This is just silly. Next time I'll have a buddy get them in the UK and next day them to my ass.
If you are in the U.S. do you think that next day shipping will put them on a SST or something and then once in the U.S. bypass Customs so you can actually get them next day? Do you think that next day shipping will mean that an airport that is closed or has massive delays due to bad weather will open up for your next day shipment to be flown out, or if bad weather exists in the U.S. or whatever country the order is going to that it will not cause the slight to be re-routed and therefore delayed?
From Royal Mail's website about international shipping:
This is what happens after your mail has been put in the Postbox®:
Your mail is brought to a local mail centre.The Mail Centre streams Airmail from Surface and sorts into Letters/Flats/Packets.
Mail is then forwarded to HWDC – Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre – where it is sorted to the mail exchange point(s) within the destination country, based on the item’s address/postcode.
Your mail enters one of three sorting machines: a letter sorting machine, a flat sorting machine or a Packet sorting machine.
Mail that is not machinable or rejected by the machines is sorted manually.
The mail is then conveyed either by road or air to the relevant overseas office of exchange.
If surface/economy is selected then it is most likely to travel by boat for most non-European countries.
Once in the destination country, the domestic postal authority takes responsibility for your mail. It will forward your mail to regional mail centres for delivery by their post people.
That means that once in the U.S., or whatever nation the package is shipped to, it will go to the Customs Department and if it clears it will then be turned over to the USPS, or whatever mail service the country has. That won't be speedy.
I mentioned how a local postal worker told me that this year's holiday shipping rush began earlier than normal and is heavier/busier than normal. Fewer people are traveling due to economic reasons and they are shipping packages instead. All delivery services are swamped, overwhelmed, by the amount of packages they are handling this year.
To use FedEx for an example, in a news article yesterday it said how the number of packages FedEx received yesterday to ship is up 13% over the busiest day last year, they had 16 million packages come in yesterday alone, that is roughly 2 million more packages than came in on the busiest day last year. The number of packages they have had to handle since the holiday shipping season began, which began earlier this year, is way up.
Royal Mail and the U.S. Customs Department (or whatever nation's Customs Department) and the USPS is equally or more swamped. Add severe weather conditions in some areas and it is no wonder that shipments have been delayed. People might be lucky if their orders arrive in 30 work/business days from when they were placed.
Just sit back, smoke a bowl, sip a little egg nog that's a little heavy on the 'nog' part and watch "It's a Wonderful Life" or some porn or something and chill.
The system is swamped, it is overwhelmed, it can only process so many packages in a day and all the bitching, pissing and moaning that people are doing will not help anyone in any way.