Royal Mail Track & Trace is Pointless

hi. ...my fiancee did make a courier service for via some korean delivery service company. ......its from UK to mauritius but the parcel end up in India. ...know what to release the parcel they are asking me high charge. ...can u imagine 400$ ....don't know what should I do. ...plz help me

Thank you for the useful info. I didn't know that RM signed for sucks. I needed to send my tax rebate to HMRC. I went to the post office and chose 1st class signed for delivery. It was on 19.01.2015 now it is 10.02.2015 and the status online has not been updated. It just says we have your item it has been processed bla bla last update 19.01. I called to customer service and they said that the status will be updated in 15 days from the date of posting, now it is 21 days and no news. Oh dear I wish I had sent it as special delivery.

@ Alp Sinan Your registered mail from Turkey, once it arrives in the UK, becomes signed for service. As you might have gathered from reading the comments of others, that service is pretty crap. It gets a signature and tracking is variable. Sometimes postmen do not bother with a signature or update the information. Our tracking system is poor and needs modernization to reach the standards of some other countries. Canada is exceptionally expensive so i'd expect their system to be good.

Try this link when tracking Royal Mail parcels instead: http://www.royalmail.com/trackdetails Royal Mail don't complete the delivery in the country you're sending to, they will have a partner company that fulfills this for them. If you can find out which company that is, the tracking details will work on their site for more accurate updates. Signed For rarely shows a signature on RM website for overseas postage, but it will on the company who fulfilled the delivery. The one thing I wish would be updated is a list of the fulfillment companies abroad in stead of having to trawl forums for answers.

And I am on here because I too have a problem with RM, but it hasn't taken over my life!

Well Chrissy, what I think you should do is get a life and calm down over a web forum prize. You took a WEEK off work in case you missed it! What was it a Ferrari? Maybe calm down a little too:) Yes Royal Mail are generally crap but seriously!

Ok so i won a conpetition ob a web forum first time ever winning. The royal mail people are tellibg me my package was attempted to be delivered when No OBE K OCKED ON NY DOOR OR LEFT ME A SOMETHING FOR YOU CARD. I WAS SO ANXIOUS FOR THIS I CALLED OFF WORK THE WHOLE WEEK JUST TO RECEIVE IT. I have emailed twice abd tried tk tyoe in the redeluver option stuff and all i get is a fuckn Oops message right at the 3rd step WTF SHOULD I DO ABOUT MY SHIT!!!! IN NYC BY THE WAY WHERE IVE NEVER SEEN A ROYAL MAIL BUIDLING IB MY LIFE

I have posted a important package (Track & Trace) from Spain to the uk. The tracking number starts RR then numbers and ends in ES. Tracked in Spain until this message (Departure from the International Office of origin) which has now remained the same for two days now. So I assume once they have sent it abroad they stop tracking it,the problem is I can't put this number in the Royal Mail Track & Trace as they don't recognize it. So how am I supposed to know where it is now, and when it will be delivered now that it's in the UK?

I used Royal Mail special delivery guaranteed next day before 9am to send my passport. I didn't need the passport for two days but needless to say that it didn't arrive for three days and I had to book extra flights. The most frustrating thing is that the tracking system showed the passport to be at my local delivery office (5 miles away) but I was not allowed to interrupt the Royal Mail internal delivery process. Had I known that Royal Mail wasn't going to deliver in time, I could have personnally driven to collect it at a cheaper final cost. I also could have used a private courier, and had the private courier been late delivering, I could have interogated their process and intervened to collect my passport before the two days were up. In summary, DO NOT USE ROYAL MAIL IF YOU NEED AN ITEM DELIVERED TO A FIXED TIME/DATE

royal mail is bullshit

my parcel was send from U.K on date 21.july.2014 . And today is 08.sep.2014 sir i have not receive my parcel what is this sir its not good.

I'm living in China and had to have my marriage certificate 'legalised' in England. Sent it over there using the local Chinese mail service and it arrived safe and sound and surprisingly quickly. Afterwards I had my folks send it back after it was legalised, using the signature option with Royal Mail. It's been two weeks and still nothing. According to the track and trace, the letter has been in Beijing for the past 8 days. Frustrating doesn't even begin to describe it. Have tried contacting the chinese postal service, who have referred me back to royal mail. Had my folks go back to the post office, and they were told to call Royal Mail. Result of the phone call was just confirmation that 'it was in Beijing and being processed'. Should have spent the extra money to just fedex it!

Paid £8 for track and trace to Eire. The envelope has arrived at the address on the far west coast, but 4 weeks later the track and trace website is STILL logging the item as being 'in Dublin, and is being processed for delivery'. I feel like I have wasted £8. For a multi-million pound company it is very SHODDY.

craftsperson and cosigning to their enterprise. . . Anybody with ideas or advice?.

Hi, I am also selling on ebay in Turkey. I am posting by registered mails to many countries. Very interestingly the tracking system works almost perfectly in many countries, except for UK! Why ? Let alone stating a naive "We don't have any information yet", it is rejecting the number! It says it's not a correct number. I contacted a few guys at Royal Mail, they play the dumb and dumber at this subject. Anyone who has got experience with posting items from outside UK to UK, please post here comments. I want to know how it happens for especially European countries. Is this for "some countries" or always the same for foreign posts? Luckily I get some information from Turkish side about the post. But update always is easier from the destination side. And I get fantastic almost minute by minute information from Canada Post for example. Even polish post is great, up-to-date and fast. Royal mail slow and unresponsive. I believe "duplex checking" is great idea. For the future of registered mail, it would be a lot better if origin and destination countries provided tracking information. It would be paradisaical if we could get this info simultaneously, proofing each other. Also one big reason for having the registered mail, both the sender and receiver could be able to get informed about "the fate of the mail". For language and other purposes, people feel at home, while checking at the his country's postal service website. Hope to hear about this subject. Happy mailing.

on the 24/01/2014 i sent a letter to my son in germany by Airsure, it is possible that i got his address wrong but on the 25th i sent him another letter by plain old first class post which he has received. Airsure letter has not been received, "Airsure" do'nt think so try "Unsure"

I sent a special next day delivery parcel, hoping it would be delivered the next day. I tried tracking the parcel but it kept on saying there was no data about the parcel. So I called Royal Mail explaining my situation, and they said theres been some sort delay and my parcel would not be delivered for another two days. They did offer a refund, however the service did state "special next day guarantee". A very very poor service by a big company.

I sent a signed for letter to Greece 11/11/2013 . It never arrived as they were unable to deliver to a box number ,or so we were told after the item had been accepted charged for and sent . The customer services were abysmal , I had replies from more than 10 different people none of whom gave any help at all .,I was fobbed off all the time was given four separate dates that the item was shipped abroad . As we have all found out to our cost Royal Mail do not track once item is abroad, although we are not told that when we pay our postage , Item is now apparently back in my area sorting office but not delivered , again the Royal Mail were of no help when I phoned trying to find out when I could expect my returned item. Royal Mail are an utter disgrace , why do we have to out up with such an appalling service .

Further to 27 11 13 Track and trace showed that my package had been delivered to Whiteside, queensland, Australia. Yesterday i completed application for compensation and forwarded it to Royal Mail Got email this morning from addressee that package had arrived safely at correct place in Tenerife , Canary Isles. Informed Royal Mail and again, apologies, amazement, confusion, etc but no explanation.Best of luck everyone if you need to use "Airsure"

i sent a package 21st Nov 13 , AIRSURE to tenerife,SPAIN, address labels on BOTH sides of the package, destination highlighted in yellow.First check on track and trace showed the progress to london heathrow and confirmed that it is on its way to AUSTRALIA. Visits to original post office, to local sorting office, phone calls to customer services - result," mistake", " apologies and sorries" all round, "doesn't usually happen", "should probably get there eventually". If not, investigation will start by 18th December '13.

Y'all are numpties; use http://www.royalmail.com/trackdetails to get DETAILED trackin' informationez. Ninny-noos.

Hi Need some info, went to post some items to four different address , after printing online postage labels. Requested recorded mail at post office, on returning home noticed counter clerk entered the same post code for two items destined for different locations. Will this cause a delay with the delivery of my items, even though addressed correctly

Sent parcel on 7 sept still not arrived really annoyed gifts for our greatgrandaughter thought could trust Royal Mail with my parcel and thought signed for would be a safe bet on it arriving ,Lost faith in there system

I seem to remember back in the 60's when a recorded delivery was exactly that. Anyone who had contact with the letter/parcel had to sign for it, so that the item was taced beck to an individual. It stopped things going missing, which could lead to being fired, so the Unions in the 70's decided to get this practise changed. Now all you get is the initial posting and final delivery. You don't know who has come into contact with it. I hate to say iot but I have found that the North London sorting office, through which all incoming mail form abroad is sorted has a bad habit of things going missing.

