United States postage delays – July / August 2025
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LATEST UPDATE & OVERVIEW 16th August 2025 – We believe we are collecting the last of the returned parcels on Monday 18th August. With regards to those parcels that were returned to us sent via the budget service we do not anticipate any further returns or delays as we no longer use that service. All parcels sent via the express service are travelling normally. We will now close this update page. We have created a new page about tariffs and potential delays in the coming months for US customers which you can see here: https://www.europeanvintageemporium.com/united-states-import-tariffs-from-29th-august-2025
[Updated 11th August 2025 – Returned parcels are starting to arrive at our local depot. On Monday 11th August we picked up 17 parcels and will be contacting those customers in the next 24 hours to see how they would like to proceed. We should be receiving more in the next week or so. If you have been waiting for four weeks or more and no tracking or movement is showing, and you would now prefer a refund, please let us know and we will get this sorted out for you. We still have no idea of which packages, or firm reasons why they are being returned but it is likely linked to tariff changes. As these parcels arrive back we will contact customers to see how they would like to proceed. It may be possible that we can resend them via another service (but note the 31/7/25 de minimis update below), or of course, we can refund in full.
[Update 9th August 2025 – We have been advised this morning that our (and others) returned parcels are arriving at our local depot and we will be picking up the first of these on Monday. We will be contacting those customers whose parcels we receive immediately to see how they would like to proceed]
[Update 7th August 2025 – We have been in contact with many other sellers facing the same issues. Not just in France but the UK too. We imagine this is effecting a large number of worldwide imports into the US. The scale of returned parcels must be astronomical. August is holiday time here in France and we are having great difficulty finding out further information. We would suggest that all of those customers who have been waiting four weeks or more with no tracking updates contact us so that we can start the refund process if they wish. When your items get back we can always contact you and you can re-purchase the item and we will send via services which are not facing disruptions. Our parcels sent via the express service continue to travel without issue.]
[Update 31st July 2025 – President Trump has signed an executive order that removes de minimis for goods from every country beginning August 29th. In its coverage of the news, Wired said it will make it more expensive for Americans to buy foreign products on sites like eBay, Etsy, and Amazon. Link to an article from CNBC here: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/30/trump-de-minimis-shipping.html.]
[Update 30th July 2025 – Customer inquiries continue to come in regarding delayed packages sent via the budget service to the US. We stopped offering that service as soon as the multiple issues started to arise. We can only now offer the more expensive fully tracked, express service to the US. This service is not currently causing any issues and is traveling normally with arrival in 1-2 weeks]
[Update 29th July 2025 – Delays due to “Postage Assessment”. We have heard of a large number of cases of parcels being held for assessment on the US border from our colleagues here in France. This seems to be related to customs issues or changes in the US system leading into packages being put aside for double checking of postage paid, contents or product origin. This fits what seems to be happening as this current issue is only effecting half of the packages we have sent in the last month via the budget service. The other half have traveled totally normally along with all express packages. We now have 30+ delayed packages on the border, we usually get one or two a month out of the 100+ we send into the US. I am afraid we still have no firm explanation for what is happening. We are both quite manic about the situation so thank you for bearing with us!]
[Update 28th July 2025 – Customers now waiting five weeks or more. In an attempt to be proactive rather than reactive we will be proposing the following to customers who have been waiting five weeks or more if no tracking movement is apparent. Both buyer and seller should be covered by Etsy buyer and seller protection for orders up to $250, but as this is a totally unheard of situation for us in fifteen years of trading on Etsy we hope that is the case. We will be collating paperwork and sending it to customers in preparation for a claim through Etsy at the five week point. If the claim is not allowed then we will issue the refunds ourselves and can only request that customers who receive refunds pay again for the item upon receipt. Alternatively we will supply pictures of the package which you can refuse and it will just come straight back to us. It must be refused at time of delivery though for this free return to be valid and the tracking will show the parcel has been refused and track its return to us. We will be contacting customers individually who have been waiting for five weeks or more over the coming days. Again apologies for the inconvenience. As you can imagine the situation is incredibly stressful for us, but likewise, we cannot expect you to wait indefinitely when we have no solid news.]
[Update 28th July 2025 – A trade deal has been agreed over the weekend between the EU and US. However this should not be effecting past orders and is only something agreed at the highest level with the details to be hammered out. BBC article here. Guardian article here]
[Update 24th July 2025 – Some packages sent in late June are now starting to track with USPS. Allowing a week for traveling in the US this puts the delivery window at 4-5 weeks with the delay at the border lasting 3-4 weeks. I am closely monitoring the packages of everyone who has contacted me with concerns and will update you when movement is seen. Again apologies to everyone and thank you for your patience]
We are experiencing unprecedented delays with sending parcels into the US at the moment via our budget/cheapest postage services across our selling platforms. This is in at least part due to the uncertainty about tariffs which is causing huge backlogs on the border. Parcels are turning up but customers are advised to allow 4+ weeks for delivery. Estimated delivery times shown on our partner websites like Etsy and Ebay are not currently accurate.
Customers who are in a rush to receive things are advised to upgrade at checkout to the express service as this service is facing no delays and offers more detailed tracking information. Budget tracking often only occurs at the post office counter via a stamped receipt and then again as things enter the US and are handed over to USPS.
With regards to tariffs we did a post on Facebook on potential US tariffs back in April but things will now be changing in late August 2025. You can see that recently updated post here:
https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanVintageEmporium/posts/1238335914962314
Here is a link to the USPS service alerts for any other potential USPS delays:
https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts
Whilst researching we are seeing multiple reports of a lot of delays with USPS within the US too:
https://www.reddit.com/r/usps_complaints/comments/1m2cnoj/usps_delayed_delivery_july_2025