Parcels sent to the UK

IntoTheAbyss · Guest

The postal service in UK is one of the worst. I've experienced so many returned packages in the past, even the address was still valid.

Or Metal got banned over there by STUPID CUSTOM?

huja · Joined: 10 May 2007 Posts: 1084 Location: indiana

monsterSquad · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 700

i sent a parcel december 10th international priority, to the u.K. and it still has not arrived there... things seem a lot slower but i too suspect it's because of the holiday rush

carrioncrow · Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 7:54 pm Post subject:

I'm waiting on a parcel sent from the UK right now...should have been here by now....it seems to be hit or miss...either extremely fast or really fucking slow these days...the 2 for 1 exchange rate blows chunks too...

msp666 · Joined: 17 Sep 2007 Posts: 287 Location: Essex, UK

I'm still waiting on an order from Hells Headbangers that was apparently posted to me on the 13th December. Things never normally take this long.

The Postal service normally goes into meltdown at Christmas time what with the volume of greeting cards being sent, not to mention that everyone shops at Amazon for presents
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Guest · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 2:02 am Post subject:

As has been pointed out part of the biggest problems with parcels to the UK is the weight. If the parcel is over 2KG it is deemed as a Parcel Force delivery rather than a Royal mail delivery. This becomes a problem if you are expecting it to arrive at a P.O. Box as Parcel Force will not deliver to P.O. Boxes only street addresses. P.F. are meant to leave a note telling you to pick the parcel up but invariably it will not make it to the P.O. Box (that would require some effort and there is a rivalry between Royal Mail and Parcel Force as they were the same operation once before being split into 2) so you are not notified they tried to deliver it. To compound this even if you have a international tracking number and the sender can confirm that it has arrived in the UK distirbution centre unless you have the Parcel Force tracking number (which is totally different) you can't track the parcel or try to pick it up, and it will be sent back. Unfortunately the only way around this is to get anything over 2kg's to the UK sent to a residential-work address or chances are the recipient won't recieve it.

After loosing about £600-£800 a year in returned mail and going prematurely grey talking to the idiots on the switch board at Parcel Force I finally worked this out.

Guest · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 2:21 am Post subject:

Grief · Joined: 06 Feb 2007 Posts: 227

One of the strangest things with Parcel Force is that when they receive an unregistered parcel from overseas they attach a barcode/number to it and scan it/have it signed for upon delivery. However, as far as i know, neither the sender or recipient is able to track it using the id details PF have given it. Which kinda makes you wonder why they bother in the first place...

Regarding registered mail from overseas:

I receive mail daily on behalf of around 200 people - i.e quite a lot of mail. Around 50% of the 'International Registered - Signature required' mail i receive i am not asked to sign for by the Royal Mail, so there is no way of the sender knowing it got to it's destination.

I would however say that when sending mail within the UK and internationally i have found the Royal Mail service to be very good. This is of course notwithstanding the expensive prices and the underworked and uninterested workforce.

Parcel Force is even better as they register/insure parcel and they actually can be tracked out of the country to their destinations.

On the flipside, i have had parcels from the US:

Shipped via SINGAPORE because the USPS misread SOUTHAMPTON
Shipped via HONDURAS presumably because they misread HAMPSHIRE
Take 65 days on one occasion for 1st class airmail to arrive (summer '07)

In all 3 of the above cases the packages were from labels/distros and all had typewritten addresses on them. The one that went via Singapore actually only took around a week to go LA-SINGAPORE-UK.

The_Elite · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Posts: 2452 Location: London

NWN PROD · Joined: 10 May 2006 Posts: 13594 Location: SF Bay Area

The_Elite · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Posts: 2452 Location: London

NWN PROD · Joined: 10 May 2006 Posts: 13594 Location: SF Bay Area

Is his name Simon?
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The_Elite · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Posts: 2452 Location: London

No, Alistair...

NWN PROD · Joined: 10 May 2006 Posts: 13594 Location: SF Bay Area

Ok good. I think Simon is the only one left
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cannibal_riot · Joined: 07 Jul 2007 Posts: 315 Location: Trashview Terrace

I am the Simon in question, and one of my packages from NWN! arrived today, the other one has possibly been sent back to Yosuke, this would not be because I failed to pick it up, I am also waiting for a package from Rise Above in London, supposedly sent on 5th December, to Bristol, it should not have taken a month!!!