Looks like this rant from 2006 is still current. "Your item, posted on 23/09/13 with reference XXXXXXXXXXXGB has been received at our international mail centre and is being made ready for despatch overseas." Oh yeah, very useful indeed.

Also for items sent to the UK from Abroad, I believe though don't quote me, You're probably better off dealing with Parcel Force rather than Royal Mail itself, Because I believe it's Royal Mail's company for dealing with International items, You may have more joy, Though generally i'd recommend avoiding Royal Mail like the plague and even though it costs more using DHL, They're excellent.

We send around 100 items a day overseas from the UK, Many of them using the International Signed for many people are having trouble with, The problem is, Once Royal Mail pass it over to the destination country, It should in theory be able to be tracked using their domestic service, Ironically the Country we lose most unrecorded items in Italy used to have an incredibly good tracker for International items, Though ridiculously they've got rid of it! I think one of the problems is once it reaches the destination country, Generally it receives a new tracking number for their postal service, Unfortunately you receive no notification of this happening so you have no way of knowing the new code, I know it doesn't really help anyone on here, But I believe this to be the case. We have a customer in France complaining today about not receiving after 10 days it reportedly was dispatched to France, If your customer hasn't received it after this period of time, Chances are they weren't in to sign for the item and if they go to the local postal depot with ID and the tracking number, They SHOULD be able to get it, You have to hope that the local Postman was considerate enough to leave a note saying delivery was attempted, But in my experience this isn't always the case.

Royal Mail are an absolute shower of SH?t, I am surprised they haven't been taken to court under the Trades Descriptions act, Track & Trace you have got to be kidding. Now when buying on line I not only try to find the cheapest supplier but the cheapest supplier who doesn't use Royal Mail!!

I sent a parcel to Lagos in Nigeria for a massive celebrity event, weight 9kgs 800 grms sent on the 2/5/2-013 on a fastest possible delivery Global Priority. I have checked status today 14th & 13th May 2013 and tracking just says HELD and the event is on the 16th May so I guess its not going to arrive on time. Lousy service at a cost of £165.00 it's a joke!

I sendt a parcel to Lagos in Nigeria for a massive celebrity event, weight 9kgs 800 grms sent on the 2/5/2-013 on a fastest possible delivery Global Priority. I have checked status today 14th & 13th May 2013 and tracking just says HELD and the event is on the 16th May so I guess its not going to arrive on time. Lousy service at a cost of £165.00 it's a joke!

I just bought a pair of shoes from a site and they were posted out using AirSure priority which caused me 30 pounds, that is very costly for me in my currency, almost twice in fact and almost more expensive than the item i bought. So anyway the customer care rep from the website i ordered from assured me that i would receive the purchase in Singapore in no more than 4-5 working days but today is already the 10th day and it isnt here. When i track my package, i receive the same bullshit status about my package being handed over to the overseas postal service for delivery in Singapore & the headline that it has arrived at its location. This is a blatant lie as i called the Singapore post office several times and they swear the package has not arrived. Also the tracking has given me the same crap status since the first time i checked which was 1 day after item was posted out. Is this the kind of rubbish they call priority handling? Bullshit cos i have had items from EMS (japan to europe)which is wayyy cheaper arrive faster than this crap service

I have had a parcel sent from USA to Australia it arrived in Australia and is being processed for delivery how long does that usually take? It has been over a week now? Thanks, any input would be great

I have a parcel on the way to me sent by first class track and trace,the title of the service is clearly against The trades descriptions act and how Royal Mail get away with it i just don't know, as you can neither track nor trace the parcel. I personally think that Royal Mail don't want us to know where our item is at any given time, If we knew which Depot or sorting office our item was last logged into then we would also know where our item was damaged or stolen..and that would make us as wise as they are.

i sent a parcel from rome registered delivery.i looked on the italian tracking system from the italian post office and it said the packed had been dispatched from milan.i looked on the uk royal mail system and it said parcels cant be tracked fro other counties .then the system is just a joke.anyone any other similar expeiencies?

from what I have read and experienced it is fair to say that the title "track and trace" is a misleading title, it gives you the impression that you can track and trace your post throughout its journey when in fact all you can do is see if it has arrived or been returned, with varying levels of success, these items are scanned at various stages and with the profit margin of the company I can not see how the system could not be updated so that with each scan a signal is sent to a main server to notify where it is. Even when it is placed in a batch of items, for example I purchased several items from amazon and it was posted with a service other than RM, there was a mistake and next day delivery did not happen and I called them (was yodel I think) within in 5 minutes I had been given a batch number to track and trace as well as the actual postal id to track and trace, was apologised to for the delay and explained that there had been an error in processing and was apologised to again and I was following the batch as well as my individual item. every item has a barcode and the bags that they are placed in for batch transition are supposed to be bar coded which means there should be a trail to track and trace

Royal mail special delivery have lost my passport. No explanation of where or when. Do you realize they don't actually know whether your item was delivered or not unless you tell them! You are the one doing the tracking (if their useless system is actually up to date and working). When I reported it to the police they said " your the second one this week". So if you want rid of passport just donate it to the royal fail through special delivery, you will never see it again!

@Souch13 - Luck has nothing to do with it we are PAYING for a SERVICE and as customers it is Royal Mails responsibility to ensure that the service we have PAID for is carried out in a efficient manner regardless of their operating capacity. Frankly the tracking system is completely useless it does not give any information that is helpful for the status of a parcel and worst of all you can't see when the status of what you are sending/receiving was last updated. I do not use Royal Mail for any of my deliveries as I find them to terrible at customer service its no wonder they are losing money! the only reason I am stuck on their god awful excuses for a tracker is because a product I have order has been dispatched to me via RM.

Sent a letter last week to Ireland, 7 days ago, Got my tracking number and looked on website. Apparently it is at the international despatch center. Eventually phoned up customer service (thats a joke name)and they say they dont know whjere it is. Apparently it was not scanned out of the international center. It has not arrived needless to say. The customer service guy said that mistakes happen and that even though things are supposed to happen they dont always (talking about scanning) What absolute rot. Never using Royal mail for anything important again

And people moan about banks, I've never been told "sorry we lost your money" or "your account appears to have vanished" , how the hell does a company lose a parcel? it goes from their post office, to their sorting office, to their van to then be posted through your letter box by one of their staff. how hard can that be? anything less than 100% on such a simple process should be unacceptable. If someone can get dressed by themselves and get to work in a morning then they should be able to deliver peoples mail, it aint rocket science.

Too bad I didn't go searching sooner, Royal Mail Track & Trace is useless! I buy and sell on eBay and I've lived in more than one EU country. So far, in all cases, when using International Mail I could see tracking information for part of the journey on the post site of the sending country and the other part of the journey on the site for the receiving country. I found it annoying to have to look in two places and the detail isn't great, but at least you get to see something to know it's been believed to my buyer or it's at least made it to my country. I sold an item to a guy in the UK and posted it as usual. It leaves my country in 2 days according to tracking. I go to Royal Mail to use Track & Trace and it says nothing. Several days it says nothing, then I notice where it says no tracking information is available for packages from other countries. WHAT THE FUCK Britain? You so Great you can't figure out where the hell your mail is? So, lesson learned, when shipping to UK, tracking numbers are useless. I can't see where the thing is and the buyer probably thinks I'm full of it. Knowing that makes doing business with people in UK less appealing. At least I don't live there, forever wondering where my mail went.

I have posted a small parcel RECORDED DELIVERY (first class) from Wembley Post Office to Birmingham, paid £3.65. Its 10 days now and the parcel has never got to its destination at all. This is a bad buisness stupid management of the Royal Mail. We are living in a year 2012 with all modern technology around us. Why cann't the Goverment and the Royal Mail Management put there foot together make ONE ECONOMICAL system working 100% with proper barcode/tag & track and trace with modern technology equipments. Its not expensive they can order it from China.

ONCE AGAIN.......Your item, posted on XX/XX/XX with reference RU02939XXXGB has arrived in GERMANY and is being processed for delivery.

Anyone tried collect plus? My parcel has been out for delivery for 6 weeks and still no delivery / compensation. Its the first and last time I stray from Royal Mail. Sure sometimes they mess up but in light of the volume of mail they process they are great.

