Advice - Australia Post

[oddsandendsoz]

Hi all,

I hope sales are going well for you all.

In October last year I had 4 parcels all go missing after handing them over to my local Australia Post office. The parcels never received another scan after 'received by Australia Post'. Fortunately I insure all my parcels and so despite a lengthy wait process due to AP's "'expected delivery times' being extended significantly due to COVID backlogs AP did pay out the insurance which on the 4 items was over $4000. I guess I expected that AP would investigate this internally to see how 4 parcels came to be lost, who knows if they ever did. Fast forward to last Wednesday 27th April and I lodged 4 parcels again, two for one eBay account and two for another eBay account. Tracking is now showing 2 parcels have moved in the system and 2 parcels have again as above and in October "received by Australia Post' but have not moved. Both the two parcels that have not moved are the same account that the previous 4 items 'disappeared' on. I sell alcohol and (yes I have a valid liquor licence) on this main account and I also sell my pwn personal items on my other account like used books etc. I am starting to feel that someone is targeting my business and is stealing my items. I stopped going to the previous AP LPO as I was not sure if it was the PO staff or the drivers that may have 'mislaid'my 4 parcels in October, but as I say last week another 2 (both alcohol) have again been 'mislaid'whilst the other two items lodged the same day (no alcohol) are moving. It would be easy for someone to shake the parcels to listen to see if they contain alcohol or not as despite packing really well you cannot hide liquid noises. I spoke to AP yesterday on the phone and outlined my concerns. I guess I want AP to fully investigate this as I believe there is someone stealing my parcels. The fact that I lodged 4 parcels and 2 are moving and the 2 that happen to be alcohol are not moving shows more than coincidence, especially given the 4 parcels lodged in October. I am wondering what expectations I should have on AP to investigate this? I outlined that if these do indeed go 'missing'then I would probably stop using AP because it does feel that I am dealing with a driver who knows my items and is stealing them. Given that AP admitted to me that they have cameras in their PO's and that 2 parcels moved and 2 did not, then it should in theory be easy for them to know which driver took the 2 parcels that moved which I believe were all placed in the same red tubs they use to place the parcels when lodged. 

I guess I am looking for any helpful advice? 

[oddsandendsoz]

Thanks Tom,

Unfortunately due to the nature of the items I send my parcels MUST be sent with Signature on delivery. On the issue of theft I disagree, as mentioned last October I sent 4 parcels on the same day which all 'disappeared' and were never seen again, never scanned again, and never arrived to the buyers. AP paid out the compensation of over $4k which they would not do if there was any way they could get out of doing so. AP knew that no scans for all 4 parcels and nothing showing up after 30 days was unusual to say the least. All of my customers thankfully were very understanding and I had communication with them all through the process, not one of them said they had returned the parcel or missed a delivery. 

Then last week same again with 2/4 of my parcels lodged. There is no way that the labels would come off as they are fully taped over with strong and thick sticky tape. To me when clusters happen and AP admit there have been no 'critical incidents' reported on their system, things have obviously disappeared and things as another poster said, generally do not just vanish in to thin air. 

Thanks again!

[oddsandendsoz]

Yes, papermoon that is what almost always happens. I receive as many AP parcels as I send and that is what has been happening from the beginning of COVID. And yes, tracking almost always shows 'awaiting collection at LPO' if the buyer was not home. If these have indeed 'gone missing' I won't use AP again, as I say I have sent around 3k parcels over the past 8 years with almost all sent with SOD (signature on delivery) and almost all with added insurance (I have two accounts and sell personal items like books on the other account that does not always need SOD and some bottles are only worth $100 or so and these are covered in most part automatically by AP).

However, I probably receive as many parcels as I send and won't be using companies that use AP, or will at least request they are not used. Yes, things happen and some things cannot be avoided, but AP can choose how they react and deal with this, and so far they have done nothing that gives me confidence that this won't continue to happen. 

