Ordered a rod (6-9"XH poison glorious) and 13 megabass jerkbais from jpangler.  Ordered this the weekend of Nov. 7-8th, and received the jerkbaits lightning fast on Wednesday the 11th.  No rod.  I check my email for tracking, and they only attached one tracking number to my order, which corresponded to the box of jerkbaits I received.  I email jpangler asking if they had shipped the rod, and if so, give me the tracking number.  No response.  After 3 weeks of emailing them to mo avail, I opened up a paypal claim.  That was almost two weeks ago, and just yesterday JP Angler FINALLY responded to paypal and agreed to refund my money.  Never received an explanation.  Oh...and yes, I have ordered a reel from them before, and I am just as surprised by this as a few others will be.

You may want to revise the title.

Shipping rods is difficult today. I shipped a rod in a stronge TW tube that was lost for 31 days, when recieced it was broken in two pieces. I sent USPS a claim only to be turned down because The claim was sent after 30 day from initial shipped date! Still fighting the claim. Your rod may have been lost!

Tom

There has been a lot of forum activity lately about rods that are lost or arrive damaged.

Shipping everywhere has been compromised.  I have a package of fishing stuff that has been sitting in Portland for a month.  USPS says they are down to less than 1/3 of the staff at that hub.  Covid and a workers' dispute has done a number out there. 

I have a package still sitting in Portland mailed 12/7 to another member.

I’ve had a few delayed USPS packages lately. They all had tracking numbers though.

Plan on 2-3 week wait on certain packages. Rod tubes have been sitting at several locations with no tracking updates.

I ordered some things from a online dealer, after two weeks of not getting it, i received a refund. Then almost a month later, I got the product in the mail. The retailer told me to just keep it because of my troubles. I've had other things sit at a fedex depot a few miles away from me for almost two weeks. It's been really bad this year. 

It's a mess for sure. This is a bad time to be ordering anything. Ordered 2 small items for my boat. The second item which I ordered 2 days after the first got here first besides comes the furthest distance. I did a notice on ebay that I have not received the item. Tracking showed it at a main hub for nearly a week. The seller email me back that it has moved and it's headed my way.  Strange my tracking didn't show that. Don't think I will order anything anytime soon.

USPS has been messed up since April, recovered a bit, and got messed up again for Christmas packages.  Japan Post didn't even try, they just shut down in April - current status is running domestically, but not shipping EMS to international hubs because of dependence on airline routes.  

In April, I had an Express Mail package get routed from Chicago ISC into Canada and delivered 6 weeks later.  

I think the point is buy from the big brick and mortar shops in Japan.  

They all scrambled to work out shipping with DHL, UPS and Fed-Ex (none go through Chicago or LA ISC, but Anchorage and Cincinnati ISC).

DHL and Fed-Ex deliver from Japan in in 3 or 4 days - UPS a little longer, because they shut down on weekends and holidays. 

Buy enough to make $25 shipping worth your while -  and especially Asian Portal, if they have what you want in stock, $100 purchase gets free DHL Express, and with their already discounted prices.  

My last Japan Tackle purchase was shipped on a Friday and delivered on Monday - DHL - I was floored.  

Anything from random ebay vendors, you're taking a gamble, but a friend on FFR recently bought two Japan rods on ebay and had 2-week delivery.  

It's shakier than usual for me too, no matter what I buy (amazon, fishing....). Not too bad, but a few orders have been late, a few others refunded me because of no stock. I'm surprised it's been as good as it has really.

 

I bought an Ugly Stik Elite light for some trout fishing. The biggest guide wasn't aligned well and I thought about exchanging it, but nobody has any! They are a few weeks out at Bass Pro which is where I ordered it, but I see none available anywhere else.

 

I ended up being able to align the guide (by "pushing" the next 2 guides into alignment rather than trying to move the big one, which I couldn't). Now the whole thing is perfect.

 

Point is I'm better off keeping what I already have than screwing around with a return. Christmas won't help matters either.