Question about China Post shipping and tracking

[MikeLac]

A little over a Month ago, I purchased 30 Cell Phone chargers from a supplier on Aliexpress. The cost of the order is $70. The supplier has done over 4000 transactions with a 98.9% feedback rating. The package was shipped by China Post. This is my first experience with China Post and it has not been a good one.

First of all, the tracking # provided has never shown up on the China Post website. It always says "Success find: 0 items!".

As far as I am concerned, when the tracking # doesn't show up, either I was given an incorrect number or the package isn't being delivered. The supplier confirmed that the tracking # is correct. I've asked the supplier several times over the past few weeks to check with China Post to find out why the tracking # is not showing up and to find out where the package is. So far, the supplier has yet to contact China Post.

Here is one message from the Supplier:

we are sincerely sorry.but i can promice you will receive item,do you believer us?any problem,pls contact us again,thanks

Another message from the supplier:

We felt really sorry that Customs have been taking so long time processing the parcel. Is it possible that you try to contact your local Customs or local post office to get some further information for your parcel?
Nice regards,

Another message:

i'm so sorry for the trouble as this case if you don't urgent we will resend to solve for you,do you agree? or if you have another solution,pls feel free contact me first.thanks

The last message that I received:

hello friend maybe it lost,so the tracking number did not work,sorry

I replied to the Seller that "I am not contacting my Post Office or Customs about this package. The first thing that they will ask for is the tracking #. It is ridiculous to give them a tracking # that is not working! How do you know that Customs even has the package? That is just a wild guess without a working tracking #."

I find it very puzzling that the Seller has offered to send the order to me again to resolve the issue. I replied "Why can't you go to China Post with the tracking # and find out what has happened with this package! After all, isn't that what a tracking # is for? If one of my Buyers does not receive a package, the first thing that I would do is find out where the package is using the tracking #. If that isn't much help, then I would go to the Post Office with the tracking # and find out what has happened to the package. I would do that before having to send out another package. Because I am in the business to make money, it doesn't make sense to just resend an order to a buyer without going to the Post Office to find out what happened with the order using the tracking #."

I do believe the Seller that the package was shipped. I live in Alberta, Canada. I know that a package can take over a Month to get to me from China when shipped by China Post. If the package was being updated in tracking, then I would not have been sending the Seller questions about it. I'd just be waiting patiently for it. The only reason why I have been patient with this order and have not disputed it, is because it is a small order worth $70. If it was $700, I would have disputed it a couple of weeks ago.

Is this typical of China Post with the tracking? Not showing up at all? My guess is that it is not. What is your experiences with China Post good or bad. I just find it very odd that the Seller hasn't gone to China Post with the tracking # after several requests to do so.

 

[MadStacks]

This is not a typical problem and your seller is giving you the run around. Try to find a personal person to find and ship products
for you using EMS or DHL.

 

[websitesareus]

Looks to me like you have a bad seller.

My experience with China mail is from eBay. I have ordered several items on eBay from China, and each time when it was a honest seller and I received the items, the tracking number was updated.

2 times the tracking was not updated and I never received the items - obviously they were never shipped and the seller just typed in some bogus number.

 

[Matce]

was it sent EMS? China Post REGULAR mail? Because there is no tracking for that!?

 

[MikeLac]

was it sent EMS? China Post REGULAR mail? Because there is no tracking for that!?

It was sent by China Post Airmail. The Seller gave me a tracking number. So I assumed that it could be tracked.

 

[MikeLac]

Looks to me like you have a bad seller.

My experience with China mail is from eBay. I have ordered several items on eBay from China, and each time when it was a honest seller and I received the items, the tracking number was updated.

2 times the tracking was not updated and I never received the items - obviously they were never shipped and the seller just typed in some bogus number.

I have my doubts that the item was shipped. Still have not received it. I ordered it on October 12th. Thought I was dealing with a good seller because the Seller had a 98.9% feedback rating and has done over 4000 transactions. That was the main reason why I ordered from that Seller. I've only been dealing with Aliexpress for 3 Months now. Other than this one transaction, I've been very happy overall with the transactions from other Sellers.

 

[Angel A]

Usually I was receiving goods from China in 10-30 days (Europe). But two times I had the same situation.

 

[MikeLac]

This is not a typical problem and your seller is giving you the run around. Try to find a personal person to find and ship products
for you using EMS or DHL.

I didn't think that it was typical. I agree with you 100%. The Seller has been giving me the run around.

