We get a lot of questions of this type. 

I decided it's easier to put all the information and my experience based knowledge into one post. Not every detail you'll find here applies to every single package, but I hope you'll easily figure out which piece of information is relevant for you.

This certainly applies to orders placed in any of our Etsy shops (KritikalGraphics, PatandTed, Musicious, Agabag, TheQuoteBazaar, OnePassionPrints, TheGoodWordsShop). 

Every order we ship is dispatched with fully trackable service. This means you should be able to see where it is all the way from my post office to delivery. "Should" - because though in theory this is included in the service, in some countries postal companies do not offer online tracking or have temporary troubles providing full tracking information. As you can imagine I cannot possibly keep track of that (120+ countries in the world) so please keep this in mind. If you live in the EU - it should not be a problem at all, but again - things tend to change quickly especially since the beginning of pandemic. Technically - every country we can ship to with trackable service is obliged to provide tracking (they are all bound with International Postal Union treaties) but reality is different. Since we buy the service from Polish Post, we cannot sue (filing a claim) another postal company for not publishing tracking. We're technically not their customers. We can file a claim to Polish Post, they ask destination country post about the package, get some reply about "technical problems" and by the time - which takes up to 90 days! - we get the reply the package is usually long delivered.

There is no other source of information other than tracking. At least none that can be publicly accessed. Do not ask me to "check on my side" then since I won't be able to give you any more information than you already have.

You can find your tracking number in order details (within your Etsy account) and in shipping notification e-mail that was sent to you by Etsy. There's also a link to tracking site in both places. You can also use the number to track the package directly on your national post website. Simply copy it and enter it there. It is not possible for me to provide you with a direct link to such a website - for various reasons. I do not speak all the languages to be able to navigate those websites easily, for some companies it is not technically possible at all to generate such a link etc. This should be easy enough though for you to deal with it yourself. I would suggest using some 3rd party website like track17.com - they show tracking from both origin and destination post which is very convenient.

A note on Etsy tracking. They don't track pacakges. They only show tracking from the post website. Sometimes they use Polish Post tracking, sometimes they use destination post tracking - I cannot really see a rule here. The map they show is very misleading (see explanation below) so please don't assume the package is where the marker shows. It's almost always not.

The standard shipping does not include a service that would give you a delivery date. There are estimates (which you can find in item description, my shop policies and FAQ) that Etsy uses to calculate this date, but unfortunately it is not a guarantee that delivery will happen before this date. It's only an estimate based on numbers provided by the post and my own (14 years) experience. "Estimated delivery time" is simply how long it takes to deliver 90% packages. Still - 10% would need more time. In high season (most notably November and December) more packages will be delayed. Current pandemic situation adds to that as well. For UK orders - there's also Brexit (still, I know it sounds absurd), but you'll find more on that below.

HOW TRACKING WORKS & WHAT THE STATUS MESSAGES MEAN.

Again - this is how it SHOULD be. It doesn't unfortunately mean it always works like that. 99% of time it does though.

Tracking is not "live". It shows last time the package status has changed which in simple terms is last known location. The post uploads every status to IPS (International Postal System). This is where the first problem may appear.

The status messages are numbers. Every postal company assigns their own text message to every status number. They essentially mean the same, but there are some subtle differences that may completely change the meaning.

For example - the status that shows on Polish Post website as "sent from Poland" is shown by USPS as "item leaving overseas". The first one means it did leave Poland, the second one is not so definitive. Sounds like it is "about to leave".

This is actually a crucial moment in tracking as most of delay happens right now.

For all packages that leave the EU, this status is connected with customs. We get an IE599 customs message for every such package that is "sent from Poland".

This is never wrong. Why? Money...

We don't have to pay VAT for items that clear customs (get IE599). The state looses tax money with every such package. And they watch it very closely. If you see this status in tracking, it means the pacakge has physically left Poland on a plane.

The moment it is released by the customs, it is technically in destination country postal company posession. If it goes to the US - USPS is responsible for it, if it goes to the UK - the Royal Mail etc. Until a few years ago this was clearly shown in tracking. Shortly after "sent from Poland", the USPS or RM would enter the number into their system and assign a status with "awaiting package arrival" or something similar. They don't do this now. Again - money is the reason.

All services we use have minimal processing times. If the company does not meet requirements, they will have to pay a fine to Polish Post and would we file a claim (and we do for every single delayed package) we get some reimbursement. If they don't show in tracking they have started processing, the package is in "no man's land". In theory they should be held accountable for any delay, but in reality they will answer they can be only responsible for what happends since they "got" the package, and they will show initial processing as the moment they "got" it. They pretend they don't have the package to minimize the amount of fines. Furthermore, a customer - like you - will contact the sender if status message suggests the package did not get to destination country yet, which means less work for them - less claims, less phone calls, less e-mails etc. Not their problem basically sicne they "don't have the package" which is obviously a lie.

Since all mail is transported by air, packages get from Poland to destination country usually in one day. For Asia and Australia it's usually 2-3 days. All mail then goes to London or New York or any other country, and waits at local sorting facility for them to start processing it. If you're not aware, pretty much all national postal companies are state owned and almost all are understaffed, underfunded and their facitlities are not even close to fully robotized logistics centers of DHL, UPS or Amazon. It's usually hand work, like not much has changed over last 50 or more years. 

To sum it all up - if you live outside the EU and see "sent from Poland" in tracking dated more than a day ago, it means the package is already in your country. There's no other possibility. 

"It might be lost" you'd say. Right, it might be. Our numbers suggests it is extremely unlikely. We run 7 Etsy shops, we sell on a few other websites as well. Since 2008 we have shipped thousands of packages (possibly close to 100k) and the post lost two. One shipped to the US, one shipped to Philippines.

What happens when the package finally is in delivery but you did not get it?

Check the tracking!! Missed delivery status and instructions on redelivery or pickup are  usually there. The post will keep your package for at least 14 days before returning it to us.  Wrong or incomplete address will almost always result in returning the package to us instantly. Upon missed delivery they would usually leave a note with instructions on how and where to pick up the package but if they don't - use tracking to learn the details. 14 days is plenty of time to arrange for pickup I believe. Again - it's not possible for me to keep track of regulations for every country so to know how it works where you live is at your discretion. In some countries you would have to pay some taxes or customs charges to get the package - again, you would probably know that better than me. If you're not sure, please check in advance.

Every package is accompanied with all required customs declarations (with the price, codes etc.) and it is not possible that we send one without it. 

Hope this explains most issues. If you still have any questions, do contact us of course - we will do our best to help.