I have is why do people sell things on E-Bay without auctioning it? I thought E-Bay was supposed to be all about auctioning. Maybe somebody thought it was a good idea to have regular selling and auctioning in one place? Was E-Bay originally auction only?

Heat84

Somewhat-Reticent One package may travel with many others for a time.

Maybe it was in a box with other small packages and that box had a tracking number. I can’t imagine how else it got to me with only a first leg shipping label.

Why wouldn’t La Poste have given the sender tracking info? Why did they give the sender a customs number? What do they expect anybody to do with a customs number?

Is La Poste like UPS or USPS?

px_eliezer_

Heat84 Is La Poste like UPS or USPS?

Some of both.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Poste_(France)

It functions as the nearest thing France has to an official post office, but now is a public company (although owned directly (34 percent) or indirectly (66 percent) by the French government).

px_eliezer_

Heat84 I’m surprised USPS was delivering on Saturday since July 4th was the day before and it was a weekend day.

Well that speaks to the dedication of USPS employees.

I received mail on Saturday.

As well, management probably figured that if there was no regular mail delivery on Friday-Saturday-Sunday, then Monday would be a big mess.

Why wasn’t there a USPS tracking number with it? Doesn’t that happen when USPS finishes a delivery?

International shipments are often a very different animal.

Tracking often is lost in translation, so to speak.

Somewhat-Reticent

px_eliezer_ Tracking often is …

… only set up for one carrier. You may have to ask for other carriers’ identity
& tracking data - and use that carrier’s system.
Full tracking data for cargo combining many shipments may not be available,
for security only subsequent carrier data may become available on transfer.

takeahike

Heat84 I’m surprised USPS was delivering on Saturday since July 4th was the day before and it was a weekend day.

The post office has delivered on Saturdays probably since 1775 when it was formed–that was of course a year before the Declaration of Independence and Benjamin Franklin appointed Postmaster General. Saturday deliveries are required by Congress, so it makes no difference whether the day before was a holiday, even if that holiday is the 4th of July. As recently as a couple of years ago, there was an attempt to end Saturday delivery, but again that requires the consent of Congress and has never passed. See here.

HardlyWorthit

px_eliezer_ Why wasn’t there a USPS tracking number with it? Doesn’t that happen when USPS finishes a delivery?

International shipments are often a very different animal.

Tracking often is lost in translation, so to speak.

WRT USPS shipment classes, not all include tracking. For some it is an additional fee, for others it is included. That can also be true for forwarders eg: upsmi.com where tracking can be available while in possession of the forwarder and not USPS for final delivery.

real_aurgathor

takeahike Well, it’s maybe not as bad as I said but at least one item I ordered from China never made it. The others generally take close to a month, so you’re left in limbo for quite a while, wondering whether it will ever actually arrive

You simply need to adjust your expectations accordingly. 😉 [probably too late due to tariffs, but anyhow]

As long as there is tracking, especially if the tracking ends with something like: “Handed over to shipper” one can expect it to arrive eventually.

takeahike I’ve probably never seen accurate tracking from there despite that there’s supposed to be tracking–it always drops off right after the initial scan and never can I recall has it picked up again or showed the ultimate delivery,

That’s a feature. 🙂
Tracking often goes only until it is handed to the airline/shipper, but I have seen some (probably around 10 - 20%) where it did include USPS tracking until the end. The great majority of items (many electronic parts) were under $5 - $10 items, so I didn’t have to worry too much about the financial aspects. More expensive items often had shipping options for an extra fee.

Dks01

px_eliezer_ Why wasn’t there a USPS tracking number with it? Doesn’t that happen when USPS finishes a delivery?

International shipments are often a very different animal.

Tracking often is lost in translation, so to speak.

I have had shipment from several postal services, including Ukraine, given a tracking number and then assigned a new number by Canada Post. Still trackable. USPS International always has tracking, at least for me.

Somewhat-Reticent

Scammers love saying something’s shipped & stalling past claim deadline.
One meta-carrier gave pseudo-tracking numbers on eBay for a time.

takeahike

real_aurgathor You simply need to adjust your expectations accordingly.

I have. I’ve adjusted them upward by just buying domestically. 😂😂 I won’t even ship to Alaska or Hawaii–who knows what that could bring: the ghost of Seward’s folly or Queen Liliʻuokalani’s revenge???

real_aurgathor That’s a feature.

So the original tracking just the sugar-coated type??? 😂😂

JanJ

Last year I ordered a device…. From Missouri.
I live in NC.
It got as far as Georgia….. Then went to Seattle Washington, and stayed there!

So I went to PO, and they say come back tomorrow, which is first day I can file for lost pkg.
I also contacted seller (or so I thought).. Turns out: It was a sales location where seller is hidden, but guy said he’d contact him for me.
Real seller contacts and asks how I like it?
So I send him tracking info. He immediately say he’ll issue credit, but asks that I contact PO To ship back to him if it is found. This is a little over a month since shipped.
Two days later, back at PO, find out they no longer accept lost PKG forms! Online, and mgr offered to help do so. Website a wreck. Mgr says he did it!
Done!
Wait a few days, no CC Credit! Call CC Company, explain, explain, explain!!
They cancel order issue credit.
DONE! (No, not yet!)
About 5 months later the most beat up package arrived. I’ve long since done something else…
Call seller’s Group: only number I have. Left message twice….. No reply.

So- how long from Missouri to North Carolina?
Over 6 months!! Then I wait another month then open and use the $9 device

HooRU

My guitar parts from Sweden had no tracking. I’d have had to pay a lot more for tracking. Same with stuff from HK.

Splitpair

Heat84 Was E-Bay originally auction only?

Yes but they expanded to buy-it-now which runs for 30 days.

Splitpair

real_aurgathor Most of my out of country purchases were from China/Hong Kong, and historically, I found shipping from there 100% reliable, meaning that I have not had a single lost package.

Total opposite here shipments from China commonly never get shipped out, they provide a tracking number which will not track nor will the merchants when asked provide a real tracking number.

China = total fraud.

Somewhat-Reticent

Splitpair China = ~~total~~ many fraud(s)

Depending on platform, vet vendor first.

HooRU

Splitpair I wouldn’t agree with a total fraud assessment, but China is bad. The CCP is going horrendous evil, like proven organ harvesting of arrested and kidnapped people including children.

I try to not purchase from there now when I can. I’ve gotten so much defective garbage. I bought my family overseas things that broke way too fast. The corruption there far exceeds the corruption and emoluments problems here.

JanJ

My Ali Express orders (Except 1) were good…. The bad one was: Wrong device sent…. No reply… Contacted CC company and they cancelled charge, with me awaiting Shipping label for return… I’ve has same luck with Amazon or Ebay… CC Company is your Backup Plan!

AMDUSER

JanJ Most of the order I did from Aliexpress were fine. But, I had one where the hardware did not match, and most of the cameras on the phone were fake.

Dks01

Splitpair Never had an issue with vendors from China, including a few on AliExpress and large companies like Lenovo. I have ordered computers from Lenovo. Tracking begins in China, all the way to my door. Some small stuff arrives in less than 48 hours.

Splitpair

AMDUSER and most of the cameras on the phone were fake.

Typical for China they steal a lot of IP and bootleg nearly anything they have been hired to produce, I know a person who tried to lower production costs by having his product manufactured in China, he stated the work was not too bad but then he discovered they where selling copies of his product and competing against him, a product they where not licensed to produce and sell themselves.

Even it cost him more he moved all existing and future production back to the US.

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