Lost Packages Becoming More Common?

ScottSF

Over the last several months, I have had 4 separate parcels sent from outside Ireland get "lost in the mail." Am I the only one or is this becoming a problem recently?

They were all supposed to be delivered by An Post to our apartment or to a work-address in Dublin. It didn't matter which.

• Umbrella sent from UK
• Coffee From Northern Ireland
• Business Cards from Netherlands
• Light Bulb and Hoover Parts from Amazon.co.uk

Just curious if anyone else has experienced this problem with packages going missing (lost or stolen?). Could they have been caught up in customs? I guess I should always try to pay extra for shipment via trackable postal carrier/courier.

ScottSF

Yes that makes sense about customs. I didn't receive a letter from them so something else must have happened either before it reached the shores of Ireland or after. If only they had a tracking number. If it was theft I can understand an Amazon box or an umbrella, but who steals business cards?

Fortunately three of the four vendors offered to ship out a new order at their own expense when I reported these packages as never received. The replacement orders all arrived safely. Unfortunately the umbrella was to replace a broken one - the vendor was nice enough to send it to me for free. I felt really bad when it didn't arrive.

Beano

Both of ye must be very unlucky. I've had 14 orders this year from amazon alone and they have all arrived with no problems. I dont see how customs would come into it as all your orders were from within the EU.

Shelflife

If they are posted outside of Ireland its hard to blame An Post if the parcel didnt get to the country.

If theres no tracking you cant tell where the parcel went missing or even if it was posted at all.

delahuntv

zombieHanalei wrote: »

Customs would contact you so I'm not really sure they are the issue. In the last two years I've had 11 packages delivered, 6 by An Post of which three were "lost" and 5 times by courier, all which were successfully delivered.

Basically, I don't trust An Post.

In the last 2 years I've sent over 20,000 packages via an post to Ireland Uk and Europe. I've had 1 "lost" (I have online operations).

The main reason packages get "lost" are

Badly written addresses.
Address labels falling off
Insufficient postage and no return address.

But sure isn't easier to blame An Post than to check to see what other possiblities there are.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I've gone through my online orders today and I see I have had at least 35 deliveries this year. Only one item was lost in the postband it was from the UK. One item 2 years ago from China also failed to arrive. In neither case is there any evidence the items made it to the country at all. So OP you seem unlucky.

Stinicker

Kairo Famous Livestock wrote: »

I've gone through my online orders today and I see I have had at least 35 deliveries this year. Only one item was lost in the postband it was from the UK. One item 2 years ago from China also failed to arrive. In neither case is there any evidence the items made it to the country at all. So OP you seem unlucky.

I once had a small computer component arrive from China 7 months later that I ordered on eBay from a UK seller. When I notified the seller at the time he sent it again and I received it 2nd time around. I found it funny when the original arrived 7 months later.

delahuntv

zombieHanalei wrote: »

But sure isn't it easier to make the stupid assumption that I didn't bother to check just so you could deliver that catchy put down to end your post with?:rolleyes:

Well, I think my experience with 20,000+ sent and delivered with just one single issue gives a little more creditibility. I use to use 2 different couriers and the parcel "missing" rate was about one every month, whilst not a huge rate, not good enough for me.

Where were all your parcels coming from? (if fro outside Ireland, An Post don;t have a say in that) Was the address written legibly.

Or are you exagerating the number?

rock22

My experience must support Beano and Delahuntv too. You both seem to be unlucky.

I receive between 30 - 40 parcels a year. Mostly from UK but more recently there have been a number from China/USA and Germany.
i have never had a problem with ordinary post. One supplier regularly gets items here in 2-3 days with ordinary post. (They obviously post immediately the odder is receive - by phone ).
On the other hand I have had 2 parcels in the past year held up by couriers. Both had been returned to the sender because of "wrong address" even though the address was correct. I am located in a rural area and both couriers told me it was not "their problem to find my location". Strange because that's exactly what they were paid to do.
A number of UK suppliers , even when asked, seem reluctant to use Royal Mail. I assume because the couriers pick up while Royal Mail might mean a trip to the post office.
Just my experience.

timetogo

I get a fair bit from Amazon UK (about 15 - 20 packages a year). In 6 years I've never had one parcel lost from anybody (touch wood).

slimjimmc

@zombieHanalei. Attack the post not the poster.

my3cents

Another user that gets a good bit in the post and from couriers with few problems mainly couriers that are too lazy to deliver to a rural location.

ScottSF

It is interesting to see peoples experiences with ordering packages from outside of Ireland. Like I said I was curious if this was happening more often now since I've never had a package go missing over the previous 4 years or so. Now with 4 lost packages in the last several months, I wonder if it is bad luck or something else.

It was stated above that you can't blame An Post if the packages were coming from outside of Ireland. However in my original post you can see that these four packages originated in three different countries. So it would be a huge coincidence if they all had high rates of packages getting lost. Hopefully it is not a new trend.

slimjimmc

ScottSF wrote: »

It is interesting to see peoples experiences with ordering packages from outside of Ireland. Like I said I was curious if this was happening more often now since I've never had a package go missing over the previous 4 years or so. Now with 4 lost packages in the last several months, I wonder if it is bad luck or something else.

It was stated above that you can't blame An Post if the packages were coming from outside of Ireland. However in my original post you can see that these four packages originated in three different countries. So it would be a huge coincidence if they all had high rates of packages getting lost. Hopefully it is not a new trend.

