Parcel taking Months to deliver!

[niche]

Hi all, Im in a dilemma here, I sent an order to Brussels on 15 Jan 2021 for £180 with Parcelforce (via Parcel2go) its been long saga and has been stuck with Belgium customs for over a month due to Brexit and all that. Nothing has changed on the tracking since 10 Feb which says its with customs, despite having chats with parcel2go they just say there are big delays and say there is nothing they can do and we have to wait. The customer, quite rightly so it getting more and more annoyed and wanting a refund. Ive said I cannot issue a refund whilst the parcel is the hands of customs and still en route and not showing as lost or similar. I do feel there is only so long I can hold her off though and wonder what I should do. I assume Im in my rights to not refund at this stage (it may still be delivered - I keep hoping). Any views or advice very welcome!

[msereader]

We had a similar situation recently...

We use Interparcel as our broker for European parcels and most of the time end up choosing Parcelforce as the carrier. We find their cost / delivery time is very competitive when selecting from the six or more carrier / delivery services that Interparcel will offer.

Anyway, we sent a parcel to Germany (using Parcelforce) on Monday 22 Feb. Parcelforce tracking shows a tracking event of Exported from the UK on the 24th. Since then, nothing has changed, and the parcel isn’t showing as having crossed the channel yet, let alone arrived in Germany!

As a result, I phoned Interparcel yesterday to see if they could throw any light on this. As always, they were very helpful and explained the comms between Parcelforce and the carrier responsible for the end delivery isn’t always that great, especially just now. They then emailed me a tracking link for DHL, who handled the actual delivery.

I clicked this link to find the parcel had been delivered on Thursday 25th at 12:07 p.m. As of a few minutes ago, Parcelforce tracking is still the same, i.e., the parcel hasn’t even arrived in Germany yet!

Sorry if this is long-winded but my point is it may be worth contacting Parcel2Go and asking them who the final carrier is and do they have a tracking link for them. If they do, like me, you may be pleasantly surprised; I do hope so.

Out of interest, we use FedEx for non-European destinations, but they are expensive. The reason we use them though is they own / operate the world’s largest cargo airline. So, if they accept a parcel, they've room on a plane for it. They also use Electronic Trade Documents (ETDs) for customs clearance - nothing to sign and no sticking commercial invoices in pouches on the parcel, a big plus from my point of view.

Deliveries to US are currently taking 2 -3 working days. To Australia, 5 - 7 as opposed to the 14 - 21 days backlog / customs clearance delays experienced by other couriers. Cost over uncertainty? I know which my customers prefer...

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Geoff
MSE Books

[niche]

Hi thanks for your great and helpful reply Geoff. Yes we normally prefer to pay more to get the better paperless couriers now. I have had the local Belgium Post tracking link for weeks but hasn't shifted for a month. I have spoken to parcel2go 4 times or more, no joy - they just keep saying my ticket it resolved as it is not lost and I need to wait for customs!

My dilemma was really whether I should be considering a refund to the customer or absolutely not as its stuck in customs? I wouldn't be happy if I waited more than 2 months for an order to arrive!