Missing Parcel

[emmie]

i sent some Australian friends a small gift several weeks before Christmas, which they haven't received. I am given to understand they have an appalling postal service in Oz, so it could simply have got lost, but is there any way to try and trace it there. or even from the UK?

[emmie]

pardon?

[Elley]

Tracking number was it Royal Mail

[Elley]

No meaning tracking number

[emmie]

its what i have said i don't think i have the receipt.

[Elley]

Then no

[emmie]

bye.

[Buenchico]

>>>so who to contact to find out?

There will be no trace of the package as it will have been incinerated ages ago. If I was you, I'd buy a replacement calendar (which, as we're two months into the year, should be dirt cheap!) find something else that's light and cheap to add to it as a bonus gift and send the lot off to Oz with a CN22 attached:
http://www.royalmail.com/business/help-and-support/I-need-advice-about-customs-requirements

[237SJ]

I haven`t read all of the replies but they don`t have an appalling postal service in Oz. It`s actually quite good. I have sent goods to Oz three days before Christmas and they have got there in time.

[LCDMAN]

Australian Postal service in the Outback can be a bit hit & miss as regards timescale - many places only have weekly deliveries by aircraft, but in the cities & suburbs it's as good as ours! Have family in Perth and Melbourne and had no bother sending letters & parcels BUT anything bigger than a basic letter MUST have a CN22 Customs Declaration detailing contents and value - yes even if it is a calendar!! Odds are your "present" was stopped and probably incinerated by now - they take no prisoners on incoming items at all, paranoid about issues regarding flora & fauna.

[beso]

We have a very reliable postal service in Australia.

Sounds more like the officer in your cr@ppy British postal service failed to manage the job properly by not having you complete the declaration.

[EDDIE51]

I sell a lot of my ebay items to Oz and they never get lost. The post between here and Oz is great , stuff normally arrives within 5 days. I have even posted an item on Friday and it was delivered in Oz on Monday just 3 days!

[Jeza]

I posted a parcel 1st class recorded delivery from Yorkshire to Wales. It never arrived. When I pursued the matter I was told "All recorded delivery is, is signed for post, it should have been sent special delivery". Good old Royal Mail.

[spudqueen]

I work in a Post Office so maybe I can give you some correct information. If you did not pay for it to be tracked (using Airsure or the much more expensive Parcelforce International), which I'm assuming as it's a calendar you didn't then there will be no way of knowing what happened to your item unfortunately. All sorts of things can happen, from the wrapping not being stuck down properly and it getting caught on something and ripping, thereby the address becoming separated from the item, to Royal Mail suspecting that it contains a dangerous item (details from your local Post Office) and destroying it. You would only find out if that happened if you put a return address on.
Anyway, you can claim for the cost of the item even if you do not have a certificate of postage, though it does make easier to claim if you do have one. Just pop into your local Post Office and ask them for a claim form.

It is annoying when things do not arrive at their intended desitination, but no system is 100 % perfect.

[emmie]

beso, my friends in Oz have said this, i didn't.

[emmie]

it was well wrapped, lots of good parcel paper and parcel tape.
and the address wasn't a label but hand written,
i will put this down to experience. My Australian friends don't see very enamoured of their postal system. They don't live in the outback