Australia Post is worse than ever!

[kitty-kat-kollection]

My partner has posted 12 items out, all in a small prepaid satchel, since mid January, and out of those 12, 4 have gone missing and 1 had an issue that required intervention.

Compensation was received for the 4 lost parcels, but COME ON! That's a QUARTER of parcels just gone!!!

All of them get to a main sorting centre near the final destination but never make it out of that sorting centre.

This is ridiculous!

[davewil1964]

Don't use prepaid satchels?

Or allow for the fact that mid-January definitely coincided with half the country being on fire.

You could always use couriers, and see how that goes with your buyers. I haven't had any that I know of go missing in your timeframe. I must be speshul.

[kitty-kat-kollection]

Mmmm. I personally use a lot of prepaid satchels and most of my deliveries are fine. Some in one particular batch were delayed by 2 weeks, not due to the fires but simply to mistakes made (and admitted) by Aus Post.

The 4 out of 12 parcels of my partner's were not actually bypassing any fire affected areas and always went missing between the sorting centre and the destination post office (for example the Melbourne sorting centre and Hawthorn, only 20-30 mins away. That one never left the sorting centre).

Couriers? Ugh, no way! Soo many reasons! (in oue case anyway)

[tazzieterror]

In my experience Australia Post are actually pretty reliable.  Off the top of my head I can recall only 3 parcels I've had delivery issues with in the past 3 or 4 years, so that's probably less than 2% if not 1%.

4 outta 12 is too many for it to just be bad luck or a coincidence and sounds more like someone stealing them.

[11dustyattic]

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@kitty-kat-kollection wrote:
My partner has posted 12 items out, all in a small prepaid satchel, since mid January, and out of those 12, 4 have gone missing and 1 had an issue that required intervention.

Compensation was received for the 4 lost parcels, but COME ON! That's a QUARTER of parcels just gone!!!

All of them get to a main sorting centre near the final destination but never make it out of that sorting centre.

This is ridiculous!

---

Really, 4 went missing? If all went through the same sorting centre, there might be a light fingered staff member. I've been using prepaid satchels all the years I've been selling on here and only one went missing in a country area which they eventually found after I made an enquiry. I copped a red dot for that. Argued that I had posted promptly and asked to have it removed, was told no because it was the buyer's experience blah. Oh and they always finish by assuring you it won't affect your selling lol 

[eol-products]

Where the addresses hand written or stuck on. Many parcels are lost in the system with missing or damaged address labels.

[springyzone]

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@kitty-kat-kollection wrote:
My partner has posted 12 items out, all in a small prepaid satchel, since mid January, and out of those 12, 4 have gone missing and 1 had an issue that required intervention.

Compensation was received for the 4 lost parcels, but COME ON! That's a QUARTER of parcels just gone!!!

All of them get to a main sorting centre near the final destination but never make it out of that sorting centre.

This is ridiculous!

---

I've personally never normally had much of a problem with Aust Post, I've found that occasionally stuff may be delayed but it always eventually comes through.

The fact you received compensation for 4 items though says you really did strike trouble in a big way.

That's a lot. Maybe it was related to the disruptions in service around the country at that time, that's all I can think of.

Hopefully it is just a glitch and things will be back to normal soon.

Last Thursday though, I received a card in the mail from USA. It was a Christmas card and clearly stamped 11 Dec 2019 Milwaukee.

My address & address of sender were both printed labels, very clear.

I have no idea why there was a 2 month delay. I emailed my friend as this is a personal best for us when it comes to time lag.

She replied that the US postal service has been very slow lately. Not that that affected your parcels but at least you know we're not the only ones suffering.

I still can't figure out where the delay came with my card though. I can't even use the excuse of the fires as I am in a capital city and I would have expected the card to arrive well before Christmas.

[south.coffee]

"All of them get to a main sorting centre near the final destination but never make it out of that sorting centre."

If all 4 missing parcels went missing ex the same Mail Centre then that is suspicious, which Mail Centre/s ?  If they went missing from 4 different Mail Centres, that's statistically interesting ?  Of those 4 missing items what was characteristic about the date, size, packaging and addressing ?  There is oddly a pattern going on here for this to happen.

It is not uncommon for parcels to be damaged on conveyor belts and especially through the new big parcel sorting machines.  Sometimes the whole package and label are simply destroyed beyond recognition and impossible to trace back, hence the end of the tracking trail...

There will always be a theft percentage, but in the big statistics that is miniscule when we talk millions of articles in the system each day, but it does and will always happen and individuals do get caught.  Australia Post has a large security department with headquarters in every state.  You would be surprised at the level of covert surveillance and entrapment that takes place and staff are well aware of this and it acts as a strong deterrant.  You only hear about the big Postal theft stories in the news, but there is a lot more happening and you won't hear about the 'smaller' stuff.

Always report missing items as every case is tallied and the patterns analysed.  The mathematics always catches up with 'them'.

I am not offering excuses for Australia Post, just facts.

[joztamps]

Probably after the 2nd one, and definitely after the 3rd one went missing, I would have bought and used these stickers on all future parcels

[south.coffee]

After my long winded reply, I now have lost two articles sent same day same lodgement at local Post Office.  One was last seen tracking through Melbourne Airport Mail Centre which is very unusual headed for Canberra by road.  Now day 12 into a general 4-5 day delivery.

Second article was bound for Gladstone and vanished off the radar after local Post Office lodgement.  Now day 12 into a general 8-10 day delivery.

Did they wayward XPT at Wallan hit a post van or maybe Australia Post is trialling Post & Rail !

See what the case manager turns up...