Do you ship to Russia?

[a1anm]

We have been shipping to Russia for the past 3 years without too many problems. Some parcels take longer than normal but that was the biggest annoyance.

However, it seems lately that nothing seems to be arriving. We have been sending with Royal Mail.

What is even more annoying is that there is a limit with what you can send by courier to Russia (I think it is around £150) so you are forced to use regular mail.

Is anyone else having problems lately?

 

[beasty]

Does not matter than Royal mail carry the package in the UK using their service means you are then handed to a 3rd party carrier in Russia.

RUSSIA, ITALY AND FRANCE, it is a global carrier or sorry cannot send.

 

[a1anm]

Does not matter than Royal mail carry the package in the UK using their service means you are then handed to a 3rd party carrier in Russia.

RUSSIA, ITALY AND FRANCE, it is a global carrier or sorry cannot send.

Yes, I understand that it gets passed to the Russian post. I just wondered if other people are experiencing problems with the Russian Post not delivering lately?

We would like to be able to keep sending to Russia but we may have to stop as couriers won't take over a certain value and the post seems to be very unreliable lately

 

[Pish_Pash]

Yes I post to Russia (Royal Mail Small packets) ....never had an issue - honest customers.

 

[a1anm]

Yes I post to Russia (Royal Mail Small packets) ....never had an issue - honest customers.

Maybe we are just unlucky at the minute as we never used to have problems. We send everything signed for so we can see they haven't been delivered. We have 3 packages all sent about a month ago that haven't made an appearance.

 

[Steve_g]

Maybe we are just unlucky at the minute as we never used to have problems. We send everything signed for so we can see they haven't been delivered. We have 3 packages all sent about a month ago that haven't made an appearance.

Shipped to Russia for the last 4 years with very few issues (Royal Mail Airmail) but like you over the last month we have had customers from Russia getting in contact for non receipt.
Literally every package sent since December hasn’t arrived with the customer or even been returned to us (about 45 packages ~ £1200) so have had to stop sending packages to Russia.
Shame as I always found Russians to be mostly patient and pleasant to deal with.
Steve

 

[a1anm]

Shipped to Russia for the last 4 years with very few issues (Royal Mail Airmail) but like you over the last month we have had customers from Russia getting in contact for non receipt.
Literally every package sent since December hasn’t arrived with the customer or even been returned to us (about 45 packages ~ £1200) so have had to stop sending packages to Russia.
Shame as I always found Russians to be mostly patient and pleasant to deal with.
Steve

It's very frustrating. Like you I have found Russians to be very patient. I think they realise that their postal service isn't great but for nothing to be getting delivered seems very odd.

I double checked and I think since New Year we haven't had anything arrive either!

We sent one shipment just over 2 weeks ago worth £500 but fortunately we insured it as I can't see it making it!

I think we will stop sending for a few months and then try again while insuring everything so see if things have improved.

 

[serendipitybusiness]

ooo eer I have just sent my first order to Russia, it is only a small item worth £15 so not a big loss if it disappears. I will let you know how I get on. I was actually excited that our brand had now hit Russia (I am collecting countries lol as it is a new brand/business), I am not so excited now as I am still battling with the last claim lost in Australia.

Arrrggg why can't they just do their jobs!! I think I might have to start changing all post to recorded soon which will hit our business hard as it is expensive for international orders and they make up a large proportion of our business.

 

[Pish_Pash]

If you post your stuff 'over the counter' at the Post Office, you can make a claim up to £47 if something goes missing with international small packets (you can only claim upto that amount what the items(s) cost you...not what you sold it for)....this is how I do it, it's slightly higher vs. say PPI, but at least when things do go missing, you get some dosh back. Of course, it's not practical if you're sending hundreds of packets abroad, but if your still small (as I am), then it's viable.

 

[alexbest]

I've also heard about problems with delivery to Russia caused by the work of the local post service.

