Royal Mail tracking number starting IW

[18catsrfurryfriends]

Have justed tried to track a parcel and it says it has gone to Abbey Wood in  error and it will be re routed immediately. So not sure when that will arrive. But just wondering if anyone has seen a RM tracking number starting IW before it is a new one on me.

[style_wise]

I searched for Royal Mail details and they don't assign any particular meaning to IW tracking numbers.

[dansvan1]

My last few parcels were IV, so I'm assuming IW is just next in line.

[18catsrfurryfriends]

Well so far this 48hr tracked parcel has taken 6 days and It is still not out for delivery so I would assume it will be delivered Monday which means it has taken 8 days to get here.

[boris-the-spider63]

I have had a few recent IW prefix tracking numbers recently, they take up to 10 days ! My belief is that they are remotely generated in China from some eBay sellers !

[thesmokingrunner]

I followed a thread a couple of weeks ago concerning a Tracked 48 parcel which had seemingly gone AWOL in the system. It was posted on a Wednesday and was recorded as being at Jubilee MC in Hounslow the following day. Nothing happened for a week, then it was recorded as being at the Midlands Super Hub the following Wednesday, went back to Jubilee MC the next day and was eventually delivered the day after that -  10 days after it had been posted.

These days Tracked 48 is about as accurate as eBay's 'Estimated Delivery Date'.

[g7iqjuk_2]

WONDER  if it came from china ?????  hounslow south west  london, ,  DEPOT  collects  parcels from heatrow freight terminals ??.  8- 10 about wright from china . 

[thesmokingrunner]

Highly unlikely, @g7iqjuk_2 - an item sent from China would be sent using Speedpak or a similar international shipping method and any Tracking Number would be in a different format.

The Tracking Number of a Royal Mail Tracked 48 parcel would be in the format xxnnnnnnnnnxx and the last two characters would be GB, indicating that the label was purchased in this country. If a seller in China purchased a label and attached it to a parcel I doubt very much that the label would be accepted as valid when the item was posted in China.

[rwaterston]

I think  this is done with warehouse forwarding at UK  part of the delivery

[humblefantastic]

Not seen it on ebay (although  I haven't bought from a China-based ebay seller in some time) but when I purchase items from Banggood they are dispatched from China and often via Royal Mail. In which case I'm given an IW*********GB tracking number (normally on the same day as purchase) which is valid on the normal RM tracking website.