topic Re: Priority service suspended in Selling

Priority service suspended

digital*ghost — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 06:43:41 GMT

Just been to the PO where they advised priority services are being suspended until June next year, and letter deliveries will only be every second day (PO box deliveries will still be daily).

Re: Priority service suspended

lyndal1838 — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 07:33:35 GMT

I just heard the same information from my postman and contractor.

I noticed that the postman only came round here every second day last week and wondered what was going on.

Re: Priority service suspended

sandypebbles — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 07:36:02 GMT

No doubt something else buyers to blame sellers for (or that we are making it up like we are making up about the virus causing delays)

Glad I did not re-list anything on my selling ID

Re: Priority service suspended

curraone — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 07:42:40 GMT

21 April 2020

As Australians adapt to living under COVID-19 restrictions, Australia Post has been optimising our business to manage the significant disruption and unprecedented parcel volumes being sent across the country.

The Federal Government today announced temporary changes to delivery standards for our business to continue to service the broader needs of the community as quickly as possible.

The temporary relief includes:

removing the Priority Mail letter product
adjusting the existing service standards on other letters, meaning Australia Post will deliver letters in metropolitan areas every second day
extending the required delivery time for regular intrastate letters to five days after the day of posting

Delivery frequency in regional, rural and remote Australia will not change, in recognition that Australia Post is often the only operator in these areas.

Post Offices will also continue to remain open, in-line with health and safety guidelines to protect our people and customers.

We will be working through the details of what the temporary relief means for our business and will update Post Offices and our information page over the coming days.

Re: Priority service suspended

porcelain_dolls_by_me — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 08:30:44 GMT

Priority mail service has generally failed to meet its delivery guarantee for over a month now.

General mail deliveries only every second day? - Will not be any slower than the second rate service we now get.

Reviewed June 2021 - Please AusPost at least be honest this decision is permanent.

Re: Priority service suspended

davewil1964 — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 09:27:26 GMT

@porcelain_dolls_by_me wrote:
Priority mail service has generally failed to meet its delivery guarantee for over a month now.
General mail deliveries only every second day? - Will not be any slower than the second rate service we now get.
Reviewed June 2021 - Please AusPost at least be honest this decision is permanent.

Makes you wonder.

Maybe very few people are paying the extra for a service indistinguishable from the standard service.

Maybe they know something the rest of us aren't privy to, given the government line is for later this year for the crisis to be over.

I certainly hope their parcel deliveries aren't delayed through to June next year.

As with most, I'm starting to get flak from buyers who don't think COVID-19 has anything to do with delivery delays to them, even when they're on the other side of the country.

Re: Priority service suspended

digital*ghost — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 09:44:06 GMT

@davewil1964 wrote:

Maybe very few people are paying the extra for a service indistinguishable from the standard service.

No, a lot of people were paying for it given how quickly my PO went through their supplies and restocks, and I would often get priority letters to arrive to some destinations as fast as express packages would to the same areas (Tas and WA are the most notable exapmples, i.e. the next day delivery network was limited to the capital cities in those states, so when I would get FB 2 days after posting to non-city areas, it was pleasantly surprising).

Plus, I got a lot of feedback from buyers noting the faster delivery times, with some advising the main reason they bought from me all the time was the simple fact my stuff arrived faster than everyone else's.

For me, it was worth every penny I charged buyers to send every letter priority.... (I'm being slightly facetious, but my postage charges didn't actually cover all costs incurred after fees, so I subsidised it a bit - using past tense as I will have to revise some things tonight).

Re: Priority service suspended

everard6920 — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 10:10:44 GMT

I assume the every-second-day metro delivery will be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If it's only Tuesday and Thursday, that's going to be a little problematic.

However, at least there are three tiers for trackable letters now. I've moved to 100% trackable envelopes with my letters (which account for about 60% of all my orders) so I'm not too concerned. As long as I lodge within my handling time, I'm covered for late delivery anyway.

I never used priority because I found that my letter delivery times were very reasonable without paying for it.

I almost always post same or next day, but I extended my handling time to account for delays within the network, and that will hopefully take care of anyone with unrealistic expectations.

Re: Priority service suspended

jfmgray — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 13:09:30 GMT

As with digi, my experience with priority letters has been positive. I have happily paid the 50 cents and I have not had one late delivery defect in over 18 months (sending, on average, 15 priority letters per day).

Re: Priority service suspended

jfmgray — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 13:17:07 GMT

oh and I hope I can "cash in" the 100 priority labels I am holding

Re: Priority service suspended

lyndal1838 — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 15:25:28 GMT

@davewil1964 wrote:
I certainly hope their parcel deliveries aren't delayed through to June next year.

AP has been concentrating on parcel deliveries for a while now.....since January StarTrack has been picking up the overflow from postmen and contractors.

The problem is now StarTrack is getting the flack for late delivery when the parels were not their responsibility in the first place.

ries for a while now.

Re: Priority service suspended

everard6920 — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 00:21:31 GMT

Yeah ... had a quick chat with the people at my local PO and parcels are up 80%, and the idea is that the posties can help deliver those on the "off" days.

Re: Priority service suspended

south.coffee — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 01:54:01 GMT

With parcel deliveries over the top and currently experiencing delays, letter post delivery has been quicker than parcel post by 2-3 days no doubt due to the lack of letters volume... even with alternate delivery days that may still be the case.

Issues from C19 will make profound changes in many business's activity, good and bad. From us sellers point of view probably positive as many more shoppers have been introduced to online shopping for the very first time.

Re: Priority service suspended

meekamag2 — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 02:21:31 GMT

I Have parcel posted in Brisbane last friday and they still haven't left Northgate sorting centre. What they're doing up there I'm blowed if I know. Will take a couple of weeks to finally get to their interstate destinations the way they're tracking.

Re: Priority service suspended

lupercal — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 06:07:35 GMT

Letters will only be delivered every second day?

I'm not sure I completely understand what that means. Best case scenario, 50% of letters are slowed down by one day. That's assuming the slow-down is only an every-other-day bottleneck at the delivery end. If this slow down somehow extends further back thought he system, it would be more worrying.

My items go as large letters. Up til now they seemed not to have been affected much. I have had feedback lately complimenting me on fast delivery, for instance to a rural area. "That's nice, but it's really not my doing. Does this mean you'd blame me if it were delivered slowly?'

I haven't been really paying attention to this, but assuming they haven't, it's long overdue that eBay make some alteration to their delivery time estimations, to at least partially account for CV19 induced delays. It's left to me to manually warn customers. This isn't that onerous a task, but some sort of corroboration from eBay would be welcome.

Re: Priority service suspended

gec2002 — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 07:07:24 GMT

And just to add to the irritation my Post Office and Street Letter Box had a notice that the last guaranteed collection has been reduced to 4:00pm. My local Red Letter Box lost its 6:00 pm Sunday pickup awhile ago, now like the virus, it seems to have spread to all boxes and days.

Not the end of the world but still an annoyance. PS I am in Eastern Suburbs Victoria not sure if it applies to everybody.

Re: Priority service suspended

south.coffee — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 08:00:08 GMT

eBay have added a header when you click on an orders tracking number "Due to the coronavirus outbreak, deliveries may be delayed."

Oddly, we have found Express Post the most delayed service due to a lack of aircraft for long distance drops. Generally speaking our buyers have been patient and plenty of news recently on Australia Post's efforts so you cannot blame anyone when your capacity increases +80% in a matter of weeks...

Consider ourselves lucky we have an online business as we're well ahead of the bricks & mortor stores struggling to catch up and survive.