My company used to have a contract with Australia Post and the experience was generally quite good. Subsequently they cancelled our contract as we didn’t meet their volume requirements and we ended up with Fastway around 6-7 years ago.
First the good: our local courier drivers have been brilliant—conscientious, communicative and hard working. Though I suspect they earn little.
Most parcels do in fact reach the customer without issue, but a significant number are lost/damaged. You kind of have to expect that as a fact of life. But whenever loss occurs there is a total breakdown in communication. You cannot interact with anyone who would be able to physically locate your parcel. You have to use their ecosystem which sends you on a wild goose chase every time. All the while, your customer is asking “where are the items I paid you for in good faith?” If you are able to phone you get put through to a call centre, to some poor guy who sounds like he’s exhausted from all unrelenting abuse. He (always seems to be male) logs your query, and if you push the issue he might even escalate your query ie take the bold step of emailing the depot. He doesn’t have the phone number of the depot, and he cannot communicate with the depot. He can only convey that the issue is urgent and then tell you to expect a reply within two working days.
If you phone Aramex they will try to steer you to messaging them. There is a live chat pop-up on their website, WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook Messenger. Good luck. On my last attempt, I posted a query at 14:21 and got a response at 08:21 the following morning. Unfortunately I wasn’t still at my desk, so my query was closed and deemed ‘resolved’ at 08:39. If you write a negative comment on their Facebook page you might get a faster response.
When they lose/damage your parcel you get handed over to a company called FreightSafe to put in a claim. Eventually you might receive a fraction of the value of the item as a show of good will. You will receive the message “This payment has been made solely in the interest of maintaining a sound business relationship and is not to be regarded as an admission of liability on the part of Aramex”, even though Aramex have lost your parcel without any assistance from any other party.
There appears to be fundamental communication issue within the Aramex business model that is truely broken. Perhaps they are under resourced in order to save money, who knows. I have also experienced the issues getting worse, not improving.
Is competition resulting in a race to the bottom amongst courier companies, or is there not enough competition, or is there not enough regulation? I would love to know if there is an alternative to Aramex that is more reliable and at least provides some useful means of communication.
