WARNING: Track and Trace (Royal Mail) Possible Proble

butterflymum

** Possible Duplication of Track and Trace 13 character reference number, therefore making it difficult to actually track your parcel etc amongst many others with same reference *****


As many folks use the track and trace service, especially in the run up to Christmas, both when sending parcels and awaiting receipt of parcels, thought I would flag-up an issue experienced by me this week. I have sent two contact forms to Royal mail to attempt to flag-up the issue with them, but no reply yet. I have also notified the company who were sending me the parcel.

Bit long, but here goes.

I would assume the 13 character reference number supplied when you send/await receipt of a parcel is meant to be unique (for a reasonable period at least), so that you can indeed Track your item/s. Received a reference number on Monday for purchased items being sent to me. Yesterday, so I could plan to wait in or not for delivery, I checked the status (at http://www.royalmail.com/track-trace) ......it showed already delivered before 9am in Nairn. Nairn is in Scottish Highlands, I am in Northern Ireland. I assumed a blip and checked again later yesterday, this time, again using same reference number, status showed item had been collected by addressee from a Delivery Office in England. Today, and again using same reference number I was informed 'unable to deliver as addressee gone away'!

Have realised, therefore, that rather than my parcel having 'gone where it shouldn't have', it is probably still on route to me, but that it and other peoples' parcels have either all been allocated the same tracking reference number, possibly by the company sending out the goods and/or there is a problem on the Track and Trace site itself (re checked with same tracking reference today at http://www.royalmail.com/trackdetails and got a whole list of deliveries etc of this reference number in various parts of the UK between yesterday and this morning).

Either way, not ideal for folks wanting to keep tabs on progress of their parcel/s.

:eek:

bod1467

IDs can be recycled. All couriers/delivery companies do this. But they shouldn't recycle an ID for 6 months (I seem to recall reading somewhere).

butterflymum

Yes, I assumed the Tracking numbers would eventually be recycled, but as you say, after a reasonable period. In this case, that does not appear to be what has happened, as all the tracking messages are from 25th November to today.

molerat

Was this parcel from an individual or a large business, if the latter it could have been them that fouled up generated more than one parcel with the same reference. I doubt the post office sent items would re-use numbers as they are on pre-printed labels so could likely cause chaos if several are in the system at the same time.

shaun_from_Africa

Were the packages that you were trying to trace sent from Amazon by any chance?

I've had two shipments from them in the past couple of weeks, and both tracking numbers they supplied were for totally different shipments destined for people in different parts of the UK to me.

Both of my orders did turn up on the expected days so it appears that Amazon sometimes have a slight glitch with their system.

butterflymum

Hello folks. Yes, from a large company, but no, not Amazon. Company have now advised:

"...[we] do not supply tracking numbers. The carrier services that we use supply us with their tracking number for each service they provide. So please be assured that this is not an issue with [us] supplying the same tracking numbers to multiple orders.

The problem you have unfortunately encountered lies with the Royal Mail Track and Trace service. They have been made aware of the issue and have advised 24 hours for the issue to be corrected."

and for some reason I received a 2nd responses from the company

"...I can confirm Royal Mail are aware of this problem on their tracking system and they are currently looking to rectifying this problem."

whilst Royal Mail have replied and said:

"...Unfortunately there appears to be an issue with this reference number and this is why it is giving different tracking details."

So, now we know :rotfl:

custardy

So what was the issue you had?

butterflymum

I would expect anyone who relies on Track and Trace to, for example, plan to be at home for the arrival of a parcel that requires signature, will understand the various potential issues anyhow, likewise, any sender who uses the service to ensure an available 'audit trail' should their customer dispute delivery, will too. Hopefully, as my post was intended for such people, it is at least helpful to them to be made aware of potential problems in the service, regardless of what particular issue I had.

custardy

butterflymum wrote: »

I would expect anyone who relies on Track and Trace to, for example, plan to be at home for the arrival of a parcel that requires signature, will understand the various potential issues anyhow, likewise, any sender who uses the service to ensure an available 'audit trail' should their customer dispute delivery, will too. Hopefully, as my post was intended for such people, it is at least helpful to them to be made aware of potential problems in the service, regardless of what particular issue I had.

sounds like a IT blip
Do you have one of the tracking numbers full track details?

butterflymum

Yes. Problem with the tracking reference started on 25th. When input today, 29th, the 'trackdeails' are still adding new results for this reference number, at different locations throughout the UK.

Still no parcel arrived for me, have been told by supplier it does not become 'overdue' until next Wednesday. Fair enough, but still frustrating that I was given a Tracking reference in first place, as now I can't use it to plan to be here for 'signature on arrival'.


Given that both myself and supplier notified Royal Mail of the issue on 26th, at very least I would have thought they would have 'suspended' the 'problem' reference number in their system. But no, it is continuing to show results at http://www.royalmail.com/trackdetails

As said previously, it is a minor inconvenience for me, but such an issue with Track and Trace, either now or if similar happens again, could prove a problem, for example, for an ebay seller trying to follow audit trail of a parcel that someone is disputing receipt of.