 

[LianneF]

We sent a couple of orders to the same address in Russia in December and one arrived within a month and the other only arrived at the end of Feb! Luckily the customer was patient and said there are delays with customs. No couriers seem to send to residential addresses in Russia anymore. We've just sent another 2 parcels to the same customer so will see how long these take!

 

[beasty]

I had 6 packages in a row go walkie s in Italy

I have had USPS send me a package that took 11 weeks to arrive!

Russia and France are lottery's and like Italy would not post
(Do not really have cause to nowadays) but would suggest to anyone that is posting all over just to remove these 3 countries from your list, it will save you aggravation and time.

USPS can also be a lottery ticket, but on delivery times, the stuff always arrives eventually

The bad service in the 3 countries has zero to do with Royal Mail, once the package is handed over, it is going on donkeys, scooters and all sorts

 

[a1anm]

I just received an email from one of our Russian customers to say that the tracking number for their parcel is now showing on the Russian post website (it wasn't yesterday):
http://www.russianpost.ru/rp/servise/ru/home/postuslug/trackingpo

This item was posted 6 weeks ago so seems like it is going to take close to 2 months to arrive!

Some more information on the matter here:
http://rbth.ru/society/2013/01/23/the_russian_post_does_not_deliver_22127.html
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russian-post-delays-drag-on/474087.html
http://community.ebay.co.uk/topic/International-Trading/Russia-Longer-Delays/1700115683?start=0

 

[Deleted member 158328]

I had 6 packages in a row go walkie s in Italy

I have had USPS send me a package that took 11 weeks to arrive!

Russia and France are lottery's and like Italy would not post
(Do not really have cause to nowadays) but would suggest to anyone that is posting all over just to remove these 3 countries from your list, it will save you aggravation and time.

USPS can also be a lottery ticket, but on delivery times, the stuff always arrives eventually

The bad service in the 3 countries has zero to do with Royal Mail, once the package is handed over, it is going on donkeys, scooters and all sorts

Never had any problems with France or Italy. We send a lot of stuff there. However for stuff coming the other way (we import as well as export) sometimes it seems to take an age.

 

[deadgoodundies]

We stopped sending to Russia about a year ago as everything was just going missing.
We get some enquiries from Russia especially as we send to places like Ukraine and Bulgaria and they can't understand why we won't ship to them (so we do explain it as nicely as we possibly can).
We've only once had a major paddy by a Russian because we wouldn't ship to them who when we said it's because the Russian post office kept losing them told us that we should choose a better way of sending but once we told him the cost of sending courier we didn't hear back.

France can be a problem in that we send Airsure and sometimes it's been scanned as delivered but hasn't been (we know this as sometimes they eventually come back to us and are marked as non claimed) but that has calmed down recently.
Italy probably only about 4 parcels gone missing in 3 years.

 

[serendipitybusiness]

Hi Guys

I was wondering if anyone has sent anything recently that has arrived to Russia whether this is an issue from December and Jan still hitting us or it is still ongoing. It seems the first order to Russia was due to extra exposure there and we have had some further orders (real orders its not a scam). I have just had to knock Russia off as my potential liability is building a little too quickly but some of these customers are exactly the type of customers I want and don't want to avoid supplying to Russia unless I have to.

It would be great if we can combine data so we can all see when this problem has passed.

 

[camorra]

I agree that deliveries to Russia and Italy can be temperamental...However, it is a numbers game, like all International deliveries that are not tracked (even some that are tracked). Not all will get there, but most will. You should allow for these losses in to your business model/profit margin etc.

Literally every package sent since December hasn’t arrived with the customer or even been returned to us (about 45 packages ~ £1200) so have had to stop sending packages to Russia.
Steve

This does sound very dodgy, 45 packages in a row that have not arrived? Sounds like an inside job. Either someone at Royal Mail has opened the first package to reveal the contents, and recognises your company name every time a similar package comes through (alternatively, they could be looking at the cn22 sticker for the contents) or a Russian Post employee is doing the same. Do you actually write in detail, what is in the packet?

