Ordered an item from a retailer on Trademe Wednesday night.

Already delivered by CourierPost.

Some things are fast!

Wakrak:

 

smalltrader:

 

I was charged $29 overnight delivery for sending 2 small pieces of wall art (about 20 by 20cm). To be fair, the merchant could have pocketed a chunk of the $29. Honestly, if the items were available locally, I would stay right away from online shopping.

 

 

Stoked that the bloke I sold my 62cmx86.5cm framed map to through Trade Me just drove over from Rotorua to pick it up in Hamilton. $29 seems ruthless. Using my 62cmx86.5cm measurements through courier quote on Trade Me, max shipping was $31 for delivery, from city Hamilton to rural South Island. $16 rest of North Island urban. 

 

Yes. I thought $29 is excessive for two small pieces of pottery wall art. Unfortunately the local shop does not carry the items and the only way to get it is to buy direct from main seller. The bad experience during L3/L2  has somewhat put me off online shopping.

I have ordered some 20 items from eBay, they are coming from various parts of China.

I ordered them in February, March and April.

After much analysis and interpretation of the the tracking systems that NZPost has, and another (Universal Parcel Tracking - Global Package Tracking) that collects tracking from all over the place, I'm still happy that my thesis is correct, in that, once the item arrives in NZ, it sits, until NZPost gets around, to scanning it as, "accepted" into it's system.

two supporting pieces of info :

A bag, from China, was shown, was on an airplane 1 month ago, departed Hong Long (Universal Parcel Tracking - Global Package Tracking) - it turned up on NZPost's tracking tool, two days ago, as "arrived" and was delivered today. So NZPost would have me believe that it wasn't in NZ until two days ago. So it's on a plane from Hong Kong for a month? yeah right...

I sent a query, via the NZPost online form, in which I gave them some 20 tracking numbers, all from China and all in the tracking chain, for a month or more, the 1st sentence from their response was : "We have reviewed the tracking information provided and can see that your item is still in the United States. There are no scans to indicate that your item has arrived into New Zealand or that it has been accepted into our network."

They then went on, the individually note, the 20 or so items I'd sent them, as either 'Not Arrived' or 'No Scan Information/ Un tracked'

They advised me to take it up with the sender.

So once they've scanned an item as "arrived" it seems that they can get to it reasonably quickly.

I'm not going to ask them, why they think that 20 or so items from China, is one item from America, that has not been sent.

Also the respondent, used words like "Untraked", "updartes" and "volum" and phrases like "We priority on Medicals, Passport and Food", "We have implement several new initiatives".

So whilst I am sure that, I'll get the items eventually, NZPost is being economical with the truth and I feel sorry for the folk doing the work, so that Marketing people can sit around making up fairy tales to tell the public.

So it's like, when the items clear Customs and Biosecurity at Auckland, they get chucked in a bin, when they've got 40 to 50 bins all full up, they'll unpack one, scan the items as accepted and deliver them in a few days.

It's no good having a fancy computerised conveyor belt whizzy thing, if there's noone to put the parcels on it and and deliver them afterwards.

I bet all the Post Office closures and staff  lay-offs, don't look so cutting edge now.

See I knew you'd be interested 😀

Ironically, something that was sent to my mailbox from the United Kingdom two weeks ago arrived today. Yet my boy's game - also ordered from the UK - paid for and sent in March isn't here. So Christ knows what's going on.

Order shipped via DHL - from shipment to arrival took less than 24 hours. MEL > SYD > AKL > CHC > my house. I was impressed!

My last Flight International magazine, for 10th - 16th March, arrived on 21st March: exactly on the average delivery time.

Since 21st March, nothing at all.
I keep hoping my PO Box will be bulging full, but ...

They do publish a feature complete online version but it's just not the same
😭

I saw a piece on TV3 News a week or so ago, wherein the reporter was at the giant big sorting warehouse in Mangere (?) near the airport.

It had shots of the fancy computerised conveyor belt whizzy thing. It showed a long shot of the interior of the building, with the floor seemingly chock a block with equipment. And along one side of the building were plastic wrapped pallets, upon pallets, of parcels, perhaps 40 to 50.

And in the whole place it looked like there were maybe 4 or 5 people.

The reporter interviewed a chap looking like the night shift supervisor, sweating bricks and saying "it's like 4 Xmases at once !".

My thesis is still, there are delays, this is to be expected, some things (medical, etc) will take priority, but for normal stuff, when NZPost gets the parcel, they chuck it in the warehouse and a few people working flat out, are chewing thought the Everest sized back log.

And all the staff made redundant in the last few years? sitting at home with the rest of us.

But all the public facing comment from NZPost is slanted towards : 'Some countries can't get their mail etc to us, they've had to choose ships that could take 6 months', yeah right, why's the warehouse so parcel rich and person poor?

All goods arrived now (inc a CPU that the courier thought needed water cooling, so left in rain) except for the first thing I ordered, well over a month ago from AU. Its still sitting at Melbourne airport according to last update.....

@ kipkip  - I had an overnight (printer ink) Henderson to Birkenhead take 5 days, recently, at least it got here.

@ xld   - that's interesting, it could be that Aussie Post/couriers/functionaries are similarly challenged.

Well the NZPost's weasel words, in which the key terminology is -  "if it’s been more than 5 working days since our tracking tool shows NZ Post received your parcel"

has changed to ::

"To help us help you, please only contact us if our tracking tool shows it’s been more than 5 days (10 days in the Waikato and 2 weeks in Auckland) since NZ Post received your parcel"

I guess that someone pointed that the tracking tool may not be showing the user what other tracking tools are showing, you know,  leaving information off that casts NZPost in a negative light...

In one case, NZPost's tool says "International departure in Beijing China" which could imply that it is still there, whereas the parcels app which shows this item in three tracking systems notes NZPost's entry as "Departure from country of origin, your item is in transit to NZ" 19 April 2020.

So maybe the plane is just circling Auckland airport for about 45 days,  not landed or been unloaded,  no that would be too logical.

see pic below, I've anonymised the tracking number to protect the innocent :) EMS is a step up in tracking and speed from normal China Post.

Surprise!

My parcel from AliExpress was just delivered!

What is up with NZPost?

Correctly addressed, and with correct tracking number!

Delivered twice.

Aaaah!, I found this

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12330992

from some 10 days ago

Watch the vid and pause at 0:36, look to the left of the room (and all around actually) and see the very large number of storage bins, that's where our parcels are!

I'll also note the apology from the boss (correct behaviour) and that none of the storage bins, are the kind that come on ships, they are all the kind that come on planes. 

The work flow is: these parcels and packages have arrived, later they are scanned as 'arrived', my Thesis is correct.

Waiting waiting waiting

addendum: from the article above:

Orders placed now will be moved through the network without being held - meaning they may arrive before something you ordered months ago. Walsh said customers could expect new orders delivered in 1-5 days, except deliveries into and out of Auckland which may take up to two weeks.

NZ Post chief marketing officer Bryan Dobson said last week he didn't know how long those volumes would last but expected CourierPost to continue to be busy at least until normal retail opened up again.

- so Bryan Dobson is responsible for telling us earlier, 'no problem, 5 days, it'll be fine, nothing to see here....'

I have a parcel coming from USA, via DHL.

The latest status is:

May 25: New York, NY, US - In transit to destination country.

Could this parcel still be in America waiting for a flight?