Oh, and it’s two weeks for mail to get from WA to me in TAS. Craziness.
I have had issues with parcels not being delivered where the postie doesn’t come to the house but just puts a card straight into our letter box and I then have to go to the post office to pick up the parcel. When this had happened a couple of times I phoned Australia Post who informed me that they would check with the postie as to whether he had come to the door and knocked and if he said he had then that was it and they would not follow up the matter any further. Well what employee is going to tell their boss that they didn’t do their job properly??? Of course the postie confirmed that he had come to the door even though I was home one of the days and saw him leave the card in the letterbox so again I had to go to the post office and pick up the parcel. Great customer service not !!!
Australia Post has revamped it’s tracking site and it now says things like “It’s on its way!!!” and other designed-to sound-like-a-friend-is-being-pally-with-you phrases.
I mentioned earlier about our Game of Thrones pre-order and their estimate that it would take over a week to arrive, which is even longer than it was currently taking using the new go-slow system.
Well, it arrived after the usual delay and not after the new extended delay that they were now “guestimating”.
It seems that when they revamped the tracking site, they also increased the amount of days each parcel should take to get to its destination in order to make the consumer think that they’re doing a super fast job when it arrives earlier than anticipated.
As a regular online purchaser I know how long it used to take to get parcels here, and I know how much longer it now takes to get parcels here. So giving me a false estimate of an even longer time is not going to make me think how much better the times are now, when they’re actually still the same old slow tiered service I was already getting.
It’s like when people were complaining about how McDonalds burgers looked nothing like the fully loaded images in the adverts, so McDonalds shrunk the bun size to shut people up about it, Yes, it now looked fully loaded, but only because they’d downsized the bread component, and they didn’t downsize the price component to match.
Australia post is now using similar tactics to try and pull the wool over our eyes, and for people who don’t get regular parcel deliveries and therefore don’t know any better, they’ll be amazed at the super sonic speed that their package moves in transit when it arrives a few days early, even though it’s actually a few days later than it would have taken under the old system.
I think they pinched the idea from Star Trek where Scotty would multiply his estimates of when the warp drive would be fixed by a factor of four so the Captain would continue to think he’s a miracle worker when it was completed in a week.
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I buy a lot of things online so am often at the mercy of Australia Post. What annoys me the most is when I buy something online that is coming from Brisbane to be delivered to me on the Gold Coast and it takes 3 to 4 days. That’s about 85km or a 1 hour drive in my car. I suppose thats pretty good considering it took Australia Post 3 days to deliver a letter from a business here on the coast. That’s 3 days to go from Mermaid Beach to Broadbeach or about 5km.
I hear you saying “just use Express Post. That’s guaranteed overnight delivery.” Well, yes it is guaranteed overnight delivery except for when they do not deliver the item overnight. So it’s only really a sort of guaranteed sometimes overnight service. This being said, Australia Post will refund the cost of the express envelope IF you can produce the receipt. So I should jump in my car, drive to the business in Mermaid to get a copy of the receipt and then drive to the post office for a refund? I actually did and the post office would not accept the receipt because it was a photocopy.
I guess this is why they talk about people going “postal” when they wig out.
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Oh but they have a wonderful customer service!!! Exactly 3 months after inquiring about a parcel sent internationally I received an email a few days ago informing me they just had tried to call me (true: I hadn’t answered my phone minutes before as there was no ID shown) about my inquiry: sorry about the delay but we’re trying to answer everybody’s requests… we’ve been informed that your parcel arrived on 14 August…we suggest you use our tracking system (which I had!)…hope this has been useful…SERIOUSLY!!!
In regional Vic it’s taking around 6-7 days for letters to be delivered locally - apparently all mail goes to Dandenong and then back again (even if addressed to PO boxes!). An Aust Post staffer said that when they empty the mail posting box - the PO boxes are right beside and they are not allowed to put mail in them - all letters have to go to Dandenong where apparently the backlog is so long that it sits at least 3-4 days before sorting even begins. We are going backwards!!!
Had another delivery today which had an excessively distant delivery date estimate via online tracking to make the actual pathetic delivery time seem not so bad.
It began its journey in Underwood QLD last Wednesday, then arrived in Sunshine West VIC on the Friday, where it sat for the weekend and an extra day before finally being sent to Tassie on the following Tuesday, being today. The ETA according to Australia Post’s online track service wasn’t until the following Thursday. So what a miracle service they provide getting the package here two days earlier than the estimate, even though it would have previously gone from QLD to VIC overnight and then arrived in Tassie after another over-nighter.
I have another parcel that’s being monitored via Australia Post online tracking now. It began its journey yesterday (Monday) in Chullora NSW and the ETA for this one is not until Monday next week. As usual, the places I made my purchases from did not give the option to pay the extra for the faster delivery service, so I’m at the mercy of Australia Posts slow it down service
I’ve had to move several times over the years and usually have issues with Australia Post getting things wrong with my redirection orders. I moved to Melbourne in 2015 and knew I had important mail that should have arrived but 3 weeks and still no mail whatsoever! After much time trying to sort it out over the phone and unsatisfactory communications saying it could take weeks before they got to my case, it was found to be going to the wrong street. Apparently the fellow who was receiving it was very angry and threatened them that he would just start throwing it all out.I eventually did start receiving mail but it took weeks.
I am also careful to fill out the form so I do not go on the junk mail list but every single time I end up receiving junk mail from Citibank!
I can order things from USA using DHL couriers that arrive faster than something I ordered from Brisbane. Plus it is cheaper! This does not help our Australian businesses to compete with the growing trend of online shopping.
