Royal Mail parcel being diverted via ParcelForce Coventry hub

[3942rick2005]

Just posted this in buyers but has relevance in sellers?

Royal Mail tracked 48 parcel being diverted via ParcelForce Coventry hub, apparently to be delivered by Parcelforce also.

Has any one else experienced this?

I had a quick google and found that there is some sort of pilot scheme running for this to happen with large parcels ( mine shouldn't be a very big parcel though 😞

Couple of extracts:

"

The Building the Future project, documented via LTB 040/25, provides Parcelforce the required IT capabilities to enable interoperability of parcels between the RM and PFW networks. This is alongside other initiatives, including First Mile Integration starting with PFW POL Collections transferring into RM, covered in LTB 076/25.

The plan is to migrate up to 14m format 4 and above (F4+) parcels from RM to PFW in financial year 2025/2026. "

"In RM on outward, Collection Hubs and Outward Mail Centres (OMCs) will segregate T48 F4+ items, conducting a scanning process and loose load items onto PFW trailers. These trailers are then sent to PFW Coventry National Hub (CNH) overnight for processing on the day shift and once migrated to PFW these items remain in the PFW network through to final delivery."

Now what could go wrong with Simpleton Delivery and this?

[applerepair]

This is happening to me for an item I bought on eBay that was faulty so I requested a return. eBay provided a royal mail 48 tracked label and I sent off on Tuesday, no update on tracking since then except the initial scan when I dropped it off at the post office. I assumed it had been lost and the seller is getting funny about the refund. Today (Friday a day after it should have arrived back to the seller) I see the tracking updated to say 'Item received' (by royal mail) and 'Coventry PFW National Hub' which led me to this community post. 

I now don't expect the parcel to get back to the seller until Monday a full 4 working days later which is ridiculous. This had me worried for a few days as it was a £300 item and I don't know what eBay would have done in this situation. 

Thanks for the information though.