Over the course of this afternoon we received several reports that sellers and buyers were having bother with Royal Mail‘s online parcel tracking system.
One seller reported that when they entered a valid tracking number into the Track and Trace facility they were receiving this message: “Sorry – we don’t recognise that reference number.
Please check the reference number is correct.”
If you’ve been frustrated this afternoon then be aware there is a problem. It’s not just you or an inaccurate tracking number. Royal Mail are aware there’s a problem and seem to be on the case. Here’s what they said in a Tweet at just before 4pm:
We're still working hard on a fix for the tracking issue where some items are coming up invalid, so hang tight & try again in a while.
— Royal Mail (@RoyalMail) October 25, 2016
Obviously this is a huge frustration to shippers and recipients but hopefully Royal Mail is well on the way to resolving the issue. And it is good to see them acknowledging the problem on Twitter. Although that will be cold comfort to those experiencing the problem.
Have you been affected? Maybe it is already resolved?
7 Responses
We’ve been trying to figure out what we’d done wrong on a parcel we’re investigating for a buyer who requested an update through eBay of his package. The number was consecutive in our range with the correct check digit. A relief to see this. Thanks for announcing the issue, Tamebay!
It has been going on since Monday morning now and the tracking issue shows no sign of getting fixed. I called Royal Mail and suggested they would put a note on the tracking page to inform people that the service is out of order, as nothing on the site suggests anything is wrong with it. However ( or should I say obviously), nothing has happened. It’s pretty embarrassing, as I don’t want buyers to think i’m supplying them with dodgy tracking numbers, so I resorted to contacting them all, informing them of RM’s non-provision of online service – however, the phone tracking does work.
we have had 30% of one collection go missing, and the count is rising. we use dmo and have our mail collected, it seems strange that on the day royal mail switch to 2d tracking on all items we have such a large percentage disappear, coupled with the loss of online tracking and the message’Sorry – we don’t recognise that reference number.Please check the reference number is correct’
this seems to me that the link between dmo/manifest and the sorting office is corrupt and the items are being rejected and are sat in a big pile somewhere.
as usual royal mail are very defensive and guarded and are no help, meanwhile we are refunding and losing product daily.
if you sold on ebay you just hope they don’t open a case because they could have the item and see that its not delivered on the tracking I sold a item 1month ago and still says on delivery and I cant message the buyer as he could see that it says not delivered and then I’m out of pocket
to me royal mail are getting useless and I think best option is to use collectplus