Disappeared Parcel From France To Saudi Arabia

[iruciperi]

Hi pen friends,

 

 

I'm writing this post to ask you to do me a favor for resolving an issue on a parcel disappeared on its way from France to Saudi Arabia.

 

I (the seller) just moved to France, and sold a pen to a guy (the buyer) living n Saudi Arabia.

 

He firstly requested to use DHL, but I suggested to usel French post office as I was not able to visit DHL office at that time.

 

We agreed to use the French post office (La Poste), and he requested to declare its value to around USD100.00 (the actual value I received for the pen was around 600.00) due to the custom issue, and I accepted to do so.

 

I sent it using the service "Colissimo" of La Poste, and gave the buyer the tracking number. The buyer said it was weird because the parcel could not be tracked in the Saudi Post's website, but only in La Poste's website. You know, mostly a international parcel can be tracked at any post office's website.

 

Anyway, the tracking info of La Poste's website worked, and we waited for the parcel.

 

At the day that the La Poste tracking info said that the parcel is arrived to the destination country, the buyer sent me a PM that the Saudi Post website still does not show any information. Moreover, Saudi Post website said there's no parcel for the tracking number.

 

It is now more strange. The parcel must be able to be tracked by Saudi Post's website because it was now in Saudi Arabia, but it did not.

 

 

Finally.. today, La Poste's website told me that the parcel has been delivered, but the buyer told me he has not received it.

 

He said the postal system of Saudi Arabia is a bit different from any other's in a way that the post office don't "deliver" a parcel to the receiver. They only keep the parcel in the post office, and the receiver must visit the post office with the tracking number and his ID to receive the parcel. So, the parcel can never be "received" if the tracking number doesn't work.

 

And of course the parcel needs a signature to be delivered, but La Poste tracking system is still saying that the parcel has been delivered.

 

 

I visited La Poste office, and the office said, again, the parcel has been delivered. Period.

 

 

So we are in trouble. The address has no problem as the buyer confirmed it in the photo of the receipt.

 

 

I will visit another branch of La Poste in next business day, but I think it is very unlikely that the parcel will be delivered to the buyer, or sent back to me. So I feel I have to consider another solution to solve this issue.

 

Yes, the insurance can be claimed, but.. you know, they are saying THE PARCEL HAS BEEN DELIVERED. Will they accept an insurance claim for a parcel that is marked as delivered..? I don't know.. but it's pretty unlikely, I think..

 

And even if they accept the claim, the problem is not fully solved as its value is declared a way less than its actual value. They will give me only USD100.00.

 

Is there anyone who has some experience of troubleshooting with French post office, or Saudi Arabia post office..? and could you please help me with solving it...? I just moved to France about a month ago, and it's my first time to use French post office (La Poste). It's very embarrassing and confusing..

 

 

I attach the tracking history of La Poste.

 

 

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/uploads/imgs/fpn_1557264093__saudi_jpg.jpg

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/uploads/imgs/fpn_1557263932__saudi2_jpg.jpg

 

 

The most suspicious part of the tracking history is at the third line, saying the address is incomplete, but the situation is somehow cleared before I go to the post office and they are saying it's been delivered.

 

[Jawafridi]

Yeah most of what you wrote is what actually happened but I told from the very start about the Saudi Post that they don't deliver to the address we have to pickup the parcel personally that's why I asked for DHL as they deliver shipment to our address here and most of the time I get my pens from big names (Letizia, penboard, stilograph etc) in pen community through DHL because that's the safest option here.

I cant see the option of attachment but if you could also attach the message of Saudi post website. Thanks

[Uncial]

I'd advise waiting a week before looking at other options. The tracking may list as delivered once it reaches the target country. It would be quite an incredible postal service that would be able to process and deliver on arrival unless it is some manner of express service.

[silverlifter]

This is why you should never agree to understate the value of the pen. Not only is it illegal, but you as the sender will always end up out-of-pocket in a dispute.

 

I have received parcels through La Poste and there is typically a delay between the information on the La Poste site and my national mail provider, but the difference is that my provider can track La Poste numbers and provide accurate information about the delivery.

 

I'd tell the buyer to open an invetsigation with their postal provider as the parcel was lost in their jurisdiction. If the parcel cannot be recovered, then I'd reimburse them $100, as that is the value they placed on the pen.

