An Post not delivering untracked items / parcels going missing

briany · 10-09-2017 02:17PM #1

Basically the facts are,

- Three different (low value) items

- Three different sellers

- Coming from three different places via standard mail (America, China, Britain)

- The America/China parcels were dispatched about a month and a half ago, the British one over two weeks ago.

- Never had a problem before, and things always arrived in a maximum of three weeks, if coming from China or the US. Haven't missed the postman on three separate occasions, or even seen a missed delivery slip.

- Can still get tracked parcels

- Contacted An Post, who said they'll look into it, but not holding my breath.

- Should be able to get my money back on all three parcels. Already got a refund on one. Even so, the parcels' combined value isn't more than 20 Euro.

What would you do in this situation? I'd suspect a sorting office problem or even a rogue postman in this situation, just not bothering, but I'd have no way to prove anything. Am I basically stuffed for getting anything untracked ever again?

Yawns · 10-09-2017 02:22PM

What would I do?

I'd wait. It's usual for items from the likes of China to take up to 6 weeks to arrive. They can arrive in a week or 6 weeks time is how I deal with them atm.

briany · 10-09-2017 02:25PM

Yawns wrote: »

What would I do?

I'd wait. It's usual for items from the likes of China to take up to 6 weeks to arrive. They can arrive in a week or 6 weeks time is how I deal with them atm.

If it were the China one on its own, I wouldn't be starting this thread, especially seeing as that particular item was like 1.70, including postage, but the one from the US should really have come by now, and certainly the one from Britain. Those almost always come within a week at the most. So, unless there's some logjam at in the system that I'm not aware of, I'd remain a bit suspicious.

Yawns · 10-09-2017 02:30PM

Britain would be a concern alright but nothing you can do about it except get the seller to sort it unfortunately.

vandriver · 10-09-2017 02:34PM

I ordered something from the UK on a Friday,2 weeks ago off eBay,and got it in Dublin on the Monday !

maryishere · 10-09-2017 02:38PM

briany wrote: »

I'd suspect a sorting office problem or even a rogue postman in this situation,

There are a lot of possible rogue postmen along the way.

briany · 10-09-2017 02:43PM

Yawns wrote: »

Britain would be a concern alright but nothing you can do about it except get the seller to sort it unfortunately.

The British seller's been accommodating and said they'd offer a full refund if the item failed to come within 20 days of dispatch, their delivery window being by the 6th of September (it dispatched on the 23rd of August).

I would feel a bit guilty taking a refund, though, since I don't really think it's their fault, being one of the larger more reputable book sellers on Amazon, and also I've already gotten a refund off of the American Amazon seller. I'd wonder if I kept on hitting and hoping, not getting, then asking for refunds, how long would it be before I looked like some kind of scammer myself?

tuisginideach · 10-09-2017 03:00PM

I ordered a 45euro parcel a few months ago from uk .. company had online tracker -to be delivered to dublin within 10 days ... tracker showed 'put in van -shipped from uk -arrived in Ireland -arrived in city -arrived locally - took about 6 days from 'arriving locally' to be delivered to me -14 days after ordering.
We have lost c6 birthday presents which were posted -most from Canada and U.S. but two vouchers posted from Galway while the voucher posted at the same time in Galway arrived to a cousin in D4. I have never got any satisfaction from An Post.
Summer 16 I posted a 'priority 'parcel (cant remember the technical name) to Galway for next day delivery. It sat in Dublin/van/Galway sorting office for 3 nights (3 different explanations given to me by An Post).

briany · 11-09-2017 03:06PM

tuisginideach wrote: »

I ordered a 45euro parcel a few months ago from uk .. company had online tracker -to be delivered to dublin within 10 days ... tracker showed 'put in van -shipped from uk -arrived in Ireland -arrived in city -arrived locally - took about 6 days from 'arriving locally' to be delivered to me -14 days after ordering.
We have list c6 birthday presents which were posted -most from Canada and u.s.but two vouchers posted from Galway while the voycher posted at the same time in Galway arrived to a cousin in d4. I have never got any satisfaction from an post
Summer 16 i posted a 'priority 'parcel (cant remember the technical.name) to Galway for next day delivery it sat in dublin/van/Galway sorting office for 3 nights (3 different explanations given to me by an post).

I've ordered a good few things over the years and never had an experience of An Post getting gummed up to the point where things took well beyond the stated delivery window. However, like your example shows, it can happen, and was pleasantly surprised to see that the item I'd ordered from Britain did arrive this morning. Still not holding out much hope for the items from China/US, though, although I've already gotten my money back on both of those as they're already both well past their delivery window. Will see what happens, but if neither of them turn up, I'm leaning back toward an unfortunate coincidence rather than something up down at the sorting office.

