This is an old thread, but I think I'll contribute some information since I've been at the receiving end (have ordered items from China and received about 5 or 6 times already).
In my limited experience (well, since it's only about 5 or 6 times, but I have some more orders to receive...).
The last message in the tracking system (from China Registered Airmail to the Philippines) is usually "Enroute to delivery office". Sometimes, it will have an additional "Attempted/Failed or Unsuccessful delivery" message as well (typically for AliExpress Standard Shipping which appears to be using SingPost/4PX).
In reality, we here in the Philippines, do not have those packages delivered to us by our local post office (at least in my experience). What our local post office does (after the "Enroute to delivery office") is send us a notice to pick up the parcel from the local post office (as indicated in the notice). We then bring the notice to the stated local post office, and then pay a required Php 112 (around US$2) to pick up the parcel (assuming the parcel is less than US$200 value, which should not have customs tax. I have not ordered any item higher than $100 so I haven't experienced paying customs tax yet.)
Ok, regarding the 'notice' sent by the local post office to the recipient -- again, based on my experience, the 'notice' gets sent to the recipient about 10-14 days after the 'Enroute to delivery office' has already shown up in the tracking system.
In my case, I usually go to our central post office (since I'm nearest there) about 3-4 days after the 'Enroute to delivery office' tracking message. Actually, in one or two instances, I was so excited to pick up the item, so I went to the post office about 2 days after getting the "Enroute to delivery office" -- I was to be disappointed -- the post office staff said that the parcel is already listed to be in the post office, but they haven't gotten to making an inventory of the parcels yet, which has just arrived from the customs inspection office.
So, a safer bet is to go to the post office (if you already know which post office the parcel will be sent to -- in my case, it's the central post office) about 4 days later, which gives enough time for the post office staff to do their "manual" inventory of the parcels for pick-up.
So, by the time the "notice" gets sent to me, it's about 1 week or so that I have already picked up the item from the post office.. That "notice" is really very late, so I would suspect that most recipients in the Philippines who do not check the online tracking system, will not know that their parcel is already in the post office waiting to be picked up (just don't go to the post office immediately after the 'enroute to delivery office' message, wait about 4 days later).
One other thing: I notice that even when I've picked up the item, the online tracking system generally does not indicate that the recipient (that's me) has already received the item. I was actually surprised that only once have I seen the online tracking system indicate "Item delivered" (1 time out of the 5 or 6 times I picked up the parcel) -- it should actually indicate "Item picked up" since parcels do not get delivered by the post office. But as mentioned, in my experience, it does not even update that status. So my guess is that the sender will never know if the recipient has indeed picked up/received the parcel.
|
Author
Shipping to Philippines