Royal Mail International Sign for Problems?

Your item, posted on 15/12/10 has been passed to the overseas postal service for delivery in CHINA. Does it mean in UK or in China now? Nearly ten days waiting time, what the problem the royal mail with?



Many thanks.Royal Mail International Sign for Problems?
There is nothing wrong with Royal Mail, as you've said your item is now in the hands of the foreign postal service and the problem lies there, but if it is a registered item it should be traceable.



A friend of mine was cursing Royal Mail for failure to deliver an item to the US - it was eventually traced to a US Postal Service depot where it had been sitting for 20 days - so the error was with the foreign postal service.



Just like the UK postman delivers your post with foreign stamps on from the US, Europe and round the world, Royal mail has to hand outgoing mail to postal services operating in the destination country. This is due to historical postal service licences and restrictions preventing operating in other countries and sensible use of existing delivery infrastructures. Unfortunately this gives the sending postal service little control over end delivery.