After placing your AliExpress order, the least you can expect is to have them say, “Package returned to local warehouse. Inbound success.”
What does such a status mean? What more do I need to know about it? Let’s get to it right now.
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What Does, “Package Returned To Local Warehouse. Inbound Success” Mean On AliExpress?
This status means that the package has been sent back to the sender due to an issue with the package.
Before such a package gets returned, there are several updates from the sorting facility that sorted it to letting the sender’s warehouse know it’s getting back to them.
You can see our screenshot below to get one of the processes.
Reasons For The “Package Returned To Local Warehouse. Inbound Success” Tracking Update
Address Issues
One of the primary reasons why AliExpress ends up sending packages back to the sender’s warehouse is due to address issues.
For instance, as you can see from the screenshot below, the delivery failed due to the recipient having not provided the house number in the address.
What’s even funny is that this package had already cleared customs in the recipient’s country, but was returned to the sender without AliExpress contacting the recipient to ask them to complete their address.
If you had provided an incomplete address or missed including the house number in your delivery details, it’s one of the primary reasons why AliExpress uses the “Package returned to warehouse. Inbound success” tracking status.
The Package Was Rejected At The Sorting Facility
Depending on what you had ordered and the local laws in your country, the sorting facility can decline to process the item to move forward.
For instance, if your country prohibits shipping items with Lithium batteries past a specific mAh capacity and your item has such prohibited contents, the processing facility will undoubtedly send it back to the seller.
Most of the AliExpress processing centers work with the principle that there is no need to process a package to proceed with its journey when they know well that it won’t make it past the airport or the destination country’s customs.
Also Read: Restricted Item – Battery Item Meaning On AliExpress
The Seller Sent The Wrong Package
We have had incidents where sellers ended up contacting the sorting facilities to ask them to route the shipped packages for return.
Most of when such scenarios happened was due to the sellers having sent the wrong packages and realizing it later after handing them over to carriers.
Whenever that happens, such senders hand over the right packages to the carriers after receiving the wrong orders.
The problem at this point is that it can take several days for such a package to find itself in the departure transport hub heading to the destination country.
Such sellers’ errors are a leading reason why a recipient might have several orders from different sellers and end up getting delivered on different days or weeks apart.
Scanning Errors
While the tracking page might show “Package returned to local warehouse. Inbound success,” it’s not always the case that the package was sent back to the sender.
Sometimes, scanning errors happen at the processing sorting centers, and instead of the status showing that the package is routed, it ends up showing it’s heading back to the origin.
We usually recommend that our readers should use third-party package tracking sites such as 17Track and Parcelsapp to re-track AliExpress packages whenever something fishy happens.
We find the standard AliExpress Cainiao tracking not as efficient, especially during peak shopping times when many active recipients are tracking their items.
The Item Failed Customs Clearance
Not each package that passes processing sorting centers and airports ends up getting allowed into the country.
For instance, if the X-ray machines in customs offices determine that your item requires further inspection and the staff find that it’s prohibited in the country, customs might decide to send it back to the sender.
Mostly, packages that fail the customs clearance process get returned to China instead of getting confiscated or destroyed.
In such a scenario, you will have to get in touch with AliExpress within 60 to 90 days and ask for a refund due to non-delivery. Re-ordering such an item will most likely mean that it will also fail customs clearance, which is why we don’t recommend re-purchasing it.
Also Read: What Does Processing At The Sorting Center Mean On AliExpress?