Well, the 3 packages originating from the UK were likely to have been handled by the same postal service.

ScottSF

I took a look at the replacement Amazon.co.uk package to see where it originated from as in the past some boxes came from their warehouse in Germany. However this box says "Postage Paid Dublin" and if not delivered return to Dublin 17 address. Does anyone know if Amazon opened up a warehouse in Ireland? Or perhaps they are repackaging orders in bulk in Ireland for local delivery.

m'lady

In my experience lost packages are due to the wrong postage being paid by the sender and the postal service holding them, but not contacting either party. Had this issue last year, and discovered packages were in someone's office for a month! The only reason they were found was that I got a guy (An Post) who was determined to find them.

my3cents

ScottSF wrote: »

I took a look at the replacement Amazon.co.uk package to see where it originated from as in the past some boxes came from their warehouse in Germany. However this box says "Postage Paid Dublin" and if not delivered return to Dublin 17 address. Does anyone know if Amazon opened up a warehouse in Ireland? Or perhaps they are repackaging orders in bulk in Ireland for local delivery.

Hard to be sure I get some stuff from Amazon.co.uk that comes via AnPost from Dublin and it arrives in 2 days?

I guess they bulk ship to their own warehouse in Dublin and then it goes into the Irish postal system?

dudara

ScottSF wrote: »

It is interesting to see peoples experiences with ordering packages from outside of Ireland. Like I said I was curious if this was happening more often now since I've never had a package go missing over the previous 4 years or so. Now with 4 lost packages in the last several months, I wonder if it is bad luck or something else.

It was stated above that you can't blame An Post if the packages were coming from outside of Ireland. However in my original post you can see that these four packages originated in three different countries. So it would be a huge coincidence if they all had high rates of packages getting lost. Hopefully it is not a new trend.

Personally, I have no experience of missing parcels in recent months, with many deliveries coming through An Post. Your issue may be localised, in which case, I'd contact the postmaster at the local distibution office.

Mick Murdock

Also have to post in support of An Post. I ship thousands of items with them every month (unregistered) and it's pretty seldom anything doesn't arrive at it's destination in Ireland or Britain on time.

Similarly, I use Poste Italiane on a lesser scale (registered) for the rest of Europe and have encountered more issues but it's still uncommon considering the quantity.

ScottSF

Well it turns out that 2 of the 4 packages were not lost by An Post after all! 2 packages were mis-routed at work. They were left on a the wrong floor of the office building and no one ever noticed them sitting there for 2 weeks. So at least those two are sorted.

Certainly another reason all package delivery should come with tracking barcodes so you at least know the last place they were seen.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

ScottSF wrote: »

Well it turns out that 2 of the 4 packages were not lost by An Post after all! 2 packages were mis-routed at work. They were left on a the wrong floor of the office building and no one ever noticed them sitting there for 2 weeks. So at least those two are sorted.

Certainly another reason all package delivery should come with tracking barcodes so you at least know the last place they were seen.

If you want to pay extra for tracking all packages then fine but it's a bit of a hammer and nut response to packages being mishandled in your own firm. I certainly am very happy with the quality if delivery as it stands, without adding the additional administration costs of tracking everything.

wmpdd3

Op, when I read apartment I thought that was the issue, a friend had a business where she fixed machine parts by post, she had so many missing she had to get them sent to her mum's house. She was in Dublin in an apartment and her mum was by the sea in a house, in the two years after she changed address, she didn't have one missing item.

She was always getting green slips in to collect her package at the depot even though she was there.

coylemj

Kairo Famous Livestock wrote: »

If you want to pay extra for tracking all packages then fine but it's a bit of a hammer and nut response to packages being mishandled in your own firm. I certainly am very happy with the quality if delivery as it stands, without adding the additional administration costs of tracking everything.

+1 I buy from Amazon UK (8 orders in 2013, 6 so far in 2014) and always select the cheapest delivery option which does not involve tracking, have never had a problem with a delivery.

debabyjesus

Buying online for years and have never had a lost package. 250 odd feedbacks on ebay, about 100 amazon purchases and any amount of stuff from independent retailers. I've received the wrong thing countless times and delivery times measured in months, but I've always got something, sometime.

I'd say something is up in your situation and I'd be getting onto an post.

my3cents

coylemj wrote: »

+1 I buy from Amazon UK (8 orders in 2013, 6 so far in 2014) and always select the cheapest delivery option which does not involve tracking, have never had a problem with a delivery.

Problem is that even the free option for delivery can come via courier or postman. Used to always be by the postman which for us is very reliable, couriers just don't bother sometimes if they don't have any other near by rural deliveries.

coylemj

my3cents wrote: »

Problem is that even the free option for delivery can come via courier or postman. Used to always be by the postman which for us is very reliable, couriers just don't bother sometimes if they don't have any other near by rural deliveries.

In theory that should be fixed when every house (eventually) gets a postcode.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

debabyjesus wrote: »

I'd say something is up in your situation and I'd be getting onto an post.

It turned out that parcels were misdirected at her workplace, so we know what was up. An Post had nothing to do with it.

my3cents

coylemj wrote: »

In theory that should be fixed when every house (eventually) gets a postcode.

Not really its just that to make a rural delivery can add another half an to the drivers day so they don't bother and make up excuses when challenged. The advantage of the postman is that he drives past the door each day.