Missing Parcel Thread

[Feel Good By Numbers]

Thought a thread for people to post in who have missing parcels / lost deliveries / postal frustrations ......hopefully the thread provides comfort for those who have lost records in the post or encouragement that they may show up.

...Anyway.... decided not to buy any records online at all during December to avoid any delays, etc / and also wait until after Brexit.... so as a new year treat I made half a dozen purchases on discog's, etc over the past week.

Haven't had much luck with any of it this week tbh.


1) a discogs order I made - seller got back to me after x4 days after .....sorry item sold in shop so not available

2) bought an LP from France...arrived super quick.....opened package ...wrong sleeve/pressing/ version...not listed properly by seller. ...seller offered refund not worth the hassle sending back for refund as it's on 25 euro record but feel I over paid for the pressing he sent .....the pressing seller sent averages 4euro .... the French pressing I sent averages 25 euro

3) Another discogs order....paid straight away on order.....8 days later...not heard from seller at all ...starting to get worried. they have my money

4) Post office frustration.......posting a record to Belgium......in post office had to fill out a customs form....damm Brexit!!!!!!!!

lastly this is my main stress today.......

5) Played catch up on some new release/reissue LPs from last years, things spotted in end of year charts etc.. so made a decent sized order from a great store in Germany via disco's....parcel sent with DHL tracking ....DHL confirmed it was delivered to myself at my address yesterday afternoon at 13.38.......no delivery was made at all...I was in all day and ...at that time of delivery I was actually at my front door chatting as had decorators in.......... Any ideas? Assume DHL driver has dropped off at wrong address? what else could it be... where will I stand with this one when I go back to Seller....as far as they are concerned the track will say it's been delivered, surely? any one been in a similar situation? .....wanna explore all options before getting back to seller

[Paul-K]

ive had three parcels to Netherlands vanish and ive had to refund.

the customs form for EU countries is a pain. i need to get a roll of them so i can fill them in at home.

ive had stuff marked as deliverd to my house, when it hasnt arrived, but then ive had stuff arrive for the same number, wrong road.

ive had stuff from aliexpress marked as in the country from November and not turn up.

my royal mail depot shut down for a couple of weeks around May and has since been a bit of a disaster area. i know its not their fault, but stuff going out and coming in is going through that depot, so its all getting clogged up.

but then ive had stuff mailed from ireland and arrive the next day. its all a bit hit and miss at the moment.

with USA postage now stupidly high and EU now with customs, ive decided to only post to the uk, with stamps for the next few months.

[Feel Good By Numbers]

Good idea getting a roll of customs labels ......

With the state of things this last year I've realised how i've taken for granted accessibility to record shops from where I live.....I've had to buy more online, pay more postage , etc this last year...

I am not far away from town/city with records and I usually get to London at least one every other month via work which allows me to do the rounds scoop up a load of new releases in one go without the need of a postman.

I really sympathise with any diggers who live remotely and have to rely on online purchasing for every record they buy....it sucks the fun out of buying records. If I ever move to a remote isle I'm sure I'll give up buying record.

I've had DHL lose a holy grail before so I'm not holding my hopes up this time, just don't like the word 'tracked' ....I've learnt it means absolutely nothing.

I really respect the independent shop I bought the missing package from so I feel bad contacting them saying it's missing...they sent it 'tracked' via DHL and the tracking ref on the site displays the package being delivered to me yesterday.. ...what more could they have done. The parcel made it from Germany to uk and seemingly got lost within my vicinity.

...if there is a good ending to my missing parcel and it does appear I will post back...that's the point of the thread...to provide hope to others

[Milesago]

I've had 3 parcels go missing since November, from the UK, Ireland, and France. All with destination address in The Netherlands. I lost just one outgoing package during covid, sent to France back in March.

I'm currently waiting for another package from Ireland. Tracking says it left the Heathrow hub on Dec 30. An ominous silence since then.

The 'land bridge' connecting Ireland to mainland Europe through the UK is compromised by Brexit, of course. Not sure how that's going to affect prices and services. Previously my brother has sent 30kg boxes of elpees from the Jaarbeurs to Dublin using GLS for very reasonable prices. Not sure if that will still be viable. Or indeed if UK dealers will bother with Utrecht given the hassle of customs, etc. Not to hijack your thread...

[Shere Khan]

Point 3 of the original post is very frustrating. It's all very well having a new policy which encourages people to pay straight away but that being the case it would be nice if the seller had to post the next day. It's a bit like paying for 1st class post on Ebay and they do post it first class but 7 or more days after you've paid.

Maybe the DHL people delivered it very close to you- they must at least have been in your street surely? You could wander up and down the road seeing if anyone has it. Not the best time to be doing that, of course.

[Aggie]

Concerning the parcel delivered by DHL I guess you should contact DHL, ask to see the signature and full name on their delivery form and inform them it's not you or any of your family members that collected the parcel so they made a mistake and hopefully demand refund? Never happened to me in the past but if I were you I'd get in touch with DHL before contacting the german seller.

Btw did you check that you wrote down your address correctly when you placed the order?

