An Post - No Track of Inbound Item?

NewsMeQuick

Hi,

I bet there's a regular stream of An Post delivery questions, but plenty of experience!

So I got an expensive parcel sent from the UK on Friday via Royal Mail international tracked and signed, 2-5 days so well within normal delivery time still. In the first 13 hours it had already been picked up, sorted and left the country. They appear to do some work on weekends too. But there's no hint of it after that, when it seems to have arrived in Ireland. No trace on the An Post website. Given the speed and efficiency of Royal Mail, I'm surprised An Post can't carry the torch.

I've tried one of the parcel tracker apps on Android, one of them reports Portlaois and given the text, that it cleared there and left in the early hours of Saturday morning.

I've read lots of reports of delayed tracking info. with An Post.

Probable delivery on Tuesday morning?


09/04/16 AM ON ITS WAY TODUBLIN - FOR ONWARD DELIVERYEIRE
09/04/16 04:47 ARRIVED (MDN) ATHEATHROW WORLDWIDE DC
08/04/16 18:56 ON ITS WAY TOHEATHROW WORLDWIDE DCDORSET MAIL CENTRE
08/04/16 18:32 ITEM COLLECTEDDORSET MAIL CENTRE
08/04/16 15:10 SENT AT POST OFFICE66 High Street BH21 4AY

Thanks for any info.

nava

NewsMeQuick wrote: »

Hi,

I bet there's a regular stream of An Post delivery questions, but plenty of experience!

So I got an expensive parcel sent from the UK on Friday via Royal Mail international tracked and signed, 2-5 days so well within normal delivery time still. In the first 13 hours it had already been picked up, sorted and left the country. They appear to do some work on weekends too. But there's no hint of it after that, when it seems to have arrived in Ireland. No trace on the An Post website. Given the speed and efficiency of Royal Mail, I'm surprised An Post can't carry the torch.

I've tried one of the parcel tracker apps on Android, one of them reports Portlaois and given the text, that it cleared there and left in the early hours of Saturday morning.

I've read lots of reports of delayed tracking info. with An Post.

Probable delivery on Tuesday morning?


09/04/16 AM ON ITS WAY TODUBLIN - FOR ONWARD DELIVERYEIRE
09/04/16 04:47 ARRIVED (MDN) ATHEATHROW WORLDWIDE DC
08/04/16 18:56 ON ITS WAY TOHEATHROW WORLDWIDE DCDORSET MAIL CENTRE
08/04/16 18:32 ITEM COLLECTEDDORSET MAIL CENTRE
08/04/16 15:10 SENT AT POST OFFICE66 High Street BH21 4AY

Thanks for any info.

I never seen much of a delay on the tracking, some parcels do show as Delivered on the website about 1h after was delivered.

I thought the apps connect to anpost so if the tracking shows in the app should also show on Anpost, but if it was in Portlaois on Saturday you should get it tomorrow, does it still not show on the website?

NewsMeQuick

Yes, it's weird how this is being transmitted.

Nope, still nothing on An Post website. I'm guessing it'll show all the details after delivery for this one...

It was rocket-fast in the UK and much slower here. Why we have the main sorting/distribution centre on the west coast here is beyond me.

Yes, I'm guessing tomorrow. Royal Mail and that 3rd party app show it being scanned in Portlaoise early hours of Saturday. Not a peep of news today so it must be tomorrow...I'll keep it updated here.

Spocker

Why do you need to use a third party app? Just go to https://track.anpost.ie and put the tracking number in there. In my experience theres usually a 24 hour delay between "Left the UK" and showing up on the An Post system

ED E

Leaves UK
Arrives Portlaoise
Left in a pile awaiting customs and sorting
THEN it gets scanned

One business day is nothing at all, just install aftership on your phone and forget about it. When something happens itll tell you.

NewsMeQuick

No sign on the An Post website yet, and given it's an express-post service I gave An Post a quick call. While it can't be seen on their website, they could see it arrived in Ireland on Saturday. He says it just hasn't been scanned yet. So, no delivery Tuesday. I'd say Wednesday or more likely Thursday.

Again, compared to the Royal Mail, these guys don't square up. Must be 2 of them working the scanners or something. Thursday would be 5 working days - the max expected by Royal Mail for the entire of western Europe. So, it should reach southern Portugal/Spain, northern Sweden in the same time or less. Amazing.

ohnonotgmail

NewsMeQuick wrote: »

No sign on the An Post website yet, and given it's an express-post service I gave An Post a quick call. While it can't be seen on their website, they could see it arrived in Ireland on Saturday. He says it just hasn't been scanned yet. So, no delivery Tuesday. I'd say Wednesday or more likely Thursday.

