Item stuck on "Departed a transfer airport in Heathrow"

Firewhite835 · Post by **Firewhite835** » 02 Jan 2020, 16:10

Hi guys!

I recently had my girlfriend send me a package from Los Angeles, the contents are artwork, sealed snacks and some incense sticks. All of these have been written on the deceleration forum attached. Now I'm no stranger to having things held in customs, so at first I wasn't worried. But upon contacting Royal Mail, they informed me that it would be parcelforce who'd be responsible for handling my queries, I spoke to them on the phone and asked if my item is likely to be held up in customs, which they responded "No, your item isn't in customs because it would have had a scan at Coventry before being passed onto us." So they couldn't tell me the exact whereabouts of my item, all I know is that it's somewhere in between Heathrow and Coventry. They told me to contact USPS, but on their tracking it says that it's arrived in the UK, therefore it's not the responsibility of the USPS. So neither company will take responsibility of this package and it seems to be caught in an untraceable black hole.

The reason I'm posting this on here is just to see if anyone knows the answers to the following;

Who is responsible for sorting mail that arrives at Heathrow before it's passed onto HRMC?

Should I be worried at this stage? If my item was in customs I'd be pretty chilled but the thought of it spending 10 days floating around Heathrow is unsettling.

Has this same issue happened to anyone here before?

My guess is that it's a combination of Xmas backlog and the fact that postal workers have had 4 days off in the past 10 days, is this correct? Or would mail be processed all year round?

I'm just really confused as to where my package is.. 10 days to get from Heathrow to Coventry is unrealistic so would it be reasonable to suspect it's been lost or stolen already? I have no clue what action to take other than wait, due to neither postal company taking any responsibility here. It seems like that's my only option.

Thank you for reading! Please comment your thoughts!!

Tracking number: CH087118204US

GnomebaseGB · Post by **GnomebaseGB** » 02 Jan 2020, 20:51

No help to you at all, but I had a whole bunch of parcels just sat somewhere between Bristol and Heathrow for ten days.

Currently dealing with the fallout from my US customers who still haven't had their deliveries from this consignment.

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 03 Jan 2020, 08:15

Firewhite835 wrote:
Who is responsible for sorting mail that arrives at Heathrow before it's passed onto HRMC?

Should I be worried at this stage? If my item was in customs I'd be pretty chilled but the thought of it spending 10 days floating around Heathrow is unsettling.

Has this same issue happened to anyone here before?

My guess is that it's a combination of Xmas backlog and the fact that postal workers have had 4 days off in the past 10 days, is this correct? Or would mail be processed all year round?

I'm just really confused as to where my package is.. 10 days to get from Heathrow to Coventry is unrealistic so would it be reasonable to suspect it's been lost or stolen already? I have no clue what action to take other than wait, due to neither postal company taking any responsibility here. It seems like that's my only option.

Thank you for reading! Please comment your thoughts!!

Tracking number: CH087118204US

1. Its in Customs. USPS are the only ones who scan before they hand it over at the receiving end.
2. No reason to worry its in Customs there is a backlong, which is normal for Christmas.
3. Yes its failr regular we have many threads on this exact subject.
4. Nothing to do with Postal workers, as soon as RM get it it will start tracking. However, the customs scanning teams and investigators may have different arrangements when it comes to bank holidays.
5. Yes 10 days is unrealistic once RM have it. They don't and we have to rely on customs.

Note. Even if Royal Mail got it very quickly - it didn't arrive in the UK till 1908 23 Dec 2019 -

24 Dec there was no late processing
25 and 26th Bank Holidays
27 and 28 were normal working days
29 was a Sunday - no processing
30 was a normal working day
31 would have been no late processing
1 Jan 2020 Bank Holiday
2 Jan Normal working day.

So although it is 10 actual days, only 4 of them was the network working fully, and a further 2 were on reduced service.

NumbNuttz · Post by **NumbNuttz** » 03 Jan 2020, 15:02

departed a transfer airport in heathrow doesnt mean its actually in London

its an automated update by USPS, not an actual scan, might not even have been on the plane. Sometimes crates get held back for further checks and get stuck for a week or 2 in the US, accidentally gets marked as being loaded on the a plane but never was, then all the automated updates start and people start wondering where their parcel is