So general grumping appears to be my norm..

I feel sometimes that most of what I do is sort out problems that have been caused by other people.
So I’m keeping an unofficial record starting today (14th Jan 2026) to see if it’s just me.

Cartridges

2 days ago. Our printer went from “you’ve got plenty of black toner” to “crap, you’re pretty much out” even before I’d finished printing out all the orders. My bad – hadn’t got a spare one. Usually we keep a spare – got a spare yellow and cyan one, but no black. (on the plus side, the printer has been saying both yellow and cyan are “beyond low” for weeks, but it’s printing both colours fine.. maybe the black will last.. nope.. managed to print out all the kit orders, but not the printed chart ones..)

2 printer cartridges ordered from The Cartridge People (generally very good). I chose next day delivery for an extra £5.99 charge.

In Edge (I had to use that on the new PC, Chrome and Firefox turned into super memory hogs).. their website just kept reloading the paypal login and getting no further, so I used Chrome. Paypal login worked, I got a confirmation page, and then nothing. 3 hours later, I checked Paypal – nothing had gone through. I checked their website again – the cartridges were still in the basket, so their system hadn’t completed the order. I placed it again. This time the order seemed to finalise properly, I got the confirmation. Later I got an email saying it had been dispatched.

I checked tracking. DPD “we’re waiting for your parcel”. Figured maybe their system was playing catchup – sometimes it doesn’t update until the depot scans it in to book a delivery slot.

Next day (yesterday). No delivery slot. DPD system still says they’re waiting for the parcel. Cartridge People blame the weather and offer to refund the delivery charge if it doesn’t arrive.

Today – the cartridges arrive. Good. Hopefully I’ll get that delivery refund.
(update: I did).

Rainbow Gallery Petite Treasure Braid order

The original order was placed in August 2025. Yes, you read that right. RG finally admitted stock issues, then dispatched my order on 20th November 2025. Better late than never, right? After a couple of weeks (2nd Dec), I asked them for a tracking number as nothing had arrived – no customs charge.

Tracking number obtained – shows “presented to Customs on 29th November” and nothing since. Fair enough, it’s a busy time of year, so I’ll be patient and just check regularly. Customs usually takes 24-48 hours, maybe 3-4 days at busy times of the year.

17th Dec – I email again to ask if they can check with USPS whether *they* have any more information as the RM site still hadn’t been updated. Mohra said she’d look into it.

28th Dec – emailed to ask if she’d heard anything. no reply.

6th Jan – emailed again. no reply.

13th Jan – emailed and asked them URGENTLY to look into it. Got a response saying sorry for the delay, holidays & sickness. She passed the message on to the person who deals with parcels (why wasn’t this done in December??)
Vicky (RG) says they’ve spoken to USPS and the parcel arrived on 29/11. And I was to check with my post office as they have the parcel. This is after me forwarding the screenshot of the tracking info that clearly states “handed to customs” and nothing further. I reiterate this – it’s been handed to Customs (HDWC at Langley – the RM depot where customs official check incoming mail). It’s NOT at a post office.
Vicky states “I understand it’s frustrating after waiting so long but I just hang up the phone with them and they are telling me that it’s at a facility and that it has been delivered, all they say to me was if you can please contact your postal office and they will give you more information, since the package is already in united kingdom. I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. Can you please give reach out to your postal office.”

My response (I’m getting cross now)
“It has NOT reached any local facility in the UK. It has not reached the post office in any town or city. It is at LANGLEY CUSTOMS.  It was “presented to” the Customs dept in Langley. It has not been released from there. This means that either the parcel has no paperwork or has been lost. 

I sent you the screenshot of what the post office system says. That is also all the information they have. 

I’m sorry, but you are being lied to by USPS – clearly they simply don’t want to take any responsibility. I have chased all the people I am able to chase. There is no more information to be found.

There is no more information to get – that is it. I could spend hours on the telephone but every single person I speak to will say the same thing – “I’m sorry, it’s not been scanned in as it’s not been released from customs – we do not know why, but it does not take 6 weeks to clear customs if everything is correct”.

The first time we placed an order with yourselves, the paperwork was missing from the parcel and I had to provide copies of everything to customs to clear it. Subsequent deliveries seemed to work better, but this does feel like the first time – at least that time they had an address to contact me on though – this time they don’t even seem to have that.

I’ll try the telephone number for HMRC (Customs & Excise) tomorrow morning , but I’m 99% sure that they’ll tell me exactly the same thing as I’ve been telling you. Assuming I get through to anyone, because that’s unlikely – they don’t generally take calls.

