It’s a rort. I’m in Bendigo and I got a letter from Melbourne on Friday. It took 12 days. One hundred and 50 Kms in 12 days is about twice what you would expect if it was delivered by push bike. I recently got a parcel from America by their cheapest mail delivery in almost the same time.
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I don’t know about that; I’m 66 and conduct almost all business via my desktop PC. It’s convenient and reduces the paper pile considerably. But I guess there would be some folks, old or young, who have yet to catch on, although they’d be a minority I would think. These days, having some form of computer (tablet, laptop, or desktop – many people have all three or more!) and an internet connection is as important as having a telephone once was.
Speaking of telephones, today’s mobile phones are pocket computers that do far more than mere telephony. These devices have the computational power of machines that 20 or 30 years ago would fill a decent sized room that had to be kept at a steady temperature and required a team of skilled personnel to run.
People looking for assistance in Melbourne might check out the Melbourne PC Users Group – they’re always looking for new members and they’re a fountain of knowledge in all aspects of the technology. Their motto is ‘members helping members’, Highly recommended.
Your advice about Melbourne PC and similar organisations is laudable, but I think you misjudge the number of people who struggle with PCs, including the “reliability” of some operating systems. I spent 40+ years in ICT from development and support through senior management, and continually am amazed that PCs work as well as they do, and how typical non-technical users struggle to deal with their vagaries. For example, ever have a Windows problem where the solution was in a regedit? Or you fell for click bait to download a supposed fix that you learnt was only $29.95? Or found a “free fix” that was a trojan?
The democratisation of computing is a wonderful thing, so long as you are able to cope. As people age they usually struggle more and more coping with the new, and especially the disruptive. In the senior groups I attend 10-15% are not computer literate even for email or browsing confidence, and of those half have no interest,
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I guess you are right. I’m an atypical older user of computers in that I’ve been using them since about 1981, and PCs running various versions of Windows since Windows 3.11. I am very aware of how utterly bewildering and even frightening the technology can seem to someone new to it, as I once was. That said, the beasts aren’t going away, but are becoming ever more deeply entrenched in our everyday lives. There is help out there for those needing it, from user groups like MelbPC to local community learning centres. I think the most difficult part is teaching the tech-averse that computers are just sophisticated calculators that can be extremely useful.
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Well, thank goodness someone else has noticed the lack of service from
Australia Post, and the exorbitant costs for dreadful delivery times. I sent a card from Gosford to Fairlight (NSW) which took eight days to deliver (at the 70 cent discount, admittedly, but still EIGHT DAYS?)
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I conducted an experiment using mail addressed to myself - mail with just a “normal” delivery stamp arrived the next day.
A letter with the additional 50c surcharged added posted from the same box at the same time arrived 3 days later !!!
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I visit the PO daily, and have done for the last 6 years for my small business. In that time I’ve seen prices surge to levels I would never have dreamed of paying 6 years ago. Just as one example, to post a pair of children’s earrings, it costs $10.35 Express Post. Ridiculous! At the same time, delivery has slowed dramatically. I never had a parcel go astray however, until this year. In one month I had two parcels go missing. I put in a complaint and 2-3 weeks later I got an email saying the item couldn’t be found, complaint closed. Shitty service which is making it harder and harder to run a successful small business from home.
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That is why 2nd and 3rd and even 4th rate cheap courier services are thriving across the country. 
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Unfortunately Email and other digital communications have - and will continue to - reduce the viability of the postal service. The volume reduction means that costs have to be trimmed - otherwise it will cost the Government more and more to maintain the service, this means tax raises, one way or another we will pay.
I however agree that the salary paid to Ahmed Fahour is outrageous. Lets face it the paper mail service will eventually be shutdown, at least the government run service as we know it will. The less paper mail sent the higher the costs become.
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Yes, I know things are tough in the post business competing but this is self defeating behaviour. We pay the CEO $5 million a year, he is the highest paid Post Officer in the world by far, to take the place apart. Crazy!
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Sadly we get the government we deserve. They rely on the majority having either short term memory or reacting to News Corps latest scare tactic. And a recent examination of the ALP shows that it is further right wing now than Menzies in the 50’s!!! So we are left with cuts to services, cuts to staffing, cuts to supporting such things as our postal service and cuts to taxation of the upper middle income group.
