Ok guys I really need your opinions here, and if there any any Americans with experience of USPS that would be great.
I asked a friend of the friend in the US to buy and send me an iPad here in the UK and he agreed. He agreed to buy it first and for me to pay him when I received it.
I told him to take out insurance on the postage and he did, however I also asked him to give me the tracking number but he said, quote "they said it would just tell you when it was delivered so I didn't think it was worth it". I assumed that any international postage, especially one on which you have taken out significant insurance, would come with a tracking number specifically on the receipt, but ok..
So a month has passed, he sent it global priority and it was expected to arrive within 10 days but I think today is day 25 or something.
He replies to his emails sparingly, never with anything useful, and yet he doesn't seem concerned a £500 electronic device he bought has seemingly disappeared.
He claims to have called USPS and been told it is "in customs" and that either he or I needed to call to answer some questions. So I called UK customs and they said 1) we don't actually hold items here we just apply taxes if necessary and 2) if your item was being held because we had applied taxes,you'd have gotten an letter within 24 hours.
So I called ParcelForce, the company that apparently would be holding the item if that was the case (although I still have received no letter) and they said they can't be sure without a tracking number, but doing a parcel search on my postcode they could find nothing being held or currently in transit for me.
So I asked this guy again to check with USPS for a tracking code, and he said they told him that they can't do anything, they can't give him a tracking code and they don't know where his parcel is.
What the hell?! I could just walk to my Apple Store and buy one today if I just knew for sure he was lying to me, I don't know why he would do it but it just seems insane.
Please, need advice!