ED E · 11-09-2017 08:02PM

My postman (Mail not Courier) has forged my signature 3x and some random text 1x since June. Thats on Signed For services. The unsigned stuff you'll never know.

Keeping a little file for now until I decide to send it on to COMREG.

11-09-2017 08:10PM

It took 4 weeks for an envelope posted in Dublin 5 to be delivered to swords last year.
I've also gotten mail returned with a sticker on it saying no county listed even though it was had the eircode.

whiterebel · 12-09-2017 08:57AM

3 times in a row I opened the postbox to find the green collection card.
"Attempted" delivery at 8.30 day 1, same next day and 8.20 on the 3rd day. The last time I said it to the lady at the delivery unit that we are at home every day at that time, yet there is no doorbell. Now the doorbell has magically started ringing again the last few mornings.

briany · 14-10-2017 01:24PM

To update on the three parcels that were AWOL - 2 arrived: the book from the UK, and the Wii Sensor Bar from Malaysia. The book from the US never came.

I ordered something from Russia, which swiftly made its way through their postal system according to Pochta.ru, and got to Ireland on the 24th of last month. I understand things can sit in Customs for a while, but 3+ weeks?! And this is a low-value item that's not going to be getting duty and VAT calculated on it.

And I re-ordered the same book (got the money back on the first missing order) from a different US-based seller (not that I want to be buying from the US, but it was the only other seller that had it in the condition and price that suited), figuring the first time was hopefully a blip. Well, that dispatched on the 14th of last month, and still hasn't got to me a week beyond the estimated deliver date.

Just wondering on other people's experiences on ordering things from such places, and what their wait times were like, before I start flinging e-mails around.

blade1 · 14-10-2017 01:32PM

The item you said arrived on the 24th,where in Ireland does the tracking say it is?

briany · 14-10-2017 02:24PM

blade1 wrote: »

The item you said arrived on the 24th,where in Ireland does the tracking say it is?

It just says that it was handed off to Irish postal services. I don't think An Post continue the tracking, or at least it hasn't shown up in their system to date.

OldMrBrennan83 · 14-10-2017 02:28PM

This post has been deleted.

blade1 · 14-10-2017 02:29PM

briany wrote: »

It just says that it was handed off to Irish postal services. I don't think An Post continue the tracking, or at least it hasn't shown up in their system to date.

Personally I would not be happy with the seller.
I would want item tracking all the way to my door or else what's the point?
Get onto the seller and ask them to provide tracking as I think they are responsible for getting your item to you.
If you don't receive your item, it should be an issue between seller and delivery service.
That's what I think anyway.

whiterebel · 14-10-2017 04:07PM

blade1 wrote: »

Personally I would not be happy with the seller.
I would want item tracking all the way to my door or else what's the point?
Get onto the seller and ask them to provide tracking as I think they are responsible for getting your item to you.
If you don't receive your item, it should be an issue between seller and delivery service.
That's what I think anyway.

What can the seller do about it? Hardly their fault that the delivery agent at the end of the chain looks like they're incompetent? There seems to be a lot of deliveries slowing down after they arrive in Ireland. Any services I've seen, including DHL, Amazon etc seem to stop after arriving at An Post, and only sometimes do I see the update to arrival in the mail centre, or out on delivery.
The seller should complain to China Post, USPS, Russian mail etc, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an improvement at this end.

blade1 · 14-10-2017 04:26PM

I just had a delivery from DHL in Germany arrive by an post last week.
Took 5 days.

briany · 14-10-2017 05:15PM

whiterebel wrote: »

What can the seller do about it? Hardly their fault that the delivery agent at the end of the chain looks like they're incompetent? There seems to be a lot of deliveries slowing down after they arrive in Ireland. Any services I've seen, including DHL, Amazon etc seem to stop after arriving at An Post, and only sometimes do I see the update to arrival in the mail centre, or out on delivery.
The seller should complain to China Post, USPS, Russian mail etc, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an improvement at this end.

I get a decent amount of stuff from Amazon that is tracked to the door, and some of it goes through the An Post system. When it's tracked to the door, I notice no slow-down. When it's untracked, I could be left wondering if it's going to show up at all with the amount of time it takes.

whiterebel · 14-10-2017 06:46PM

blade1 wrote: »

I just had a delivery from DHL in Germany arrive by an post last week.
Took 5 days.

Could you track it to the door? If the tracking comes through to An Post's system, it seems to go to as you would expect, but there seems to be a lack of consistency of information through the handover. DHL say it will be given to the delivery company, and I find DHL's tracking number doesn't normally work with An Post.

blade1 · 14-10-2017 08:39PM

whiterebel wrote: »

Could you track it to the door? If the tracking comes through to An Post's system, it seems to go to as you would expect, but there seems to be a lack of consistency of information through the handover. DHL say it will be given to the delivery company, and I find DHL's tracking number doesn't normally work with An Post.

