I ordered posters from one seller in the uk, then from another seller a week later in the uk. The second purchase arrived in 2 weeks. The first purchase, ordered before the second and shipped before the second, arrived 6 weeks later. Go figure. The Royal Mail sucks.
The only thing worse, now, is the privatized mail in the Netherlands. I sent some stuff to someone there recently, and they lied about receiving it, claiming the wrong address was used, then lied about returning it though they never did, and they kept kicking the tube back to customs again and again. After about 2 months or so, the poster tube was finally delivered. They were the worst ever.
I had a similar experience sending a parcel to Norway last December (it was a box measuring approx 24" long x 14" wide x 4" deep). It weighed just over 4 pounds. I had taken the box to the post office to get the various costs depending on the shipping method the recipient wanted me to use. The most expensive was International Priority Express, which would take 4-6 business days. And with this size/weight box would cost over $60.00 USD to send.
The recipient wanted me to use this service. So I mailed the box on Dec 6th and emailed him the tracking number.
To make a long story short, the did not receive the box until January 7th! The tracking stopped showing any movement around Dec. 15th, and then was updated around Jan 6th. Seems the box did NOT leave LAX when it had indicated, back in early Dec, and basically sat here for a couple weeks. Then with the customs clearance in Norway, in early Jan.
Before the online update, I assumed the box was lost. I called the USPS around Dec 22, and they indicated that it had departed to Norway back earlier in the month (it hadnt). So I opened a claim.
When I asked about the fact that the recipient had paid for International EXPRESS service, the USPS rep told me that Norway was not one of the countries for which the 4-6 day service was guaranteed! Say wha??
It would have been nice to have been told this PRIOR to paying. So that meant there would be not even a partial refund of that shipping fee that was paid. I couldn't believe it.
All ended well and the box wasnt manhandled or opened in customs. But that shipping time frame, especially when paying for that kind of expedited service, seemed like a total rip off.