We have experienced inconsistent tracking services, like others have suggested in this forum. Sometimes, the service is great and the parcel arrives in timely fashion with a friendly, efficient AuPost courier. At times, the ‘dispatched, in transit, then delivered’ scenario is all that you get.
This is definitely an area that AuPost should seek to improve.
I too, query the obscene pay (including bonus) of the AuPost CEO. Last time it was revealed as $4.8million and AUPost has refused to reveal the most recent figure! And this during a time when so many employees have been cut.
By contrast, the CEO of the much larger, more complex US postal service is paid a paltry sum. (Below $1million. Need to confirm).
And looks like we are being softened up to privatize the service. The parcel side of the business must be pretty lucrative and should cross subsidize an essential mail service element.
@PhilT, I intend doing that, I already have the screen shots saved. I also tackled them on FB to be told the parcel had been delivered the day before, except it was a parcel from a different country and had a completely different tracking number! I presume that in some areas AP employees are not required to be literate. Since that Distribution Centre has anecdotally lost mail belonging to a large international company, that may well be the case!
I purchased a motor bike helmet from Japan that was posted on 6 January and arrived in Perth on 12 January.
I never received a delivery notification card left at my house.
I eventually checked with the supplier who suggested i check with Australia Post.
When I went in and checked the tracking it had been sitting at my local post office for 13 days and I never received a notification from anyone!!
Reading through the tracking it stated that attempted delivery happened on 12 January and redirected to Post Office.
I have had many problems with couriers sub contracting to Aus Post not even bothering to knock on the door before leaving it at the local post office but this is the first time I have not received a delivery notification card!!
I think Aus Post need to hold their sub contractors delivery drivers more accountable.
I previously posted about an experience similar to yours with no notices, except I received a final notice to collect. My delivery is usually excellent so I suspected either a new carrier or a sub. The post staff told me how to make a formal complaint and said a contractor gets a 1:1 with their manager about every complaint. They claimed if a contractor gets 3 substantiated complaints s/he is terminated.
If that is true a good portion of the Australian workforce may have or will work for Auspost at some time in their lives as vacancies need to be filled
Australia Post is useless at tracking in reverse too! I had some vitamins sent to me from the US and they arrived in Australia on 22/12 (tracked from the company, and then DHL until it arrived in Australia and was put in the hands of Australia Post) after that they disappeared until last Friday. Eventually the parcel turned up after we received a second notice from Australia Post (we did not receive the first and this is to a business address). We had to go and pick up the parcel! We spent many hours trying to trace the delivery but the Australia Post mail distribution centre was unable to give us any advice or even tell us they had supposedly tried to deliver. Our office was manned over Christmas.
@Davest Their current online “complaint” system seems farcical for the purpose.
Ring 13 POST (13 7678) and tell them you want to lodge a formal complaint. Get the CSOs name and record that and the time. Ask for a “ticket” number that identifies your complaint report and a copy of their complaint as entered into their system (possibly not). Tell them you require followup regarding their investigation of your complaint and the outcome; ask how long that might be and who you should contact if you do not hear back timely.
You can also post a detailed complaint asking for the contact items I noted above to (use tracking or registered return receipt):
Australia Post
Customer Contact Centre
GPO Box 9911
Melbourne VIC 3001
If the above fails to get a response you think reasonable, send a registered return receipted real mail complaint to Ahmed Fahour’s (CEO) office as well as to Minister Mitch Fifield and see how that goes.
I am the original poster of this thread. Several days ago I received this ‘englightening’ email in response to my query.
Update for Investigation - 09361468 Dear Jan,
Thank you for your International Post Express enquiry regarding item EJ208232709AU posted to Netherlands.
Scans indicate this article arrived in Netherlands on 23 January 2017, although there is nothing to indicate that it has cleared Customs at yet.
If the parcel contains restricted items it will require the payment of duties/taxes, and if the contents are prohibited (such as weapons, medications or certain food items) the goods may be confiscated or require the presentation of an import permit before being released. In most cases, if any of the above occurs, the addressee should receive a letter notifying them of any required action.
This clearance process can take up to 15 business days; a timeframe which is outside the control of Australia Post. We have contacted the Netherlands and asked for any reference numbers or contact numbers to provide you so you can forward them onto your addressee. We will contact you within 5 business days with a result.
