Shipping puzzle

[Bill McCall]

Finally ordered a set of Schaller Grandtunes about 2 weeks ago. After sitting in the UPS hub in Cologne for a week, they’re now in Kazakstan, which seems a little weird. Anyone have any UPS Germany recent experience? I’ve read stories of delays there, but the routing seems ridiculous.

[sgarrity]

International shipping is insane right now.

[HonketyHank]

The good news is that your package has been found ...

[CarlM]

[Bill McCall]

Well, it seems the shortest trip from Germany to Oregon is through Taiwan, which is where the package just arrived. There’s still hope.

[rickbella]

Oh, it's cheating to use the short-cut!

[Bill McCall]

And I’m pleased it’s not lost.

[Kenny]

Well, it seems the shortest trip from Germany to Oregon is through Taiwan, which is where the package just arrived. There’s still hope.

At first glance it seems odd to go that route but it really makes sense when you look into it. The shorter route from Germany to Oregon is trans Atlantic. But that’s a popular route and shippers are always fully booked so you have to wait for a later flight or ship. But … airplanes and ships that are eastbound are far less booked so there’s space available that’s already going your way. They may make extra stops and take a little longer than the more direct route would do but the difference is that your package got on the eastbound and arrived at your doorstep before the westbound even had room to load your package. You probably got a discounted rate, too.

[Hendrik Ahrend]

Bill, I live in Germany, and after having shipped and received many items to and from the US over the past 30 years, I can say that 2 - 6 weeks shipping time is perfectly normal.

[Ray(T)]

Nothing new here. Several years ago my wife received two letters on the same day. One had been posted around 4 miles down the road. The other was from her sister in Australia.

[Bill McCall]

Finally showed up. Traveled east:
Kazakstan
Hong Kong
Taiwan
Alaska
Louisville Ky
Portland

Really not too bad, just being impatient looking at them sitting in Cologne. Now I need a little time to install them

They do look beautiful.

[Louise NM]

Didn't they have to go through Oregon to get from Alaska to Louisville?

[Ray(T)]

People would pay good money to go on a trip like that - although I’m not sure about Kazakstan! Glad to see they’ve landed.

[Josh Levine]

Phew, hopefully I will finally get some sleep tonight .

[Bill McCall]

Phew, hopefully I will finally get some sleep tonight .

You have 2 preschoolers. Sleep ain’t happening

[wedsas]

<spam> bye, bye

[allenhopkins]

Get the Schallers to sit down and tell you about their 'round-the-world trip. Maybe show you some slides.

Weird when your mandolin tuners are more widely traveled than you are...

[Bren]

Kazakhstan is joined to China and Germany via the "belt and road" system.
Your tuners probably went by rail as far as Hong Kong.

As someone who worked in Kazakhstan a bit and played my mandolin there, I can tell you that the Borat caricature was far wide of the mark.
The population is a mix of Mongolian-descended Kazakhs and ethnic Russians.
The stereotypes SB-C drew from existed mainly in his head and are more Romanian - but still stereotypes.

By the way, I had to deal with Schaller a few years ago on behalf of a friend who was refurbishing some Levin instruments but couldn't do online payments, and got very helpful personal correspondence from current owner Dr. Lars Bünning.

Not because of that, but based on my relatively limited personal experience of tuners, I would choose Schaller every time.

[Bren]

TBH , I find Louisville the weirdest bit.

Cologne -Kazakhstan- Hong Kong-Taiwan (after they'd first travelled NW from Schaller factory to Cologne) is pretty much a straight(-ish) line eastward by land, then same for Hong Kong-Taiwan-Alaska by sea.

I guess Louisville must be an airfreight hub from where it goes onto trucks.

[Bill McCall]

........ Weird when your mandolin tuners are more widely traveled than you are...

It is so sad that's true, but they don't have to social distance