I have been tracking an urgent item sent to three days ago: First day - Track and Trace shows, "It's in our London office and being processed" Next Day "It's arrived in our Darlington Office and ready to be sent to our Richmond (North Yorks) Office for Delivery" Today, (Wednesday) Track and Trace reports - "We were unable to deliver as there was no access to the delivery address. The Item will be returned to Richmond to await instruction from addressee" Which is actually a LIE as I have never left the house all day and the postman has not been anywhere near and nor has anyone left a card saying they could not deliver. How do they get away with it? I tried to find anywhere on the Royal Mail site that I could email my complaint and find that they very cleverly prevent you doing so by providing complaint forms for specific matters only and nowhere is there a box that lets you write any other type of complaint. I phoned Customer Services (spoke to a very nice, very sympathetic but utterly useless lass) who told me that, at 1:00pm the Sorting Office was now closed!!! and that, as it is urgent, I could call to the office myself (12 mile round trip)between 7:00am and 10:00am tomorrow, otherwise it will be delivered on Saturday! the day after tomorrow being Good Friday.

ROYAL MAIL ...WHAT A LOAD OF TRIPE THEY ARE...I LIVE IN SPAIN I A POSTED A A4 ENVELOPE WITH A PAPER MAGAZINE AND AN OLD TICKET INSIDE SOLD ON EBAY , BY SPANISH REGISTRED POST WITH A TRACKING NUMBER ON THE 9.JAN 2012.TO LONDON UK I FIRST CHECKED THIS ON THE 11TH JAN ON THE SPANISH POSTAL SITE AND IT SAYS IT HAD NOW BEENCHECKED THROUGHT THE SPANISH OUTWARD MAIL AND NOW IN THE HANDS OF UK MAIL SERVICE (RM) I THOUGHT GOOD THINGS GOING QUICKLY HERE,ALAS ABOUT 3 WEEKS LATER THE ITEMS HAD STILL NOT ARRIVED AT THE BUYERS ADDRESS.AT THIS STAGE I HAD NOTICED THE BUYERS ADDRESS WAS MISSING THE WORD STREET THE REST OF THE ADDRESS WAS CORRECT INC POSTCODE.I WROTE DOWN EXACTLY WHAT TEH BUYER HAD FOR ADDRESS INFORMATION ON EBAY SO I HAD NO REASON TO THINK IT WAS WRONG. ANYWAY ON THE 16TH FEB I ACTUALLY FOUND OUT HOW TO TALK /TYPE TO SOMEONE IN ROYAL MAIL RATHER THAN PRESS TELEPHONE DIGITS ALL DAY AND GET NO HELP WHATS SO EVER. HAVING TO REGISTER WITH TWITTER WAS NOT MY IDEA OF FINDING OUT WHERE MY ENVELOPE WAS BUT IT HAD TO BE DONE.I EXPLAINED THE SPANISH P/O HAD TOLD ME MY ENVELOPE WAS AT LANGLEY NEAR SLOUGH DUE TO THE FACT THEY HAD NOTICED IT WAS NOT FULLY ADDRESSED SO I TOLD THEM THE TRACKING NUMBER .WELL DONE I THOUGHT THE RM PROCESS WORKS,I TWITTED ASKING IF THE ITEM CAN BE POSTED ON TO THE BUYER IN LONDON,NO CAN DO CAME THE REPLY THE ITEM WOULD BE RETURNED TO SENDER EVENTUALLY,I ASKED DUE TO THE FACT THE POSTCODE WAS CORRECT SURLY IT COULD STILL POSTED AS THIS WOULD CONFIRM THE FULL ADDRESS.NO CAN DO CAME AGAIN.IT WOULD BE RETUREND TO SENDER ASAP.OK I SAID I WILL WAIT FOR IT TO RETRURN. 114TH MARCH I GET A LETER FROM CORREOS THE SPANISH POSTAL SERVICE SAYING SORRY BUT WE CANNOT FIND YOUR LETTER IN ANY SYSTEM REALLY MEANING THEY HAD ASKED ROYAL MAIL AND THEY SAID THIS ITEM IS NOW LOST AS THERE IS NO TRACE ON THE TRACKING NUMBER!!! WAIT A MINUTE I SAID ON THE 16TH FEB THE ITEM WAS THERE ON THE SYSTEM AND CONFIRMED BY RM VIA TWITTER.NOW APPROX 1 MONTH LATER IT DOES NOT EXSIST THERE OR EVEN AT BELFAST FOR THE RETURN TO SENDER ITEMS.THIS TIME ON TWITER THEY WERE NOT SO HELPFUL ONLY REPEATING IT IS NO LONGER ON THE TRACKING SYSYTEM.THEN STOPPED REPLYING TO MY TWITS!! BY THIS TIME I WAS FUMING SO I PHONED RM AND EXPLAINED THE SITUATION,ALLI GOT WAS FEEBLE EXCUSES SAYING IT MIGHT OF BEEN STOLEN!BUT IN A ROUND ABOUT WAY,THE PERSON WAS ABLE TO BRING UP MY TRACKING NUMBER AND SAY ALL THE SAME INFORMATION AS BEFORE BUT WAS BAFFELED AS TO HOW IT IS NO LONGER THERE....THEN ALL I GOT WAS SORRY NOTHING ELSE I CAN DO..... HOW CAN SHE SAY THAT ONE MINUTE RM HAS MY ITEM AS CONFIRMED ON THE 16TH FEB THEN APPRX 1 MONTH LATER NO THEY DID NOT HAVE MY ITEM AND IT WAS NOT AT BELFAST AND THE SPANISH POST WERE TOLD IT COULD NOT BE FOUND! OH BEFORE I FORGET THOSE WHO LIVE SPAIN THE RM AND CORREOS HAVE AN AGREEMENT I SAY AGREEMENT NOT SURE IF ITS LAW!!BUT IF YOU POST AN ITEM TO THE UK AND IS LOST THERE THEN YOU CAN ONLY CLAIM FROM THE SPANISH MAIL SERVICE NOT ROYAL ALSO CANNOT TRACK THEITEM ON THE INTERNET ONCE IT LEAVES SPAIN. I WONDER IF ANY LITTLE KIDS LETERS TO TEH QUEEN GET LOST WHEN THEY ONLY HAVE TO THE QUEEN IN THE BIG HOUSE WITH THE BIG FLAG AT THE END OF THE BIG ROAD LONDON I AM OUT OF POCKET BIG TIME AND I WONT THE GET ITEMS BACK!ROYAL MAIL YOU ARE THE PITS AND THAT IS PUTING IT MILDLY,YOU ARE MORE LIKE DICK TURPIN AND WE ALL KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM! ANYBODY GOT ANY SUGGESTIONS AS TO WRITE TO HIGH UP IN THE RM COMMAND TO COMPLAIN TOO?ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD HELP. OK RANT OVER!!

I have lost count of the recorded delivery items I have posted which are not registered on the system. Then, trying to contact customer services is nigh on impossible. What a poor show.

by the way, good news to me.. my parcel was delivered and in very bad condition. I had secured the package with a waterproof large envelope and sealed it with brown packaging tape.... i had declared the custom stuff too, but wen it reached, the outer packaging was totally lunched and the inner packing was partly damaged.... ROYAL MAIL SUCKS!

What makes me laugh about royal mail track and trace is that the uk - a developed country that invented the postage stamp - is seemingly less "postally advanced" than Russia, Slovakia even Greece! In these countries and about 20 others you can track you're mail once it has gone through customs. In the UK royal mails track and trace fails to pick up the tracking trail once it has left the country of origin. How is this possible that people in Moldova can track incoming mail from point of post to their front door and UK customers cant?!

Hi all, i sent a "signed for" parcel to south india (mysore) on 10th feb 2012, the online status which i checked says the parcel has reached new delhi and is being processed for further delivery.... since 5 days the status hasn't changed.. the contents are not exactly valuable, but they are special to me.... so cant be bought even if i get compensation.... god knows y i trusted this Royal Fu**in mail... and i read SANJAY's review and i'm scared that the contents of my parcel too may be ripped... how can someone get compensation anyway?? can someone tell me..

Once a parcel has been sent abroad, you can typically track it on that country's postal tracking system. So for Sweden, you could track the parcel on www.posten.se. There's even a helpful "In English" link on the homepage.

Post Office tracking overseas is RUBBISH??? It doesn't really exist, once it's over the counter if it doesn't arrive at its destination ALL IS LOST

I sent a small packet to South Africa on 02/02 and tried to track it - not chance - your item is in the overseas system.... WHERE ??? Selma

I do believe if you ask the nice people behind the counter they will tell you 'first class recorded' does exactly that... Records the signature upon delivery. If you want to track your item in transit it is special delivery your after. Don't blame the royal mail if your too cheap to pay for the service you actually require!

Worst fears confirmed. Contents lost. Partial letter delivered. Royal mail telephone line says I cannot complain for 2 weeks. Don't know what to do?

