In theory it will depend on the contract you have with them and whether there is any specific mention of time-dependence.  It is also important to establish at what point in the shipping that the delay has occurred.  If it is a customs hold-up then there's nothing either you or the shipper can really do.

In practice, international shippers often work with time windows of around 5 working days so I doubt that they would get too excited about an additional week.

Since they currently seem to have all of your stuff and your money, your negotiating position is rather weak, so I would suggest contacting them daily and maintaining a firm but reasonable tone.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Andy,

Update: We finally received our shipment yesterday!

Thanks for the response. The delays were multiple and they mostly stemmed from the fact that the moving company that took care of the European portion of the move (UK to SUI) had no clue what they were doing or are unfamiliar with the process for diplomatic shipments. For diplmatic shipments customs are done in Geneve, but they held it up in the UK trying to figure out the right customs forms.

To make matters worse, the shipment was supposed to arrive on Wed, but they arrived to the Swiss customs office at 4:45 (closes at 5) and claim "the Swiss are being unreasonable and won't accept it today".

All in all, we will work with the company to receive an adequate refund.

But in the meantime, never deal with Flat Rate International or Abels UK.