Mail From Hungary- Four Weeks And Waiting

Has anyone else had issues with ebay sellers in Hungary and slow shipping? I made a $20 or so purchase just before Christmas and so sign of it yet. At the same time I bought something from a seller in Holland, got that a week ago. Noted that the estimated delivery on the Hungary order in MyEbay was two weeks sooner than the Hungary one. What gives?

I thought airmail was standard for international shipping these days. Is Hungary not doing this?

On your "My ebay" it shows if something has been shipped. Have you checked?


Peter

MyEbay shows shipped. Paypal payment showing on my bank account processed 12-27. Seller has some negs for poor service but nothing blatant.

My query is more along the lines of if there is some ongoing issue with mail service from Hungary. It just seems this shouldn't be taking this long.

Sometimes customs can hold up stuff for prolonged periods.

I'd be patient until you near the time when you can file a complaint. If you have tno gotten it by then, time to get your money back. If it shows up later,you can always send the seller your payment.

Mail from Netherlands took 53 days.
Vendor took 5 weeks to post
Did not answer emails.
As soon as I opened a case with ebay, I had a response.

Still deliberating what feedback to give.

Regarding Hungary, I've noticed that some sellers insist that shipments to Hungary will be only registered. Maybe there's a known problem there.
As for non cooperative sellers in ebay - I show no mercy. Like giving neutral feedback, writing "No problem with this seller... after ebay stepped in".

I have decided to give my vendor the benefit of the doubt,
I did get the stamps, and they were fabulous.
I requested Registered mail, and he offered to pay half.

Based on that, I'll offer positive feedback.
Like a lot of things in life, good communication really matters.
Had he offered something like "things got on top of me, I'll post as soon as possible"
I could handle that.
The anxiety begins when you have that window of complaint getting close with ebay

I found ebay's complaint procedure fabulous, immediate attention and assistance.

Here's the strange thing. I was sending the vendor a message and chose the option that the item was not received yet. I got a message that 'You have not paid for this purchase yet'. I checked my bank account, PayPal took the money out 12-27 and it is showing as paid in MyEbay. It is however not showing as having shipped.

He's been sent two messages. Nothing more until later next week when I submit a Paypal claim. This may be my last purchase of anything from Hungary.

It arrived today, postmarked 12-29. No back stamps so cannot trace where its been. My guess is customs had it, possibly over there. A month in transit isn't terribly bad I suppose but I may think twice about buying from there in the future.

You know, patience is everything. And this day and age everybody needs some. I had a tracked letter coming from the Netherlands some time back. It took the letter two days to make it to Miami (?) but from there to Atlanta it took nearly two weeks! I believe the postal service is once again delivering "snail mail".


Peter

Probably no reason for customs in Hungary to have anything to do with it - more likely to be held up after it left Hungary.

In the past few weeks I've bought from vendors in about six countries. This is the only one that took this long. I bought stamps the same time as this from a seller in the Netherlands, that got here in ten days. Ditto for the UK, Germany and Denmark. If the delay is on this end why just from Hungary? This was a slightly larger than usual envelope but so were some if the others. It'd be interesting to know- and we never will- what would trigger this.

Hope no one thinks I am obsessing or still kicking about it. I left positive feedback, even though I never got replies to my messages. I just find this stuff fascinating.

Once in a while, packages arrive in 4 weeks, 6 weeks, or even later. Most of the time, these delays are due to customs activities. In my experience, the wildest "customs' customs" (excuse the wordplay) prevail in the UK (the unrivaled world champion in sadistic bureaucratic mockery), in Latvia, in Belarus, and, sometimes, in Italy. Never had special problems with Hungary. As to replies to messages, some Hungarians have serious problems with writing in foreign languages; Hungarian grammar is an exceedingly complex and idiosyncratic affair that creates difficult language barriers.

Well, most of my delayed order come from US, I order a lot from US , so no surprise, last spring I have parts that stay 3 months in a LA airport. Recently I ordered 3 books directly from John Barefoot, he ship them in 3 packages to save on shipping, 2 arrived the same day, a week later, the third one arrived 3 weeks later, so go figure.

I already left feedback as noted and today got a belated reply to my two prior messages to the seller.

They said the delay was due to the 'Christmas rush'. Well maybe, I doubt the seller knows any more than I do what happened and we never will. I think there is something to the idea that there is more of a language barrier than usual when dealing with Hungary. The replies I got seemed fractured. That is some language they have. I have read that for some reason it is very much like Finnish, so much that Finns and Hungarians can understand one another with just a bit of effort. Strange.

Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, and also several languages around the Ural mountains in Russia belong, loosely, to the same family of languages, because all these peoples originally came from the Urals. However, this exodus has been very long ago, and for some (Finns and Estonians) much earlier than for Hungarians. Being horse-riding nomads, Hungarians moved for several centuries through the steppes of what now are Russian Volga region and Ukraine; there they fought with (and, probably, traded with) Tatars, and their language picked up some of the Tatar/Turkish linguistic traits. Crossing Carpatian mountains (they didn't like mountains), they came upon flat grassy region around Balaton lake, which they perceived as something similar to what they were used to during the centuries of their nomadic life, so they settled there. At first they were a menace to everybody they met with (Huns, Ogres) but gradually settled, civilised, and became devout Roman Catholics. Living in the middle of Central Eastern Europe, they are now, genetically, a very mixed race. Hungarians faught off the Turkish invasion, losing a lot of people; many Serbs settled in Hungary and adopted Hungarian language (the greatest Hungarian poet, Sandor Petefi, was born a Serb, Aleksander Petrovich). Hungarians have been in constant territorial wars and disputes with Romania. Hungarian aristocracy owned much land in Slovakia, so there's a tension there, too. Their national symbol is Turul, the sacred falcon, which lead them during their wanderings to Hungarian plains. I doubt that a Finn or an Estonian would understand the fast-talking Hungarian. Some words if spoken very slowly, maybe.

As you see, I know almost nothing about Hungary, that's all I know.