Again, compared to the Royal Mail, these guys don't square up. Must be 2 of them working the scanners or something. Thursday would be 5 working days - the max expected by Royal Mail for the entire of western Europe. So, it should reach southern Portugal/Spain, northern Sweden in the same time or less. Amazing.

you mean the portugal, spain and sweden that are only 4 or so hours further away from the UK?

VincePP

There seems to be an assumption that its anpost that will be delivering.

It was sent by royal mail, they sometimes use other delivery services depending on size of item.

Also, whilst the uk tracking said "en-route to dublin" it doesn't give any more info.

NewsMeQuick

Update:

So around 11pm an update was posted on An Post. It says:

ON ROUTE TO CUSTOMER DUBLIN MAIL CENTRE
DUBLIN 12 12-Apr-16
17:21 ITEM RECEIVED DUBLIN MAIL CENTRE
DUBLIN 12 12-Apr-16
17:21 ON ROUTE TO CUSTOMER DUBLIN MAIL CENTRE
DUBLIN 12 12-Apr-16
17:21

Well, at 5pm, en-route would likely be the next morning, so it looks like tomorrow, Wednesday.

So, it was listed in Portlaoise in the early hours of Saturday morning by Royal Mail. An Post didn't list it as scanned until 11pm the following Tuesday.

The Royal Mail website and some of the apps don't have this update. The An Post website only and one app.

So there we have it. That makes it 4 business days from the UK. RM said 2-5.

(I bought some other items from California and UK/Germany a few days ago. They're all scheduled for Wednesday. The Calif. parcel, so that's a custom design printed on-the-fly, shipped Kentucky to Cologne to Dublin in less than 3 business days. Just for comparisson. That one is UPS.)

Thanks for the info + tips. Hope it helps next confused customer...

prinzeugen

As a rough rule, any thing that is sent to me by RM/An Post takes 6 days.

For example if it it shipped on the Wed, I will expect it the following Tue.

VincePP

NewsMeQuick wrote: »

So there we have it. That makes it 4 business days from the UK. RM said 2-5.

(I bought some other items from California and UK/Germany a few days ago. They're all scheduled for Wednesday. The Calif. parcel, so that's a custom design printed on-the-fly, shipped Kentucky to Cologne to Dublin in less than 3 business days. Just for comparisson. That one is UPS.)

Thanks for the info + tips. Hope it helps next confused customer...

So the service provided was the service promised? I canl;t see what issue there is.

Then to compare a premium airfreight service with a standard road service - well that's just crazy.

I import items from China - I can choose what service I want depending on the price I wnt to pay. Even with the same carrier. Fedex Expedited = 6-8 day, Fedex express = 2-3 days. All depends on what fee is paid.

Same in your case, the service purchased by the sender was Royal mail 2-5 day service. This is a road based service. You can be lucky and make every segment right on the button to meet each different stage of journey and get it in 2 days (unlikely).

The sender could have paid a premium and got Royal Mail airsure, and you would have got your parcel on Monday - but would it be worth the extra money for getting it 2 days earlier? - Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

But no issue here, service was as promised.

NewsMeQuick

VincePP wrote: »

So the service provided was the service promised? I canl;t see what issue there is.

...

But no issue here, service was as promised.

But, I didn't really say that. I said:

1. A tracked item on express delivery hasn't appeared for a short journey after a few days. Does anyone know what that means? (it was unusual as far as my international orders have gone over the years)

2. In comparison, it was slow, given that I get items from the other side of the world in the same time. It's just something to think about when choosing providers.

That is all.

Darwin

OP I'm having the same problem as you...item was dispatched from Germany via DHL Paket post (Premium) on Tuesday, it left Cologne on Wednesday morning and still no sign of it in An Post's tracking system or any of the tracking apps. A little worrying but it is fully insured. From experience, stuff coming from Cologne takes two working days to arrive into Ireland, so that would have arrived here on Friday evening. It sounds like parcels sitting in the Portlaoise sorting centre over the weekend have issues showing up on the tracking system?

12Phase

I honestly have to say I've never had any issue with An Post in terms of speed.

No matter which carrier I use into Ireland it takes a couple of days. It's international mail / package services.

Items sent in Ireland thorough an post always arrive for me anyway next working day.

I've sent items by post from the UK and by DHL and the post usually beats the courier.

Tracking internationally between postal systems is still bad. I know for example when I sent items to France, the Irish barcode didn't show up at all on La Poste until the item was signed for.

DHL Packet Post is also likely to be delivered by DHL Ireland not An Post. Maybe try tracking it there?

You'll get no activity at all over bank holiday. The package is likely in a depot until business resumes very early tomorrow morning.

Darwin

Thanks for the reply, but this is definitely coming via an Post - DHL Paket post comes through the ordinary mail system and they indicate this on their own tracking page....

EDIT: In case it is of any interest to other people waiting for stuff, item has finally showed up in Portlaoise - maybe things don't get scanned until day before delivery?