Royal Mail tracking number?

forgotmyname

I have an item that has not arrived yet. Seller has provided an 8 number tracking code?

Is Royal Mail track and trace just an 8 digit number? Not the same as recorded delivery used to be?

Any other couriers with just an 8 digit tracking code?

in_the_Cotswolds

Royal Mail tracking number comprises of two letters, nine numbers, two letters the last two being the country of origin, ie AB 1234 1234 5GB

I think most other couriers use the same format.

gollum007

forgotmyname wrote: »

I have an item that has not arrived yet. Seller has provided an 8 number tracking code?

Is Royal Mail track and trace just an 8 digit number? Not the same as recorded delivery used to be?

Any other couriers with just an 8 digit tracking code?

Chinese seller by any chance?

I've seen a spate of completely fake tracking numbers added by them.

No relationship to anything at all, just random numbers (I'm presuming this makes people happier or something....)

forgotmyname

I do buy stuff from China, but this is not one of them its a UK seller, but its taken 10 days so far for 2nd class post.

Seller said wait until the 30th, it shoiuld have arrived on the 18th, so its too late i needed it yesterday and had to buy one.

Does make me wonder if they ordered it from China though. Drop shipping from China what could go wrong with that eh.

Whats annoying also is that the item has vanished from my purchased list.

theonlywayisup

Could it be one of the QR codes, the tracking is live for some of those?

mrcol1000

Parcel brokers often have their own tracking numbers which only work on their websites. They are linked to a proper tracking number for the actual courier but it can occasionally take digging even by the sender to find it.

Have you asked the sender where you can use the tracking number?

forgotmyname

I have messaged the sender saying the tracking is not a RM code, but no reply as yet. Probably wont read it until Monday.

I phoned ebay and they agreed the tracking is not valid and that the seller is UK addressed etc, but the email ebay gave me is not a UK one.

Foreign seller living in the UK but shipping stuff in from europe?

custardy

theonlywayisup wrote: »

Could it be one of the QR codes, the tracking is live for some of those?

2D barcodes are longer numbers.

forgotmyname

Spoke to ebay and got through to several people, even though the tracking is obviously fake do i really need to wait until 3/12 to resolve this?
Its a sub £10 item so not an issue waiting, but im sure i have read on here that they should have done something?

I have a feeling that either the seller has not posted it, but will have done when i opened the case or the item is coming from outside the UK, even though they are registered as a UK seller. Foreign email address though.

Stuff from China seems to be coming fairly quickly, seen some comments on it taking longer than usual recently.

ontheup1972

theonlywayisup wrote: »

Could it be one of the QR codes, the tracking is live for some of those?

QR codes are 21 digits, a string of numbers like this (made up) example ...09032224000000001F3EF