[Aggie]

Also, point #2 happens to me more and more often at discogs. I'm not saying the sellers do it on purpose but many refuse to send photos beforehand which would solve the problem...

[bongolia]

I've got a roll of the CN22 customs forms (has always been handy in the past for US, Japan etc orders). However I believe that they are only appropriate for the tracked parcels now, and non-tracked stuff needs a CN22 with a barcode (at least according to the Royal Mail website). Has anyone seen one of these yet? I'm wondering if it's possible to get a roll of those as well or do they print the barcode at the counter?

re: The DHL parcels - sometimes the delivery drivers mark things as delivered then deliver it later that day or the following day. Not sure if by accident or if they are trying make sure they meet targets. A worrying trend since Covid appeared though is drivers just knocking, leaving the parcel and going. They just assume everyone is in all the time now.

[magicforest]

I have had a record sent from Sweden at the end of November to Netherlands via normal post arrive only a few days ago. Total postage time was 42 days. I was very close to refunding that, but it arrived eventually.

Another package in the other direction from Germany to Sweden took 35 days over December.

And those are only delays due to Covid and Christmas, no Brexit related customs delays there, so you could be looking at 40-60 days for UK<->Europe post in some cases if they were sent late December?

[J.R]

A few things have taken a bit of time. 3 months being the longest, I think. Only one thing never arrived and for that the seller admitted that the courier had advised him it was lost but he still refused to give a refund, even after 5 months. Good old human beings.

[Turboellis]

A few things have taken a bit of time. 3 months being the longest, I think. Only one thing never arrived and for that the seller admitted that the courier had advised him it was lost but he still refused to give a refund, even after 5 months. Good old human beings.

In that situation I would have contacted Paypal and asked them to intervene. I wonder why you didn't do that?

[Viva Chiba]

Just noticed that Royal Mail are royally failing to offer a regular delivery service to certain areas. If you're in one of the domains below and you have 'missing' parcels, they may well be stuck in the system still...

Royal Mail Distribution and Processing Report

Royal Mail Deliveries


Due to resourcing issues, deliveries in the following areas are likely to be limited. If you need to collect an item for which we've left a 'Something for you' card from the Customer Service Points at one of these offices, please check royalmail.com/services-near-you for details of our revised opening hours. If we’ve not left a ‘Something for you card’, and you do not have alternative arrangements in place, we’re sorry that your mail will not be available for collection.

• Ashford (TN23-TN27)
• Barnsley (S70, S71, S72 and S75)
• Basildon (SS13-SS16)
• Bow (E3)
• Bury St Edmunds (IP28-IP33)
• Chelmsford (CM1-CM3)
• Christchurch (BH23)
• Daventry (NN11)
• Debden (IG7-IG10)
• Enfield (EN1-EN3)
• Grays (RM16-RM20)
• Hampton (TW12)
• Highbury (N5)
• Hornsey (N8)
• Horsham (RH12, RH13)
• Ilford (IG1-IG6)
• Leeds City (LS1-LS5)
• Lewisham (SE13)
• Magherafelt (BT45, BT46)
• Margate (CT7-CT9)
• Rugeley (WS15)
• Somerton (TA11)
• South Ockendon (RM15)
• South Woodford (E18)
• Upper Holloway (N7)
• Wandsworth (SW18)
• Wellington (TA21)
• Widnes (WA8)

[J.R]

In that situation I would have contacted Paypal and asked them to intervene. I wonder why you didn't do that?

I did.

[Feel Good By Numbers]

Some joy and good news............I did get the parcel yesterday.....though quite confused about what actually happened ...I tweeted DHL.de with the reference number and they responded via a twitter direct message saying that my parcel had been returned to sender due to customs issue' ........ as I was messaging the sender to enquire if they had it delivered back and there was a knock on the door and a 'Parcel Force' man handed me my parcel so that's x3 days after tracking said It hand been delivered to me...... god knows what happened, some mix up.

the 'delivered' tracking note must have been it reaching parcel force.....

..... I'm surprised though that German DHL pass it to Parcel force once in the uk a not DHL themselves....you would assume it would be DHL all the way. .... or do DHL own Parcel force? ..I thought it was a competitor..

so anyway, the lesson here..... if you ever have a parcel from DHL in the EU and tracking says delivered you may want to wait a few more days as it's likely to still be with another courier firm ...... hope that's useful info....


......whilst listening to my new records I thought i's check on the status of a 7" I posted to Belgium last week to make sure the owner received it......note on tracking says it's been held with customs for checking (expect delivery in 20--24 days !!!!!!!!!!!!!! )

[Shere Khan]

A 'favourite' of mine is the kind of Royal Mail Tracking number you sometimes get sent by a seller which tells you nothing except Royal Mail have your parcel. If it hasn't arrived after two weeks you check the number and all it tells you is that they still have your parcel and information will only be updated once it has been delivered- which is when you won't need information about where it is. It doesn't say where it is, how long they will have it, just that when you do have it you'll be able to check the tracking just to make sure your eyes aren't deceiving you.