In Australia, when you post a parcel you are always given a tracking number. If you have the Australia Post app on your phone you can track that parcels movements around the country or world.
Does the UK postal service do the same thing?
Thanks
Paul
Paul,
It does - you just need to pay extra :)
And certain countries are excluded for overseas mail.
https://www.royalmail.com/sending/international/international-tracked-signed
Simon
We have lost a deal of money on overseas tracked.
Here is how it goes
PP "can this be sent tracked?"
PO "yes"
PP "Ok then send it tracked"
wait 4 weeks
PP "the package has gone missing. Can you use tracking to find where it is?"
PO " Absolutely. Right up until it enters country X. It stops there because they do not operate internal tracking services"
PP"so where is the parcel?"
PO "It did get to the country's border but after that we do not know"
And on....
Thr international postage system is brilliant when one considers the potential barriers and potential for mis haps. It is still annoying though to lose items :).
martin
Martin,
That is very sad to hear...
Maybe there's an international black market in PP goodies that are getting "lost" at the borders...
Simon
Thanks lads. I was always curious about this. I made an order from France and the package was tracked so I have been watching it's progress. It's currently in Dubai. It made me think, because I can't recall ever getting a tracking number from a UK purchase.
I think there are a lot of disappointed postal workers. They got home with a weighty package that tinkled nicely. But wait; it is a Tiger 1 and 5 packs of ACW marching!
A tracked package to Mick (the PP stockist for Australia) went entirely AWOL. First they said "it was delivered". Then "maybe not". Then other strange excuses. Now some delivery driver has 50 (yes 50) hannomag engineeng half tracks plus other sundries. That order took a lot of metal and time to cast.
Steve ward at SDD had a classic back in '95. A man ordered some 15mm pirate ships (over £100 worth). Claimed that they arrived without masts (ships and mast make up a single package) and thus demanded (and got) 5 new sets of masts. Within 2 weeks he "wondered" how much just 5 hulls only would cost him?
We still get 3 orders a month on average from gamers who "accidentally" chose the "free pdf" as their chosen method of delivery for figures.
I see leaves of green....... ???
martin
Just to chime in from Canada... it seems (in more normal times) that a tracking number helps but as Martin says it isn't great.
So with the royal mail I can log in & get a great idea where things are.... possibly even up to when the driver stops fir tea..... but it hits Canada & I see it arrived.....and is "forwarded to destination"...and usually I wait & wait & wait...& then something shows up. At times things actually work & in the PP order before last... here in 2 weeks, including casting & shipping.
But this last order...in spite of the pandemic.... cast & shipped and the figures got here in 3 weeks.... the Bloody Barons rules.... 5 weeks ... no reason. Now from behind the scenes at Christmas things get really goofy....on some but not all areas... they get busy.... so all incoming mail from where ever get thrown into tractor trailers to be sorted or forwarded when things calm down. But we the customer aren't supposed to know about that.
So to finish.... about 2 years ago i ordered from another great uk supplier...shipped ok....& then disappeared (yes ordered around Christmas) and we exchanged emails but waited after 8 weeks he sent it again .....so 3 months later i ordered the replacement shows up just fine......and a week after that the original package shows up.
So many sympathies with PP on issues clearly not there fault. In our case the Canada post tracking isn't great (it sort of works) but it does give me a number to go bang on there door with... sorry a very hot button topic here...vacating the soap box & back to morning coffee.
Bob