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Just contacted the guy who told me:
"They didn't give me a tracking number because the only way to get one is to pay £10- (to Kenya) for "Signed for " BUT I have discovered that only goes as far as the english coast & then final signature .
IF anything goes wrong , the insurance charge - because it is going outside UK - They won't pay .
and £10- on £50- is a silly amount for non existant insurance."
Wait to see Royal Mail website and the guy was right, the tracking number only cover up to point of exit of UK (I know its stupid).
My reply was:
The conclusion of the story is that "if something goes wrong, I am doomed"
Is there any of you using Royal Mail as international mail delivery services and who may some tips on how to track my package ?
Thanks
And in this case, if your reading of the web site agrees with his, then there's clearly no way this package could ever have been tracked beyond the UK border.
I cannot check what the options were without knowing the exact weight of the package (they vary), but "International Signed For items are electronically tracked only up to the point they leave the UK."
So we can probably be confident that
(a) The package could not have been tracked beyond the UK
(b) The seller has not deceived you (or attempted to) about postal options.
(c) The seller's views on insurance make perfect sense
Sadly, none of that gets your parcel to you :(
Under the terms of the sale, who is liable for lost packages?
And in this case, if your reading of the web site agrees with his, then there's clearly no way this package could ever have been tracked beyond the UK border.
Usually the National Postal Services hand over the parcels to the postal service in the country of destination. From this point it is out of the tracking system. However the postal service in the country of destination usually has a tracking system as well and then assigns a new tracking number.
I had a similar problem with International DHL parcels. Tracking would only be visible up to the border. But only online. Usually when I called DHL directly they could then give me the tracking number and the name of the postal service in the country of destination and I could then track the parcel on the website of the local postal service.
However in this case when the parcel was sent without any tracking at all it is like a simple letter. Impossible to trace.
@quadrille - Came to the same conclusions than yours, at least the seller is honnest and is not trying to fool me.
Under the terms of the sale, who is liable for lost packages?Royal Mail in UK, then the postal service in the country of destination as said @jecasc.
Then, let's just wait another two-three weeks and see ! :(
Personally, I'm glad that we have a lousy tracking system; one less thing to worry about! And in my experience, tracking a non-arrived parcel at best tells you at which point it may have disappeared, at worst it'll tell you at which point the tracking system failed.
What it won't do is get the parcel back - though it may fuel interesting and time-consuming (but mostly unsuccessful) fights for compensation!
But also, after 10 years of buying and selling on the web, I've only known 3 (out of thousands) go awry; and I'm confident that at least two out of the three were false claims. The third insisted on splitting the loss between us, leaving me unsure if he was generous and genuine - or a half-hearted scammer ;)
Hang in there!
I told him to wait another month...
