Problem with a member here on the Arena and slow shipping (?)

[babylofty]

Here is what I was told about US tracking numbers from a person who works at the post office.  Once they hit the United States borders,  they can no longer be tracked by USPS, because the package is out of their hands.  So it may have left the states, you just don't know it because USPS won't be able to track it from here.  Again, this may be a slow shipping issue, and it's going to take a while to get to you - add customs on top of it, plus this time of the year, and you've got a wait ahead of you.

[Galactica]

That is odd-   so you have a tracking number for priority-  but now you have been told the item went by first class?  First class mail would not have had a tracking number....?

Shipping overseas is indeed very slow right now- with the hurricane and evacuations, the mail has piled up on the east coast, and there were also two post office holidays this month...

That said about half of my mail overseas seems to take way way longer than the post office estimates-  occasionally it is faster but that is rare.  Shipping to Italy is particularly dicey- I know a lot of packages get lost to and from there- no idea why.   It is too bad the package didn't go via EMS as I think that is the only safe way to ship to a country where packages have a hard time reaching their destination (in my experience, Italy, Malasia, Thailand, India and anywhere in Central and So. America)  - I have a friend who travels and she ships her things home as she goes- she is traveling on the extreme cheap so she ships everything the absolute slowest way possible-

sometimes 3-4 MONTHS go by before her packages arrive!  (From Nepal, Thailand, India)

[NoDivision]

Here is what I was told about US tracking numbers from a person who works at the post office.  Once they hit the United States borders,  they can no longer be tracked by USPS, because the package is out of their hands.  So it may have left the states, you just don't know it because USPS won't be able to track it from here.  Again, this may be a slow shipping issue, and it's going to take a while to get to you - add customs on top of it, plus this time of the year, and you've got a wait ahead of you.

No offense to the person you spoke to, but this is another example of a huge generalizaton that is full of misinformation. I often feel like the people working at the post office don't understand their services at all, because I hear things all the time that are wrong and/or contradictory from post office employees.  There is no one rule or easy answer when it comes to international tracking, so any postal employee that tells you a blanket statement like "we can't track outside of the us"  is misinforming you.

This really varies by shipping method.

For example with first class mail you can use the customs number to track the package and it will show you when it leaves the counrty, but nothing after that. This is true Probably 99% of the time. Occasionally on some fluke more information shows up, but usually that information is just the entry into the destination country.

Priority Mail International comes with "tracking" that should update within the US, at the customs agency in the destination country, and when the package is delivered. I put that in quotation marks as once it leaves the US it's not really tracking, but rather  you can "check delivery status." However, as outlined on the USPS website, this does not apply to priority flat rate envelopes or small flat rate boxes. You will find a lot of people online stating that priority mail doesn't provide "tracking," which used to be true, but no longer is. It used to also be restricted to only certain countries, but that's no longer the case. Of course, as with ANY tracking, whether international or domestic, there's always a chance that someone might forget to scan something. The post office can't follow people around and force them to scan things, internationally or at home. But that doesn't mean the services isn't available, or that the post office "can't" track international mail.

With USPS express mail, the same service is offered. For some reason it seems to be more reliable with express mail. Probably because the boxes are labled differently. EXPRESS and URGENT tend to get people to do their job better with the tracking, I guess. But the actual service is the same with express mail as it is with priority mail.

If you want true tracking, not just delivery confirmation, you gave to use Global Express Guaranteed. This is in partnership with fedex, and offers "Advanced tracking with full shipment visibility." It also comes with a higher level of protection and guarantee.

Basically, don't ever lsiten to someone at the post office if they tell you international mail acnnot be tracked. If they tell you that, then they don't know their own services.