 

[LianneF]

We sent a parcel to Russia signed for on the 5th March and has just arrived which is pretty quick as the two we sent to the same customer on the 26th Feb are apparently still in customs.

 

[Bazza18182]

We deliver to Russia quite a lot and although we started to use Royal Mail we have now switched to FedEx for all Russian orders as the RM packages were simply not arriving... it just says the standard 'your item posted on <date>, has been passed to the overseas delivery office for delivery in the Russian Federation'.

FedEx provide a great service although it is fairly expensive (£40 to Moscow for a FedEx box). If you can pass this cost on to your customer then great. Worth mentioning too that anything over €200 then it gets stopped at Russian customs and the recipient may have to get an export agent to 'release' the package. This is often so expensive that they refuse the package and the item is then sent back to the UK at the senders cost.

Hope this helps.

 

[deadgoodundies]

One (of the many things) that I have against using couriers like fedex though is the amount of paperwork you have to fill in when sending outside the eu (and if you want really express delivery it applies to the EU excluding UK as well).
If i've got 60 pairs of underwear to send out via fedex then I have to fill in this form where I have to list every item separately, along with it's country of origin, the exact fabric content, the individual weight, what it's end use will be.
By the time i've filled it all in, the time i've spent on it can be more than the actual sale is worth.

 

[camorra]

We deliver to Russia quite a lot and although we started to use Royal Mail we have now switched to FedEx for all Russian orders as the RM packages were simply not arriving... it just says the standard 'your item posted on <date>, has been passed to the overseas delivery office for delivery in the Russian Federation'.

FedEx provide a great service although it is fairly expensive (£40 to Moscow for a FedEx box). If you can pass this cost on to your customer then great. Worth mentioning too that anything over €200 then it gets stopped at Russian customs and the recipient may have to get an export agent to 'release' the package. This is often so expensive that they refuse the package and the item is then sent back to the UK at the senders cost.

Hope this helps.

Yes, £40 to Moscow for a Fed Ex box is reasonable, if the product value is high. However, if you are selling small (under 2kg) low value goods under £30 for instance, you can't beat Royal Mail prices (less than £4 std airmail untracked). Even with 'tracking' (and I use the word loosely), the cost is around £10 or less, as Russia is classed as Europe (non EU of course).

 

[Jayser100]

We have recently been having the same problem. we send packages using Royal Mail International Signed For and a few have gone missing.

One customer recently purchased a pair of our sport sunglasses through eBay; they went missing, so we sent a replacement pair and they also went missing.

Once the package arrives in Russia, it should be possible to track an International Signed For item on the Russian postal service website (I have done this successfully in the past). But with these lost packages, the tracking number isn't recognised. On the Royal Mail website, the tracking says "your package has been passed to the Russian postal service for delivery."

Myself and my staff are monitoring the situation closely and, if it doesn't improve, we might stop shipping there because there is clearly a serious problem.

 

[LianneF]

Hi
Has anyone actually sent to Russia ( a private Individual) and used a courier? A customer has emailed wanting to place a large order and said when she's ordered from the UK before they used Parcelforce. I contacted a company who offer the parcelforce service and they said they can't send to Russia so don't see why they would advertise it on their website! Any help would be much appreciated?
Thanks
Lianne

 

[deadgoodundies]

Do you mean you contacted a courier broker service (like parcel2go) who use parcel force or do you mean you contacted another retailer who us the parcel force service.

If the latter then possibly they just don't want to risk sending to Russia.
With parcel force it's not like with fedex where the same company delivers it i.e if you ship from the UK to Russia with fedex then fedex are the company that deliver it.
With Parcel Force it's the same as Royal Mail in that they have "partner" companies in the recipient country who make the final delivery (which is often just the usual national postal company)

 

[LianneF]

yeah sorry should have explained it better. I contacted a broker called ParcelHero and they said no as apparently customs in Russia don't allow imports to private individuals.