I hope that this information has helped and that you enjoy the rest of your day. If there is anything else that we can do for you, please do not hesitate to contact us again.
Need help or have an enquiry?emphasized text
Well, fascinating to note that Australia Post have access to 'scan’s which are kind of tracking the parcel and that me, as the mug who paid to have a tracked parcel, cannot access these scans and this tracking. I was assured by an online check that the parcel would take 7 to 10 days. I needed it to get there within that timeframe so that a friend could take delivery of it before returning to Africa. Well that deadline has well and truly passed. He has had to go back to Africa without his parcel. I am VERY disappointed by this. And to rub salt into the wound today, I got one of these useless emails from Australia Post. We’d love your feedback to Australia Post for 09361468 Well they got my feedback. Not happy Jan.
You can also get a complaints form from an AusPost outlet. It is best to copy it before you send it back and it generally takes a while for them to respond and the response is generally useless. But if you got a receipt when you hand your complaint in you can then provide the copy of your complaint to the Commonwealth Ombudsman when you receive the official AusPost response (make sure to ask for a letter if you receive your response by phone).
Very interesting @grahroll. My outlet claimed they could not take a complaint a few months ago, but then I did not ask if they had a complaints form. I asked them how to make a complaint and they gave me the 1300 number and the advice I provided above. Perhaps they were not as helpful as they seemed, or something may have changed in the interim?
They still exist, my wife had a parcel go missing from UK to here and we completed the form and have just recently had a phone response (which was a useless PR exercise by AusPost). They have a serial number and a tear off with the number on it and room for a post office date stamp.
I’ve had issues the other way around. I’ve had parcels from the US, Germany, and UK that are sent through International couriers that are part of the AusPost network. I could place the tracking number into the AusPost website too due to this connection. The AusPost website had all the updates possible for every single movement of the parcel. Then it hit Australia…
The AusPost website just says “Arrived in Destination Country” and the courier’s site says “Transferred to local courier”. There NO entries whatsoever for weeks and weeks until it arrives. And the whole time it’s in Australia - in some cases, it’s taken 4 week once arriving in Australia to actually appear! Or lost completely with AusPost unable to find it, even though it was under their responsibility.
As soon as it hits Australia, that’s it. No more tracking. The international couriers communication is perfect, they pass the information onto AusPost consistently, and then black out in Australia… AusPost seems only capable of tracking domestic. It’s useless for international - whether or not your the sender or recipient.
I prefer international couriers now that have nothing to do with AusPost.
It is a con, in 2006 we had to send signed documents back to the UK as we were in the process of selling our property over there. The lawyers requested we mailed the documents back by registered mail, which we did. The documents went missing and when we tried to investigate the matter through Australia Post they could track the documents until they left Australia and then they hadn’t a clue what had happened to them!! What’s the point of paying for international registered mail if they can’t find out what happened to the documents after they leave Australia?
You could be right about the postal service in the receiving country. The system might work but only if all the employees in the chain see it as to their benefit to scan the parcel. If they still get paid regardless then why would they perform the extra task? Scanning parcels needs to be part of their Key Performance indicators.
On the whole my experience of AP tracking is positive - far better than my courier experiences. It has occasionally been inconsistent. There are issues sometimes with retailers. The Victoria Hill/Innovations group, for example send a despatch email that says you can track the parcel, but only include their own order number. To get the tracking number you have to email them and ask for it. It is sometimes hard to know if the delay in picking up the tracking information lies with the retailer or AP.
I’ve found AusPost tracking to be absolutely shocking. My best friend lives in the US and I’ve resorted to downloading the USPS app and using their tracking because it’s so much better. At times their tracking has been more up to date than AusPosts, even when the parcel is still in Australia. Other deliveries I’ve had land in Melbourne, then takes a week to get from there to Adelaide - often with no tracking between when it passes customs to delivery. Ive also had it take a week or 2 to even leave the country. I will always use another postal service’s/courier company’s tracking where possible, simply because AusPosts is pretty much useless.
I have found the best way to contact AusPost is thru twitter - tho they can take days to answer, even tho their social medial team works until approx 10pm. I have received replies from them that late as too. I tend to find them more helpful then other AusPost staff, and even made a complaint about a worker at a PO thru their twitter (where they asked for details via a DM). Royal Mail on the other hand is extremely fast to respond - often within an hour. Ive never recieved a twitter reply from USPS Helps.
