Since I do not own a blog website to tell anyone of my experience when this issue happened to me this month, I decided just to put the screenshots into a video here on YouTube.
Early this month I sold a second hand item on my Trade Me account and as usual I used the courier booking option on TradeMe to send the parcel to the buyer - I must admit the courier pricing is really good ! I have done that many times this year with no issue mainly once the item has been picked up/collected by the courier from my residence (letterbox or front door) then I can see the tracking status updated as "Collected from Sender" immediately as soon as the item is scanned by the courier driver upon collection.
So I know that the courier has until 5 pm to collect parcels and just after 5pm on the collection day I checked my letterbox and the item was gone but the tracking status was not updated. It remained as "Tracking number allocated to parcel" with no update on Date/Time of "Collected from Sender".
At one point I thought maybe the junk mail delivery people had stolen it or anyone who happened to dropped off something into the letterbox.
I was extremely worried so I emailed the NZ Post / Courier Post (Dedicated Freight Forward Team) to inform them that item has been picked up but status not updated and you can see their reply. And I also informed the buyer what happened.
I was worried all night because I could not afford to give the buyer's money back if the parcel had been stolen from my letterbox. So the next morning when I went to check the tracking status again I was so relieved that now I could see the tracking status updated and the parcel was on its way to the buyer.
My points about this shipment:
1. Why the delay in updating the tracking status?
2. It seems the tracking of this parcel is missing at least one step - something like "Processing at the depot" and/or "Handover to courier for delivery" which means that this parcel was not scanned when it was at the depot prior to being handed over to the delivery courier.
3. The parcel required signature but during Covid-19, it became 'non-signature' for health & safety reasons.
4. I feel that it is UNFAIR not to update the status at each stage of processing as it can cause anxiety to the sender that the parcels might have gone missing in the process.
My suggestion to anyone who encounter this issue:
Wait until the next day and check the tracking status again, there may be a reason why it was not updated promptly that we don't know what's happening on their side. If anyone knows the actual reasons (maybe you work in the courier delivery network) please comment below !
