Royal Mail tracking

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Was it posted by you, or to you, and under what sort of tracking?
Obviously the contract is with the sender, rather than the recipient, so I presume someone requested proof of delivery.
Bill

Royal mail tracking is a bit of a joke. How come other companies can supply up to date realtime tracking and royal mail can`t ,considering how long the company has been in business.

It's not just Royal Mail - Canada Post is just as bad. I think they just like to advertise that they have "tracking" - it doesn't actually have to be meaningful.

I've had parcels take 3 days from the local major sorting centre .... which is literally 5 minutes up the road. You wouldn't believe how many times they can scan an item at the same location.

Edited By Bandersnatch on 21/11/2019 01:31:28

Royal Mail don't claim that "signed for" is a fully tracked service. It's confirmation of delivery.

Full tracking costs extra.

**LINK**

Amazon show me how near my parcel is to my house, I doubt the unions would buy in to that much scrutiny of where the postman is.

Mike

Hermes has been known to drop-off parcels at my house, and provide an image of of “my” signature confirming receipt. ... A forgery.

MichaelG.

I hate the modern practice of signing things with your finger. Perhaps it's just me but whenever I do this the signature just ends up as a scribble which could be forged by a blind cat.

Doug

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I regularly send items worldwide by International signed and tracked service.

Now royal mail also offer a tracked service for the same price. Why would anyone pay for just tracked ,when signed and tracked is exactly the same price.

They also state that it is fully tracked all the way. In reality it is tracked until it leaves the UK and after that anything happens from the odd entry for tracking ,to nothing at all . You have to go to the country your sending to`s postal tracking and hope they have scanned it and updated the tracking.

This happens occasionally but often nothing shows up on the tracking. Ive had parcels to the US arrive at the US customs in 1-2 days and then disappear for 3 weeks.

Funnily when you start kicking up a stink they usually miraculously reappear with no explanation of where the parcel has been.

If i use Fedex or UPS , tracking is usually up to date and no problems at all.

When using Royal Mail Track and Trace service for small packets going to the USA I get info such as date, place and time posted, confirmation of arrival at Peterborough sorting and then confirmation of arrival at Heathrow Worlwide distribution.
If you follow links on the Track and Trace page you can request the same service when your packet arrives in the USA, US mail provide email updates for all depots the packet travels through and confirmation of delivery but no signature.

Emgee

Last week Yodel tracking told me that a 110 x 275 x 850mm parcel had been delivered through my letter box. Although it was supposedly sent "signed for" they cannot supply a copy of the signature. Still not found the parcel after checking with all the neighbours and now in dispute with Yodel once again. Oh the joys of Xmas shopping.

I had a period where parcels delivered through Hermes were mis delivered to the wrong address, I live in a Close and our Parcels were being delivered to the same numbered house as ours but in the Road, both The Close and Road had the same prefix, yes confusing. Managed after a while to build a rapport with the Hermes delivery driver and so for now parcels arrive at our house and I don’t have to go and retrieve them. Many years ago I was expecting a delivery of 4 tons of ballast, saw the builders merchant delivery lorry disappearing up the road and guessed correctly he was going to the wrong house, got there just in time before he deposited the ballast on the driveway of the wrong house. Realised a long time ago signed for delivery with the Post Office was a waste of time, just use first class now, a lot cheaper
Dave W

One company provided a very blurred image of a pair of houses that were very clearly not our house to 'prove' an attempted delivery.

I can't remember the last time certain companies actually asked for a signature, usual modus operandi is sign it yourself, drop on doorstep, and scarper without ringing the bell.

Royal Mail and Parcel Force always do it properly, as do UPS.

Neil

I'm still confused here.
I assume the parcel hasn't arrived yet. From what you say, it was sent "signed for 2nd Class".
This service doesn't provide tracking, just proof, for the sender, that the recipient has signed for it on delivery.

(or at least that someone has signed for the item.)

The delivery contract is with the sender, and proves to them that the item has been delivered (to somewhere anyway)

If the item doesn't arrive, the expected recipient needs to contact the sender, and get them to chase it from their end, as that is the person with whom RM has the contract.

Bill

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I'm not sure all this "tracking" lark is a real blessing.

I was quite intrigued with one delivery this year when I discovered that I could watch the drivers location (on a map of our local area - down to street level). I spent (wasted?) quite a bit of time watching him slowly progress towards us, stop at Tescos for an hour (at lunchtime) then nearly arrive here before suddenly diverting to the north of the town (all very frustrating).

He finally swung back south and arrived about 4.00pm (he set out at 8.00am). He'd never been much more than mile or two away from us - and he still had thirty plus drops to make. We were delivery number 190!

I felt quite sorry for him (it's a long day) but haven't bothered watching these updates since.

IanT

I tracked one package all the way from Birmingham on to the delivery van at my distribution centre in Bristol, hurrah! After nothing turned up that day I went online and watched the package all the way back to a Returns Depot in Dunfermline. Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.

Everything in the world is out to irritate me. Drove to Tesco's this morning during a small monsoon. Struggling through the downpour with wipers flat-out, I crawled along a flooding road. That's when my local radio station chose to broadcast today's weather forecast: "Showers". Good job I appreciate irony.

Had problems with a delivery of logs that were booked to arrive on a day of our choice, when there was no sign of the delivery by 5 o’clock I phoned the company that I was purchasing from and they said hang on and we will check with the delivery company where the load was. Came back to me in a few minutes and said the delivery couldn’t get through because the road was blocked by Police !!! Turned out to be an outright lie there hadn’t been any road problems, obviously the driver had got fed up and just went back to his depot. The next day the delivery arrived and the driver was the most obnoxious that I have ever had, probably got a roasting for his antics the day before, anyway his attitude was that his company made only kerbside delivery so he was going to just dump the pallet, weighing about 400 kilos, in the road, not even on the footpath. I proposed phoning the company who supplied the logs and cancelling the order and he could take it back to his depot and explain why, soon changed his tune and reluctantly placed the load on the footpath near my property. A problem that I have had in the past is that you order an item and the supplier charges you for the delivery, and when things go wrong, the item gets lost or misdelivered, then you cannot speak to the couriers they refuse to communicate with the customer they will only deal with the vendor, very frustrating because the customer is the one who has paid for the service but contractually you can only deal with the vendor, this can make sorting out the problems a long and difficult process.
Dave W

To add a little perspective to Royal Mail's reliability, I sell an item on Ebay for under a fiver plus second class small parcel postage, currently £3. I have sold about 300 of this item over the last four years and have only had one reported non-delivery (I had to take the purchaser's word and remain somewhat suspicious as he wanted a refund not a replacement item). Still a 99.7% success rate isn't too shoddy for RM's cheapest plain vanilla service.