Verdant Tea
@Cwyn Chinese New Year cuts my sales in half every February…. 2 weeks… the whole country? Sounds like sci-fi!
Yes, all of China closes down for Chinese New Year, for something like two weeks. No need to stress. Your package will arrive when it arrives.
I’ve had packages from China to Canada take almost two months.
I’ve had this happen and from my experience they’ll definitely make sure you get what you paid for — just could take some time!
I ordered some teaware from them back on Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend — it was slow getting out of China, finally made its way to my local US Post Office, only to get flagged as “Undeliverable as addressed” (other packages from them have arrived just fine). I called the local PO, gave them the tracking number and they said something to the effect of “is this going to xxx xxxx [my address]?” and I said yes. They said, well it’s being sent back to the sender because it’s undeliverable as addressed — to which I replied: “but you just read me my address based on the tracking info in your system; why is it undeliverable???” “We don’t know — it’s not here; it’s gone back.” So 3 weeks later it ends up back in China… Verdant couldn’t tell what was wrong since the “Undeliverable as addressed” sticker was slapped over the label. :-) They resent it using DHL instead; got it a week later. Just a bit short of two months in total. I’ve also had packages from vendors put on the wrong delivery truck and sit in limbo for days and days before someone notices (I used to find USPS pretty reliable; not so much these days…).
Oh my gosh, that conversation you had with USPS is hilarious! (Though I’m sure it wasn’t to you at the time). Sounds just like them, in my experience. On a side note, it’s really a pity they can’t seem to get their crap together! The business takes the fall for USPS issues. At the end of the day, they end up paying a lot to re-ship packages (DHL is expensive!) Plus, many people may just stick with a U.S.-based retailer to avoid all this hassle. Such a pity because the 5-tea sampler I got was just wonderful, and they seem like nice people too!
Nope. Still no change at all to the tracking information. Last update was Jan. 25.
Kelsey, from customer service, did reply to my email on Thursday saying she would look into it. Hopefully I will hear back from her this week.
My shipment hasn’t moved either — their response on Feb 4:
" Unfortunately we believe that the delay in your package was worsened by the recent snowstorms in the NE and Mid Atlantic. We are looking into it (on both the US and Chinese side) but we think that your package is stuck in the backlog of USPS’s International Sort Center in NYC."
Not sure how snow in the NY (and don’t think there was really any major disruption in service either…) would cause a shipment to still be stuck in China… as in not moved at all in over a month…
At what point do they just say, ‘hey, that sucks let’s ship you a new order…’
Each of the billion marketing emails I’ve gotten from Verdant since placing this last order just fuels my whininess.
end rant.
I’m being dumb, I have plenty of other tea I can be drinking in the meantime.
Well, if your package is still in China then the reason could be Chinese New Year holiday. I got a reply from Kelsey the other day that said USPS has started an “investigation request” that takes 72 hours to process. If they don’t find it (and I’m thinking they won’t at this point) by COB today, then Verdant will either issue a refund or re-ship the package. If I want them to reship, I’ll have to wait until the last week of February when the New Year holiday will be over.
Also, they sent me a shipment notification WAY before my packages actually started moving. I got one notification on Dec. 31st (for my sampler) and the second on Jan 4th, but both packages were accepted by China’s postal service on Jan 13th or 14th. So that might be a holdup, too. If it’s a rural area, they may not have mail service every day.
Furthermore, and this is just a cultural note that may or may not relate to this situation, in East Asian countries it is business custom to sort-of “say yes and do your best.” I don’t know how to explain that exactly…but they will say, “Yes we can do that,” and then figure out how to do it later, or perhaps, “Yes it has shipped,” because it’s GOING TO SHIP sometime soon. Not a criticism, just a cultural difference I’ve noticed in business. Of course, I think their logistics folks are Americans living in Minnesota…
Anyways, those are a few reasons YOUR package might be delayed. As for mine, I’m pretty sure all hope of receiving it is lost. Pity. Someone, somewhere got some lovely tea free-of-charge and an honest company took a loss. Makes me sad.
I worked at a shipping facility that received international air fright while in college and I’m always surprised when a package arrives perfectly on time. For shipping to work properly this one box out of millions has to be put on the right pallet, right shipping container, right conveyer belt…and this has to happen over and over again! Someone has a bad day and the box goes in the wrong bin and boom it’s heading to the wrong coast. Boxes got destroyed completely by being mangled by forklifts and machinery or smashed by other packages. And after this place was shut down and the machinery scrapped long lost packages were found underneath. So international shipping is a small miracle, and can go wrong for anyone sending a package.
