Shame shame shame Australia Post!!

[extremeshoppingonline]

Hi everyone

Not sure if you are aware or not, but Australia Post has just increased their postage charges by 30% and this will flow on to buyers & sellers alike. Whether you buy with ‘free postage’ or buy with postage as an additional expense, we can all expect to pay more.

What has really got up my nose is how Aust Post can justify the previous charge of $1 for ‘signature on delivery’ with an increase today of $2.95 for the same service! This charge is now being applied to the ClickandSend ebay/austpost satchels that many ebay sellers in Australia use.

We are already fighting a losing battle to remain competitive in the global market because of our extortionate postage costs within Australia and to post internationally.

Sadly to say, I feel we are going to see ‘free postage’ go by the wayside now. Because 90% of buyers are using Paypal, sellers need to show ‘proof of delivery’ in the event of a buyer opening a dispute in Paypal, claiming an item has not been received. So many parcels go missing, whether through theft, damage, fraud or abandonment and if the extra $2.95 for a signature on delivery is not taken up, then the seller will automatically have the case closed in the buyer’s favour. It is that simple. Registered Post is no longer. If you want Registered Post, it will cost $2.95 for the signature on Delivery plus $1.50 to cover than article up to the value of $100!

Anyway, if you want to read more, here are a couple of links. There is an online petition which has over 1000 signatures that you may like to add your name to. This petition now has media interest with a phone interview from Karen with ABC Radio the Sydney Morning Herald’s article and callers ringing into 2GB Radio in Sydney.

In closing, if I can say one thing… there is nothing that riles an aussie more than seeing fellow aussies kicked when they are already down 😞

Cheers

Evil Elle aka Ellen

https://www.change.org/petitions/australia-post-reconsider-the-parcel-price-increases

http://www.smh.com.au/business/postage-costs-soar-by-30-as-online-retail-booms-20130407-2hewv.html

[twinkles**stars]

i was refereing to petetions on fb

[witches*wol]

Had to post something at my local PO today.  Spoke to the 2 guys who own and run our local PO, they mentioned the price rise to me.  They basically said as we all know letters are rapidly becoming a thing of the past, everyone emails now.  But with a letter they just sold the stamps and the letters were put in the red post box and that was it.  Now they are handling more parcels than letters.  It is basically at least twice as much work to process the parcels than it is letters, and they have the added issue of having to store them all as they await the bloke with the van to collect them and of course all the ones that are no delivered cause no one was home are returned to the local PO and stored there till the person comes in to collect them.  So basically it is more work for them, and they are having more issues with WHS (Work Health & Safety) with lifting heavy parcels, trying to store them securely in tiny PO's that are not designed to be storage facilities and storing them in a safe way so the parcels aren't damaged and the staff don't fall over them too.

So for quite a few years the P O owners have been asking for an increase in pay to cover this extra workload and finally as of today they have their increase.

I think most of us would expect some kind of extra pay or something if our work place changed from processing mainly light stuff that we didn't need to handle much at all, along with the odd big parcel to 70% big bulky and/or heavy stuff we needed to handle more.

[j*oono]

So basically what you are saying Witches is that their workload is now less.  They have always had to deal with parcels and letters.  Now they have less letters but they've still got the parcels.

What did the two guys expect when they took over a post office?

[joz*garage]

They basically said as we all know letters are rapidly becoming a thing of the past, everyone emails now. 

the use of the internet and instant messaging via email has been out for years?

& wot i figure - most of lifting of heavy parcels is done by the delivery guy

[witches*wol]

No joono their work load is greater than it was when it was just letters and the odd parcel.  They didn't need to store letters etc.  The parcels have to be logged into some system thingie and logged in again if they are returned to the PO undelivered and stored.

So parcels are a lot more work than letters.

The 2 guys who run our PO have been in PO's all their working life, both are in their 50's.

[witches*wol]

Joz, they have been trying to get this increase for years too.

[joz*garage]

Joz, they have been trying to get this increase for years too.

yea there has always been a steady increase in postage prices

..but, this lastest one is a bit of a shock to the system

good for them tho for getting what they want

[patchoo78]

& wot i figure - most of lifting of heavy parcels is done by the delivery guy

The staff member still has to lift it off the scales and take it out the back

[happyroo_bunji]

I was a parcel contractor years ago (5+).  Just recently I filled in for the contractor for a week last month.  The amount of parcels I had to deliver on the Monday outnumbered what I delivered in a week before xmas when I did it full time.  The workload has easily trippled since my day.

[daydream**believer]

http://www.smh.com.au/business/australia-post-faces-backlash-over-increased-delivery-charges-20130408-2hglc.html#ixzz2PqkELSMy