I couldn't no.
I thought it was coming by courier.
To be honest DHL have always being a disaster for me.
I'm on a border between 2 counties and they have lost several items on me.
One was a mountain bike from UK that they eventually admit they couldn't locate.
When the second one was sent it took over a month to arrive.
Never had an issue with stuff in the post and I also find DPD have vastly improved in the last year or so.

ED E · 15-10-2017 07:40AM

whiterebel wrote: »

What can the seller do about it? Hardly their fault that the delivery agent at the end of the chain looks like they're incompetent? There seems to be a lot of deliveries slowing down after they arrive in Ireland. Any services I've seen, including DHL, Amazon etc seem to stop after arriving at An Post, and only sometimes do I see the update to arrival in the mail centre, or out on delivery.
The seller should complain to China Post, USPS, Russian mail etc, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an improvement at this end.

I see this too.

What I'm wondering is are they manually sorting items? If the automated equipment was sorting packets they'd have no reason not to push the tracking data. But if its manually handled scanning adds work.

locustfurnace · 15-10-2017 03:51PM

As a avid music collector I was getting parcels of vinyl records reguarly enough...1 or 2 a week from every corner of the globe...never had issues...tracking always worked...over the years only once got caught to pay customs on a pack from Japan otherwise all perfect. Then I took a break as had a kid and had to readjust my spends.

Fast forward 12 months and Im in a position to spend a few €€€ on myself and all 4 orders I made are all awol somewhere. 2 with tracking, 2 without. Mexico, Indonesia, USA and Germany. All 4 people/labels I have dealt with multiple times so I dont think Ive been extremely unlike and got scammed 4 times in a week.

The Ger and US ones are untracked but never have I waited more then 2 weeks in the internet age from when Ive been told it was post to it arriving at my door. The Mex one landed on Irish soil 2 weeks ago. Sitting in Dublin. No change since. The Indo one left OS (post abrv for Austria I presume) heading for IE (ireland) over a month ago.

Also my wife has ordered clothers for herself and kids the last few months and while most have been fastway or dhl at least 2 were delivered by An Post. They just left them at front door. While Fastway and DHL have done this when we were out of house we were actually in when An Post did it. The slam of the van door gave him away, strolled to front door to find pack sitting there in the wet and the driver heading off. Thats up there with the time they put a sorry your not in in the letterbox without even knocking as my wife was putting the smallie in the buggy on the other side. She opens the door and your man $hits himself. Asked for the pack. Says he forgot. Shes askes how did he remember to bring the slip for a pack he forgot. Que a disgruntled mumble.

Anyhow tl:dr An Post never had a issue in all the years. An Post the last 12 months...nothing but hassle.

whiterebel · 15-10-2017 05:06PM

It is very noticeable that there are different posties from one week to another around our area lately. AP seem to be employing people on a short term, temporary basis and standards have been decreasing rapidly. A month or two ago I found 3 deliveries with the green slip left in the postbox, all at about 8.30 when we were home. I went to the sorting office to collect, and asked was there something going on around our route. They said they would have a word, and surprise surprise, the next morning there was a ring on the bell at 8.35am. Hasn't been a problem since.
If AP are employing people on the same basis in the sorting centres it could explain the deterioration of the service.

IrishPhoenix · 30-10-2017 05:01PM

I posted 4 packages on the same day and 2 of them have not reached their recipients in Dublin. I don't know what's happening.

ED E · 30-10-2017 06:19PM

whiterebel wrote: »

It is very noticeable that there are different posties from one week to another around our area lately. AP seem to be employing people on a short term, temporary basis and standards have been decreasing rapidly. A month or two ago I found 3 deliveries with the green slip left in the postbox, all at about 8.30 when we were home. I went to the sorting office to collect, and asked was there something going on around our route. They said they would have a word, and surprise surprise, the next morning there was a ring on the bell at 8.35am. Hasn't been a problem since.
If AP are employing people on the same basis in the sorting centres it could explain the deterioration of the service.

Was it determined that "[x] MAIL CENTER EXT" indicates third party sorting?

SPDUB · 02-11-2017 08:38AM

ED E wrote: »

Was it determined that "[x] MAIL CENTER EXT" indicates third party sorting?

If by third party sorting you mean not An Post employees then that is wrong .

It just stands for Mail Centre Extension which is another building that they have rented out to do some of the sorting there . The staff there are An Post employees though .

An Post not delivering untracked items / parcels going missing

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