Lost mail to/from the UK

[Maniah]

Hi there.. I was just wondering if there is anything at all I can do to try and track down lost mail to and from the UK? Neither package had tracking or insurance, since the contents were only a few dollars at most.. I have my customs form number, but I know that doesn't really mean tracking.. But if the package was sitting in the UK customs office, could I possibly call with that number and have them maybe find it?

If there is no hope, I'll just have to sigh and write it off.. But I feel bad. I was trading with Scraleos and neither her nor I got our packages. The first time we traded, everything was fine. This time, her package got returned to her the first time due to the address getting damaged on the way out. And she mailed it out again.. But my package never made it to her, and hers never made it to me. Since then, I have bought things from the UK off of ebay, and they have arrived, so I have pretty much given up hope.

However, if there is something I can do to fix this that I am unaware of, I would love to know. I had sent her some McDonalds ponies for her collection and I just would like to see her actually get them.

[teresat]

Hmm...What was the value declared on the customs form? It could still be held up in customs. Can you trace it up to a point? How far? How long has it been since you mailed? I've had packages from the UK take 3-4 weeks.

Have you tried the customs number at the Royal Mail website?

[Maniah]

Its been about two months.. And the declared value was only like $5 or so. It was just a few McDonalds toys.

Ill try the number at the royal mail website when I get home from work though. Thank you It only traces going as far as Miami when I last tried it at the USPS website. But thats normal.

[teresat]

I'm also worried now as I just sent a package to the UK. I also used Registered Mail. Did you use First Class Parcel International?


ETA I did just receive a package from the UK. So UK to US is good for me so far.


Good Luck!

[DaffyDilly]

I've just had a parcel from the US to the UK in a week (given we had two bank holidays here as well!) and one from Canada to the UK in just over 2 weeks.


However I did have one from China take 3 months earlier in the year.

I would give it a bit longer if you can.

[Maniah]

Terestat, I used first class but did not send it registered since the value was so low.

It's just annoying and odd that BOTH of our packages never arrived. One I could accept. But both is just like "really, mailman. Really!?"

DaffyDilly, I have received other packages from the UK since then and they only took a week to arrive. So I'll try to give it a bit more but I bet they are just gone.

[ponylady]

Don't give up hope Maniah.  A package is rarely ever trully lost.   
 
I know if customs runs across a package and it is improperly labeled, addressed incorrectly or the receiving country does not take the time to scan the labels on the package. It will be placed on a shelf and if noone comes to claim it and pay the duty, they will send it back to the states or it may get stashed somewhere for a long period of time. This complete cycle can take about 14-16 weeks to transpire (6 weeks to ship, it lays in customs bins for several weeks, then 6 weeks on the return and another week or so for USPS to contact the original shipper).
 
I am not saying this happened but it could be a possibility?????

[babystarz]

I believe you can look up the customs number on the UK's mail website, or you could call them and find out if it left the U.K. because customs numbers are tracked up until a package leaves that country. So you should at least be able to find out if it was sent to the U.S.

[Ringlets]

How frustrating for both of you   Here is a link to Royal mail's website.  http://www.royalmail.com/  I dont think the customs number will show anything on there, but it worth a try.   Scraleos will not be able to trace the parcel she sent you either since here in the UK we just have a customs sticker that goes on the front of the parcel, and we dont have a customs number (or at least not one that we get to see) .
  It seems odd that both parcels havent shown up      International mail can be unpredictible though, so it doesnt mean that the items will never arrive...   
I think maybe you could call USPS, tell them your customers number , and see if they can give you any info/updates 

[Scraleos]

Hello! I still haven't received anything yet, and I'm assuming you haven't either :/ I feel so bad about this, so I'll send out those extra baits I was talking about. Don't worry about my end, they were only McDonalds ponies

[Maniah]

Aw sweetie. Really. Don't worry about sending extra baits. They are only baits and I have a ton of them. As I mentioned before, I don't think it's fair to you to do that, when I have no way of trying to send you the same McDonalds ponies again.

I was just checking here to see if there was some option left to us that I wasn't aware of