Posted Mail Services - is it time to say Goodbye?

It seems Australia Post are onto this - actively promoting the move away from physical mail by means of their ‘customer service’ - I’ve been saying ‘goodbye’ to mail they have lost for some time now …

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My mail box is being used for donation requests only.
After a few missed important payment notices I’ve made requests to go online to all of my utilities, insurance, banking (wouldn’t dream of getting my bank statements in the mail and I also ask to pick up my bank cards from the nearest branch).

I have abandoned posted mail for some time now because of its high cost, slowest ever delivery times, lost mail (heard on talk-back radio a call from a distressed lady who’s been told by AP that her Passport ‘fell off the back of the delivery truck’ the driver doesn’t know what’s happened to it).
Greeting cards are never mailed because of the uncertainty of delivery time: there’s nothing worse than a birthday or Xmas card received too early or too late, but an email or text can be made personal and sent at the appropriate time.

I only post ‘Not at this address’ mail.

I’ll admit that there are a diminishing few who still need or wish to receive or send hard-copy mail, especially in areas with poor reception (besides the dinosaurs who still use check books😂) so I’ll say that it’s not time to say Goodbye yet.
Wouldn’t buy shares in the company though.

I’ve had three elderly friends / relatives who have rung me this week. AP no longer supplies cheaper postage for Christmas Cards so they tell us their news over the phone and save the cost of card, letter and postage.

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Fact check? Or maybe that didn’t come out quite as you intended it.

A phone call has been cheaper than any type of letter for a while now. (Many people are on “unlimited” call plans for standard numbers in Australia, so the incremental cost of the phone call is $0.)

In a sense you already have shares in AusPost. :wink:

Even so, are you ready to embrace “online” (really “digital”) for a passport?

Some well-posed questions, mark_m. The so-called paperless office was mooted 30+ years ago. It still hasn’t truly arrived. No matter if it’s home or office, when you need to get your hands on a record or documentation, whatever, it’s paper we reach for. And when push comes to shove like in a court of law or anywhere when an e-pudding won’t make the cut, it’s paper. Australia Post has had a significant role in all this. So, I guess it begs the question, “are there any legal ramifications for not delivering to the invoice address?”

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Locaal mail boxes were being raided a few years back, so I got myself a postbox instead, but once the raiding stopped, I switched to email delivery for most. Obviously there are some things for which snail mail is required: credit cards/debit cards, insurance papers. And for some reason I’ve forgotten to get the water bill by email.

However, lately I have been considering reverting to hard copies for all. So no, its not time for postal mail services to go.

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Why?

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I make hand crafted cards for individual peoplein our lives. Cannot email them. The gift is about getting something made " just for you" that you can touch and feel and keep!
Just saying…

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It may be safest to collect from your local bank branch - if you have one.

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This being the point, of course. I don’t have one, and it seems that banks are closing all over the place, so changing to another seems silly.

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LOL! I don’t really feel I need to justify my thoughts :slight_smile:

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I thought that as we were talking about not receiving hardcopy in the mail that information about why you would go counter to that trend would be relevant and contribute to the question of whether or how to do away with the post.

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How lovely @wallacethree! To receive your handcrafted card would be especially precious.

I usually include a greeting card with a gift, but here the topic is using the posted mail services and I think there’s nothing personal about buying and sending Xmas cards in bulk to those on our mailing list. An email expressing gratitude for friendship and sharing some of our news can be more personal and appreciated.
The risk of our message not being read is minimal compared to the ‘lost in the mail’ (or delivered weeks after the event) of the costly, inefficient, postal system, IMHO.

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Hi Mark, I am a Senior and although I use computers and have a smart phone, I still hope that the use of paper money and plastic cards will continue. I will not download an app for Banks on my phone, because I can neither see enough nor are my fingers agile enough to cope with such software. I do some banking on my computer, because I can easily enlarge the screen and I also have plenty of time, when I do it.
There are also practical consideration. If Supermarket checkouts have trouble with electricity or computers, they require cash (there does not seem to be a manual system) and as I do not drive, I cannot come back easily and would have to leave my groceries behind. At the moment I always carry enough cash (and by the way, it happens quite a few times,that there are problems. Sometimes my card also did not work).
I am also looking ahead to increased Electricity Prices and maybe problems with the electricity grid and the chaos that would result, if people relied on electronic means for payment.
Electronic payments also mean that all movements of people are completely obvious to any authorities, e.g. The Tax Department would know exactly what people spend and where and they could check, whether the declared income matches the outgoings. While I do not pay tax anyhow, such a possibility frightens me. I think people should have some privacy.
In the Ukraine there are severe power outages and people have to rely on old-fashioned money transactions. Some people had trouble fleeing because they had no cash for petrol. As the world is in turmoil, we do not know, whether there might be a war in our area or not, it is premature to put all eggs into the online basket.
As far as posted mail goes, this mail helps to subsidize parcels and other mail deliveries, e.g. registered mail. More and more people order online and somebody has to deliver the parcels. We should have a service that is tax-payer owned and controlled by regulations otherwise parcels will disappear (as many do now). Documents still will exist (e.g. birth certificates, passports, etc.) and they need to be posted. Why is it necessary to abandon posted mail. Mail delivery provides jobs and many people still use the service. Many elderly people no longer drive and cannot pickup mail. I am just wondering, why the postal service cannot continue to exist. As far as I know it still is alive and well in most countries, especially as more and more people are ordering online and I would not want rely on any private providers. They generally need to make a profit and make a mess of things as we can see from the current problems with privatized utilities.

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I forgot to add, that while many people can afford the latest and best smart-phones, many retired people (or poor people) have to make do with older models, which are neither as sophisticated nor as secure and this would again create many disadvantaged users. Other people cannot cope with any technology and they have very simple phones.

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I checked Aust Post’s website, and they do offer a $0.65 stamp for Christmas cards. Three of our elderly relatives have told us they were ringing us because that concession is no longer available. I’ll ask the next one where they heard it and if they had trouble getting stamps. I have not tried our local AP. Have only received one card so far this year, which is strange; had a $1.10 stamp on it.

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While I have never been one to partake of Xmas cheer (bah, humbug) many in older generations used to and still collect and display their incoming Chrissy cards around their tree or mantle each year.

What is more personal is in the eye of the beholder, ‘my card’ in their display or a personalised email in their computer? Maybe they could print it out and hang it with my name prominently applied with a Sharpie?

In these times of automation I receive many e-cards generated by mailing list software, most from corporate but some ‘private’ sources. I find them impersonal and in cases insulting when they truly miss the mark by having to be vapid to avoid offending anyone in the entire cross section of community.

To each their own. I side with a postal service that is non-political and adequately funded to serve all not just businesses shipping parcels.

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I receive physical Christmas cards from some of my corporate spammers. I agree with you regarding your second point (vapid to avoid offending) but that looks like a rathole that I’m not going down, at least not in this topic. :wink:

How very appropriate! They are the ones who are depriving many of the joy of displaying greeting cards on the mantelpiece because of their costly non-service.

So do I! That’s most probably a universal wish.

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Well I am happy with my Chrissy Card mailed to me by the Speaker of the House of Reps :nerd_face: and it is proudly displayed with all those from our family and friends.

Everyone has their likes of what they do with cards. I am happy to receive virtual cards, to receive emails expressing good wishes and to receive mailed cards. When someone has a long long list of cards they need to send, I can understand when it is just a basic greeting.

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