track your parcel not working

[geert_hermans_belgium]

I've bought an item for the first time from the USA via GSP. I live in Belgium, Europe. The tracking link worked just fine up until the departure from the KY shipping center in Erlanger, but from there on it tells me that the shipment has been sent to Interpost for international delivery. It then provides some number starting with "# LPKEN..." which links to www.trackyourparcel.eu.

The site is a joke. Two fields, asking for an order reference and ZIP code. No additional instructions, no contact information...

I've tried just about every possible combination I could think of. The number from the link, with the hash symbol, without, only the numeric portion... The original tracking number for the US shipping. The eBay transaction number. The ZIP code for delivery, with and without a "BE" prefix for Belgium, with and without city name behind it (who knows, maybe they copied the line verbatim from eBay)...

The only thing this site ever spits back in my face is "combination not found".

The item was shipped for international delivery yesterday. Do I just need to wait it out and see if it comes up on that site, or is there some magic combination that I must input to get my parcel status? Or, does it simply not work?

I don't even know who is responsible for that site. Is it eBay? Pitney Bowes? Some carrier I don't know of? I have no idea who I may even contact for info.

The GSP draws enough criticism from sellers as it is, but as a buyer it seems you're left out in the cold even more. If this service is to be taken seriously by the people who will drive it (i.e. international buyers) you're gonna have to do better than this. If the listing says "international tracking included", then I expect international tracking. Not just for some part of the trajectory, or depending on the whims of some web service that for all I know may not even call anything on the back-end.

I realize there's two other discussions on these boards regarding Trackyourparcel.eu, but this needs to be brought to attention.

[ultramarinedreams]

I just wanted to say thank you for figuring out how www.trackyourparcel.eu works! I've been trying different combinations at that site for days without being able to make it work so this thread was really helpful.

Just some thoughts: When Track Your Parcel finally gave me some information it wasn't what I was looking for at all, but it provided me with a new tracking number which lead to another site, that proved to be a dead end, unable to track the parcel.

Once I entered the new tracking number into the tracking system of my own country's postal service the parcel finally turned up. So now I know where my parcel is a day before it probably arrives in my mail box (one week late).

Since the tracking procedure included four different sites and the shipping turned out to be quite slow I'm not very impressed by the system. I plan to avoid GSP as much as possible in the future.

[marnotom!]

Open question:

Why is it important for some buyers to be able to track a shipment while its in transit?  By my thinking, either you have the item or you don't and tracking won't change that fact.

[afantiques]

It's the kids in the back seat saying are we there yet, are we there yet, are we nearly  there yet...............

People grow out of it.

.

[geert_hermans_belgium]

I believe the shipping within The Netherlands was also handled by ABC for me. But from there it went into the hands of the Belgian postal services.

[geert_hermans_belgium]

It's not simple impatience. Knowing when you might be expecting your package to arrive can help in making sure you or someone else is available to receive it. Also, knowing WHERE your package is will give you something to work with in case something goes wrong or it doesn't show up. The simple fact is, you're paying for tracking, they claim you can follow it up, so it should work.

[chatwin50]

Same problem: the parcel was handed out on September 17 by the seller and it has been in Erlanger-Ky since September 19...and I haven't been able to track it since then (combination not found)
When will eBay (America) do something to protect its customers (buyers and sellers)? I paid 24,55 dollars for an item 19,99 worth.
EBay is as responsible as Interpost for this unfair behaviuor.
Last April I got a sari from New Deli in 4 days...What about American EBay?

[dutchwhizzman]

It is important so you know your item is not lost or stolen. It is because you want to know an (estimated) delivery time. It is important because you paid for the service to be able to track your item. And most importantly, eBay requires tracking to be available if you want buyers protection. I find the money I had to pay to get my item shipped via their service and the quality and speed rather bad. DHL, UPS and others provide a better experience for this sort of money. I will be filing a complaint about the abysmal quality of their tracking and the time it takes them to ship small items once I have my item received. By the looks of it now, it will take forever to get here, once the item got shipped I have not been able to get an estimated arrival date from them....

[marnotom!]