[oddsandendsoz]

I should add that when the 4 parcels went missing last October I asked the staff at my local PO if they had received any other enquiries/concerns from customers about missing parcels and explained that situation. The staff had received no other complaints from customers, now of course it could be that the complaints were made to the main customer service line and not the LPO, but I thought that was interesting and confirmed what the AP rep had said on the customer line that there had been no 'critical incidents' reported. Both these things indicated to me that there had been no van theft, LPO break ins, no hijacking of vans, no crashes, no van fires, all things that could happen and would account for lost parcels. 

Given all that and the fact that all 4 of the parcels lodged that day, I surmised that perhaps it was an employee about to leave and they took some freebies. Given that I thought it unlikely that it may happen again, so when 2/4 went missing last week, and again no scans whatsoever once lodged in to the LPO I became very worried and anxious because you cannot run a business with that level of risk, especially when some of my items are in the $3000 range (average however is likely $200). 

I haven't just jumped to a huge conclusion here, I spoke to about 3 customer service reps in October and November about this issue, as well as the LPO staff and all of them confirmed that this is unusual. I would guess that since October I have sent perhaps 60 parcels, maybe not even that, and 6 of those have just 'disappeared' without a trace or scan ever again. I would say that is a pretty high lost rate. 

[everard6920]

The only thing I can think of (other than you being targeted by a thief) is that maybe the alcohol is not packed securely enough and/or is being damaged in transit?

I know this happens a lot with bottles sent via AP, I've had quite a few buyers over the years report that they received their box covered in red wine or whatever - most recently last July. In my case(s), I didn't need to claim on insurance for those buyers as the items inside were wrapped in plastic, but it's possible that AP is cracking down on bottles because I'm sure they've had to pay out other people because items have been ruined.

[eol-products]

I have some items at the moment that are covered in some type of oil.  It was a large box and has soaked in one side. When sending liquids there is supposed to be an absorbent material inside to soak up a potential breakage.

[oddsandendsoz]

Thanks for the input. I do agree that bottles can get damaged in transit and have received a half dozen or so of those myself. However, we go well beyond other retailers in this regard (admittedly a number of other retailers do this too) so this is not just rare for us, it is totally unprecedented as we pack in extra strong double walled boxes, use copious amounts of bubble wrap and fill all voids with either packing peanuts of extra cardboard. We have NEVER had a customer recount that their bottle is broken. Not only that, but a lot of the bottle we send are rare and collectable and so often come with display boxes or canisters and again we never receive any message or complaints saying that the box or canister is damaged which would happen if we were not pacing them to the degree we do. 

On top of that too, as I stated above, AP 'should' place an update on the tracking if there is damage or broken bottles or the box becomes wet, certainly this should happen if the parcel is destroyed. If it is delivered then this seems to not happen. As I say, it would be rare for even ONE of our parcels to be damaged in transit, let alone 4/4 or 2/4, but not only that, there is no further scanning through their system from the time we handed over, and most parcels would likely be damaged in the processing phase. 

[eol-products]

When I send parcels they go to my local sorting centre loaded into crates then off to Sydney to get their first tracking scan after leaving the PO.

Different sorting facilities will vary but watch at 13 seconds in and let me know if your packing is up to this type of handling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW_ka8Yu68U 

[twyngwyn]

I miss the days when A.P. used to come on to these forums....they would fix things ASAP, now it's every man for himself, sadly....good luck with your perseverance!

Do A.P. still go onto FBook etc? Might be a quick fix for you??

[eol-products]

Here is a whole video showing the sorting process. I found 7.45 to be interesting and also noticed plenty of boxes of wine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLy1TfKehIs 

[oddsandendsoz]

No doubt our parcels would and DO stand up to that. As I say, we have sent possibly around 3000 bottles and we have not had ONE broken bottle, so if this is how the parcels are sorted then it is a resounding YES. In our experience bottles do break, but they break much more easily if you don't do the right things, and we do all the right things. Our feedback often makes mention of the packing with some saying 'best packed bottles I have ever received", others 'expert packing'. AP states that packing should be able to withstand a 20kg load from one metre I believe, ours would certainly withstand that as evidenced by the 3000 successful packages sent and received in good order.