Advice on French postal service

[MartinH]

Can any of you who live in France give me some advice on la Poste. I bought some leaflets on eBay (Salmson catalogues) from an apparently reputable French seller. Posted on July 30 and haven't arrived. The tracker on laposte.fr simply shows the one entry "pris en charge par la poste" then nothing. I have opened a case with eBay and the seller is being helpful. 

My questions are; is it normal to see no tracking stages beyond the initial "proof of posting" and is there a worthwhile process for tracing lost mail or do I just get a refund from eBay and then let the seller deal with la Poste. I really do want the items.

[bob46320]

You should see a bit more tracking info than that. Did the seller fill out a Customs Declaration ?? It would be needed as the goods are being exported from the customs union.

[Michael D]

My personal experience with French postal services have been quite different no matter what I bought nor from whom. Indeed I too have experienced more than once that the tracking 'stopped' at a certain hub or depot only for the parcel to arrive several days later.. obviously some employees of French postal services are not careful i.e. not actually scanning all parcels that are going through their hands (or machines) May even be that after the 'prise en charge' the parcel has not even left the initial postoffice where it has been dropped off. In one case of mine (seller living in a small town in the south of France) it took the parcel more than two weeks to arrive (tracking going lost after parcel having reached a depot in the north of France....
Personally I'd wait another week or so but would not bother with trying to get French Postal services to retrieve it.... leave communicating with the French laPoste to the French vendor.... Of course you want the items bought but you will not be pleased by the frustration of dealing with the difficult communication with French postal servies either

[Reckless Rat]

Just be aware that we are still in the middle of the French holiday period. Nothing gets done between the end of July and the beginning of September as most of France closes down for the holidays. There will be skeleton services running and "La Poste" is no different, so please don't expect a 1st class postal service at this time of the year. With the coronavirus adding to the problems deliveries are even slower. It often takes small packages ten days to a fortnight to get here from the UK.

[MartinH]

Thanks everyone. I have also had more communication from the seller. Looks like the combination of August holidays and Covid19 means I should sit tight for another 2 or so weeks. Its already been 3 weeks but the seller says that current deliveries to UK are taking 4-6 weeks.

[Tony Press]

Good greif ! The postage from UK  to Australia is around four weeks ! Similar from USA . Remind me not to buy anything from France.

[Reckless Rat]

It is very slow and I don't know why. From time to time I order a pack of meat products from an on-line butchery in Linlithgow, Scotland and it arrives at Rekkers Towers in deepest darkest frogland by DHL courier in less than 24 hours.

[David.H]

Private service vs an arthritic,bureaucratic system. ....not just cost either. Many national postal servicesare the same...US mail can be dreadful in my experience.  My company never used Mail service to send anything to the USA.

[Ivor Hawkins]

I ordered some BA screws on the 5th of August, they were from a Company in Derbyshire and posted Royal Mail second class...they still haven’t arrived and I’m only a couple of counties away!

[Tony Griffiths]

You should see a bit more tracking info than that.  Did the seller fill out a Customs Declaration ??  It would be needed as the goods are being exported from the customs union.

At the moment there is no need to attach a customs form to any package delivered by the ordinary mail service within the EU. I know, because I've sent out rather a lot every week during the past 30 years. Come January 1st next year it all changes and a simple stick-on form is all that will be required - just as it is at the moment when posting to any country outside the EU.

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By far the worst postal service of any developed country is South Africa; in one year only 20% of the packages we sent arrived. Reports from those in the know claim that they are stolen in either customs pr by postal workers. However, a new system has just started, "Postnet", a private enterprise that appears reliable; if you send anything to SA, make sure the recipient has a Postnet address. Last year 20% of our packages failed to make it to an Italian address; 2% to the USA; 2% to the Netherlands; 1% to France and 0% to everywhere else - save the odd one to places like Portugal, Spain, Albania and Romania where we send few in any case and a percentage figure would be meaningless.