I sent item by recordeds signed-for first class on 02 Feb 2012. Constant checking since came up with "delivered on 06 Feb 2012, electronic proof awaited" on night of 06/02/2012. Only problem is I received back a self addressed stamped envelope that was in the posted mail on 04 Feb 2012. I am dreading to find out what really happened to the mail. It was really important paperwork and the clerk had asked if its value was more than £46/- If everything is in order it was deliverd on 3 Feb or my letter is ripped open.

i sent 24 recorded letters on 16th jan, in the hope they will ALL be received. These included legal papers, for a new business, to 24 clients. So we need to prove they have ALL been delivered. After checking the system this morning, i noticed only 13 of these letters were actually signed for, which means there was a delivery rate of just over 50% which is absolutely redicilous. The letters might have been received, but how will i prove it in court if they have been received or not without a signature.

Wow...I thought it was only a state side (how is that for self centered/absorbed?). Let me tell you guys, it's not different here in the US. I'm actually trying to track a package from the UK to US...and neither side knows what is going on...great.

I have worked for RM for a number of years and it seems that a lot of people are pointing the finger at the delivery staff, I can only talk for my self but I am given a certain number of letters or parcels each day, and 99% get delivered the 1% may include as someone else said a style of handwriting I cannot read or understand, or an incomplete address with no return address, Seriously though I would like to see you find another service willing to pick up a first class letter, sort it, send to desired sorting office and personally delivered by hand to your front door for less then 0.50pence, again as someone said 90% get there next day and the rest between 2-3 days. I for one am proud of the service i provide to my customers and to this day have never received a complaint.

Hi there, I understand the frustrations but I wanted to share our experience with two e-commerce businesses. The main one is www.thewellyshop.com. We sell wellingtons by mail order and via the net. We post tens of thousands of items each year with Royal Mail, Royal Mail international, DPD and Parcelforce so we have a good based of experience to draw from. Last year we had only about 2 out of 10,000 plus items that didn't arrive with Royal Mail. We had others where customers had queried items with us and they turned out to be at their local sorting office and a description of the goods enabled them to be traced. Generally the issue there was a label had come off or become damaged (torn, rained on?) in transit. We print labels and barcode all our mail for efficient delivery. I think having printed labels definitely helps. I think quite often the delivery issues may be where customers handwrite labels and everyone's style is different so they cannot be machine read or for signed (recorded) mail where they are out and the "while you were out" card gets caught up with junk mail and gets thrown out and they end up at the sorting office possibly with no return address. We had a similar number of issues with Parcelforce and a lot more issues with RM International (using Airsure to Germany - Packstation addresses) and DPD to France. I agree the tracking internationally with Royal Mail International is terrible, and we would love this to be improved (whilst keeping prices low). The problem is for them to communicate with other generally state owned organisations where the network involves passing a bag of mail from location to location. This is where for example with airsure and international signed for you get the unhelpful message saying the parcel is in Germany or Australia or wherever. It shouldn't be too difficlt to scan all items say that are in a bag that goes to Sydney (Bag ABC10) and then when this arrives for the local service to scan the items or the bag (and you know the items in it) and feed into a central computer system. The problems I suspect are that firstly there is no standard international barcode or reference for mail that can be scanned by all mail services (just my guess) and secondly there is no margin made by the receiving country to invest in their systems and processes. In contrast Fedex, UPS etc make more marging as they handle the parcel from start to finish but they also charge a heck of a lot more. Some countries do scan the mail and contacting RM directly they can see this (hidden) information internally. It would be good if they displayed on their website. Even couriers can deliver internationally badly. For instance apartments in France where a customer indicates the door entry code and the information is ignored. In our experience and qualified by feedback from our RM account manager, about 90% of 1st class mail gets delivered the next day which is pretty good considering it's a best attempt service and special delivery or tracked should be used for critical documents as it goes through a different secure network and is barcode scanned at each stage of the journey. In some cases in times of bad weather such as Winter 2010 snow we also found Royal Mail 1st class delivered to the UK in time for Christmas as the postman/woman walks the last mile and can walk in snow whereas the courier vans got stuck! Just my comments and I hope they may be useful to someone. I would go courier for international if irreplaceable and urgent or keep a receipt and get a proof of posting. Now I'm off back to work on the wellies! All the best! Dave

I posted a recorded mail letter on 15/10/2011, and when I track and Trace the Royal mails website states "it was posted from London Post Office and is being processed through our network for delivery”. Today, is Date: 10/12/2011 and it still showing the same message. What a poor, bad and most appalling service. When you complaint about it they drag on with variety of excuse answers and then state provide original receipt of it and fill form for the refund of Postage. The fact seems to be no body bothers the signed piece of postmans paper when he returns to his depot to be scanned for records of sign delivery, probably they must be throwing away signature paper in dustbin. Shame on Royal Mail!!!

I posted a recorded mail letter on 15/10/2011, and when I track and Trace the Royal mails website states " it was posted from London Post Office and is being processed through our network for delivery". Today, is 10/12/2011b and it still showing the same message. What a poor, bad and most appalling service. When you complaint about it they drag on with variety of answers and then state provide original receipt of it and fill form for refund of Postage. The fact seems to be no body bothers the signed piece of postmans paper when he returns to his depot to be scnned for records of sign delivery, probably they ust be throwing away signature paper in dustbin. Shame on Royal Mail.

Hi I sent my precious degress to Pakistan from UK using Royal Mail's International Signed For service. After 10 working days,I checked on their tracking website and they have reached Australia!! They have delivered to a wrong country. Royal Mail is the worse service you can ever imagine! you can never replace your lifetime achievments back once they go missing!! Even if they pay me compensation which i doubt they will, i will never get my original documents back! Shame on you Royal Mail. Poor service as ever!

I ordered an item on-line and received a tracking number. Today Track & Trace tells me they couldn't deliver my item so it's in the sorting office awaiting my instructions. Fine, but no-one's put anything through my door so how am I supposed to know delivery was attempted and how am I supposed to prove my entitlement to the parcel when I go to the sorting office ???

I posted a parcel using International Signed For. Although the parcel did get delivered, a signature was not taken and the parcel was just left in the recipients mail box. When I complained to Royal Mail, they told me that I'd need to direct my complaint the the US Postal Service as it's out of their hands once it's left the UK. Further more, due to this experience, I decided to use Airsure instead because although Airsure does not require a signature, it does state that the parcel can be tracked right to recipients door. However, when attempting to track the parcel, it still just said "The parcel has been passed to the US postal service for delivery". Absolutely useless when my customers ask where the parcel is. Even after it's been delivered, the only message I get is :- "Your item, posted on 15/11/11 with reference ??? was delivered in UNITED STATES OF AMERICA on 25/11/11. Thank you for using this service." Proof of Delivery is not yet available for this tracking reference"

I Recently posted 2x Gadgets out to a Couple of Buyers via Special Next Day Delivery. When I checked that day they didnt reach my buyers until 2:45 I thought Special Delivery was always ment to reach you before 1pm lol very odd!

P.S I'm asking watchdog to investigate so please keep the experiences coming in. We will get this situation changed.

Never use royal mail international signed for... Their website states 'reassurance your parcel has been delivered.' Call centre staff say we cant provide that information sir. I sent a parcel to mexico, they said I have to check with the mexican postal service to see if it was delivered??? What am I paying for... Wait to 2 to 4 weeks to make a claim, in which time paypal close the 'item not received claim'. Paypal and Royal Mail dont know their own business processes. Avoid!!!

I too learned the hard to never trust Royal Mail with any important deliveries. If you DO have something valuable that you with to track, use a proper carrier instead - you will be able to track it every step of the way. it's not much more cost (sometimes cheaper) but definately worth it.

hii this is anand singh , my friend has sent me a parsel from uk to india before 4 days to the address gurpreet nagra jaamu india but i have not recieved it yet ...kindly help as it is urgently requred....thanks

thanks to royal air mail my life has became a disaster i was waiting on a package from the uk it has been 2 weeks i have not received it no response and customer service was a joke i would use any other carrier than royal mail

To those who asked 'What happens to all the undelivered/lost mail?' Here is your answer: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-462497/Royal-Mail-flogs-75-000-lost-post-items.html As this seems to be, somehow legally possible - what incentive do they have to deliver them? I was originally made aware of this in an article in a magazine, in which the missing items were auctioned off - WITH CORRECT NAME AND ADDRESS, AND RETURN ADDRESS STILL INTACT - Why not deliver it?!? Bastards. Oh, and apparently - Certificate's of Posting don't count for a thing when claiming from Royal Mail either. Do you think your protecting the value of your item by filling/printing out a certificate? THINK AGAIN!

If you're on holiday abroad, do you sent postcards? The price is just too much to send postcards back to friends. So, I bring the cards back and post them here. When I was in Canada is was approx. £1.25 to send, Whereas from here the last time I posted it was about 80p.