Yes. Yesterday I contacted them again because the USPS investigation should have been completed a week and a half ago. Tracking info remained unchanged. I just asked if they wouldn’t mind confirming that the package is indeed lost and issuing a refund.
I do feel bad because it isn’t their fault, yet they are the ones who pay. At the same time, it was frustrating to have a $40 package just floating in some no-man’s-land! I guess it’s just bad luck that my $5 sampler arrived, but my carefully-selected and much-anticipated $40 package did not!
Needless to say, I’ve learned my lesson never to buy direct from Asia. Verdant Tea has wonderful customer service, but I wouldn’t risk that with just any company.
While that sucks: This is that one in a thousand. Many of us buy teaware on Aliexpress and have no issue. Let alone White2Tea, Yunnan Sourcing, ChaWang…. and on.
Not trying to downplay your experience, but if you get your money back I recommend trying until you do lose money.
It is possible that the original package may yet show up. These lost packages have a way of showing up. I had a similar situation with a package from another vendor. After about fifty days they reshipped via faster method. Soon one package showed up, then the other showed up. Lost packages have a way of showing up eventually. You may find yourself with twice as much tea.
Well, I’ll hold off on ordering more. If the package shows us, I’ll notify them to charge me again for that order. It would be nice if it showed up…those teas sounded yummy. :)
When I ended up with two packages the seller agreed that I shouldn’t pay for the second shipping charge. I didn’t try to not pay the seller for the package.
Please keep us posted on how Verdant handles this. That’s the kind of info that’s useful on the forums. Also appreciate the chiming in of experienced hands regarding global holidays, overseas shipping expectations, the realities of shipping company protocol, what it’s like to be the tea vendor with a small business. I’m new here too, and I suspect we share the trait of a small tea budget, and that makes the stakes higher for getting what we order when we order it. There’s not really extra money to spend on a second order somewhere else. It’s tea, essentially a luxury commodity (am I even allowed to say that here? ;-) and we won’t starve, but ease of transaction counts for something too. Your tale has me looking at tea companies based closer to my actual location…at least until I have either a small supply of teas so I can afford to wait, or a more luxurious budget so I can afford a calculated gamble.
As far as Verdant Tea goes, they are a top-notch company in my book. They handled it appropriately and with kind and polite customer service. Once USPS concluded their investigation and did not find it, Verdant was willing to either issue me a refund or to resend the package. I adopted for a refund simply because I have already purchased replacement tea after I ran out over these two months. Like you, I have a strict tea budget (otherwise I’d spend a quarter of my salary on tea!) so that influenced my choice.
That said, I would order from Verdant again some time in the future. They are dealing with a tricky business: so many small packages sent from China to the U.S. means the probability of losses is great compared to a “middle man” distributor who buys pallets of tea direct from China and then repackages and sells them here.
I think that for those of us on a budget, or just looking to get the best product at a fair price and not be cheated (highly likely in any “on-trend” market…think tea, yoga, anything “green”), we sometimes have to take a gamble. In this particular instance, I lost. But my experience with the face of the company has been great: I think they are responsive, caring, and honest. (My opinions of USPS, on the other hand, differ slightly.) :-P Also, I did get the $5 sampler and their teas really are worth their salt. :) I would suggest trying them out when you have a stock of less expensive teas already, as you said, so you can afford to wait.
Also, if you do try any tea shipped from China, just don’t be too obsessive about the tracking info. It doesn’t update reliably and it’s just not as seamless as it is here in the U.S. I would check it like once or twice a week and don’t sweat it until you actually see some kind of error message. In my case, there was a warning and a message about a re-route…and then nothing for a month. In the beginning, I was too uptight about it. People here suggested I chill, and that was good advice. Verdant is a top-notch, highly responsible company and they didn’t leave me hanging.
If you choose EMS shipping from China or E Packet shipping they are noticeably more reliable than China Post ground and it’s variations. Strangely, these services are more reliable when the USPS gets the package too. I am curious which shipping service you used? The package I had a big problem with was shipped SAL. I have never had any major problems with EMS shipping.
Interesting. I didn’t have a choice (except I think I could have had it expedited with DHL for a badzillion dollars :) ), but I just checked the shipment notification email I got and it says it was shipped China Post. It’s good to know that E-packet and EMS are more reliable.
You can also tell by the first two letters in the tracking number. EE oe EA indicate EMS. LK or LS indicate E Packet. CP indicates China Post and RA indicates Air Mail or sometimes SAL. They will all end in CN.
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