Help/advice pls - Aust Post contractor signed for my item & it's missing

[the3coopers]

We've lost a very expensive item that was delivered from the USA via USPS Express last week. Yet the AP tracking shows that it's been signed for!

Last Sunday we arrived back from an Easter Holiday, and it seems that the AP Contractor had come Tuesday 10th at about 7:38am -  there is a hangup on our home Answering Machine (my home phone number is on the vendor's invoice) at that time. The delivery status says delivered at 7:42am.

I phoned AP customer service and they say there's a scrawled signature with my first name on it. I am unable to get a copy, but I've asked the vendor to request it via USPS. I never sign my name that way, and anyway I can easily verify that I wasn't here on that day. The item should have been carded, not dropped.

Item was paid by Paypal, funded by a ANZ Visa Debit card. Theoretically I cannot claim INR since the item was delivered - and it'd be really unfair to chargeback on the vendor since they certainly did deliver something to us.

AP seemed to be saying "too bad", claim back via the vendor. Yet the only reason it's missing is because the AP employee seems to have either delivered to the wrong address or signed for it themselves and left it sitting on our front porch for nearly a week!

So, how on earth should I handle this? The item cost me almost $1000, so it's not a loss that I can "absorb". I'm wondering if anybody has had similar experiences, especially with making a claim against Australia Post for such a loss.

Thanks heaps for any advice you can give me. 🙂

[australiapoststore]

Good Afternoon,

I'm so sorry to hear about your difficulties claiming for the loss of your parcel. I definitely understand your frustrations with the outcome and process. I would be just as upset.

If you are at all unhappy with how we dealt with your investigation you are more than welcome to contact us either via phone or email to discuss the matter in more depth.

Without wanting to sound like I am passing the buck, or dodge responsibility, I just wanted to share some information about our investigation processes that there seemed to be some misconceptions about throughout this discussion.

With regard to providing a Signature as Proof of Delivery, the Sender is the only party eligible for this, though not all services include a Proof of Delivery Option. In fact, the only International service that includes a Proof of Delivery option is International Registered Post, and the service must be nominated and paid for by the sender at the time of lodgement. This is true for items coming into Australia as well as going out.

The reason you were referred to the sender initially was not a denial of liability but because this parcel was sent using the EMS service (you can identify this by the article number, which for EMS always starts with an "E"). The only party eligible for compensation, whether for loss or damage of an EMS article is the sender. This is outlined in the terms and conditions of the service, which can be found in our International Post Guide here: http://auspo.st/kvvGt8http://auspo.st/t54pyihttp://auspo.st/IIbPio http://auspost.ebay.com.au/

While sending a parcel "Person-to-Person" is the most secure method of delivery available, it is only offered as an add-on to Domestic Registered Post, so is unfortunately not available for International Articles.

While it is true that some of our customers have individually organised delivery arrangements that allow for signature articles to be safe-dropped, Australia Post no longer enters into such arrangements as if the sender chooses to use a signature service we need to honour that decision.

That is not to say that occasionally these items are incorrectly safe-dropped as may have happened in this case. When this does happen it is important for the addressee to report the matter as you have, to enable us to investigate and provide appropriate disciplinary measures. Australia Post take all reports of improper behaviour very seriously.

I am glad that you and the sender did all the right things and logged complaints on both ends, and I am sorry that you did not receive a positive outcome. It may be worth following this up further with USPS as a disputed delivery, rather than a "missing item" as you are able to prove you were away at the time, and that the delivery signature is not yours.

For future reference, you may want to look into our Mail Hold Service next time you go away, as it will ensure that all your mail, letters and parcels are held securely at your local delivery centre until your return. More information can be found here:

If anyone has any further concerns or questions about this or any other postal matter, feel free to contact me here, or you could call our contact centre on 13 13 18, or email us via:

Kind regards,

Alice F.

eBay Store Manager

Australia Post

ebaystore@auspost.com.au

[*kazumi*]

I thought this needs to be bumped 🙂

And i would like Alice to tell us why when something like this happens, instead of all this there would not be some simple way for the person who did not sign for the parcel to come with their drivers license and be able to view the signature, and show what their real signature looks like.  Then AP could just compensate and take the issue up with the delivery contractor.

Instead, this saga is just going on and on.

[patchoo78]

It's all just blame shifting.. If they know that the contractor falsified the signature, they could at least let coop look at the signature..

Considering he has a hang up on his answering machine before the delivery, you think they could find the contractor responsible..

The mail hold service is a good option, but I guess coop didn't think that they would A. Safe drop his item when no one was home and B. Falsify the signature.. They could have just left a postal note in his mailbox, but it seems that the contractor just got lazy and couldn't be bothered carting the package back to the PO...

Whethere Aus post is accountable is irrelevant, the fact is by the contractor falsifying a signature, he commited fraud

[aussie.imports]

Terms, conditions, clauses, blah blah blah, it's just another way for large companies to get out of paying for their mistakes. They have the money and the lawyers, so the little guy is always screwed.

The buyer can prove he wasn't home. The item was signed for. No-one can provide a signature. Who's investigating this? Some pimply faced git straight out of college with a piece of paper that says 'Qualified Investigator'?

AP, admit your company was at fault, compensate the buyer, and finish your investigations in your own time. You can prosecute the offender when you catch him, buy why string the buyer along for the length of your investigation when he can prove it wasn't him?

[the3coopers]

Whethere Aus post is accountable is irrelevant, the fact is by the contractor falsifying a signature, he commited fraud

That is precisely the issue - because the item was "signed for", the sender cannot make a claim on USPS. And THAT is the issue here... if it was "Safe Dropped" and stolen, then I would be OK because the item would have just been "lost"... but because someone has signed, nobody is able to claim for the loss.

[tall_bearded]

“That is not to say that occasionally these items are incorrectly safe-dropped as may have happened in this case. When this does happen it is important for the addressee to report the matter as you have, to enable us to investigate and provide appropriate disciplinary measures. Australia Post take all reports of improper behaviour very seriously”.

I have personal experience of items which were clearly tagged Do Not Safe Drop being safe dropped. 

I used to lodge complaints.  The response; we can’t identify the contractor responsible so we can’t take any action.  Considering we pay some of the highest postal charges in the world, that is simply not good enough.

So the next time it happens the complaint will be lodged direct with the Minister.

[tall_bearded]

Alice, can you please provide an excerpt of that part of the legislation which precludes recipients from filing negligence claims against Australia Post, which is what you seem to be inferring in you post.

[the_great_she_elephant]

That is not to say that occasionally these items are incorrectly safe-dropped as may have happened in this case

What a stupid statement! How could it possaibly have been 'safe dropped' if it's been signed for - purportedly with your signature?

[israelwillprevail]

I see copy and paste expert Alice isn't even responding! Total BS by a totally BS company AP is! They are a disgrace yet get away with it because of the monopoly!!

[cq_tech]

The tabloid TV shows (ACA, TDT, etc.) love these sorts of "David vs Goliath" stories and a bit of well-deserved bad publicity for AP might just see Coops reimbursed with a one-off ex-gratia payment for his pains. 🙂