Another strange twist to this wonderful buying experience. The Seller has shipped another package to me a little over a week ago. By Singapore Post. With NO TRACKING #! The Seller knew how annoyed I was with the tracking on the order from China Post. You would think that the Seller would make sure that the new shipment would be trackable so that I would know where it is at all times.

I'm fairly new at buying from Sellers via Aliexpress. Around 3 Months experience. 11 transactions so far. This is the only bad experience out of the 11.

Why would the Seller give me the run around? What would the Seller gain from that? Correct me if I'm wrong. But the Money is in Escrow by Aliexpress. The Seller does not get the funds until I confirm the order. I can file a dispute and should easily get a refund. It is a $70 order. The smallest order out of my 11 transactions. Probably the only reason why I am being way too patient is because it isn't a large amount of money. I am looking for long term business relationships with Sellers. I don't want to get ripped off and I don't want to rip off any Sellers. If the Sellers that I buy products from makes money off of me and I make money from selling those products, then we are all happy. If I didn't have any problems with this order, then I would order from the Seller over and over again for a long time. Not just this one product, but I'd purchase other products from his store as well. But with this experience, this is the only order that this Seller will ever get from me.

 

[Bulking]

This puts me off importing...

 

[MikeLac]

This puts me off importing...

This is my only bad experience importing so far. Overall, it has been very positive and I am glad that I started doing it. Wish that I did this a long time ago. I am finally making money on Ebay. Just putting my profits back into the business to build more variety in my inventory. I'm going to wait 3 more weeks for my phantom shipment to show up. If it doesn't, then I'll dispute the order and get a refund. In the end, I just ended up having $70 tied up for 2 Months.

Overall, the Sellers that I have been dealing with have been very friendly and they seem to go out of their way to make sure that I am happy. When you are importing, you are likely to have some bad experiences. The good experiences will hopefully far exceed the bad ones. I'm sure that I'll have more bad experiences. But I am not going to stop importing. I've found some reliable Sellers that I can trust and I'm very happy with the quality of their products. I'll keep ordering from them again and again.

 

[MikeLac]

Just received this message today from the Seller:

Dear valued buyer,

Thanks for your recent purchase.
We regret to inform you that you bought item has returned to us already in Dec 3
Recently, the China Post announced that all items shipping by air are now subject to x-ray screening for regulated materials,there is an increasing number of air mail items detected to contain suspected angerour articles cause there are a lot of package has return back to us.(i think there are many buyers have this problem now)
But pls don't much worry,for this case we will offer below solution to you choose:
Option 1,if don't urgent,i can arrange resend again via Singapore Registered mail,and offer you a new tracking number.
Pption 2,I can refund you full payment include shipping fee,then you can buy locally or others and i will offer discount to you for next purchase.
If you have another solution,pls feel free contact me first,we care about our valued customers
And if you have any concerns i can send a picture to you of returned parcal
We appreciate your understanding and patience.

Yours sincerely,

I replied back with this message:

Just give me a refund. It has been almost 2 Months now. I had asked you several times to go to China Post with the tracking # to find out what happened with the package. If you did, then you would have found out what happened to the package over a Month ago. Then you claimed to have shipped another package to me a couple of weeks ago WITHOUT TRACKING. Probably a lie to buy some time hoping that this package will eventually show up. I've already ordered this item from another Seller and received it last Friday by DHL.

Now waiting for a response. Not sure what "angerour articles" is. China Post has started x-raying packages for regulated materials and this has caused my package to be sent back? This package was battery chargers. IF the package had the proper documentation and the contents of the package was accurately described, then I don't know what the problem would be with China Post not accepting Battery Chargers. Doubt that the Seller shipped the package legally.

 

[trunner247]

Most of my China post packages are never accurately tracked.

 

[c4cancer79]

Oh man ... i wish i saw this post earlier. I am in china and I can tell you that China Post is like that many a times.

This phenoma is common as China Post never guarantee the Delivery and in some cases its around 60 days or more to deliver.

Trust me the seller has been fair to you and I can feel that he is trying to do his best, the only reason is their english lol I know that pretty well.

About going to China Post office ,,, it won't help at all .... You dont know the system here in china about the china post. Many suppliers use china post as being the cheapest option. But being cheap has its demerits which is the non availability of Proper tracking number. I have been sending to customer via China post and believe me the tracking number doesnt show up many times.

You can still try one solution if you are in hurry to ask them to send the products vis FEDEX or DHL ... I know it is expensive but you can try to lure them in as I am sure they would really want to make business with and will give you discounts to their extended limits.

