Verdant Tea

I wouldn’t judge them based on a wayward parcel from China. This happens all the time when we send parcels from China to the US, Canada, etc. Stuck in Customs, or mis-handled by USPS, etc. It’s international shipping, so it’s far from domestic parcel Amazon bliss.

Try ordering from a US based shop to tide you over until the parcel arrives.

Thanks for the advice. I’m probably letting my yearnings to taste the tea drive my anxiety up! It’s just odd because the rest of the shipping of both packages went so smoothly…then all of a sudden that one was re-routed and it’s as if it disappeared! No further tracking updates, just a big yellow caution sign in the tracking history. I don’t even know what to do about it…but $40 is a lot for me to lose on tea. To be honest, I was kind-of stretching my budget my purchasing it, but I really liked the company.

Honestly, I’m not at all surprised by one-month shipping times from China to my doorstep. Their estimate was 8-12 days or something, and I thought that sounded crazy-fast. The reason I’m concerned is that it’s missing in OUR postal system; USPS just stopped tracking it. Maybe they’re inspecting it or something? Of course, that begs the question: what happens if they decide not to send it on to the destination for some reason?

I see Yunnan Sourcing ships direct from China as well. Bummer – Pu-Erh is on my list of teas to try after the green teas! Do you have any suggestions for U.S. shops? Maybe the way my nerves are, I’m better off letting someone else worry about tracking the shipments from China to the US! :)

Hopefully it will turn up. The postal service in my neck of the woods does things like this to me all the time. It’s just a waiting game sometimes. I am sure you will get it or a reship if it’s lost. Good sellers will always try to help if they can.
That guy above is one of those good ones.
Welcome to Steepster glad to have you.

They are probably using e-packet (Express Small Parcel). These typically take 6 to 10 days from China.

If it’s in the USA and lost there then you can only really blame USPS. I know your frustration because I have to replace parcels from time to time. I think if it hasn’t moved for a week or more then you should email Verdant and ask them for a replacement. I’m sure they’d deal with it.

We do have a US based shop… http://yunnansourcing.us Everything ships from Oregon. $8 flat rate regardless of quantity.

I’ve had packages (not necessarily tea) lost by USPS, also. If you have the time, try calling the last post office that it was scanned at, with tracking/parcel number in hand. Let them know you think it’s lost—they may do the calling around for you to see if they can find it. By calling around, I mean calling each post office between where it was lost and its destination. In my experience, no one’s particularly enthusiastic about doing that leg work for you, but they might give you a list of where the package should have been heading and where its transitions should have been.

If part of the label was damaged, one of those stops could have a mystery package hanging out with your name on it. :P

Regardless if you are able to locate the package, or Verdant replaces it, good luck! :)

And I definitely recommend both Verdant and Yunnan Sourcing—my two favorite tea vendors… not in that order. ;)

Thanks to all of you for your advice and suggestions, and for you vote of confidence for Verdant Tea!

While I continue to wait for a response from customer service, I will give USPS a call tomorrow if I can find the time and see if I can track down the package.

The post office does strange things with packages and often takes a long time to send them a short distance. I would consider calling your local post office however. They often have somewhat more tracking information on a package than the USPS website offers. It may simply have at some point been put on the wrong truck and simply hasn’t yet been sent onward. As to Verdant not responding to your email I don’t know what to tell you as I have not ordered from Verdant since before they moved to China. The used to be a US retailer. It may also be useful to find the phone number for the local office of the USPS Consumer Affairs division I believe they call it. I have called them looking for wayward packages and they have been somewhat helpful.

Oh the joy of waiting for tea…

I placed an order with Verdant (and nothing against them at all here) on Jan 4 —tracking shows “Acceptance” and “Origin Post is Preparing Shipment…” on Jan 14 but that’s it.

No movement since and still stuck in China ┻━┻ ︵ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻

I echo everything that was said above.

Not hearing back from Verdant yet today is not something I would worry about. There is a time change, and it is also just after Chinese New Year (Monday). I know a lot of other tea shops have been closed or service has been slow due to holidays and such.

I would give them 24 business hours to reply (ie. 3 days) and then contact them again if you haven’t heard anything/received the tea.

I have a package from them and not sure it made it out of China either before the New Year.

Honestly postal holiday of 2-3 weeks is bad for business, personal vacations aside.