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@dutchwhizzman wrote:
It is important so you know your item is not lost or stolen. It is because you want to know an (estimated) delivery time. It is important because you paid for the service to be able to track your item. And most importantly, eBay requires tracking to be available if you want buyers protection. I find the money I had to pay to get my item shipped via their service and the quality and speed rather bad. DHL, UPS and others provide a better experience for this sort of money. I will be filing a complaint about the abysmal quality of their tracking and the time it takes them to ship small items once I have my item received. By the looks of it now, it will take forever to get here, once the item got shipped I have not been able to get an estimated arrival date from them....

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Tracking won't make a lost or stolen item reach you.   It doesn't necessarily help you estimate a delivery time, as you've found.  If you're not impressed by the quality of service you've received, tracking won't make much difference to you.

If your item reached you within a week of purchase without tracking, would you have been so concerned about not being able to track it?

[afantiques]

And most importantly, eBay requires tracking to be available if you want buyers protection.

This in not true at all. Tracking can be a factor in seller protection, but it is worth less than nothing to buyers.

The reason it is worth nothing is that without it you will still be able to claim if an item is not delivered, and it is in fact worth less than nothing to the buyer who has tracking on the parcel that says it has been delivered when it has not been delivered to them.

In the latter case,, tracking that is wrong means the buyer loses the money they paid unless the seller believes them rather than the tracking.

[kariandlarrysales]

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@dutchwhizzman wrote:
It is important so you know your item is not lost or stolen. It is because you want to know an (estimated) delivery time. It is important because you paid for the service to be able to track your item. And most importantly, eBay requires tracking to be available if you want buyers protection. I find the money I had to pay to get my item shipped via their service and the quality and speed rather bad. DHL, UPS and others provide a better experience for this sort of money. I will be filing a complaint about the abysmal quality of their tracking and the time it takes them to ship small items once I have my item received. By the looks of it now, it will take forever to get here, once the item got shipped I have not been able to get an estimated arrival date from them....

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Believe you have it backwards - tracking (delivery confirmation) is required for seller protection.

I agree that if you pay for a service, i.e. Tracking, you should get it but compare GSP to other shipping methods. I could ask my buyers to pay for UPS/Fedex Next Day Air or GXG at a ridicules price & you might see the point by point updates you seem to want but otherwise my choices are USPS or GPS.

USPS FCI/PMI is generally less expensive than GSP & there's no point by point tracking either..

Shipping via USPS can "take forever" also. I suspect every US seller who ships even a few USPS First Class International packages, has at one time or another, made a refund to a buyer & two or three weeks later, gotten an email saying the package finally arrived. The most likely cause for the delay is that it remained in customs in the importing country for some period of time.

If you buy from me, you have 45 days from payment to file an Item Not Received & tracking is of no beneft to you. If I can't show DC, you'll prevail. The double-edged sword is that if I can show delivered, I'd prevail, even if you never received the item. 

File a complaint if you like, certainly your right. Are you sure, however, you have realistic expectations?

[fiona43]

I am trying to track a parecel from US to Ireland and cannot do it either, it seems that link page is either just not working or not updated because nothing comes up on that link page to track your parcel. 

[phil6481]

Hello,
 
I have exactly the same problem, I do not keep up with moin number given up, I no longer have followed since October 11, the delivery must be made in Belgium (Walloon Region) how to please follow the delivery time is estimated at 26 October, that is to say on Saturday ...

Thank you for helping me

Phil

[phil6481]

Hello, have you received your package thank you because I have the same problem now with my sends thank you in advance for your response

[gunnar_$_medial.se]

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@marnotom! wrote:

Open question:

Why is it important for some buyers to be able to track a shipment while its in transit?  By my thinking, either you have the item or you don't and tracking won't change that fact.

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The important thing is that they DO offer a link to package tracking AND that link does not result in usable information.

So both Ebay and the buyer would be better off if the link would not have been there.

Other than that I do agree; the package won´t arrive any faster from knowing where it is.
One good thing however is that you will have a better sense of when the package will arrive
provided that tracking information is actually accessible.

[etsav]

Same problem: bought item from USA to Italy, but tracking not possible ("Combination not found") on http://www.trackyourparcel.eu (more than three days passed since I received info of shipping from Erlanger....)

I hope ebay will do something...