Oh and also anyone using the whole (we're a giant company so some things will occasionally go amiss) have a re-think. I work in the NHS - when something goes ''amiss'' we hit the headlines. Yes, mistakes happen; but there has to be accountability. The NHS has big investigations if a medical error occurs and pays out masses in compensation. Ok having the wrong leg amputated is a bit more extreme than a digital camera going missing for example... but at least the NHS says sorry, admits fault and attempts to learn from it. RM makes thousands of cock-ups every day and never apologises (properly) for a single one and is quick to blame the consumer (incorrectly addressed, insufficient postage etc) but what do they do with them? As mentioned by someone earlier - do the post gremlins eat them? Or are they held in a massive ''lost post'' warehouse? NO! I believe (like my own parcel) they are either smashed to pieces for ''fun'' or just plain stolen. Stating ''we're so big that a few percent of people will be let down'' is not a blanket to hide under! If a doctor accidentally prescribed an overdose to your mum and said ''Well these things happen, I've had 3,000 patients this year and your mum is the only one I've accidentally killed.'' would you people that defend the RM be reassured by that? I think not. You may never achieve 100 percent success rates, maybe nobody can, but that doesn't mean be complacent and don't strive to (and give a real apology when you mess up).

The best one I ever had was when my parcel was just not delivered for no reason what so ever. I was told on track and trace that it was being returned to sender so I rang customer services who told me that it was taken to my delivery address (parents address as they're both retired and my dad is house bound so someone is ALWAYS in) but nobody was in to collect; and a ticket was left to collect from depot. I explained that was a lie as someone is always in as my dad receives home-care and has to stay on an oxygen machine so never leaves the house; and despite this no such ticket was ever left. The very snotty customer services worker said it was still my own fault as I could have gone to the depot to collect it. I said with no ticket I didn't know it was at the depot and can't collect without one! There was no return address on the parcel so I asked could it just be delivered to my delivery address as it should have been in the first place... I was told it has to be returned to sender only as it is sitting at their sorting office while they work out the return address. I tried and tried to get accross it was their failing to deliver the parcel in the first place and, since they would have to send it to the return address, why can't it just be sent to the delivery address, it would cost them no less and everyone would be happy. Apparently this isn't procedure and even me trying to give them my address as return address they had none of it. They said the sender has to contact them with the return address, I got in contact and they gave them the address after the same argument. A month later still nothing, we were both refused to claim, despite it now being nearly 2 months after failure to deliver. It FINALLY turned up to the sender, the box had been destroyed (presumably this was part of the ''we will open it to see if the return address is inside'' procedure - using a chainsaw) - 2 items were missing (stolen, no other word for it) and the rest were smashed beyond recognition (why is beyond me!!). This was in the same month Royal Fail had delivered 2 other parcels to different wrong addresses (getting different signatures each time) so they were lost forever. It's just a comically run service!

BTW its "Royal Fail" and "Parcel Farce"

Several years ago we complained about a valuable "sign for" package being left outside in full public view. The result was no mail for several weeks until we again complained and an "investigation" was undertaken by the managers - we both visited the sorting office personally and had a "discussion" to get that far. Mail resumed but no other resolution, even about the totally missing mail. Now we get even more stuff that requires a signature that is just delivered - I don't complain I'm grateful it was delivered at all. I sent a very expensive camera (insured!) to N Ireland - the tracking was never updated and showed the parcel to be still in the system a month later. The recipient eventually (after 3 weeks) confirmed by email that he had received it 2 days after posting, in the end a good service, but poor comms. I suggest that everyone insure the stuff they send (I know its extra) but the resulting claims for apparent non delivery might prompt use of the electronics - perhaps even RFID tags and up to date recording/scanning equipment!!

Royal mail can only track up until the point of leaving the UK. You should then go to the destination country post office website and use their tracking system with the same code.

I totally agree that Royal Mail is useless!!!! We pay the extra for a service that we are continually told will be "helpful" to us .........uh NO!!!! They certainly cannot deal with large numbers of signed for mail to one address e.g. DSS / Student Finance. it does make you wonder if our letters have been afforded the special attention in the first place!

I have sent a recorded signed for delivery to India, but it has wrongly scanned and sent to Korea instead of India, they are unable to tell the status of the post , by using the bar code Korean postal services unable to track the tiem., can some one help me on this., I have posted the cover on 12th Apr 2011, they have sent it to Korea on 15th Apr instead of Inida..can some one help me wat to do here..I have spoken to Royal mail for 10 times , no use they are aksing me to wait till May 17th...very imp docs are there in the post and I can't wait till then.. Cheers AK

you know you can goto - http://www.track-trace.com/post - shove in the code - press track with options and then to "Select country" and normally you can track it further using that country's postal service Always worked for me

Royal mail signed for items take an age to arrive as i'm finding out for myself. It's taking 13 days and still no sign whatsoever and i'm even stooping low to asking all the postmen when i see them on the street. What a pain in the arse fucking cunts!

Royal Mail track and trace is as much help as a boil on a jockeys arse.Top dollar for a useless piece of information in the 21st century is not on.They don,t know where my parcel is and neither does anybody else but they have the money in their pocket so that's fine.Never again.

Stumbled across this thread having spent the last day trying to track around 20 shipments I shipped on 26 November ROW (USA and CANADA) to the tune of approx £3000 - all sent Airsure - none delivered - tracking info shows the same as everyone else has already mentioned - " Your item has been passed to the dlivery services in blah blah blah ". Spoke to my Business support people - they have no more access tracing wise than we do sitting in front of a computer screen! - Hello - why is that???? Anyhow my personal opinion in Royal Mail is indifferent - I do ship thousands of items and the vast majority do get there, but when you have an issue you get pretty much zero support Also - the claims process loophole has now been changed so you have to prove value so say for instance I buy something for £10 and sell for £20 , Royal Mail will only comepensate the purchase price , it should be MARKET value - not wholesale price! and the compensation process takes weeks and weeks. Another interesting thing for you all that I was privy to the recently living in Sandhurst - in the past couple of months one postman was discovered to have stashed more than 80,000 (yes eighty thousand ) items of mail in his house for his round and basically couldn't be bothered to deliver them - this hasn't made the news yet but is fact and goes back years . We had mail returned dated 2005 when they finally sorted through it all , so basically all you need is a rogue postie in your area and this can count for a significant amount of missing mail. Watch this space for BBCS news or Watchdog very soon

i have a business account with royal mail i was & i am sending lots of post every day, sometime we pay them for losing our items or posts apart from special delivery there no other service can be trusted by royal mail, claiming lost or damaged items will cost you more waisting times, international signed for is just telling you we have received you post nothing else...all services are craps...hope someone will challenge them

Sent my important legal documents by Airsure on 4/11/10 to malaysia. Was assured it'll have priority handling and full track and trace facility to destination. 2 whole weeks passed and not arrived yet. Checked with tracking, and all i get is - ....passed on for delivery within Malaysia. Also checked with malaysian post office and was told not in system yet. My package was supposed to get priority handling and is now taken longer than normal post and probably lying around in limbo land that nobody knows. RM is criminal in mis- selling the Airsure that is nothing short of NOT SURE! I can only pray that it will eventually get delivered somehow.Next time it's DHL or similar. Best thing is to privatise RM and maybe they'll be more accountable.

All I can add is that I have used Airsure twice now and have had I occasion where the message on Track and Trace DID change to read that my item had been DELIVERED in Germany and the date was shown. BUT my second item (which I have checked HAS been received )still reads ' your item number XXX posted on the 19/10/2010 has been passed to the overseas postal service for delivery in Germany'. So, in theory, I am STILL waiting for the message to be updated since sodding October.. Useless if you want peace of mind over deliveries, you need to find another way of sending important items

Another RoyalMail Airsure Recipient; 20 days today and no show from UK RM to Germany. For Deutsche Post the RoyalMail reference is an alien number. I have my 150 Pounds stuck in a monkey business. My seller is god and he responds to one of my few emails with the info I can find at RoyalMail tracking: Your posted on a month ago is sent abroad for delivery in Germany. I guess the delivery should be after 9 months; it is not grown well yet. RM Policies are jokes.

This is a loooonnnggggg running thread! I regularly use airsure to ship electronic development boards abroad and many foreign countries postal service web sites allow you to track the items internally using the airsure tracking number. BTW, this also work on the Royal Mail web site with tracking numbers from some other countries (USA and Hong Kong recently). Nial.

