- You haven't said which country the seller shipped from, I'm assuming USA. Did they tell you which service they used to ship it? If it was first class mail international from the USA (often the cheapest), then insurance and tracking are not available for that service. If they are in the USA this is probably the service they used.
- It could be held up in your country's customs system...sometimes it is a long wait for international packages to be processed.
- To have tracking on an International package is often expensive, depending on the postal service. Many online USA ebay sellers will not ship by First Class because they cannot track or insure on this service....so I do not buy small items from these sellers because I don't want to pay the higher shipping rates.
- I shipped a box of pottery from Canada to Greece by Ground that took 60 days (8 weeks), the customer knew ahead of time that it could take a long time, and they were willing to wait because they wanted the lower shipping cost. International shipping can be slow, especially on larger boxes, unless you pay for the faster services (Air mail, priority mail, express mail, etc.)
- As a seller, I am often at the mercy of the postal system, and have no control or information about the items I ship unless the buyer wants to pay for a much more expensive shipping. It is frustrating to me when I ask my country's postal service for help (Canada Post), and they tell me that I have to wait for weeks before I can file a claim. BUT I do keep in contact with my customers so that they know I care, and tell them what I can do. Sometimes all I can ask is for them to wait a little longer. In my case it has always worked out, except once when the buyer gave me their old address, that parcel was lost.
- To protect yourself, it was best to file those claims...in most cases parcels do arrive.
I recently had a bad experience with Chinese supplier (not on etsy) who sent me the wrong item and wouldn't do anything, barely communicate, until I filed a Paypal claim. Even then it went on and on...a very long story. But in the end I did get some money back thanks to Paypal.