How long might mail be held at Heathrow Worldwide DC?

[dave_f]

I ordered an SD memory-chip from a Chinese Ebay vendor, and it's been stuck at Langley HWDC for nearly six weeks now. How long do you think I should wait before concluding they've lost it?

Curiously, there seems to be two tracker web-pages. This one, http://www.royalmail.com/track-trace, which is the top Google hit for mail tracking, and says info in unavailable for my tracking number, and this one, http://www.royalmail.com/trackdetails, which I discovered by searching comments in this forum, which does give info:

Code: Select all

Date        Time     Status            Track point
02/07/13    17:21    RECEIVED IN UK    HEATHROW WORLDWIDE DC

[barrowc]

There's no guarantee that the tracking number you have been given actually relates to an item sent to you. It's the seller's problem to get the item to you so ask for a replacement or a refund

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Indeed there seem to be a fair few fake and/or cloned tracking codes coming out of China.

[dave_f]

OK, I've asked for a refund. I must admit that I was surprised that the vendor was able to supply a tracking number, when I queried the non-receipt, for an item costing just five quid.

If it's a cloned tracking number, though, it's curious that the item just seems to terminate at HWDC, and doesn't appear to get delivered to somebody else. Or does that normally happen with certain types of mail? (In this case, it would probably have been a small padded envelope.)

[TrueBlueTerrier]

When they used cloned ones one will probably be legit and they'll rely on that to show tracking details. In this case because HWDC no longer put these stickers on its possible the legit one was delivered without a signature.

[dave_f]

I see. Thanks. Anyway, the refund was promptly granted, so that's that.