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Whilst I absolutely agree that Australia Post’s delivery service is virtually non-existent now, we must save a thought for the employees they are now hiring to carefully scrutinise each and every letter to determine which should be held back, put on a delayed flight then finally delivered. Snail mail is right, but at least someone has a job! (Even if they just turn on the machine,)
Hey - delivery times is just the beginning!! Is it just me …or do others have parcels not delivered at all? I have had 2 in one week…my birthday present to a 4yo tracked as ‘delivered’ didn’t arrive at all. My recent eBay purchase didn’t either…lost in transit the coy will replace it.
4 mths ago a parcel posted IN a PO, did not arrive to my Mail Centre PO. Same story for my Mother’s last gifts to me a few years ago - prior to her death. Post Office pack and posted in the post office…didn’t ever arrive to my Mail Centre PO.
It’s simply something that AustPost need to be aware of.
Maxine in Mackay
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I get parcels but not delivered. They manage to make it to the letterbox to shove a 'sorry we missed you ’ card in but won’t actually deliver the goods! I have to then go and collect it which is all very well but I work longer hours than the local post office (even the early opening window) which makes it really difficult to collect anything if you live and work in places far apart as I do.
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No argument from me.
I wonder how he can possibly earn that salary! Actually paying any Public servant more than the Prime Minister is just more confirmation that the Bureaucratic are having a lend of us.
It’s not just you - I have a eBay parcel that has just gone missing and a quick visit to variuos forums pretty well confirms there is a problem. The delivery time is something I can understand, but the lack of delivery at all points to a serious problem within the service. For 5 million reasons I like the CEO to address, explain and set up public benchmarks so that AustPost performance can be monitored and reviewed.
Well, you all make valid points. Australia Post has lost the plot completely, are they trying to dis-encourage people from using post as a way of keeping in touch and sending gifts etc. I have found over the years that Australia Post is slower than a snail on a skateboard, I mean 3 weeks for mail to travel interstate is not new to me, this has been going on for years. I got so fed up with registered post items being left on the wall above our letter boxes that I rented a PO Box. Complaining about service is like sending the complaint form through a black hole, nothing comes out. Unfortunately there is no competition for mail. I realise that Australia Post must make a profit but surely there are other options rather than reducing the postage service or continually increasing prices.
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There is a lot of things wrong with America but their postal system is brilliant. I purchase items online from there and receive them in 8 to 10 days even with AP involved at this end. I can wait the same amount of time for items to arrive from Qld to Vic
Mail delivery is one of only a number of problems that ‘Australia Post’ is deficient in, at the moment I am still waiting for a letter which was redirect posted from relatives who live only 23 km’s away from myself (note that it was re-posted at the start of July and has still not gotten to me) along with a Government letter which was supposedly sent three weeks ago from Adelaide and still hasn’t arrived. One wonders if it is a deliberate ploy to force the general public to seek other methods such as email (pdf’s etc) to save on paper, printing and mailing similar to using the phone (i.e. press 1 for ‘xxx’, press 2 for ‘yyy’) or just plain incompetence overall in our entire system. The other item is the cost of ‘Post Boxes’ which seem to be rising every year without any real benefit to those who use them. I had one for a number of years and each year the cost went up without any additional benefit for myself (it benefits the Post Office by not having to deliver to my home address so why increase the fee if your not going to provide an increased service?). I understand that all Government Agencies dealing with the public are supposed to show a profit (Aust Post, Port Authorities etc.) but it all goes to the same place in the long run (consolidated revenue) and is doled out to all and sundry with these departments having to fight it out amongst themselves for the money to operate. One final issue is ‘what gives with Post Offices’ trying to be ‘upmarket’ and sell all the things that would have normally been considered the purvey of a ‘newsagency’?
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When I order something online and pay for delivery, I do expect it to be delivered to my address. Twice in the last three months I have checked my mailbox only to find a card telling me that “we missed you” and informing me that I have seven days to go and pick it up from the local Post Office. I paid good money for delivery of both items, but then had to go and collect it? When I brought this up with the local post office, I was given the “we have no control over the couriers” standard reply. It does seem that Australia Post is charging like wounded bulls for an appalling service - and they don’t care. Twice already this year I have sent letters of complaint to the appropriate people, and they didn’t even show the normal courtesy of acknowledging receipt of the complaints, never mind actually addressing the problem. Or maybe my letters haven’t reached them yet.
