Airsure - disappointing

[simmo11]

Hi everyone

First post here though lurking for a while so please be gentle!

I posted a gift to a friend in Canada on 15.11.2011 by Airsure (costing approx £ 12). The status on Royal Mail's Tracking states that Your item, posted on 15/11/11 with reference ************* has been passed to the overseas postal service for delivery in CANADA.

I would have expected by now that the item should be showing on Canada Post's own tracking system (my wife is Canadian so we send to Canada fairly regularly), if not delivered by now. All Royal Mail's helpline could tell me is that the item was put on a plane to Montreal (where it is going) on 16.11.2011. She agreed it probably ought to have been delivered by now but stated I now have to allow 20 working days before any further action can be taken.

Given that Airsure is marketed as a premium service (supposedly superior to International Signed For which we have used to our satisfaction in the past) I find this after-sales service rather poor.

Am I being unreasonable or worrying unnecessarily? I guess there's nothing more I can do right now?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[shipmaster122]

We had exactly the same experience a month ago, going to montreal too. Didnt show up for 2 weeks, then one day it suddenly started tracking on the canada post website. Was delivered the day after it started tracking in canada. I put it down to customs, but it could have just been sitting in a crate somewhere.. Anyway, keep an eye on the canada post site- dont bother with the royal mail tracking once its sent from the uk. Hope that helps. Cheers, adam

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

couple of points for you from royalmail website about airsure which may make things a little clearer:

http://www.royalmail.com/delivery/deliv ... re/details" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

How fast is Airsure®?

All Airsure® mail receives priority handling in the UK and abroad making it, in some cases, up to one day faster than our target Airmail delivery time of three days to Western Europe, five days to Eastern Europe and seven days for the rest of the world. However, Airsure® is not a guaranteed courier service.


Please note that Airsure® is an upmarket mail, not a courier service. This means we cannot provide a guaranteed or certain delivery time, nor can we offer compensation for delays or missing Track & Trace information.


Customs requirements

Customs authorities around the world are increasingly strict on mail arriving in their country without the required customs declarations correctly completed. If you’re posting packets or parcels outside the EU and fail to complete your CN22 or CN23 forms correctly, your items may be delayed, returned to you or even seized.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Just a bit of background. A few months ago there was a strike and a subsequent lock out of staff by Management. Eventually the Government forced the workers back to work with an enforced deal, (which is going through the courts) and management to stop the lockout.

Reading various posts on a few weeks ago on facebook and blogs by CUPW (Canadian version of the CWU) have been reporting backlogs although Canada Post denied them.

Hopefully its going through OK but not being tracked, however it may be caught up in one of them as I believe Canada Post are denying overtime to allow any outstanding backlogs to be cleared.

[simmo11]

Thanks everyone for the updates so far!

As Murphy's Law would dictate it popped up on Canada Post this afternoon as having been scanned as arrived in Canada early this morning their time. It is currently in Customs and hopefully it will be released shortly - probably for delivery on Monday or Tuesday now.

Special thanks to TrueBlueTerrier - I find it hard to believe it took over a week to get to Montreal (it's a trip I've made many times myself :)) unless it went by ship (!!!). My guess is that it's probably been awaiting processing in Canada for a few days due to backlogs. So much for 'priority handling abroad' (!) though probably not RM's fault under the circumstances.

Thanks again for the help!