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I only heard on Tuesday & I also confirmed at the PO today, but I am surprised I can't find anything current on the boards on the subject, so perhaps not everyone is aware. Just might save a few INR cases ! According to AP staff, too many items were going missing !! So now if you're not home to sign, it will be back to the old carded system.
Living on acreage and with house being set well back from the road in a dead end, I had an official signed Authority in place to Safe Drop - those Authorisations are no longer valid.
What I did find amusing (in I suppose a kind of warped way), it was on Tuesday I had a small envelope from China with Tracking delivered, (one of the few where the Tracking was actually legitimate), the lady who delivered it said she had hundreds of them to deliver, I did suggest, quite possibly a build up after Chinese New Year. Her dad who also happens to be our new postie, doesn't have time on his run to door knock and wait for signatures etc. so he now has his daughter driving around in a car doing them.
I have found it interesting in the past that while most Chinese Sellers add Tracking numbers when marking as posted, most envelopes arrive clearly marked UNTRACKED in big bold lettering. From other threads I have read, I guess it's not just the Chinese who add fictitious Tracking numbers either - so this may now also weed out some of the dishonest sellers.
Of course, just my thoughts . . . . . . .
PS When I was checking to see if there was a current thread, I saw quite easily why so many old threads are being resurrected, no dates show on the results that appear - I'm sure in the past a date came up as well 
@lane-ends wrote:The fake tracking numbers by the way are added to discourage dishonest buyers from claiming item not received by giving the impression it actually has tracking.. Fake barcodes do he same thing
I realise that, and as a buyer and a seller I do understand why they do it - it has bothered me for some time though that I would say only 1 in perhaps 20 items sent from China with a 'Tracking Number' is genuine. And of course prior to this Late Shipping Defect carp, it offered the seller some protection in the system as well as giving the buyer a false impression.
I see it as an example of one bad apple spoiling the case. I'm sure we have all read some of the threads here where a Tracking Number was uploaded and the buyer claims not received, yet tracking shows delivered - to another suburb even ? It doesn't take much imagination or skill for an unscrupulous seller to work out how to use a genuine number more than once.
I've had an Express and 2 Registered items go missing, 2 of which of course, I had to replace at my expense - the 3rd eventually turned up. In the case of the Express one, the buyer wanted it by a particular weekend for an event, so to be sure, I sent it Express and she never received it. It was a custom made order worth about $80 - $100, so not much to some. The funny thing was, when I replaced it, it was Carded, stating NO ACCESS to premises (or whatever the exact wording is) - so how was the first one delivered I wonder ? The buyer lived in a gated community of about 6 houses. And no, I do not think for one minute that the buyers were lying.
As a seller I have always hated the Safe Drop system, as it's always been way too open to dishonesty, not only by buyers, sellers too, and also every person who passes by - but as a buyer, it has been very convenient 
@*tippy*toes* wrote:All the tracked parcels I've ever had from China had legitimate tracking numbers. I'm not sure how you can upload a fake one because a few times when I've been uploading them, I've got a number wrong and when I submit it, it tells me it's not a valid tracking number.
If I'm uploading a few from the day I'll type the first one in, then copy it so when uploading the rest, I can just paste it in and change the last few digits. A couple of times I've forgotten to change the last few digits and when I've submitted it, I get an error (can't remember what the error is, but basically telling me I can't use it).
As far as the safe dropping goes, or no longer safe dropping, I wish that was for all parcels and not just SOD ones. Even though AP promised me there would be no more parcels left at my door, due to it being deemed to be not safe, I came home the other day to find one sitting there in full view of everyone walking past.
- Aah, but you're not in China tippy At one point I took screenshots in my Purchase History showing the Tracking number, then when the items arrived, photos of the envelope - sure, the number usually appeared somewhere in tiny print, but that big bold untracked was also clearly visible
I had intended sending it off to eBay, but then had second thoughts - why waste my time & energy as I'm sure they wouldn't give a *oss or do anything about it anyway. Different story if it was one of us ! - If you buy pre-paid labels, it's usually more than just the last digits that need to be changed I think - I'm pretty sure there's one in the middle also
- I've never agreed with the 'Safe' drop because sadly, there are just too many dishonest people in the world.