Use http://www.track-trace.com/post and you can select destination country (over 90 of) and it will trace where the parcel is. Job done :)

I would like to suggest that the unions are partly to blame for the rubbish postal services that we have. Do you really believed that union-management negotiations ALWAYS break down, just around Xmas!? The unions inhibit any change, as change usually means efficiency and, efficiency usually means that you need less staff to get the job done. But, could any of you get a good night's sleep, if you ran a post office tracking service that did the least to track items? Me neither. Two tidbits for you - I won a Macbook Pro on ebay and it was posted August 31. All of that evening and the next morning, tracking information was that the item had been collected from the seller. There was no update, even 1 hour after the item had been signed for by me on September 1! Totally impressed with the speed of delivery, totally bewildered by the information systems. Last one - if you've ever found your garden or street littered with those little red rubber bands, know this - the post office spends £500,000 annually to replace them. Ah, efficiency!

Hi Guys, I've looked into this and I'm happy again because the tracking has continued, but through NZ POST, for example http://www.nzpost.co.nz/Cultures/en-NZ/OnlineTools/Tracking/?trackid=AA000000000GB You can also do this with http://www.auspost.com.au so you must be able to do it for most countries. They should really include a comment to tell you about this or are we all just stupid for not thinking about it?????

I'm glad I found this blog because it gives me reassurance that my package (from UK to NZ) hasn't been thrown down a black hole and that the standard (but totally useless) message is what everybody gets.

TRACK AND TRACE IM NOT THAT SHOCK TO HEAR THESE STORYS,I AV USED TRACK N TRACE A FEW TIMES AND THERES ONLI ONCE WERE I HAVE NEVER RECIVED THE ITEM,BUT I REALLY DONT THINK THATS TO DO WITH TRACK AND TRACE JUST GOOD POSTAL MAILING,AS THE POST ,MAN ON TWO OCASSIONS JUST POSTED IT IN MY LETTERBOX WITH OUT OBTAINING MY SIGNATURE. GOOD LUCK

Oh, and to Albanian_123, thanks for the helpful idea but my letter is not on Canada Post's tracking system either.

Someone said "Use airsure". Well I did. The status has said "passed to the overseas postal service for delivery in CANADA" for more than a week now. No ordinary airmail letter I've posted to Canada recently has taken this long. As this one contains a document on which someones job depends I decided to send by this "priority" service and pay an extra fiver. Now I'm left tearing my hair out. The tracking is crap, no indication of where the letter is at all, and "priority" is proving slower than normal mail.

Albanian_123: that only works if you have the tracking number in the right format for the overseas service. Royal Mail doesn't give you this number, so it's useless.

Hi Guys. I found a great solution the issue of tracking. I had an item shipped from UK to Albania and the only thing I could get from Royal Mail was: "passed to the overseas postal service for delivery in Albania". I then checked the tracking system of Albanian post and then "voila!" all the steps and times in which the item has pasesed since entry to Albania (with exact times). So it is an option that you also check the postal service tracking system of the country where the itemn is shipped to. hope this helps, albanian_123

Hi, Just had to add my look at this having been a Postman years ago, does anyone realise that when the Recorded item enters the postal sytem you rely 100% on the Postman doing his job, he looks at the Recorded item takes a strip off the Recorded label and puts it on a card this you then sign for, and being handed in to be reciorded at the sorting office. Biggest problem a lot of them are too lazy to do it and sometimes just post through the door, this item if you check comes up lost, you can then claim for it, they must loose thousands in compensation. By the way I sent a collectors coin using this method and they would not pay out due to it being cash, what a joke you are unable to spend it,being Queen Victorian plus it was wrapped in bubble wrap to disguise it. You may just as well send First class and take a risk on it, only thing is you have to rely on other peoples honesty in having received it. Ken

The only safe way to send abroad is by Airsure. However this is not an option to countries like Italy who do not subscribe to it. I agree ISF is poor, but if the country of delivery doesn't have on-line tracking it's difficult to know what Royal Mail can do about it. As to reliability of service- none of the private carriers are any better than Royal Mail, and all are a great deal more expensive.

put it into upsp track, it would work

Oh yeah and I also put it down to the stupid people who sell things on ebay and rip you off for postage and send it in the cheapest possible way, no wonder all the mail goes missing because if you don t pay the postage companies a fortune for mail delivery they get away with accidently losing your mail, they don t have to worry because the person sending or receiving it doesn't get their money back. What ever happened to customer care, like really I could not even find the help page for lost mail on their website I guess like all companies they really don't want to know!!!!

I agree with these comments of the stupid track and trace royal mail. I have been waiting on a parcel worth 320 australian dollars, 150 pounds. They said you parcel has been processed to hand over to australia and this has been a month since I have paid for it. It took a week for this silly woman to send it and its still not here. I have had so many parcels and have not had this problem before. I do know the American usps has great tracking and if the ebay sellers charge a little more your parcel never gets lost like this. What do I do ????

ok i have the ssme problem that so many people who have left comments have. I bought an ipod off ebay from Italy on the 21st of december and the seller sent it the same day with international and signed for or whatever it is. the seller provided me with the tracking numbers a few days later but 15 days later whenever i try to track it, it still says "We have received your item, posted on 21/12/09 and it is being processed for delivery abroad."... What the fuck!!! does it mean it hasn't been sent at all????? how long is it going to take??? man i paid 10£!!! probably i have lost close to 100 euros but i will never send anything through royalmail gain, i rather pay thrice to DHL, UPS and company

The moral to all of the above is: use DHL or similar. It's more expensive but they are the professionals. Royal Mail is a bad joke

Track and Trace services offered by Royal mail is an eye opener experience, I do not believe a first world country will have something in common with the so called third world countries, the shocking aspect of the whole fraud is that this is been done by first class country to their citizens. Is a shame, a cheap scam. waoooo I enjoyed tracing my own item too, On it way, have been pass to Oversea blablablabla, please upgrade and tell me when it gets lost on transit

tracking and trace does not work because i have register a letter and i know that the person recieve the letter but track and trace said the letter doesnt not signed etc.This is misleading people.

Eugene Stack no doubt.. he works for Royal Mail.

I have the same problem, parcel from China can be tracked ALL the way, from collection to delivery. Our "postal sevice" is a joke compared to China. As with you, tracking stopped at "parcel has been handed to overseas postal service to China" So Sad

after how many days did you received your parcel? I'm waiting for 15 days now...

I found these postings because I was looking for a Royal Mail e-mail address. I live in the States, and ordered a vintage bottle of wine from London for my husbands birthday. The wine sellers sent it via Royal Mail, and gave me the tracking number. Every day I check the tracking on Royal Mail's website, and all it says is, "We have received your item, posted on 28/11/08 and it is being processed for delivery abroad." And now it's the 9th of December. I am very frustrated that they've held it so long. I'm beging to worry I wont get it ontime for my husbands birthday.

So what happens to all this lost mail? Just reading this blog makes me think that either Royal Mail must have a huge stack of "lost" mail lying in every delivery office, or they have single handedly advanced global warming by burning huge pyres of the stuff. Really, what conclusion can one reach other than P.O. staff must collectively have tons of mail stashed, because they couldn't be bothered delivering it. I'm a cynical public servant!

I have had a number of packages sent to me recorded delivery - they have never arrived. But the post office say they have been signed for by me!!! What do I do in this situation. I reckon the postman has had them but it's my word against theirs - any suggestions? Thanks

Update: After a heated argument it appears that the letter above was only to 'help them' with an investigation. Despite me loosing just under £30 because I did not sent the item by special delivery with additional consequential loss cover, regardless that until now this has never been offered to me.. then my claim will only cover the cost of postage... Well as long as the 'Peoples' Post Office make their money I suppose its OK! Question Is Royal Mail Track and Trace Pointless Answer Yes Well that me finished...Off to go fill out another Loss form as yet another item has gone missing!!

'Track and Trace' isnt the only problem... Get this for an excuse. I sent a letter to client on the 31st October for signed for delivery. Went through the usual procedure, checked online, item still not delivered, filled out an online claim form and Posted that on the 20th November. Finally received correspondence from Royal Mail on the 4th January - indicating that they would be sending a letter to the recipient. Now the best part.... Just recieved a letter back from Royal Mail. Baring in mind this is a signed for item i.e. somoene has to sign for it... Dear..... Thanyou for your complaint, I am sorry to hear that we failed to deliver an item of mail addressed to.... Our priority is to provide etc etc We have written to the person you sent the parcel to, but have not received a reply, SO WE MUST ASSUME THAT WE HAVE DELIVERED THE PACKAGE.....if this is not the case,could you please ask the addressee to confirm this to us... So royal mail have not got a signature or a record of the arrival but because the recipient did not respond to their enquiry they PRESUME the item was delivered... well is it me or its that the most crazy claim ever... Well of to go ring the on their 0845 number...as they do not bother responding to email complaints... Will keep you updated.... sure its going to get worse before getting better.

I sent some very important legal documents to court via "Track & Trace" last year ... 2 weeks later there was no signature recorded and there never has been! It turned out in the end, the documents were delivered and a signature was never taken. How can this happen?? It took me 3 weeks to determine that the documents were delivered ... absolutely pathetic! What on earth is the point of this ridiculous system?!

