On Monday the 1st I handed in a gift (an iPod) in its box, put it into a large envelope and chose to send it to the US via Airsure because it was the fastest, and traceable, I was assured. Early the next morning I went on the RM tracking service and entered my reference number, it said it was on its way, having been shipped late Monday. I was told after that I could trace it via the USPS website so I did and it said
I checked on Wednesday night and status was still the same. Curiously, I called Royal Mail and asked them why they hadn't yet sent it out. To my surprise, they told me the package left for a plane New York and landed there on early Tuesday morning East Coast time. I just dismissed the USPS site as being a bit late. So I checked again on Thursday evening, still no change. I started to get worried because I was afraid the package was lost as it hasn't even been confirmed to have reached the US. My friend who has used this service before in the past told me the Status on the USPS site usually changes within 24 hours often to show progress of the package. Yet according to my package, it hadn't even left England yet.Status: Origin Post is Preparing Shipment
We have received notice that the originating post is preparing to dispatch this mail piece.
I called Royal Mail several times through the day, quite angry at the situation and asked them to confirm to me several times if it had indeed left the UK. My suspicions then towards USPS, who according to them, haven't been able to scan in the package - probably because US customs haven't processed it yet. So I spent the entire day trying to find the number for the US Customs at JFK Airport, and when I got through to them, they too abandoned any blame and told me - now this is where it gets interesting, they only trace packages that are Express or Priority delivery and process them because people paid for them to get processed early. I told them, I paid for mine for my service to be done quickly too. She asked for my reference number, and told me immediately that reference numbers for parcels that begin with LY are not considered Express or Priority, but just regular parcels. In essence, ladies and gentlemen, US Customs and USPS do not, firstly, track LY small packages/letters, they stated to me and to make it more complicated, delivery of items cannot be estimated. They can take a week, or a few weeks according to the people on the phone and believe me, I have spoken to about 20 different US customs and USPS employees.
Royal Mail, however, refute this and say although they cannot do anything about my package on their end, that the Airsure service is indeed traceable regardless. This is their line, ofcourse, however those on the ground who work for USPS say differently, that LY packages are not traced by Customs and rarely if ever traced by USPS. So why then, do Royal Mail, sell this service as so when they cannot themselves even guarantee that the couriers they use for e.g. American deliveries, do not have a guaranteed service for tracing certain packages?
It is 12.19am Saturday the 6th of September. The postal office near the address of my recipient do not have my parcel, I called them up and they told me they can scan it in when they get it and this would show on the tracking website. Nothing as of yet, although it is still Friday for them. Ofcourse, there is the possibility that Customs in Kennedy airport have ceased my parcel, or will eventually cease it and just haven't got round to contacting me about it yet. But then again, it could just be sitting in a storage room, waiting to be delivered one day who knows when. 4 days since its arrived in the US, it hasn't even left Customs out, and then add the duration it will take to travel from New York to California and then to the address - I'm looking at 2 weeks here. 4-7 days? Utter BS
