03.07
2020

Attention! Fake news concerning discarded and damaged parcels from China is being spread on social media

A post with pictures of a truck allegedly stolen in Lithuania carrying what seem to be parcels from China is being shared on social media. The post was first shared by an anonymous Lithuanian Facebook account without any additional information and from there it spread across social media in several countries. This is false information and shipments destined to Estonia have not been compromised.  

Although some of the parcel volume from China does arrive to Estonia via Lithuania (to Lithuania by railroad and then to Estonia by road transport), the shipments destined for Estonia have not been compromised. We have contacted our colleagues from Post Lithuania who confirmed that this is false information/fake news spreading on social media. The picture was posted by a private Facebook account that has not disclosed any additional information on the image, which diminishes the credibility of this information significantly. Recently, misleading comments on the location of the event have been accompanying the post. 

Due to the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic and infrequent air traffic, it is necessary to consider longer delivery times when ordering goods from abroad. 

It is worth noting that when the parcel tracking page shows the first event concerning a parcel destined for Estonia, in the postal world this often means that the parcel has only just exited the export terminal of the shipping country and is en route to Estonia and the date of arrival is estimated.  This means that it could still take several days or even weeks or months in the case of sea or railway transport before the parcel physically reaches Estonia. Misleading tracking information is often what makes clients believe that the parcels are being held up in Estonia.  In reality, the delays often happen in the international supply chain where Omniva has little power to influence the parcel movement.

In AliExpress tracking information, instances occur where there is a ‘shipped’ notation next to the shipment, although in reality the parcel has not yet left the country and is still waiting for a suitable transport solution to reach the destination country. Misleading information is displayed due to AliExpress using a tracking system developed for parcels that are not actually tracked (tracking code usually beginning with U or S), where after a certain time has passed, the parcel information is automatically updated according to the stage of delivery the parcel should be in at the time. However, at the moment, the processes do not happen under normal conditions and with usual speed; therefore, the track and trace statuses of AliExpress orders do not indicate the actual location of the parcel.   In such situations, the Omniva customer service assistant cannot help the client and contacting customer support will not speed up parcel delivery. 

In relation to the increased request volumes, customer support may take longer than usual to respond.

Read more about what you should know about parcels ordered from China
 

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