[Jawafridi]

This is why you should never agree to understate the value of the pen. Not only is it illegal, but you as the sender will always end up out-of-pocket in a dispute.

 

I have received parcels through La Poste and there is typically a delay between the information on the La Poste site and my national mail provider, but the difference is that my provider can track La Poste numbers and provide accurate information about the delivery.

 

I'd tell the buyer to open an invetsigation with their postal provider as the parcel was lost in their jurisdiction. If the parcel cannot be recovered, then I'd reimburse them $100, as that is the value they placed on the pen.

[Jawafridi]

Yeah that's fine but Saudi post says that the package never reached here as there is no record what so ever for package to reach in saudi Arabia specially if we check Saudi post website with tracking number. Also french post is not showing the name of the places through which the Package made transit and if you follow it few days back it showed that package arrived in the destination country and then next day again it showed that package is being transported to destination country. Lastly it should be asked from the french post that if it was delivered where is the signature and usually they check ID so where is the proof that it was delivered to me. The Saudi Post is not acknowledging as from the very first day there is no record. The seller also has the tracking and I sent him the website of Saudi post.. It says not data found

[silverlifter]

It's an issue for Saudi Post to investigate. Once La Poste register it as landed in Saudi, then there is nothing more that they can do. The seller can open an investigation with La Poste as well, but the groundwork will be done in SA anyway.

[Jawafridi]

That's what I told you they say it didn't come to Saudi Arabia at all. I talked to them I had heated conversations they were bent on that I need to check it from the sender. That's all. My question is if theres no record in their side for the shipment to arrive what am I suppose to do. Because we expats have limit pushing things here in saudia specially if they say there's no record and it is true that there was no record of this shipment from the very first day on Saudi post and I brought this to the notice of seller.

[Jawafridi]

I'd advise waiting a week before looking at other options. The tracking may list as delivered once it reaches the target country. It would be quite an incredible postal service that would be able to process and deliver on arrival unless it is some manner of express service.

[Jawafridi]

I'd advise waiting a week before looking at other options. The tracking may list as delivered once it reaches the target country. It would be quite an incredible postal service that would be able to process and deliver on arrival unless it is some manner of express service.

I hope also that this "delivered" over here would mean that it has reached the post office (head office) in Riyadh the capital city and from there they dispatch to other cities like I live in Jeddah and also I will go tomorrow personally again. I know that if shipment enters Saudi Arabia it takes 4 to 5 working days to reach to the post office of my district. But this word delivered worried me alot as I got few tracked mails (not this pricy) from UK but they were updating at every city the shipment was transiting..

Edited May 8, 2019 by Jawafridi

[fountainpagan]

I you have not done it yet, I would advise you to

 

- telephone the Client Service of La Poste at : 3631.

 

- Moreover you may write to them at - Service Clients - 99999 La Poste

 

- Or by Mail : For that, go to THIS page, choose case 2, and fill the tracking number of the form that will appear, then you may say what is the matter, and send the mail.

 

I would advise you to phone first, and send a letter with all the details after. By phoning, you will make them open a research case. by sending the letter, there will also be a phisical proof of the case. They will write you back to state the case is regeistered, and the research on. Then, call them every week, until the parcel is found (or not).

 

I must say that when I havve decided to sell all my MB Limited Edition inks (I have many), I have sent parcels all over the world, China included. Three, or four, were in the same situation as yours. I filled a complaint totheir services, and askked for a research to be made (but actually they start doing it the moment you fille the complaint). All my parcels arrived to the person they should have to!

[Paul80]

This is one of the big risks with using international mail.

 

Not all counties offer the same level or standard of post, I am in the UK so use Royal mail International Tracked & Signed and have never seen any record of a signature being captured so can only go on the tracking record.

 

I once sold five items to on eBay to a buyer in Spain, all identical items all sent a few days to a week apart, Royal mail tracking showed all 5 were delivered.

 

The buyer opened a case through PayPal for none delivery and even though the royal mail claimed they were all delivered, Paypal found in favour of the buyer and gave him all his money back.

