Groomsmen Gift Meltdown

On September 11th we ordered our groomsmen gifts and the seller (located in Hong Kong) shipped them us (located in NY) the next day.  After she shipped them, she gave me the tracking number, which I immediately looked up.  It had the message:  Origin post preparing shipment, loosely translated, "your package is waiting to go through customs".  However, 8 days after she shipped it, it still just had the same message. 

I decided to call USPS.   The woman I spoke to informed me that it could take up to a month to clear customs in Hong Kong and then another month to clear customs in the US and THEN it could be shipped to me.  In other words, I was looking at upwards of 2 months until the package arrived and there were 10 days until the wedding - probably not going to work.

In a panic yesterday morning, I emailed the seller and ask if she could resend the same order with express shipping (at my expense) after explaining the whole situation.  About an hour after I sent this email, I received an update from USPS, informing me that my package was in NY at a post office only about 4 hours away.  So in a matter of an hour, my package went from a sorting facility in Hong Kong, through their customs, through US customs, and made it's way to NY.  Talk about fast service.  Fortunately, I was able to message the seller and tell her that everything was alright and the package would arrive on time.  

Morals of the story:  (1) Don't trust USPS tracking and (2) start early if you're shopping online (and allow over 2 months if your package is coming from another country).  Lessons learned.