Come on Australia post lift your game.

[belindabargainhunter]

I put a lock on my mail box yesterday as Australia post keeps stuffing my parcels in and they are falling out on the ground or half hanging out so easy for someone to steal.

So today I hear the mail lady and go out and what's she doing writing a collect card. What the my car is in the drive and she didn't even check if I was home.

So as far as I can see they are putting up there prices and lowering there services  😞 

[davewil1964]

🙂

[adornedau]

Wow this post got heated. I have both love and hate for AP. I live in a rental and it's a cottage block that has an iron fence and gate at the front with a built in letter box. It's pretty big and we had a lock on it for ages but I live very close to the Ocean and the lock rusts too quickly (cause even brass ones aren't pure brass these days). Plus with the opening being about 20mm wide, a woman or child can easily get their hand in (I can) so we still got mail stolen all the time. I can't do anything about my post box except fork out the money for a PO Box (5km away) and a mail re-direction. My regular postie (one on the bike) is great. Always comes to the door, says hi to my dog (and me). We even joked about the fact the neighbors will start to talk when he came to my door 5 days in a row! It's the Parcel contractor I had a problem with. Turns out I wasn't the only one who did after a small protest at the postal collection centre. Lots of:  not getting correct signatures when he did knock (for addressee only ones) and then just not knocking at all, putting a pre-filled out card in the box at 9am stating parcel could not be collected until after 4pm the following day!!! I ended up making several complaints to Australia post as I have a disability and getting to the post office isn't always easy for me, and while I will be happy to go if I miss them, I one day stood there and saw him pull up, jump out, put the card in the box and drive off! Now we have someone different who beeps his horn to allow you to come to the door while he gets the parcel out the van.

I understand that they are under a lot of pressure and have a lot of work, but I'm sorry, they are contractors and they shouldn't offer a service for a price they can't afford (same as sellers on ebay lol!). Geeze I used to be a prosecutions law clerk and if I turned around to a victims family during prep for a murder trial saying, well yeah I know I was supposed to get them their documents by a certain time, but I have so much work on and I really wanted to finish work by 4pm today so I just chucked them an email saying they could come pick them up tomorrow......errrrrr yeah wouldn't have liked to have seen how that would have gone down..... and you know what? I got paid far less then than delivery drivers do....

[kustomizer99]

If you have a high volume of deliveries, why don't you just get a post office box?? I've had PO boxes for well over 25 years.... they prevent theft on the street and ensure that damage cannot be done by posties trying to cram a package into a narrow slot.

[stormness_1]

This is why I have a PO Box. Although some sellers refuse flat-out to post to a PO box, and you don't find out until you're trying to pay for the damned item.

I actually have a package to collect tomorrow, someone was home the entire day Thursday, but our house is set back from the gate and high set, the AP driver barely even stops, throws a card in (if that) and drives off just as I'm getting to the front door! One day we were coming home and followed him to our house, he paused, beeped and drove off! Didn't even get out. My hubby was furious and chased him down, where he still refused to hand us the package despite us witnessing his wrongdoing and he knew it... and instead handed him the card that he should have put in the box! We went straight down to AP and complained, they called the driver in and forced him to hand over the package. We had been on good terms with the owners for a while, paid off that day, but new ownership now, and they still use the same useless contractor. 

I miss being in a small town, knew the postie so well he still asks my hubby what he's getting for my birthday if we're in town visiting family around then, 6 years after we left! There are some great assets to AP, but most I've come across are bloody disgraceful, and that includes counter and sorting staff!

[belindabargainhunter]

I don't feel I should have to get a post office box at a cost on top of what I am already paying when it's down to someone not doing there job. I understand that like all jobs it's hard and they are under pressure to get around to post all letters/ packages but that's the job. I would love the "watching" Australia post workers to read this and start addressing the issue.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

I don't feel I should have to get a post office box at a cost on top of what I am already paying when it's down to someone not doing there job.

You don't have to get a PO Box, and they do cost more for those that live in an area that has street delivery of mail than those that have no street delivery (yes, there are areas in Australia that have NO street delivery of mail).

However, having a PO Box would solve the issues you identified in your Opening Post regarding delivery of your items.

belinda, on another thread you wrote "so far this year which is less than 7 months I've had 146 transactions on ebay".  So, if you have about 20 buys per month you would have about 240 for the year.  Spread the PO Box cost over the 240 transactions so that you have peace of mind regarding the safe delivery of your items and it becomes quite a cheap option.

But, as I wrote way back in post # 12  . . . . . "I know that a PO Box doesn't suit everyone, but I wouldn't be without one".  Just continue with your present arrangement.

[lyndal1838]

stormness, the local post office has absolutely no input into who is the contractor delivering in your area.  The contracts are let by a central office and have nothing to do with local post offices or delivery centres.

And it is more than his job is worth for the contractor to hand the parcel to anyone other than the person who answers the door at the address on the parcel.

How would he know that you were to home owner when you just flagged him down in the street?

[wargul]

I agree that AP should take greater care; however, a well packed item shouldn't be too easy to bend.  I used to ship a lot of magazines.  I sandwiched them between two layers of corrugated plastic sheeting in such a way as the package could not be bent.  This is achieved by making sure the corrugations run up/down or one board and left/right on the other.  Packed this way the  package has to be stomped on to bend.

Just a thought - if the item can be damaged by bending then the packaging shouldn't be bendable.  If it can't be damaged by bending then what's the problem?

I have a post box.

[stormness_1]

stormness, the local post office has absolutely no input into who is the contractor delivering in your area.  The contracts are let by a central office and have nothing to do with local post offices or delivery centres.

And it is more than his job is worth for the contractor to hand the parcel to anyone other than the person who answers the door at the address on the parcel.

How would he know that you were to home owner when you just flagged him down in the street?

The local post office handles complaints made, and could very easily submit all complaints received if they were bothered, I'm sure someone in HR somewhere would get mightily sick of hearing about this particular employee! 

How would he know? The same way the post office knows I didn't steal the card from the letterbox, we offered to produce ID, just as would be required at the post office. No-one can answer the door at the house if you don't stay long enough for them to possibly answer, nor would we have received the package AT ALL if he hadn't handed over the card, as there was none left for us in our box, because he never got out of the van! Not to mention he obviously doesn't do his job very well in the first place.. I wish he'd commit some sack-able offence, he's a terrible (and dangerous) driver in addition to a bad postie, and has written off three vans that I know of in the 5 years I've lived in the area, which has very few traffic accidents otherwise. One I witnessed personally, he came really fast into the plaza parking lot where the PO was located, and lost control on the corner, and actually hit the PO window and PO boxes... thankfully no customers inside. The PO manager later put up a sign 'due to vandalism we've closed temporarily while we do repairs' as requested by AP regional office when they reported the incident. This guy must have more lives than a cat to still work for AP!

[pjay482000]

I had the postman stuff so much mail and small parcels in my box,

that I couldn't turn the key to open the lock,

so had to call the locksmith to come and get it open for me,

not really the postmans fault as he was not to know that it would stop the lock from turning,

my postman is the greatest postman you could ever want,

is so obliging and helpful always,