Where do all the missing parcels go?? On 20th Dec, I sent a lady an item she purchased from me thru ebay 1st class recorded delivery; (along with 3 other parcels). The other 3 arrived the next day. This 1 parcel must have sprouted legs and done a runner...as it still has not been delivered to the addressee, it is not in Royal Mails System apparently, the track and trace service is telling me that no info can be given until a signature is given, nor has the item been returned to me (via the return to sender system (on the back of the parcel)!! So where do they go? Does royal mail get burgled often? Do the employees...feel at the package and think "oo this one is interesting..and smuggle it home in their lunch box".? Oh perhaps there is a postal gremlin that steals random packages!! (Just like the washing machine gnome who steals only 1 sock!!) Or just maybe Royal Mail need to do a bit of house keeping. Not leaving every thing up to machines. Check bins before emptying them into larger waste units. Check machines, and under them to see if any items have been dropped.

Royal Mail are a bunch of complacent bastards. I sent a Christmas gift special delivery on 18th (guaranteed to be delivered by 19th); it's now 22nd and it still hasn't arrived. The track and trace system spouts its usual crap about the parcel currently being processed and to try again later. Anyone who has posted on this site defending Royal Mail is unbelievably smug and self-righteous. How can anyone possibly take the side of the business over the consumer? Big deal if they handle 80 million items a day - I can't believe that this fact is being touted as some kind of miracle. Anyone who cites it is obviously being sucked in by the advertising bullshit of this ridiculous company. The Royal Mail employees who smarmily defend and suck up to their employer obviously get some kind of pathetic ego kick out of being associated with a big (and supposedely high quality) organisation. They spout the compacent company platitudes that are in place to prop up staff morale, not giving one solitary crap about the frustration and grief that incompetent service can cause to the customer. Their posts on this site ought to be removed. And as for the customers who have posted here to defend RM - well, is it really in your interests to go to the trouble of publicly defending this organisation? Even if you personally have had no problems with their service, you should be at least indifferent in your attitude, and open to the possibility that service has been poor for other people. But to actually defend Royal Mail? Why? Do you actually feel sorry for a large organisation whose directors award themselves huge paychecks ? (the IT director got paid £1 million in 2005; see http://management.silicon.com/itdirector/0,39024673,39130465,00.htm) Do you actually think they need defending? No, it's we the consumers who need defending, so think twice before you sleep with the enemy. I hate the way in which companies like Royal Mail blow their own trumpets, boasting about how great their service is when in actual fact, in some respects it can be utter crap. I'd have a lot more respect for them if they were to admit it when they fouled up and to apologise unreservedely, as well as handing out considerable compensations to disappointed customers (i.e. not just six 1st class stamps). Not only should they reimburse the postage costs (and, in the case of lost items, the total cost of the contents of the package, and any postage costs incurred from having to send in a claim form and telephone bill costs from having to speak to their customer services), but also award a bonus payment to customers to compensate for the frustration, disappointment and needless effort expended in their efforts to locate the parcel/letter. That would be a positive gesture. Such compensation costs could easily be met if Royal Mail's directors were willing to take even a modest pay cut (from their already ridiculously inflated salaries). But, of course, they wouldn't be, because they're self-seeking, egotistical low lives.

I bought a model from the USA, which was posted via USPS. I received a letter from RM stating that I had to pay £23 VAT plus £8 admin fee(8 BLOODY QUID!!). I sent a cheque to them for £31, and waited excitedly for my parcel to arrive. After a week had passed I had still not received it, so rang the sorting office, to be told that it was still there and had to be collected. After travelling 18 miles to the depot I had to wait nearly an hour for them to find it! When I asked the young lady why, after $35 was paid to have this delivered to my door I ended up having to collect it I was greeted with a shrug!. ROYAL MAIL??? It's an insult to the coat of arms that it is still allowed to display

i sent a parcel recorded delivery at point of posting i got no reciept now the ebayer saying he not recieved parcel and i got no proof of posting it so no way of tracking it so any idears.

I agree with you totally. I sent an important gift overseas, and the company was professional enough to offer me a Royal Mail tracking code. I've been refreshing their site for three days now, and it keeps on telling me that "and it is being processed for delivery abroad." Why they would need three days I don't know. Maybe they're staring at the parcel and trying to will it (Jedi-style) to fly on its own to the destination?

Eugene is talking out of his arse. The mail service in Japan is so good that I still can't believe how efficient it is after 8 years of living here. They deliver on Sunday's, if you're not in and call them, they come round and deliver it within 30 minutes. They trip over themselves to be as polite and helpful as possible and they deliver until 9pm. The Royal Mail is 100% shite in comparison. No strikes here either. For ANY reason. Japan would just replace the lot of them if they even thought about it.

I recently brought an item off ebay (a radio scanner) but was faulty I returned it by recorded delivery 1st class..I checked the track/trace to see that it had been delivered so I contacted the seller who told me that they had not received it..after ringing the royal mail customer service I was told it was signed for and the sig was not the person i had sent it to anyway I had a email back from customer services to say that they have no evidence that it was not delivered and thay could not help me any further...so now i am £70 out of pocket..the seller told me that was Bull and checked with her neighbors now what do I do? Thank You

According to the Royal Mail's FAQ: http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?mediaId=22700571&catId=400034#13300224 'We track all Airsure® items until they leave the UK and then the item is handed over to the destination country's postal service as a priority item.' I think that's their euphemism for not tracking items once they leave the country. So I suspect this service suffers from the same problems as I described.

I post parcels abroad and within the Uk at least three times per week. If you want to post abroad, always use Airsure. This does offer a track and trace service in this country and abroad. Air Mail and International signed for can only be tracked up to leaving this country. For the UK I use Special Delivery which is a signed for, either next day by 1pm, or next day by 9am service. I can honestly say that I have had no problems at all with Royal Mail, but did have to ask a number of questions before I started posting a year ago, to ensure I had exactly the right service at the right price. Even during the current strikes Special Delivery and Airsure are treated as priority and have got through. If theirs anything you're unsure of and need advice concerning posting Royal Mail Customer Services are (amazingly!) polite and helpful. 08457 740 740 Sarah-Jane

I'm from Denmark and have received parcels send from the UK many times. But this is the first time I'm using their track and trace option and this is the answer I get: "Information on your item is not yet available. If the International Signed For® item was posted today please note that the majority of items are tracked during the night. Please try again tomorrow." Now tomorrow is actually today since it was posted yesterday morning. Compared to the experiences I've read above this is still very early, but if I compare it to the Danish similar track and trace service it is very poor. In Denmark the parcel is immediately updated online and you follow it all the way until delivery with updates several times even though it might only take one day for delivery.If my parcel status won't be updated before after delivery!? then indeed as the headline reads the Royal Mail track and trace seams utterly pointless.

I deal with royal mail for everyday 7 days a week and from time to time i do encounter problems with there services. I post parcels and mail from the Post Office Monday to Saturday and sunday i post small items in the post boxes. The royalmail recorded signed for service is useful as it enables me to claim for the item cost if the item is lost. Sometimes royalmail do not update the system or a local delivery office does not pass the barcode sheets back to Head Office where they are scanned online and to the custermer services department. This then means the system tells you that it has not been delivered but with a little bit of effort on the phone and speaking to local delivery offices they can normally tell me who signed for the items. The services they provide are very good to say they handle 80 Million pieces of mail a DAY!

‘Your item, posted on 21/07/06 with reference xxx has been passed to the overseas postal service for delivery in SWEDEN.’ In other words, Royal Mail have no link to a foreign tracking system, so can’t tell me anything more about it. OR...... The Swedish Postal Service are unable to provide any further information!

Jane, Smae case with me.Royal mail has lost my passport and just the envelope has reached the DVLA office(so they claim).I too have spoken to lot of customer support personnel(whatever that means!!) in both royal mail and dvla but no help.All roayl mail is to make a claim of 32£ and they cannot track my passport.How did u get to talk to the board of director? what u did on your passport? the worst case i need to be travelling overseas shortly as my wife is expecting our baby AJ

Best one I ever had was a signed for the postman delivered but said didn't need signing for. When i checked the website later it had been signed for by someone else, not me, so how much value can be ascribed to a signature? All in all Royal mail is pretty good as Eugene says. Like british Rail et all, it only goes to the dogs when Politicians get involved.

Mmmmmm 20 odd disatisfied customers here but I guess many thousands of satisfied ones out there too. If you have a complaint then you are more likely to blog it than someone who thinks the service is great. Any business that operates on such a massive (and I mean massive!) scale as Royal Mail, will have a percentage of failures but the vast majority of mail gets to its destination safely and on time and a percentage of that that doesn't is because the item is wrongly addressed or is sent with underpaid postage or is not packaged properly or the the sender never sent it in the first place! Yes I do work for RM and am proud of the service we give. Next time a TNT or DHL van trundles down your lane to your little cottage in the middle of nowhere ask the driver how he managed to find you. I'm sure he will reply "the postman told me!"

