Auspost taking weeks to deliver domestic letters....Sales way down....

[gameofbricks]

Auspost taking weeks to deliver domestic letters....

Last week after earlier refunding a nice customer, the letter then shows up after 28 days and it only went 40km.

Now i get 2 more today asking where there letters are after 2 weeks in the post, one 50km away and the other 15km.

Auspost has a recording saying there are delays but this is rediculous. There goes my top rating...

Ebay should send out a blanket email when this happens so people know.

And on top of that domestic sales are way down.... Did someone drop the ball......Usually so calm but getting really P#$%&** off now.

Its making selling here so not worth it.

[clarry100]

I think the late shipment point (defect) system is not too bad if you happen to be a seller who uses tracking and lodges within their stated handling time. This is all the proof you need to either avoid these defects altogether or to have them easily removed if/when they occur.

The problem comes with sellers like us who use predominantly large letter with no tracking.

Then you are totally at the mercy of the buyer's response to the late delivery question.

And of course with no tracking proof any such defect from a NO answer will not be removed.

When this system started we extended our handling time out from same day to 3-days. But we still mail out on the same day as we always did.

Since doing this we have not incurred a single late delivery defect on either of our two ebay stores.

We have not seen any loss of sales that we could attribute to doing this.

And the only effect we have seen is an increase in positive feedback comments about how fast our delivery was.

[jfmgray]

I have done the same - now have 3 dyas handling time and I have started using priority stickers.  I also had no late shipment defdects until last month but picked up 2 at 20 October review.  Hoever today I messaged every buyer who purchased items since 14 October and only one out of about 100 (untracked domestic letters only) has confirmed the item has arrived.  All overseas transactions were fine.  Not even 3 days handling time brings me close to the actual delivery dates at the moment.

[mcbaj]

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@curraone wrote:

Unfortunately letters are taking a long time so you have to build into your business plan that you must send every letter with the 50c priority label.   Either increase your selling price or increase your postage price.  

Also make sure your handling time on all your listings is at least 4 days.   That will give you more of a breathing space.

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Priority does nothing to help the missing large letters. We already do this...We cannot increase our selling price, even by 10cents, if we do, we simply woudln't sell anything. I have the handling times at the longest possible and this does nothing either.

I just got two more messages over the weekend about missing items. Farking Yay! 

If it keeps going this way, AP will responsible for our business and many other businesses closing. Not due to lack of sales, as we have plenty of them, lost revenue.

[jfmgray]

You need to complain to Australia Post and when you receive the late shipment defects at review on 20 November, you need to yell loud at eBay if we ever want this system changed.  The week commencing 17 October seems to be the worst time frame for Austraila Post from my many sales.  The following week seems to have improved a fair bit from my experiences.

[book-a-brac]

I completely sympathise with you jfmgray. We currently have 8 items (that we know of) that are MIA (all in Victoria interestingly enough) that were posted from Tassie between 7-15th October - and the number grows each day. I have sent 1000's of items over many years and while the occasional items goes astray, this is unprecedented. Last week when I rang Australia Post, they had a recording on their helpline advising at least a 3 day delay. I just wish they would come clean and put out a media release or statement on their website advising what is going on, and then at least we would have something concrete to tell our customers. They are costing me a small fortune in sending out Express Post (with tracking yay!) replacements atm. Anyway, I have logged my enquiry/complaint on their website for what it's worth. Hopefully this week is better!

[2*much*cute*stuff]

I just picked up my post out of my letterbox. I'm number 7 in my road - get this, I have letters for number 15, number 8, number 4 and number 6 which have been put in MY letterbox!! Obviously the postie has just shoved the whole lot in my box for me to sort out. What on earth?? If I was not honest, some of these are from banks and I could do anything with the contents!! I'm so disgusted! I'm going to be taking them to my local PO this afternoon and giving them a few words!!!

[book-a-brac]

Perhaps this is one of their new cost cutting measures. It also speeds up APost's delivery time if they can get customers to do the sorting for them. You must have been elected the Street captain 🙂

[tradingaccount2]

OK, I may be the Devils Advocate here but I woiuld like to question the ongoing continuous attacks on AP.

When you talk about large letters are you actually talking about letters, or items/products being sent using the loophole of large letters? If the answer is yes, then, well what would you expect?

Your using a sytem that was buit and designed to send "LARGE LETTERS". Exactly that. Now, I know and I do too, have used the system and complied by sending products through the Large Letter facility.  I think its a bit rich for the complaints and attacks on AP when your using a facility to send products!

My selling account sends 20 to 30 articles a week, Large letters and Parcel Post. I NEVER NEVER get issues as they are all tracked, arrive well and truely ahead of time. I have a 2pm same day despatch. You order Monday generally NSW/Vic/QLD you will have by wed/thu, and im in north coast NSW/.

So maybe its time for alot in my opinion, to look at what and how they do send items, and ask the question, 1) Would my custiomers be happy to not track an item. 2) Am I using the right system to send products that Im selling around the country. 

For me LARGE LETTERS are for exactly that, LARGE LETTERS. 

Think outside the square!

[davewil1964]

For Australia Post, however, LARGE LETTER post is for anything that complies with AP's definition of LARGE LETTERS. As they are the carrier, their definition trumps yours.

For small, cheap items tracked parcels, or letters, are not economical. So horses for courses. Just like using couriers.

[englishrosegardens]

Well said!

I've had people ask me to send with the cheaper, untracked postage so there ARE plenty of people who are happy not to have tracking on their items.