International Postage, again

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Rickles

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Topic # 191118 24-Jan-2016 11:44

I ordered an item from a Hong Kong suppler near the end of last year, and the item apparently was dispatched from China, and I was given a Netherlands Post tracking number.

Being aware of the vagaries of Asian and European postal services, I expected to wait at least a month for delivery.

Meantime, I've kept track of the parcel using 17Track , but a lot of it doesn't make sense when looking at the dates ... perhaps someone here can interpret it?

Is the Country Code the departure site, or where it's going?

http://www.17track.net/en/track?nums=RS389015112NL

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Reply # 1477799 24-Jan-2016 15:03

That looks like it originated in the Netherlands, was shipped to NZ, sorted here, then sent back to NL (where it currently is.)

rm *

Kyanar

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Reply # 1477806 24-Jan-2016 15:18

Actually, tracking that parcel on PostNL's own site (where you should track parcels sent by PostNL) it doesn't include anything about being returned to overseas. 17track appears to be just outright wrong. It's currently listed as being at the destination sorting centre (probably NZ Post in Auckland). The tracking number isn't accepted by NZ Post so either it's not registered mail (in which case they will not scan it through, so you won't see any further status updates) or if it is registered, then they haven't scanned it yet.

richms

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Reply # 1477815 24-Jan-2016 15:36

Did it have a battery in it?

Richard rich.ms

Rickles

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Reply # 1477820 24-Jan-2016 15:41

It certainly confuses me

The furthest estimated delivery date is Jan 26th, so I'll give it another week before contacting the supplier.

From my reading about postal deliveries ex China, it seems that it's China Post to their postal center, then one of the European postal services to Singapore, then either the final country of destination, OR to Holland (for NLPost) first, then anywhere in the EU before finally the destination country.

Rickles

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Reply # 1477821 24-Jan-2016 15:42

Yes, does have a battery, which is why I understand that they used NLPost .... I gather China Post rejects anything with batteries?

richms

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Reply # 1477822 24-Jan-2016 15:45

As should the others but they have been less strict about it till recently. Chances are its not arriving if the trackings showing all that.

Many sellers won't even send coin cells or alkaline cells now because of the hassles

Richard rich.ms

ScuL

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Reply # 1477968 24-Jan-2016 23:10

I have attempted a track & trace on the PostNL website (since I speak Dutch).. and the tracking number RS389015112NL states there are no known shipments in their database..

Hold on, I have just managed to find it at the international tracker, and it says that the country of destination is NETHERLANDS..

Gigabit

Rickles

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Reply # 1478057 25-Jan-2016 09:45

Thanks Scul, but I'm still unsure exactly where the parcel actually is, nor understand why it should bounce around 4 different countries and end up back at that particular postal center if tracking is accurate.

Anyway, I'll petition the supplier shortly.

frankv

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Reply # 1478649 25-Jan-2016 22:33

It seems to nowadays be very common for AliExpress stuff to be sent via some other country.

I suspect that NZ has upped the fees it charges ChinaPost to deliver stuff in NZ, and ChinaPost has therefore upped the mailing cost to the AliExpress vendor.

So vendors send all there stuff in bulk to someone in a 3rd country which I assume has cheap postage prices from China and to NZ.

Unfortunately, this doubles the shipping time. Hopefully these anomalies in postage rates will disappear soon and cheapo AliExpress vendors will resume sending stuff direct.

Rickles

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Reply # 1478652 25-Jan-2016 22:48

Latest info says item has arrived in NZ and has been processed by NZPost ... hopefully it will delivered to me this week.

Kyanar

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Reply # 1478655 25-Jan-2016 22:54

frankv:

I suspect that NZ has upped the fees it charges ChinaPost to deliver stuff in NZ, and ChinaPost has therefore upped the mailing cost to the AliExpress vendor

Impossible. The fee is fixed by treaty on a volumetric (i.e. NOT per item) basis. And no, it isn't enough to cover the cost of delivery.