Manipulated shipping tracking

[Allen]

Alright, here's another weird one.

I do a lot of on-line ordering thru WM and ebay, mostly WM these days. Most people seem to have no problems with Amazon but I've had nothing but problems and do not use their site any more.

OK, here we go, and this is to see if others have noticed this. Most of the time my orders come in on time and with no issues. Items that come from Chinese sellers are hit and miss as to whether the item will be as described or if you receive it or not. For clarity I'm speaking of 3rd party sellers. Ordering directly from WM I've never had any problems.

All that being said, I ordered something recently. It arrived a little early with no tracking (U.S. seller thru WM), then about 3 days later the tracking showed it had been shipped from MI or WI or somewhere, went to Fort Gaines, FL, then to Tampa, FL, then to Tallahassee, FL, then finally to me in AL showing arrival dates and times. The tracking was USPS tracking and none of this happened. I already had the package and all this circus occurred about a week later with tracking dates/times/places about a week after receiving. Shipping an item from MI to South FL then back Northward wouldn't have made sense either.

When ordering items from China via WM or ebay often the seller will disclose tracking from a Chinese carrier (of course) but the tracking meanders all over the place and never arrives. On one such purchase from a Chinese seller on WM the tracking and refund info all came in at once. The listing stated that WM had issued a refund and that the package had been delivered 2 days earlier. The refund was real (I didn't ask for it tho) but nothing else was. This was Chinese tracking AND USPS tracking too. WM and ebay both have been good at listening to my complaints and giving refunds when I supply fraudulent evidence but that's not the point.

Thoughts and questions being: How can someone manipulate the tracking with a made up number and made up times/destinations? This has occurred with foreign and USPS tracking. It has gotten to the point I don't believe any of it unless it is something ordered within the U.S. and even then it happens. I have read on user reviews that because the tracking showed an item had been shipped and delivered that the buyers could not ask for a refund nor replacement even though they received nothing. Some carriers now take a picture of the packages at your doorstep, carport, etc but this doesn't tell the whole story.

If a person sells something most print the shipping label which contains the tracking info. This alerts the carrier and the buyer that movement is occurring or will once the carrier receives it for shipping. As a seller, I've never had any way of controlling the tracking info and wouldn't have any need to. I guess this is something else that is being hacked. If so, it has become widespread.

Thoughts?

[JB White]

Hacked or ineptness?

I’ve had parcels given the runaround over the years including two that simply disappeared.
(Try collecting if it was insured.)

Some of the most memorable just because they were comical:

1: Two identical items. Same packaging and weight. Different addresses but same basic labels. Mailed at a PO in Chicago at the same time. One destined to the UK Midlands. The other to downstate Illinois. The UK parcel was in hand only 2 1/2 days later. Impressive!
The other went missing for weeks. Then saw half the states in the union before finally arriving.

Another on I sent to the UK toured Australia (Including Tasmania) before going to England.

One from the UK to me in the States visited Poland first. Arrived in Chicago. Then returned to the UK. Delivered to the return address so the sender had to pay international shipping twice.

A family member ordered Sony stereo headphones. Drop shipped from China. They arrived. A whole dozen of them! Only charged for a pair. Two days later another boxful arrived. Same invoice. No additional charges. But wait….
A week later yet another box arrived. Triple over shipment.
Everyone got Sony headphones for Christmas.

The most recent screwup was a missing parcel from me to the UK.
USPS said it departed O’Hare International. Royal Mail was notified but it never arrived at London-Heathrow.
About the time I was accepting it at a loss, BINGO! It turned up in Cyprus.
Took a while for the redirect but at least it made it before this Christmas.

Hacked? I don’t think so. Employees tossing in into the nearest bin without looking at destinations?
That sounds more plausible to me. The exception being the headphones.
I wonder if slave labor is involved in processing?? ��

[Allen]

When I say hacked I mean made up. In your case the packages got misdirected "big time". In my cases the packages were never shipped or were delivered before the tracking ever began.

[JB White]

I see what you’re saying now

[lyman]

some of it could it was stuck of sorts in teh computer handheld and traveled a bit, maybe,



re odd travels, I shipped 3 Med Flat Rate boxes, all dropped in the local APC at the same time,

one to Reno NV
one to SLC UT
one to ABQ NM

dropped off on a Fri or Sat (cannot remember which) after the PO closed

the Reno package got there in 2 days
the SLC and ABQ took a week long stay in Puerto Rico,
then bounced around the States, and not together , a couple days before reaching the destinations,


just picked up a friends rifle from USPS, it bounced around several states before being shown as held at the PO per the customer,
I never got a door tag, or notice,

fortunately I know the clerks at my post office and I just told then what too look for, (big box, with one of these 2 (shop or house) address, and got it with out issue

[Phloating Phlasher]

I mailed 2 boxes of "bullets". (projectiles, inert) To a legal, licensed shooter in the U.K.
It was in 2 boxes because I used the USPS flat rate small flat boxes, no other reason.
One arrived with no drama in 5 days.
The other vanished utterly. No tracking nothing! it just disappeared.
A year & more passed.
The person I was sending them to passed.
Suddenly, with zero explanation, the box arrived back at MY post office. an additional 7 months later!
It looked like hell.
Crushed, smashed, dented, waterlogged, & taped up multiple times with everything from duct tape to reinforced tape & some packing tape too!
Not a word of explanation.
We checked , the bullets were perfectly legal to ship from both U.S export & Brit import regulations. (bullets (projectiles) are recorded in the U.K. & "hunting" bullets are logged & recorded but "target" bullets are not.)
At that point I simply reloaded & shot them, all 89 of them from the 100 round count sealed box I shipped.

[Allen]

Crushed, smashed, dented, waterlogged, & taped up multiple times with everything from duct tape to reinforced tape & some packing tape too!
Not a word of explanation.

Sounds to me the work of customs, either on our end or theirs. They are well known for holding up shipments along with snooping, stealing and often just stashing it to the side to show their authority. They are accountable to no one.

[Phloating Phlasher]

Maybe both! :icon_lol:
But on only on of the two identical packages!

[JB White]

Friend sent me a bottle from a distillery in Scotland. (That’s a no-no)
Package arrived with a note from Customs saying they drank…err…confiscated the scotch.

[Allen]

It happened again yesterday. I ordered an item from WM on line from a Chinese seller in early December. Seller printed a shipping label which automatically list a tracking number. Item supposedly went all over China, cleared customs, then sat at an airport for about a week being loaded on the plane. Then the tracking number came up as "invalid order ID". I contacted WM customer service > they saw the fraud > they issued a refund. This was about 2 weeks ago. Yesterday I get an email stating the item had been delivered. Order history from WM was updated as well showing the item had been delivered along with a bunch of new U.S. tracking that suddenly appeared. The tracking that was supposed to have been in the U.S. showed NO cities, just BS like went here, went there, went to next destination, etc....

Needless to say. No item was received. Item was never shipped. That brings me back to my original post of "how do sellers manipulate the tracking"? It may be the foreign sellers or it may be WM. I've seen phony USPS tracking too. The PO would have no reason to do this so I've wondered if the system gets hacked.

This and similar occurrences are happening a lot.

So far, getting refunds from WM or ebay has not been a problem but if I wait till the tracking indicates the item has been delivered a return would be expected before given a refund. Of course you can't return something you never received so there you are.