Try this and ask them to send by Fedex and pay a little more and get the products within 7 days or so. Or you can PM me if you need any help.

 

[MikeLac]

Oh man ... i wish i saw this post earlier. I am in china and I can tell you that China Post is like that many a times.

This phenoma is common as China Post never guarantee the Delivery and in some cases its around 60 days or more to deliver.

Trust me the seller has been fair to you and I can feel that he is trying to do his best, the only reason is their english lol I know that pretty well.

About going to China Post office ,,, it won't help at all .... You dont know the system here in china about the china post. Many suppliers use china post as being the cheapest option. But being cheap has its demerits which is the non availability of Proper tracking number. I have been sending to customer via China post and believe me the tracking number doesnt show up many times.

You can still try one solution if you are in hurry to ask them to send the products vis FEDEX or DHL ... I know it is expensive but you can try to lure them in as I am sure they would really want to make business with and will give you discounts to their extended limits.

Try this and ask them to send by Fedex and pay a little more and get the products within 7 days or so. Or you can PM me if you need any help.

Thank you very much for the useful info in your post! I had no idea that China Post was like that. This was my first and only experience so far. After the info you provided, I will never deal with China Post again. Most of my previous orders have been shipped by DHL or Fedex. A couple orders were shipped by Singapore Post. All went nice and smooth and were received in a timely manner. This China Post shipment was the only disappointment.

The Seller never replied to my refund request yet. Because of the info you provided, I sent the Seller another message to ignore my refund request and send the package by Singapore Post with a tracking #. The Seller has a 98.7% feedback rating and has done over 4700 transactions. Because of that, I will give this Seller another chance.

 

[trunner247]

China post never update my info either. Only time I find the status of my package is when it is delivered which kinda sucks. I perfer EMS but that cuts into your profits. Its funny after my product was delivered the status of my product updated 2 days later.

 

[cheapacs]

I had that same problem with Focalprice. Now I'm looking for a new supplier in Europe

 

[c4cancer79]

Thank you very much for the useful info in your post! I had no idea that China Post was like that. This was my first and only experience so far. After the info you provided, I will never deal with China Post again. Most of my previous orders have been shipped by DHL or Fedex. A couple orders were shipped by Singapore Post. All went nice and smooth and were received in a timely manner. This China Post shipment was the only disappointment.

The Seller never replied to my refund request yet. Because of the info you provided, I sent the Seller another message to ignore my refund request and send the package by Singapore Post with a tracking #. The Seller has a 98.7% feedback rating and has done over 4700 transactions. Because of that, I will give this Seller another chance.

I hope they will reply you but this is busy season so they must be hell busy. Anyway they must have their phone or other contact method. Try to contact them or shoot me a PM i will help you solve this out. If they dont reply within a day or two then open a dispute and get their attention.

 

[EbayUltimate]

Recommended you try DHL or FEDEX, you wont be disappointed. I usually get my packages within 3-4 Business days. China Post is the lowest of them all, also sometimes packages get stuck or lost in customs. Not worth the headache

 

[pplayer]

It's happened to me before. I asked for money back, got my money back and 2 months later received my products.

 

[MikeLac]

Recommended you try DHL or FEDEX, you wont be disappointed. I usually get my packages within 3-4 Business days. China Post is the lowest of them all, also sometimes packages get stuck or lost in customs. Not worth the headache

Yes, I have decided that I will only get packages via DHL or Fedex. I've received many packages from DHL and a few from Fedex. All were good. The only problem is that almost every Seller that I deal with takes around 7 days to get the package to DHL after it is marked as shipped! The tracking just shows as "Shipment information received" for about a week before it finally says "Shipment picked up". Just received a package yesterday from China via DHL. Only took 9 days to Canada after placing my order. That has been the only Seller that I have dealt with so far that ships quick. When that Seller marked the item as shipped, DHL had it in their posession. You must deal with pretty good sellers to receive your items in only 3 or 4 days. Overall, I am happy with the Sellers that I deal with except for the shipping and handling time.

Right now, I am expecting 5 packages delivered by Sweden Post. Never again. Tracking hasn't been updated in 10 days. Have no idea how long it will take. Almost out of stock on those 5 items because it has taken much longer than I expected. They are my main Selling items too! Only chose Sweden Post because it was Free Shipping. Saved about $35 per package in shipping costs. Regretting it now. From now on, I will order a larger quantity and have it shipped by DHL. A larger quantity order will help lessen the per item shipping cost and the brokerage fee shouldn't be much more for a larger quantity.