 

Why did they ignore the information provided by Royal Mail, it was because their tracking site said delivered to the postcode and country shown, it did not say the actual street address so according to PayPal it could have been delivered to any of the houses with that same Postcode. Had there been a signature captured which was what I paid for it might have been more obvious where they were delivered.

 

That is one of the reasons I no longer sell outside the UK.

 

On the other foot, I bought some items from a well known pen tool supplier in America and the tracking number showed it was delivered in the UK nearly 2 weeks before it was actually delivered.

 

I suspect this issue will resolve itself fine in a few more days when both postal systems catch up with each other, France Post delivered might simply mean its delivered to SA customs and once its cleared there the Tracking number will be passed to SA Post.

 

i once sent a parcel to a buyer in Luxembourg (As in the grand duchy of Luxembourg) (UK to Europe) The parcel eventually turned up after a visit to Luxembourg in America.

 

Give it time I am sure it will sort itself out eventually.

 

Paul

[txomsy]

Not necessarily. I have a couple parcels from USA tracked until their exit from USA and "arrival" at the local airport. Then nothing. The local Post Office claimed they never landed, the USPS claimed they left from USA. And that was it.

 

I guess that someone "lost" the parcels either during handling at either airport, plane loading/unloading, or during customs clearance. No way to know. I waited up to two months, always checking the tracking both at origin and destination postal services. They never changed status.

 

Then, I have had parcels from Asia being tracked until they left the last international hub without any later tracking, yet they arrived (but for one). I guess there are international agreements based on handling costs so that some places track and others don't.

 

That's why it is better to state the real price.

 

Even if you state a lower price, it doesn't mean you'll save inconveniences. Sometimes, even a minimal price item may be stopped at customs and taxes collected (with the corresponding extra cost and inconveniences).

[1nkulus]

AFAIK, the postal system works with PO Box and Postal code. Only couriers like DHL, FedEx etc. deliver to the home address, else you have to go to the central post office in the area and collect from your PO Box.

 

As an expat, you can't get heavy handed as it will cause more issues.

It is a lot easier to take a local friend along to sort it.

 

It maybe a case that all international mail enters through the capital Riyadh and is then sent to the respective cities.

The above would not apply to couriers.

 

Your local post office should be able to locate your parcel with the name, PO Box and Postal code.

The holy month of Ramadan has started on Monday, so things are bound to get slower.

 

It is likely that Saudi Post does not offer tracking for incoming foreign parcels and Saudi Post will simply inform La Poste when the parcel arrives in SA rather than when the recipient collects it.

 

So, the tracking is basically till it leaves France and the final update will be when Saudi Post decide to update La Poste.

 

What is the customs duty on a $100 item? It could delay the process, irrespective of the amount due.

[Jawafridi]

I got few shipments from UK via royal mail.Theres a mobile app of Saudi post which gives your step by step updates which takes 2 to 3 days to upload initially when the shipment is made from country abroad but afterwards its fine. I sent the seller the screenshots of how I get the updates on that mobile app but for this post from the very start since 26th may till today its showing "no record found". You're right about ramadan and the timings have changed as well its from 9 in the night to 2am in the morning as I checked yesterday. I'm working as a doctor here in the ministry of health hospital and I told the seller as well that tonight I'm gonna go personally and see what I can do. You must be knowing that it's difficult if you're an expat and don't know their language properly but taking a local seems a good idea.At the same time its a request from the seller that he should also followup with the french as one of members mentioned in above post here about the exact way how to raise an issue with French post, he has provided a link as well.

Edited May 8, 2019 by Jawafridi

[Jawafridi]

I got few shipments from UK via royal mail.Theres a mobile app of Saudi post which gives your step by step updates which takes 2 to 3 days to upload initially when the shipment is made from country abroad but afterwards its fine. I sent the seller the screenshots of how I get the updates on that mobile app but for this post from the very start since 26th may till today its showing "no record found". You're right about ramadan and the timings have changed as well its from 9 in the night to 2am in the morning as I checked yesterday. I'm working as a doctor here in the ministry of health hospital and I told the seller as well that tonight I'm gonna go personally and see what I can do. You must be knowing that it's difficult if you're an expat and don't know their language properly but taking a local seems a good idea.At the same time its a request from the seller that he should also followup with the french as one of members mentioned in above post here about the exact way how to raise an issue with French post, he has provided a link as well.

