Item last updated 7 days ago on the way to "Royal Mail Site"

chrisvor · Post by **chrisvor** » 26 Mar 2020, 21:22

I have a package sent to me from UK to CYPRUS. I am the recipient.
The item was sent on March 19th, scanned 4 times within the same day, last scan:
"Your item is due to leave Manchester Mail Centre to go to Royal Mail site. More information will be available as it travels through our network."

I doubt the item is still in a car going from Manchester to "Royal Mail Site".
I called the customer service, and a very polite agent told me that the item is at Heathrow airport and should be on the way soon.
Another 3 days past, and still no scan.

Should I be worried? How can I know for sure that the item is still on the way? Could the sender get it back somehow and send it via another courier instead?

Thank you

ViperF · Post by **ViperF** » 27 Mar 2020, 06:50

Hmm I wonder what’s going on in the world to make it be delayed??!!

Post by **Snaggletooth** » 27 Mar 2020, 06:51

There has been a massive reduction in the number of flights out of the UK in the last week or two. That is going to make it very difficult for Royal Mail to get items on to a plane. Added to the inevitable staff absences due to sickness, I would expect that there is a big backlog of mail waiting to get to the international mail centres in London.

Tracking points only happen when some kind of processing happens. If it is sat in a backlog of containers, there is no way of scanning it.

I don't know that this is happening, but it is based on things currently happening in the UK and watching what happened to the mail system in previous crisis.

chrisvor wrote:Could the sender get it back somehow and send it via another courier instead?

No, that is against the law. And even if it was legal, it would be so difficult as to be almost impossible.

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 27 Mar 2020, 10:24

chrisvor wrote:I have a package sent to me from UK to CYPRUS. I am the recipient.
The item was sent on March 19th, scanned 4 times within the same day, last scan:
"Your item is due to leave Manchester Mail Centre to go to Royal Mail site. More information will be available as it travels through our network."

I doubt the item is still in a car going from Manchester to "Royal Mail Site".
I called the customer service, and a very polite agent told me that the item is at Heathrow airport and should be on the way soon.
Another 3 days past, and still no scan.

Should I be worried? How can I know for sure that the item is still on the way? Could the sender get it back somehow and send it via another courier instead?

Thank you

https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app ... t-bulletin" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cyprus

Start date: 16 March 2020
Latest Update: 25 March 2020
End date: Ongoing
Incident: CoronaVirus

We're accepting letters and parcels destined for Cyprus, however, delays may be experienced as air connections have been severely limited. We're looking at alternative solutions to maintain service.