 

[Arek Wolfestone]

I work for a translation company, and am amazed at the problems you guys have been having and sorry to hear about them as we commend you for exporting to new countries. Obviously we tend not to have issues because we don't need couriers for translation.

My only thoughts are that it may be worth using a slightly more expensive but more reliable courier for larger value packages?

 

[LianneF]

A customer in Russia has just emailed saying there was something on the news in Russia saying they aren't accepting anymore international parcels because of such a big backlog in customs, anyone else heard this?

 

[a1anm]

A customer in Russia has just emailed saying there was something on the news in Russia saying they aren't accepting anymore international parcels because of such a big backlog in customs, anyone else heard this?

We haven't heard this but hopefully it's not true as we just sent an order to Russia. We have continued to send parcels but have been advising customers of the long delays.

It's very frustrating and couriers aren't allowed to take orders more than a certain amount (around £200 I think) to Russia. Or so FedEx tell us.

 

[deadgoodundies]

If using Royal Mail then it's worth signing up for the Royal Mail Daily Operational Customer Statement as you get reports every morning if there are any problems both nationally and internationally

 

[a1anm]

If using Royal Mail then it's worth signing up for the Royal Mail Daily Operational Customer Statement as you get reports every morning if there are any problems both nationally and internationally

Could you post a link for the sign up page? The only one I could find only provided national information.

 

[deadgoodundies]

cant find the signup page to get the daily reports but this is the informational international page
http://www.royalmail.com/service-update/international

 

[serendipitybusiness]

Hi Guys

There is more information here

http://postandparcel.info/54989/new...on-as-russian-post-struggles-with-e-commerce/

Looks like it is going to be a problem for a while if they can't handle demand, I hate refusing to send to a country that has embraced our products so well, I now have a waiting list for Russia. With postage prices going up, Cyprus going down and Russia out of the picture, its been a tough few months for international ecommerce for us Brits, even tougher for the people in the countries effected ! Good job we are a determined lot isn't it!!

 

[alwaysinamess]

One (of the many things) that I have against using couriers like fedex though is the amount of paperwork you have to fill in when sending outside the eu (and if you want really express delivery it applies to the EU excluding UK as well).
If i've got 60 pairs of underwear to send out via fedex then I have to fill in this form where I have to list every item separately, along with it's country of origin, the exact fabric content, the individual weight, what it's end use will be.
By the time i've filled it all in, the time i've spent on it can be more than the actual sale is worth.

Not always true, we just send a copy invoice - our own with Fed Ex and there is little issues, just be careful using Fed Ex as they will charge for goods being held up, I will no longer send desirable items to Russia, we will still send items that will only benefit the buyer but not items that will benefit everyone.

The Fed Ex driver should know what he is doing and be experienced enough to know what paperwork is needed before he collects.

Honestly I don't think you need to list every item, we just put the code in on fed ex online booking and then add our own invoice, thats it, on the invoice it would say 'Various Adapters' I did what you did once but then found out I did not need to go into so much detail.

 

[alwaysinamess]