At this point, my next step would be to put a claim in to my bank as a claim against a delivery not fulfilled, but I’d rather have the goods – I have gaps in my shop shelves!

her response (can you believe this – does she actually understand anything I’ve said?)
Yes, I understand, if you can reach out to them tomorrow and let see if you have some luck regarding where your order can be that will be amazing and if not let me know and I will replace your order and resend it via FedEx. Thank you so much for your patience.

So.. this morning I have ..

Phoned HMRC (Customs dept):  They can’t work from the tracking number that USPS/RM has. If an item was passed over to customs, there would additionally be a “movement reference number” without which they can’t investigate. It only takes 24 hours to pass through Customs normally. They suggest that the most likely thing to have happened is that the USPS depot has NOT actually passed the parcel to Customs at Langley at all, just entered that on their scanner – which is also why it’s never been scanned again. The only thing they could suggest was to try to contact Royal Mail to see if any more information is available (which it hasn’t been up to now) – and escalate it up to a more senior contact to launch an investigation.

Phoned Royal Mail Business Services.

on hold for 42 minutes. They cannot help. There’s nothing new on their system, and they’ve not heard of a movement reference number (it’s not part of RM systems, it’s something the courier who passes the parcel to HMRC would know).  They have given me a link to a form to fill out for their “special international team” to see if they can find any more details out.

The International form linked to is more about them tracking down issues with items that have been sent FROM the UK, but I’ve filled out all the relevant details and they are supposed to get back hopefully within about 48 hours. 

I strongly believe at this point that USPS lost the parcel, and simply updated their scanner to say “handed over” when nothing was actually handed over at all. If there had been a parcel, the customs fees would have been raised within 24 hours, and I’d have had the parcel weeks ago.

Let’s see if the Customs Team actually do have any information. I doubt it.

Customs team at Royal Mail got back to me today (21st). They say that USPS/Rainbow Gallery need to instigate an investigation as the shipper/originating shipping service – they can’t do anything. So..
It’s very frustrating.

USPS say “we handed it over, our job is done”

Tracking says “wait, it’s processing”. It’s clearly not processing.

HMRC says they need a movement number. 

RM customer services say they don’t know what that is, and it’s not their issue and to go back to USPS.

(reported all this to Rainbow Gallery – they need to chase USPS – RG promise to reship via Fedex. Still no sign of them actually doing this as of 29/1).

Ongoing – DMC/DPD

DMC use Chronopost to deliver our cones. They’re handed over to DPD in the UK. For some bizarre reason, DPD emails for DMC orders that require customs fees to be paid NEVER arrive in my inbox. They’re a trusted sender. I’ve added them to “yes, deliver” the emails, but googlemail (who host my workspace email) appear to block that particular combination before it gets to me. So, after months of working out why DPD kept sending deliveries back to France and them re-dispatching them free of charge and them being delivered properly , we worked out that it was this issue. So they use my personal email address for the DPD/Chronopost deliveries – and I get those fine now.
But they seem to use it for invoices too – which isn’t great, as the majority of emails I get on that old personal email address (non-gmail) are spam. And I can only check it from home. So I only check it when I’m expecting a DPD parcel. And sometimes the DMC invoices don’t arrive there either. I’ve asked them to send invoices to my main email address – and reminders if I’ve missed paying one, but they don’t. Reminders come by POST. From France. Mad! So I’ve had a reminder for a November invoice, which I’ve never received. If it was sent, then it was to the wrong email address. I’ve paid the BIG invoice (because that arrived fine) but not a small one (which didn’t). But they won’t send statements by email either. WHY?

21st Jan – requested a copy of this invoice twice now. no reply.

29/1 Fedex delivery..
Delivery from Fedex 6th January. I received a payment demand from them rather than them putting the VAT on my account as usual. But I pay, and the parcel is delivered.

No invoice, so can’t reclaim the VAT.
I query it.
I’m told that invoices usually take 30 days to be sent. They don’t. Usually I get a delivery, I get the invoice a couple of days later.
Then I’m told that the receipt counts. There’s no breakdown on the receipt. I ask for an invoice. I ask why it wasn’t put on my account.

Apparently the sender didn’t quote my account number (well, they wouldn’t, would they – I’m not paying the shipping cost, I’m paying the VAT). But ok. I’ll ensure that every US sender quotes my EORI or account number in future. I still need the invoice. This is raised as a support ticket.

I get an email asking me what my query on the shipment is, and why I need a credit note. I state I don’t need a credit, I just need the invoice.
And then the invoice arrives.
With an extra fee because it wasn’t put on my account.

so NOW I’m querying the invoice.
And I get a reply saying “here’s your copy invoice, that is the end of the ticket”. No, do these people not READ their previous emails?

NOW I’m querying the invoice after I got the copy (only 3 weeks late). It might only be about £7 but that’s money I shouldn’t have been charged, and these all add up to mean my costs go up.