Edited May 8, 2019 by Jawafridi

[1nkulus]

I got few shipments from UK via royal mail.Theres a mobile app of Saudi post which gives your step by step updates which takes 2 to 3 days to upload initially when the shipment is made from country abroad but afterwards its fine. I sent the seller the screenshots of how I get the updates on that mobile app but for this post from the very start since 26th may till today its showing "no record found". You're right about ramadan and the timings have changed as well its from 9 in the night to 2am in the morning as I checked yesterday. I'm working as a doctor here in the ministry of health hospital and I told the seller as well that tonight I'm gonna go personally and see what I can do you must be knowing that it's difficult if you're an expat and don't know their language properly but taking a local seems a good idea.At the time its a request from the seller that he should also followup with the french as one of members mentioned in above post here about the exact way how to raise an issue with French post, he has provided a link as well.

 

I also take it your correspondence address will be the work address where the P.R.O will collect the mail daily from the local post office or since it is a hospital, Saudi Post may directly deliver.

 

Have you checked with the internal mail? They might have been left with a notification to ask you to collect the item in person.

Edited May 8, 2019 by 1nkulus

[1nkulus]

Confirm the address with the seller.

 

Also, Saudi Post takes 4-7 working days for delivery within the country. I would wait till the end of the week.

 

When you do go to the post office next week, take a local friend because of the 'address issue' it could still be hanging around the local post office and will require some chit chat to sort it.

 

Tracking states,

May 4 - Arrived in recipient's country.

May 5 - Parcel is on it's way to the destination country.

 

Which is it?

 

Saudi Post offers a dedicated postal service to the UK so the systems would be in sync whereas the same might not be the case with France.

There is a similar dedicated service to India, Egypt, GCC etc.

Edited May 8, 2019 by 1nkulus

[Intensity]

In my experience with shipping to and receiving from other countries, it can take up to a few days for the package to go through customs. Always, unless it's a global 1-day express kind of service, tracking will say departed airport X (distribution airport of that mail service) and then it might say arrived in airport Y of the destination country after a while. It might say nothing for a few days. Then the progress can be slow until the package is released from the customs back to the next distribution service. There are usually no tracking updates while a package is going through customs, and as I mentioned it can take multiple days for tracking to start updating again.

 

Also, each tracking system works best for the country it was made for--not for the rest of the world. I.e. if I send to the UK, I track via United States Postal Service site until I see my package land in the UK. Then I track via the Royal Mail website. This is how I just last week learned that customs import fees need to be paid on a package I had sent ($20 value, heh, so pretty low fee), and I was able to follow the links on Royal Mail to pay those so the receiving company does not have to. None of that is shown on the USPS tracking site, only Royal Mail. When receiving from, say, China or Japan, USPS tracking will continue saying "Origin Post is Preparing Shipment" up until the package is already in USA just past the customs. But checking via Japan or China tracking system, it will be apparent that actually the package has been traveling from point to point for a while--USPS just doesn't include this information on its tracking page.

 

Finally, if in the OP's case the Saudi Post is the distribution service, then the best thing to do is to contact the Saudi Post for help with tracking the package.

Edited May 8, 2019 by Intensity

[Jawafridi]

Confirm the address with the seller.

 

Also, Saudi Post takes 4-7 working days for delivery within the country. I would wait till the end of the week.

 

When you do go to the post office next week, take a local friend because of the 'address issue' it could still be hanging around the local post office and will require some chit chat to sort it.

 

Tracking states,

May 4 - Arrived in recipient's country.

May 5 - Parcel is on it's way to the destination country.

 

Which is it?

 

Saudi Post offers a dedicated postal service to the UK so the systems would be in sync whereas the same might not be the case with France.

There is a similar dedicated service to India, Egypt, GCC etc.

He sent me the picture of address section in receipt which was fine, just one digit in postal code seems slightly confusing. The address was of my house which is in the family compound of the hospital.

As I have mentioned before that there is no record what so ever of this tracking number on saudi post web site. I brought this ambiguity in the notice of seller about French post status between 4th May and 5 th may as pointed out by you, that first on 4th May it says reached the country of destination then clearing custom then on 5th May again "trasiting to destination country" and the next message was the "shipment under transit" which is the same initial message as day 2 of the transit.