http://themoscownews.com/russia/20130409/191426435.html

Postal Service cries for help as packages pile up
by Anna Arutunyan at 09/04/2013 16:49
Russia's Postal Service has sounded an alarm over some 500 tons of backlogged mail packages, most of them online shopping orders that have not passed through customs due to staffing issues, Kommersant reported Tuesday.
Russia's Postal Service Director General Alexander Kiselyov has sent a letter to Customs Service chief Andrei Belyaninov asking him to look into the problem, after complaints from Deutsche Post earlier last month that postal packages sent to Russia were not reaching their destinations.
But the backlog of postal packages has as much to do with customs as it does with the postal service, according to Russia's Postal Service. Customs officials at airports like Vnukovo are severely understaffed and cannot handle the increase in postal traffic, Kommersant reported, citing a source in the Postal Service. Each day, Russia's Postal Service delivers 48,000 small packages to the Customs Service, while customs is able to process no more than 37,000 packages a day.
In accordance with a 2010 decree by then-President Dmitry Medvedev, the Customs Service was to cut 20 percent of its civilian staff by 2013. To rectify this, Kiselyov proposed that the two agencies "prepare a joint address to [current President] Vladimir Putin to reconsider the… decree," Kommersant cited Kiselyov as writing in his letter.
Meanwhile, postal traffic is expected to continue growing as an increasing number of people order products online. If the Postal Service delivered 2.3 million packages ordered online in 2009, by 2012 that number had grown to 17 million.
Russia's Postal Service has increasingly been under fire for delays and inefficiency, with up to 20 percent of correspondences not reaching their addressees on time, according to figures from the Communications Ministry.
The government on Monday ordered the Postal Service to be transferred under the direct control of the Communications Ministry in an attempt to improve efficiency, according to an official statement posted on the government's site.
Meanwhile, some 10,000 people have signed a petition to President Putin through Change.org asking him to "sort out everything and restore order" in the postal service

 

[RussianMarket]

Hi, my company does exactly that - ships various cargoes (big and small) to Russia and CIS countries. We use various methods to suit individual customers and minimize costs and customs duties. We also help with communication, which is not always easy with the Russians. I will be pleased to help you - please feel free to contact me with your details via mail or phone 07968046111.
Kind regards.
Natalia

 

[RussianMarket]

Hello, we send to Russia via our warehouse in Finland - we will be happy to serve your customers and they could contact us directly. All you do - ship your item to us and we'll deliver.

 

[RussianMarket]

Russia is a very different environment - there is the law, but no means to implement it. Therefore hardly anyone can get anything out of courts. People do not want to work and have no respect for each other or other's property. This is due to many years being under the Communist yoke - no work ethic, no respect, no feeling of stability in the future, hence they want to grab whatever is available now. It is not possible to apply logic to this country. Therefore all these backlogs in the customs - the customs skims the people big time, they do not recognise official invoices and value the items themselves as they please. And every town applies their own value to the same goods - in some cities the value of your item would be £5 and in others £20 - they are the law to themselves. We have been dealing with tehm for years now and worked our ways to help the Russians not to pay through the nose.

 

[serendipitybusiness]

Hi Guys

Just dipping back in, is everyone still having problems with shipping to Russia I am deciding on whether to turn Russia back on or not and wanted to see where things lie now.

 

[John Francos]

I'm also interested in getting updates on this situation as we have a new potential client wanting items shipped to end users by post on a regular basis.

 

[RussianMarket]

Hello, Russia is still a dodgy place - they have even burnt a post building once in Moscow not too long ago to cover the theft! There are 3 main problems in that country that significantly affect trade: 1) customs - greedy and unregulated, they make the rules as they go along and the rules are open to wide interpretations; this delays customs clearance hugely - they just cannot proceed it all in reasonable time hence backlogs for months; 2)post office - nothing at all like in the UK; Russian post is inefficient, lazy and corrupt. Even within the same town a letter usually travels about a week! 3)corruption and inefficiency- is a huge problem, which stops everyone in the civil service from. working. We specialise in deliveries to Russia and will not recommend anyone to send via post on a large scale - anything other than 1-2 parcels I would recommend a different way. Otherwise - no ending grief with customers, whose parcels have been lost - and the Russian post office will to take any responsibility, so the customers will blame the sender. The other issue - customs fees; often the customs charge is so unexpectedly large, that the people will give up the idea of buying from abroad again and will discourage others from it. Great way to lose business! We ship to Finland, customs clear there for a set fee and then use a courier within Russia - this method works, like the clock. It is fast, reliable and very affordable, so please contact me if you would like to know more.