I spoke to the local package delivery postie today. She was saying they are now outsourced by australia post and the guys with the satchels often won’t come to the door because the aren’t allowed off their bikes but pretty soon they will slso be delivering our items. They have also cut their staff by about half and are about to cut the outsourced companies they use so there will be even less staff. I smell a rat. Australia post should be making a fortune from deliveries online and we all know the liberals want to privatise it and sell it. This looks like a way to run it down and sell it to me. I didn’t even get a note for one of my deliveries this week. Luckily the company had the tracking number and were able to give it to me so I could pick it up just a day or so before the ten days was up! I didn’t even get the reminder notice. I put in a complaint that time!
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Had an item sent via Aust Post parcel postl from Newcastle to Helidon (Near Toowoomba). A distance of 814 Km. Sent 28th November, flagged for delivery from 30/11 to 1/12. Not surprising … our service from Sydney and thereabouts is usually 2nd business day.
Parcel headed south to western Sydney … for some reason … on 29 November. It then arrived in … Perth 6 days later. Sat there for nearly 2 days, then left for ???
Aust Post enquiry staff very nice and assure me that it’s now headed for the “correct processing centre” … however they also admit that they don’t know where it is.
So this is day 10 now, they don’t know where my parcel is - but say it’s going to the right place … and it will have covered 9075KM … and that’s assuming that it IS in fact heading for Brisbane … the “correct” sorting centre. And that’s assuming that it does, in fact, actually arrive.
Now Australia Post may think that this is kind of entertaining … but I haven’t a clue how they can afford to do this sort of rubbish with their parcels and expect to turn a profit!!!
Incidentally, my parcel could have been delivered by pushbike by now … and the rider probably home again in Newcastle!!!
According to the guardian they pay no tax and make a huge amount of money so I guess they can play around with our packages as much as they like! I’ve noticed now I’ve rung and put in a complaint and signed up for their special card (although I have no idea what it actually does) they now ring me when my package is at the door if they can’t reach me and send me a message and email that its at the post office so I know to pick it up. Which is much better than before when I didn’t know that it had even arrived!
As a side note to this discussion, watch out for Aus Post parcel scams which are reportedly on the rise. Scammers typically trick people into downloading malicious software after claiming a package requires collecting.
What has happened to our mail service costs and delivery times?
To get mail delivered next day you need to buy an express envelope, price starting from $6.10.
Delivery in 4 days (not guaranteed) buy a 50c label plus stamp.
A simple stamp will take a week or more for delivery!
This will impact on our elderlies who are not familiar with emails and printing out of forms etc,. Always the most vulnerable are targeted!
This is another of many and increasing examples where government deems that nothing should be funded by taxes except pollie pay, pollie entitlements, and pollie rorts. Everything else is to be funded by user pays models. Government agencies are increasingly pushed to charge their “customers” for their services to recoup costs if not make profits.
That these “honest and honourable” self serving partisans who inhabit the halls of parliament keep getting returned is fully the responsibility of the electorate, noting when in government the reality is the LPA and ALP are more alike than not, and when in opposition are more alike than not. That neither side can bring themselves to a higher standard is damning on every last party member as well as those who continue to vote for them in the hope either will change.
(/rant)
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I absolutely agree with you. Under the stewardship of Ahmed Fahour, whose salary is not inconsiderable, Australia Post has become the poster child for “Less for More!”
M>K.
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It is a joke. My friend posted a birthday card to me in Tassie from Brisbane. It took a whole week. I purchased a book for a friend for her birthday on Booktopia and it took 3 days. How does this work. It is poor service for big money.
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We do a lot of online purchasing from the mainland for things we can’t readily get locally in Tassie. Before Australia Post brought out the tiered delivery system, tracking would show items scanned in Melbourne one day, then ready to deliver in Southern Tassie the next day. Now when packages get to Melbourne, they sit there for a week before finally being sent to Tassie. The new system isn’t one where you pay extra to get a faster service. It’s one where you pay extra to not be lumped onto the new slower service. Most online orders have a set delivery fee and don’t give the option to pay the extra to use the original speed service from Australia Post, so we’re stuck with their new slower service whether we like it or not.
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The cost of taking an envelope or parcel from A to B seems to be a near constant if it is just done. Selectively delaying some or selectively looking for premium stickers to expedite some and then treating them as special has to have costs.
The real purpose of the slow service seem to be to “encourage” purchase of premium services as much as it is to make a point with government they are doing something to prop up P/L for CEO bonuses on top of a top, top compensation package. If Auspost had a daily send to Tassie that is now a weekly, for example, they are saving a few dollars and the expense of spending a few dollars to identify the premium deliveries and still having that daily send for the premiums, although perhaps smaller dailies.
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I had an ebay purchase sent in a regular envelope and it took 30 days to arrive from the postmarked date, by then the seller had processed a refund and I had replaced the item by purchasing elsewhere, I then had to sort out the re-payment or return with the original seller. 30 days from Victoria to the ACT, disgusting. I had a similar ebay delivery story from Bowral to ACT which took 3 weeks using AusPost.
Oh, and for the record, if you buy their gift cards they offer no extension whatsoever on expiry date, use it or lose it no refunds or extensions. My experience led me to be told by an Australia Post employee that it was similar to buying a carton of milk…this was 7 days after expiry of the card. $50 in their pocket and my daughter lost her gift card.
I agree with all that, Gaby, except I don’t think the “most vulnerable” are being targeted. They are, unfortunately, just ‘collateral damage’.
