happy chappy

I am not a very happy chappy now. We are travelling back to the uk end of June so sent off passports for the kids which needed renewing with plenty of time. We sent them with super dooper express parcel platinum 24hr service as they track them! and get a signature on delivery!

Sent them on the 1st April and they still don't have them. When you enter the tracking id it just comes up with "still in transit". Phones OZ post and they say they can't do anything and not to worry they are probably ok-oh well that's ok then if that's what you think. Phoned the office of Canberra where they were supposed to be delivered today(8th) and they don't have any record of them.

Trouble is they are UK passports due for renewal with visas in so I don't know how long it will take to sort it all out.

Anyone got any advice?
Should I report as stolen (which technically they aren't they are still being delivered) and start the application again-they may then turn up the next day!
Should I wait and risk not having them on time?

Anyone had a similar problem?

bcworld

I don't really have any advice for you.....just my sympathies. Auspost also recently lost my passport and I could not believe how poor their service was.

It also was sent to me Platinum registered tracked super duper next business day service, can't remember the exact name. The sender told me when they sent it and gave me the tracking ID.

After it hadn't shown up after a couple of days I called up the sender to check it was sent.....they checked with the office they sent it from and told me to go to my local post office where it was probably waiting. So off I go to the place I always pick up mail / parcels from and they don't have it.

I checked the online tracking system and it is tracked as being accepted in Brisbane, leaving Brisbane & arriving in Melbourne. Also it says that delivery was attempted (I was home at the time and never received a slip in the mailbox to let me know they tried to deliver) and that the item is at my 'local post office' - but doesn't list which one - and there are several!

So I call up to speak to someone and find out where it is.....the long and the short of it is they have no bloody idea - these items are not tracked at all - they know about certain stages of the journey - but once it's back in Aus post's hands at the local destination (after they get it back from Australian Air Express) they haven't a clue! So I spend 25 minutes speaking to this gruff woman who tells me to go to the post office I already tried even though I've already told her it's not there! :curse:

So she implements Aus posts version of tracking - calling every post office & post office counter in SE Melbourne and asking if it's there! After 25minutes and she hasn't found it yet she is clearly bored and decides to gives up and spins me some bullsh!t - 'You'll have to get the sender to call us so we can check that it was actually sent'. So I tell her I'm sitting looking at the tracking screen and I can see the date/times when it was picked up in Brisbane, arrived in Melbourne and apparently when they tried to deliver it to my place. But she insists the sender has to call.....I lost the plot at this point - FFS! :curse: :curse: When I asked to speak to a manager she resumed the calling of all post offices in SE Melbourne.

Sometime later, the package was located at a random post office counter nowhere near where I live. I had been on the phone wasting mine and her time for about an hour at this point....all for the sake of a decent tracking service.

Absolutely shocking for a so called platinum tracked service.

happy chappy

Well I am glad you got them in the end. I think in my case when they got to Canberra they were in a bag with a load of other deliveries and never got scanned so they now don't know if it even got there!

The thing that pees me off is know one taking any responsibility. I just hope they turn up as we are in for a load of hassle if they don't.

billymacker

Has the payment for the passports been taken out of your account if it has they have received your passports. because your payment details are with the forms.

happy chappy

Thanks for the reply-I am watching my account as you suggest to see if payment is processed-you are right that is one way of knowing. When I rang them though they told me they had not received them, so I really don't know what to think.

kez81

Similar thing happened to me basically you send it sign for but as it goes to a PO box there is no one to sign it so they have no record of it being delivered this is what happened to mine & my daughters.

I only knew they had a received it when the postal orders where cashed it took 8 weeks for ours to come

datamile

I just got my daughter's passport renewed and they didn't take the money out of my account until just before I got it back (it took 1 month to process).

I would probably wait a couple more days but obviously since its taking a month to process them you don't want to wait too long!

Pomster

I was tracking mine....the passport place finally registered receipt on a Friday about 3 weeks after posting.
I recieved the new passport on Tuesday (ie 2 working days after they acknowledged receipt).


So my advice is- dont panic just yet!

Wol

They are taking ten working days at the moment. I renewed my UK passport a couple of weeks ago but actually dropped the forms into Canberra since I was spending a few nights there anyway. I also used Platinum for the return and got the new passport back only two weeks after dropping the old one in. I was surprised and relieved!

Keep checking the account, and good luck!

PoppetUK

I do hope things turn up quickly. You don't need this do you!!!!

Just out of interest I need to renew my daughters UK passport before we travel to the UK. She's had her first five year one and although it is still valid will not have 6 months left on it. Will I have to send off my passport to do this to?

We are planning on travelling at the end of June so do I need to get my skates on?

Thanks in advance.

happy chappy

Thanks for the confidence boost, I hope they are just in the system somewhere and not totally lost,I get a headache just thinking about the hassle to sort out new ones. I don't even know how I would get the visas replaced in the passports without the old ones to show them.

I will update if I get any news.

happy chappy

Well with hindsight I would have traveled to the UK and taken a day out of my holiday and sorted the passport there as apparently it's cheaper and you don't have to post it.

My two daughters red UK passports with visa's in needed renewing so that is why they had to be sent to Canberra where the high commision is but even after you get them back you will still have to get the visa changed in them.

My experience has obviously made me wary of the post even though it's sent express platinum so I would change mine in the UK next time if I was travelling there anyway.

PoppetUK

When I was looking into doing this I was told that some airlines won't let you travel unless you have 6 months remaining because like you thought about the money I could save and the hassle etc.

PoppetUK

I have just been looking at the form. Am I right in saying that for a renewal you don't need to send the parents passports / birth certificates off. Not sure if my pregnancy brain is playing tricks.

Thanks in advance.

scamp1976

To be honest it's probably not the post that lost your passports, it's probably the Canberra office that lost them. They lost our medicals too and the panel doctor said to us "oh.. ye that happens quite a lot in Sydney, I'll send a new copy" he wasn't even surprised. So call Canberra and tell them to look for the passports because chances are they lost them, not the post.