Tools from Japan.......... Wowzer!

[Scott Stafford]

I am astonished.

I ordered a saw from "Tools from Japan" Friday morning. I paid $15 for the recommended freight method. Cheap enough considering it would be shipped from almost half way around the world. It arrived this morning at 8:30 via the USPS! TWO WORKING DAYS LATER!

How is this possible? UPS normally takes four working days to get a package to me from Denver (700 miles away). And, shipping on a package this size would cost me at least $20.

I have read time and time again of Stuart Tierney's outstanding service and promptness. Everything is true!

Thank you Stewart. Thank you USPS and all those involved in the shipping from Japan.


Scott in Montana

[Greg R Bradley]

I ordered a "Not Available in North America" tool from toolstop.com in Scotland. I received it in California in two days for the same freight as buying it from the eastern half of the US.

[ian maybury]

I've had great results from Tools from Japan to Ireland using his stock small package air mail service.

One guess at the story on delivery times is that the timing is really determined by the underlying transportation method. Air freight for example spends a certain amount of time in the air on given route, in transit warehouses and then on the road - and that's that. Ditto for surface.

Anything more than some minimal extension on actual travelling time (to avoid requirements for special collections, staffing and the like, and as anybody up to speed on Just in Time manufacturing will tend to agree) seems likely to cost the shipper money. They don't get paid for maintaining great enormous warehouses of goods in transit, and the stuff has to sit somewhere in the interim. There's times i wonder what's going on in the mail services which can at times be incredibly slow - no wonder they have got to be relatively speaking very expensive these days…..

My best guess is that 'express' services and the like are in most cases just a marketing device - a means of charging extra. Express may mean when they are busy that your item makes the flight when another doesn't, but there's times (around here anyway) when I severely doubt that even that happens as it would require sorting/separation into the different categories….

[Jim Belair]

My best guess is that 'express' services and the like are in most cases just a marketing device - a means of charging extra. Express may mean when they are busy that your item makes the flight when another doesn't, but there's times (around here anyway) when I severely doubt that even that happens as it would require sorting/separation into the different categories….

I think your guess is about right Ian.

[Jim Matthews]

It's not as if one set of packages flies on a DC-3 and the others go through the Teleporter.

The only difference is at the front end, where stock is picked and packed.
Mebbe how many coffee breaks between the warehouse and shipper...

[Jim Koepke]

It seems the shipping industry is trying to do better. They face problems with shipping dropping off because a lot of the document shipping being replaced by electronic document transfers.

A recent order of mine was slowed because of the time lag between the order and being shipped by a 'fulfillment' house.

Some fill orders faster than others.

jtk

[Chuck Nickerson]

If a package from Japan ships east to the US, does it pick up (or lose?) a day at the International Date Line?

[David Weaver]

Japan post on EMS package is serious business. Even on economy air shipping, it's still fast. If there's tracking, you almost always find that the package you're getting is in a US port in a couple of days. I've had hold ups on packages from Japan and europe, but every single time, it's been in the port in the US when I've had the luxury of being able to track also. I

One time, i got a package from stu 5 weeks after he sent it, I could see the EMS tracking that it was in new york several days after shipping and just didn't get it and didn't get it (it just sat in new york like tom hanks in The Terminal). When it showed up, it was spotless unopened condition. They weren't opening it and examining my sharpening stones or anything, they were just being generally inconsiderate on our side of the shipping deal.

At the same time, UK post gets the packages out, but they have no regard for offering a proper overseas economy service for small packages, and that's really killed the ability to get a lot of decent tools out of the UK. Sellers there are keenly aware of that, though.

I have had one package that never got delivered - but it was from fujibato. A small folding lockback knife that was in the style of a japanese marking knife. It never showed up, which pisses me off, but it got out of japan and then disappeared here. Jpost (japan's postal service) sent me three letters with postage paid envelopes to confirm if I'd ever received the package - it was registered - and then after that they didn't. If you've ever dealt with fujibato, it wasn't worth $30 to start a claim with him - plus I didn't want him to stop selling to me because i filed a claim on a lost item. Thanks to our lame postal service here on international packages, though, I never got the knife. Still haven't, and Jpost must've given up, too, because they stopped sending letters asking if I ever received it.

All in all, though, that's probably about a 99% success rate, and I continue to order things from japan and the UK - they just have stuff we don't have over here, or they have it at prices that make the benefit far far outweigh the risk.

[Pat Barry]

I am astonished.

I ordered a saw from "Tools from Japan" Friday morning. I paid $15 for the recommended freight method. Cheap enough considering it would be shipped from almost half way around the world. It arrived this morning at 8:30 via the USPS! TWO WORKING DAYS LATER!

How is this possible? UPS normally takes four working days to get a package to me from Denver (700 miles away). And, shipping on a package this size would cost me at least $20.

I have read time and time again of Stuart Tierney's outstanding service and promptness. Everything is true!

Thank you Stewart. Thank you USPS and all those involved in the shipping from Japan.


Scott in Montana

Are you sure? Sure that this didn't ship from a US location? I mean, just because its called Tools from Japan it doesn't really have to mean that's where they came from directly to you. I kinda doubt it because A) the USPS was involved, B) Friday morning for you was Saturday just after Midnight in Tokyo, C) You got it Monday morning at 8:30AM?, from the USPS? Not where I live you don't.

[David Weaver]

Stu's stuff comes from japan, he doesn't drop ship anything from the US.

I've gotten stuff from japan in 2 or 3 business days, too, when the US side of things wants to cooperate. Cheaper than shipping from california to the east coast, and as fast or faster. If you ship EMS or SAL economy from japan and you're close to a route out of the country, your package can be in JFK a day or so after it's mailed in japan. If someone is way out in the middle of nowhere in japan, it takes an extra day, but they're always quick to get my stuff to JFK in NY.

[Scott Stafford]

Are you sure? Sure that this didn't ship from a US location? I mean, just because its called Tools from Japan it doesn't really have to mean that's where they came from directly to you. I kinda doubt it because A) the USPS was involved, B) Friday morning for you was Saturday just after Midnight in Tokyo, C) You got it Monday morning at 8:30AM?, from the USPS? Not where I live you don't.

It even went through customs! And then..... our Post Office delivered it!

I have got to say that I am seeing big efforts within to improve everything about our Postal system. At least in here in Montana.


Scott in Montana

[Pat Barry]

It even went through customs! And then..... our Post Office delivered it!

I have got to say that I am seeing big efforts within to improve everything about our Postal system. At least in here in Montana.


Scott in Montana

Astounding!

Here is USPS Press Release:
"WASHINGTON— The U.S. Postal Service ended the second quarter of its 2014 fiscal year (Jan. 1, 2014 – March 31, 2014) with a net loss of $1.9 billion. This marks the 20th of the last 22 quarters it has sustained a loss. “The Postal Service is working diligently to improve its finances by streamlining our network to improve efficiency..."


Maybe they are making progress in efficiency after all.