topic Re: Gotta Love Australia Post in Selling

Gotta Love Australia Post

*tippy*toes* — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 15:13:55 GMT

Bless their automated sorting centres. The parcel is going to Melbourne outer suburb. I have to admit, I got quite excited when I saw it was at Sunshine West the next day. The buyer originally asked for express, but then changed his mind. He'll be kicking himself now, not to mention wondering where the heck his parcel is. Apparently it will be delivered by next Wednesday according to AP. Yeah right! It probably has to go back to Sunshine West.. It's still at Chullora today.

Re: Gotta Love Australia Post

lm-entertainment — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 15:17:00 GMT

what an absolute nightmare 😞

Re: Gotta Love Australia Post

*tippy*toes* — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 15:22:22 GMT

I expect it will go via Underwood next. Nothing would surprise me. I'm actually really surprised I've not heard from the buyer. The ETA has passed I think.

Re: Gotta Love Australia Post

clarry100 — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 19:29:40 GMT

It's known as "looping" and according to my son who works in the Brisbane call centre they know about it and are attempting to implement something that I'd supposed to trap anything that visits the same centre 3 or more timed in a certain period.
If you call them and bring this specific one to their attention they will put a manual trap on it.
He says it's very often due to some form of damage occurring to the address label that causes one machine to read it correctly whilst another to misread it. So causing it to bounce back & forth.

Re: Gotta Love Australia Post

*tippy*toes* — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 00:09:12 GMT

They're trying to say it's probably got a damaged label. The only way my labels could get damaged is if the parcel is run over by something. I cover the whole parcel, label included, in tape to protect it from getting wet and potentially damaging the label. They said they are going to get irt out of the loop today (hopefully) and get it back on track. I don't know why the heck that's going to add an extra week to delivery when it can get from Chullora to Sunshine west overnight. I even said I'd drive to Chullora myself and grab it, then deliver it to the buyer. It would still be way quicker than them doing it!

Re: Gotta Love Australia Post

performance_parts_clearance_centre — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 00:42:33 GMT

"I have to admit, I got quite excited when I saw it was at Sunshine West the next day".

In Victoria, Sunshine West is where parcels go to die. Almost every time I've had an "Item Not Received" notification, the tracking shows the damned thing as being at Sunshine West.

In my mind's eye, I have an image of the interior of the place - a huge, 50 metre high pile of dust and cob-web covered boxes and satchels dating back years, some with pre-decimal stamps on them. Occasionally, an AusPost worker will walk up to the pile, look down at the Missing Item form in their hand, look at the pile, and turn around and say "Nah, s'not here".

And, seriously - I've had friends sending parcels from Frankston to Seaford (basically adjoining suburbs) which have gone from Frankston to Sunshine West (70 km or so) to be sorted, then back out to Seaford to be delivered. 140km round trip for a 2km delivery...

Re: Gotta Love Australia Post

zanadoo_56 — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 05:03:20 GMT

@performance_parts_clearance_centre wrote:
"I have to admit, I got quite excited when I saw it was at Sunshine West the next day".

In Victoria, Sunshine West is where parcels go to die. Almost every time I've had an "Item Not Received" notification, the tracking shows the damned thing as being at Sunshine West.

In my mind's eye, I have an image of the interior of the place - a huge, 50 metre high pile of dust and cob-web covered boxes and satchels dating back years, some with pre-decimal stamps on them. Occasionally, an AusPost worker will walk up to the pile, look down at the Missing Item form in their hand, look at the pile, and turn around and say "Nah, s'not here".

And, seriously - I've had friends sending parcels from Frankston to Seaford (basically adjoining suburbs) which have gone from Frankston to Sunshine West (70 km or so) to be sorted, then back out to Seaford to be delivered. 140km round trip for a 2km delivery...

Not just Frankston to Seaford via Sunshine West.

Registered parcels have been transferred to a sub post office in Frankston via Sunshine West and sometimes the Seaford Business Centre for good measure, when they only had to come from Langwarrin PO (a mere 2km from Frankston).

It's just crazy.....and so S L O W. Other parcels have done even more of a scenic tour, or tracking has stopped at Sunshine West while the parcels have moved on. Arrgghh.

Re: Gotta Love Australia Post

stickerswa — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 05:34:17 GMT

At least yours ar going somewhere. Just picked up another 8 (out of about 40 sent) DL envelopes from the PO that have been returned to me. Not to thick, not over weight and correct post. Even one that was going to the USA got bounced back.

No return to sender, no markings to indicate why ?? They go from me to Perth Mail center (300km) then disappear for a few days then back through Perth mail center and back to me

Most frustrating

Re: Gotta Love Australia Post

*tippy*toes* — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 13:22:50 GMT

I'm not sure it is going anywhere, it's been at Chullora for 2 days now. I can't help but think after visiting Chullora several times, that it's going to fall into the big black hole. I'm still surprised I haven't heard from the buyer.

Re: Gotta Love Australia Post

justkidzbiz — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 14:02:43 GMT

And then there's the fee increases! Wish they would pay more attention to delivering parcels on time before rising postage costs!

Re: Gotta Love Australia Post

digital*ghost — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 08:58:55 GMT

@clarry100 wrote:
It's known as "looping" and according to my son who works in the Brisbane call centre they know about it and are attempting to implement something that I'd supposed to trap anything that visits the same centre 3 or more timed in a certain period.
If you call them and bring this specific one to their attention they will put a manual trap on it.
He says it's very often due to some form of damage occurring to the address label that causes one machine to read it correctly whilst another to misread it. So causing it to bounce back & forth.

I'm not privy to how the machines work, but wouldn't that suggest a machine issue rather than a label issue?

What I mean is, if one machine can read it, it would suggest (to me) the label is readable, if another machine can't read it, I'd assume the problem is the machine.

Unless the error is at the software level, and the barcode or QR code returns a different reading depending on the machine that's scanning it (but would still suggest an internal / system failure).

Re: Gotta Love Australia Post

clarry100 — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 10:47:14 GMT

Yeah I think you are quite likely correct.

They do have a "fleet" of ageing machines and are gradually replacing/upgrading them as budgets permit.

So it could also be a newer machine reading the "damaged" (read partially obliterated/obscured) label correctly while an older one at another facility reads it incorrectly and directs it back to from whence it came. In any case "looping" is a well know phenomenon that it seems may well be difficult to fix until all machines have been upgraded. It would be interesting to be the recipient of one such package that has been "looping" and see just what the address label looks like. Is it dirty? Is it partially obscured/damaged/wrinkled? Is it covered by a shiny surface? Is it hand written? How clear is the font? Probably many similar questions to this.

You know how in the supermarket sometimes the barcode scanners refuse/have trouble to read a barcode. Just my humble opinion... but I think it's got to do with the surface colours (colour balance or contrast) or reflectivity or lighting or any similar combo causing reading problems from one machine to another. The scanners use a red laser light so some colours will respond better than others.

I don't think my son knows any more about exactly what's actually causing this than the next man TBH. He is probably being fed with info from the various centres where it's happening. And they will likely each be blaming the other I'm sure.

Re: Gotta Love Australia Post

digital*ghost — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 10:54:48 GMT

Makes sense 🙂 and as you say, there are a lot of variables that would make it difficult to pinpoint the issue if it's not something that's immediately obvious.

Re: Gotta Love Australia Post

*tippy*toes* — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 15:05:29 GMT

The estimate for this parcel has now changed for the 3rd time. Just a shame the eBay estimate doesn't change with it. There has finally been a new tracking event, it's back at Sunshine West. It remains to be seen what happens after that. At least it's back in the correct state (for the second time).