Experience with Magyar Posta -> USPS?

[KennethRSloan]

Here's an "International" question:

I have a watch en route from Hungary (post office to addressee - I'm in the USA). Magyar Posta says it has "left the country". USPS says it's being "prepared for shipment". Both events happened (in Budapest) about 9 days ago. Since then....crickets. Looking for someone with experience on how long it takes to get from Magyar Posta to USPS (and...should I see scanning events once in the hands of USPS?)

My last shipment from Europe (Austria) took several weeks, but that price tag had 2 fewer 0's in it, so I wasn't tracking it. I'm not even sure that shipment *had* a tracking number. This one does. The good news is that both Magyar Posta *and* USPS recognize the tracking number and (up to experimental error) agree on what happened up until 9 days ago. The bad news is that nothing reportable has happened in 9 days.

I have another coming from Russia - but that one does not merit tracking and all I know is when it went into the Russianpost system. I don't expect (and mostly don't really care) to hear anything about it until it shows up in my mailbox.

[Matt]

One of my closest friends is Hungarian and so there's a fair amount of traffic - my experience is that it's rock solid on the way out but can be a bit dodgy on the way in. To the UK air mail, nine days is starting to be a bit much, Have you tried emailing them to give them a shake?

[KennethRSloan]

I e-mailed Magyar Posta over the weekend and got a "we're closed" auto reply. Still waiting. My real question is: has it really not progressed at all out of Budapest - or does USPS (USA - not UK) *not* scan foreign packages?

The Magyar Posta tracking says it has been "sent abroad".

USPS simply says that it has been through the Sorting Facility and "we have been notified that the originating post is preparing the package for shipment".

In other words "We don't have it anymore" and "We haven't gotten it, yet".

I'm not hopeful - I may be about to find out how well ebay handles "never delivered" claims - but I'll give it at least 1 more week, based on my experience with the Austrian package. At least from Russia, ebay is quite conservative about shipping times. The *start* of the delivery window for that package is still 3 weeks in the future. But, the predicted delivery window on the Hungarian package closes tomorrow, I think.