Lichfield Hub Delays

[chipbutty1]

I purchased two very similar objects from two different sellers in the UK both send via Royal Mail to the Lichfield hub. Tracking is weird. The first item was 'delayed' then 'resolved' then 'delayed' again and has sat there for about 5 days now. The other has been marked as sent to the destination country. 

I figured different batches/containers for shipping, but no explanation of what this 'delayed' business is all about. Ebay says ' oh thank you. Wait until the expected delivery time...' (the usual guff) and Pitney Bowes are just plain idiots who simply will not assist.

This is why I hate the slow, expensive, baffling system Ebay uses to ship small items. Yes, I asked the seller to use a better postal service like Royal Mail signed, but nah. Too much trouble. I won't go into the seller's rationale (they all say the same thing anyway) but my question is: what the heck is this problem we have all read about with the Lichfield hub? What are these alleged 'delays'? Does anyone really know? 

[*casey*]

"The first item was 'delayed' then 'resolved' then 'delayed' again and has sat there for about 5 days now"

"What are these alleged 'delays"

It may or may not be true,  but  a response two days ago regarding  a parcel that was delivered to the Litchfield  hub

on 20th April  and has  been sitting  there  for 8  days was:

" The delay  is due to the Easter Bank holidays in the UK.  The staff  in the hub are  catching up with the volume"

[chipbutty1]

Yet I bought a very similar item  a day after the first one, and that second one went through the Lichfield hub and is on its way. So, that can't be true. They don't help themselves by providing no information or issuing information arbitrarily. Unless they work backwards and upside-down. Or don't actually have a system to manage flow. Lichfield has a lousy reputation. 

[twyngwyn]

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-Mentor/HLEP-Tracking-not-updating-after-reaching-LICHFIELD-SERVI...

from the U.S. boards 2023

[*casey*]

---

@chipbutty1 wrote:

"Yet I bought a very similar item  a day after the first one, and that second one went through the Lichfield hub and is on its way. So, that can't be true. They don't help themselves by providing no information or issuing information arbitrarily. Unless they work backwards and upside-down. Or don't actually have a system to manage flow. Lichfield has a lousy reputation"

---

It's probably the same as a couple of postal black holes we have in Australia.

My response was  taken from this UK thread, given by an eBay rep a few days ago.

Plenty of complaints about Lichfield  but look at the last post and screenshot reply

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Business-Seller-Board/UK-Global-Shipping-Programme-Issue-Tracking-De...

[chipbutty1]

Yes, but how can the one arriving at the hub a day LATER get through if there is a backlog? That's what's baffling. There may be a Bank Holiday, but the logic of an earlier one getting stuck and not moving through while a parcel getting to the hub a day later gets through doesn't make sense. It's reverse logic. I have made enquiries (of course) and promised an explanation  - more than once - by the eBay ahem "specialist" team. I won't hold my breath, but if I do get an explanation, I'll post it here. 

[chipbutty1]

Lichfield is a mess, by the sound of it. It might be down to a couple of incompetents in the ranks. We've all met them in the workplace. Or there is simply a poor logistics and tracking system. Needs sorting, good and proper.

[chipbutty1]

"Delay at the Global Shippping Center Lichfield" (25 April 2025)

Note the date above, and that they spell "shipping" with three Ps, the idiots.

Today's date? 4 May. Nine days delayed at Lichfield.

No explanation. Nothing. Enquiries got me nowhere. 

[twyngwyn]

From the U.K. boards:

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Postage/Two-items-delivered-on-separate-days-to-GSP-Lichfield-not/m-...

[twyngwyn]

…and another:

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Business-Seller-Board/UK-Global-Shipping-Programme-Issue-Tracking-De...