On a whim, in October I ordered an expensive Christmas sweater to support a podcast I listen to. I was charged by the fulfillment company on November 11 with an email saying my order was complete and shipping would be Nov 18 -25. Turns out that didn't mean I'd get it then, it meant they would ship then. Well I signed in today to see if I could get a tracking number and discovered the sweater is still in production.
My Christmas sweater events were/are Nov 27, Dec 1, Dec 7 and Dec 8. The last time I ordered from this company it took 18 days to arrive. That was in June. Therefore no increase volume of parcels slowing down customs or the post office.
I note 18 days from tomorrow is Dec. 17. But they won't be shipping it tomorrow, and are not likely to ship until Monday at the earliest, what with Thanksgiving and all. Which would make it the 20th. But that's assuming the sweaters get out of production and actually shipped. Which is an assumption.
I've had buyers regret since the moment I made the purchase but decided to honour this but I don't feel like honour it if they won't actually ship me a Christmas item I can use for the Christmas party season. So I've sent an email asking to cancel the order. The run is sold out and they have 28 others wanting to buy if they produce more so I figure they can sell it to someone else and give me my money back. Someone in the US will have a fighting chance to get it for Christmas. Me, not so much.
BTW: we don't have parcel delivery on Sundays here, and there will be customs charges due on the sweater (delivery and customs charges are 100% more than the price of the sweater itself) so it won't be delivered here, I will get a notice and have to go to the post office to get it. Which will further delay delivery.