I have posted my passport out via Special delivery next day guaranteed by 1 pm. 7days after; my post is still in process. After many complains, still no movement. It seems that customer service centre staff do not even care! Finally, I made a further complain to the board of director. I did receive few phone calls afterwards. But they still don't know where passport is!! My suggestion is that you should never trust or even use Royal mail when you send important documents! Royal Mail just offer terrible customer service, ridiculous communicate! They just don't care your post at all!!!

Got the problem with recorded telling me its delivered...and I don't have it. Just waiting for the ePOD to become available now so I can see who the hell has my xmas pressies.

you should try doing this outside royal mail see how you get on and the difference in cost please dont tell me its cheaper or a better service because i have done it and believe me you dont know how lucky you are to have royal mail

Kellie, seems to me it's quite clear: your contract is with the seller on Ebay: they paid Royal Mail to deliver the parcel to you. I don't think Royal Mail are responsible to you here. You should chase the seller and insist that they resolve the problem through Royal Mail or compensate you. If they refuse, you should report them to Ebay.

ive been waiting since 22nd november for a recorded parcel , royail mail said that the sender has to sort it out but as i bought it of ebay and any1 who uses ebay will no that not all sellers are helpfull. the seller has asked me to sort it out myself. does anyone no what i can do about this cause this is a joke the items where for my daughters christmas... royal mail need to sort it out its a joke.

Commiserations for David, that's the bit that makes a total mockery of the “ideal for items you might need to prove were received,like job applications or legal documents.” I wonder if there is a case for false representation? Ideal except when they lose them ? Just wondering........

-Ok so I phoned them up and, as expected, they revealled that they have lost my mail. :(

Hi, I delievered an important manuscript to a publisher exactly four weeks ago using recorded first class mail. (signed for). Today having heard nothing from them for four week, I've gone online at royalmail.com and entered my tracking number... it says: "Recorded Signed For™ items are only tracked after the item has been delivered. Depending on whether the item was sent first or second class, this may be a few days after posting. Please try again later. Information on your item is not yet available online. " -But I sent the item four weeks ago... any ideas? After reading past suggestions here, I guess I'll phone them up and ask about the EPOD... thanks.

Russell's local post office is talking nonsense. I've checked up on a 'Recorded Signed For' as recently as this week and it still works when they've bothered to obtain a receipt. The item I checked said they had left a 'while you were out' card. So I checked just now and it now says it was delivered on 1st December

Yet again Royal Mail Special Delivery tracking is working wonders. Apparently my parcel was delivered at 11am this morning. It's now 1pm and nothing has arrived. Royal Mail say it was a mis-scan. Drivers scanning so to not miss targets?

According to my local post office it is no longer possible to use track and trace with recorded delivery items..

I contacted Royal Mail about failure to obtain a signature for an important document. Their response was to give me 6 free Ist Class stamps and recommend that I use Special Delivery. They completely ignored that I pointed out that in their blurb on the receipt for using Track and Trace they say "ideal for items you may need to prove were received,like job applications or legal documents." That is except when they don't bother to obtain a signature! In all I have had at least 5 items for which proof of receipt was unavailable that I know have been delivered because the recipient has confirmed it personally. I agree it is a very hit and miss system.

Next time you send something to Sweden you can track in on www.posten.se and on the first page there you put in the code..

well i thought i'd fill you guys in with some info, i work at royal mail customer services and royal mail handles 80 million items a day so you're very lucky to even recieve your letters! basically the customer is either ringing to complain that their mail is being delivered to their neighbour, or that we have lost a package of theirs, and because its first class all we can say is, "im sorry sir but i'm afraid we cannot track items of first class mail so there is no way of finding out if it has been delivered or where it is" its also impossible to get hold of any delivery office by phone. and as for track and trace, we use an inside system that tells us where your parcels are going and they are checked in at every checkpoint, so we get information, but half the time EPODS don't work so the system is pointless. thats about it really. royal "fail" in a nutshell

I used to work in the call centre for the 'service' you are talking about and it was atrocious. We, as operators would get the blame for undelivered items from customers, when it was actually the fault of post/delivery people who failed to deliver items and Royal Mail for their geriatric computer tracking systems.

Jon, thanks for your comments, it's always good to hear from someone who actually works in the industry. I guess the practical upshot is, send Special Delivery if you care about it (or Fedex it instead). I will indeed watch this space intently.

Hi, I worked for Royalmail upto the end of last year. The vast majority of parcels/letters with Special Delivery or Recorded get delivered. Unfortunately when it happens to you, you don't care about the one's that suceed. The Recorded product is a bit of a joke and I'm plenty of them do not get signed for. It depends on the delivery office it is being delivered from and how hard they enforce product specification. Special Delivery is very good and quite cheap compared to other operators, but the problem is the lack of information whilst in transit and information such as which depot it is currently at should be possible. I am now working for the competition so you are right in the sense that working out who is responsible for what is going to be become more interesting. Watch this space

I am waiting for a recorded letter to be sent to me which contains important documents. It is now 11 days late and I have the usual problems with Royal Mail their website tells me "Not yet delivered come back later" and customer services they just tell you on the phone "it is in transit and will be with you in the next two to three days". The idea that Recorded Signed For items are only tracked after the item has been delivered is totally useless to me. I just want to known where my letter is and why it is taking so long to get to me!! The service of Royal Mail is shocking to say the least.

Eugene, thanks for your comments. I have to admit I haven't got that much first-hand experience of other countries' mail-delivery systems. But based on what people tell me, I find it hard to believe that we have the best first-class mail delivery system in the world. My personal experience is that at least 25% of first class mail is late (my definition: over 2 days past the day it was sent). I also believe it's fundamentally immoral to stop other companies entering the postal market (for much more discussion on this stuff, see my other postings on this blog). It may of course lead to some confusion, particularly if Postcomm continues to interfere, but deregulation in the long run should lead to some innovation in the postal market, if done properly.

After reading your posts, I could not help but find you all very funny! Royal Mail has the best first class mail delivering system in the world, you might laugh at it, but you don't realise is that as soon as the "other" mailing houses start delivering our normal mail, how much fun you going to have fun trying to find out whos delievring your mail and who must I contact to find out. Currently in Germany it will cost you plus minus a poun for a first class stamp! and then first class is like far worse than second, in fact Royal Mail operations are so well streamed lined that second class will be deliver the same time as first clas or a day later! Postcomm has taken Royal Mails Monopoly Protection as, this in the long run will only hurt us the general public and not the "other" mailings house are not interested in normal door-to-door deliveries they only want the money making parts. Have a quick look at DHL's track & Trace....they have 4 diffrent ones! good luck just tring to find the right one to track it one!

I Tried to ttrack a parcel sent via royal mail recorded delivery and i was told that " Recorded Signed For™ items are only tracked after the item has been delivered. Depending on whether the item was sent first or second class, this may be a few days after posting. Please try again later. Information on your item is not yet available online." Whats the point in tracking a parcel after it has already been delivered, i dont need to go online to see if i have recieved my package yet. Utterly useless.

Sent a parcel from Birmingham to Barrow by 1st class recorded delivery. Never received. Now told that I cannot make a complaint as it has not been 15 working days since date of postage. What's worse is that I cannot replace the documents in the parcel and cannot cashback from my mobile service provider. ROYAL MAIL SUCKS. BOYCOTT ROYAL MAIL!

After sending a recorded delivery letter which has apparently been lost, I sent a second letter Special Delivery. When checking on the Track and Trace system instead of a signature, someone had printed "given to Peter." Four telephone calls later I am still none the wiser as to who Peter is, he was not the intended recipient of my letter, and I still have no idea if my letter was delivered. I notice it is called a track and trace system rather than service.

The one time I needed proof of delivery (for a Court Case) the Track & Trace system could not locate my Recorded Delivery letter. Worse still the Help Line/Customer Services kept telling me it was lost and there was nothing that could be done because Recorded Delivery is not a priority service. I could not believe I was being told it is no different from 1st and 2nd mail, apart from getting a signature at the other end - well that was the idea! However, when I insisted a further seach be undertaken some bright spark checked the epod (electronic proof of delivery) system to confirm my letter was indeed lost - it did the opposite - my letter was delivered and a signature given! Apparently the Track & Trace system had not been up-dated (for one month according to the date of my letter!). In future I will not waste time when the Track & Trace system or Customer Services say my letters are lost - I will ask immediately for an epod search. Hope this helps someone else.