Coming to a Post Office Near You

[*tippy*toes*]

I went to the PO this afternoon and there was no one else there, so had a bit of a chat to the postmaster and his wife. I gave him my My Post card to scan and he said that they were being audited next month to see how many customers are actually using them. That discussion lead to another revelation.

Apparently from (I think) June, parcels for regular customers will only be held for 5 days. After that, they will be charged a fee per day for holding it. My Post customers will have theirs held for 10 days before being charged the daily fee. PO box holders will be 30 days. He said it was basically an incentive to upgrade. My Post is free, PO boxes aren't!

Why I think it's significant to know this is, I've seen on here where sellers have mentioned that some buyers are waiting a week or 2 before they collect their item from the PO. Are sellers then going to cop flack or even negative feedback if the buyer waits 2 weeks then has to pay a fee to collect their parcel? Will they blame the seller? Should be we keeping a closer eye on the tracking numbers and sending buyers a message to say their item is ready for collection?

I've only had one buyer that waited 10 days to collect his parcel, but I know others have had more. I don't know what the daily holding fee will be, but I don't want to be held responsible if a buyer is too lazy to go and collect their parcel!

Thoughts?

[digital*ghost]

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@englishrosegardens wrote:

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Unfortunately the only way you can get a message across to some people is to hit them where it hurts most, which is the hip pocket. 

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I know that's often the case (although I still think in many cases it's just the easiest way, rather than the only way), but mostly I'm just contemplating the (possible) implications for sellers. 

[davidc4430]

What if AP offered to leave a card when they were unable to deliver a parcel as no one was home saying we will try again tomorrow after which it'll be at the post office. give the recipient the option of having someone at the house to sign for it. or you could ring the post office and let them know someone will be able to accept delivery on a certain day within reason.

of course AP would have to try doing something for free like the old days so i'm guessing it would never get of the ground.

[englishrosegardens]

Yes, I know what you were doing and I had no argument with that.  The worst offenders will probably only get the message one way and unfortunately everyone else ends up paying for their actions, as with so many things in life.

[englishrosegardens]

A lot of the time there'd be nobody at home on the second day because they'd be working, so the delivery driver's work would be doubled on those parcels, and all for nothing. Someone would have to pay for all that double (triple?) handling and we all know who that'd be! Better for the slow picker-uppers to pay for their tardiness than for everyone else to bear the cost in higher postage.

The same applies to ringing to arrange a time to be home to accept delivery - extra staff required to handle all the phone calls and postage would go up as a result - not to mention the fact that whoever takes the call can't arrange for a delivery driver to be in a specific place at a specific time because he won't know which route he'll take until he has all his parcels on board the next day. To arrange specific times might mean he has to travel miles out of his way just to be there on time, and that could happen a dozen times in the one delivery session. It might have worked in the days before online buying became so popular, but they had more storage space then anyway and it wasn't an issue.

[247newdeals]

Yet another reason for me to get it together and start using a courier Aus post is just to expensive and to much hassle. They just care about money rather than providing a good service

[enigmabear]

Soon Australia Post will be charging us a fee for paying a fee

[mbselections00]

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@queenslander-1 wrote:

Here's the information brochure scanned Starts 1st August 2016 and there certainly are Fees as shown.

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With those fees I'm sure many people will only be caught out once - surely they will act as a good deterrent to leaving items at the PO.

[audio-spot]

I suppose $3 for holding it after the first week is not too bad, however they'll probably get more of 'I didn't get a card in my letterbox' to avoid the fee.

Probably a good time to start using the Parcel Lockers service if I know I won't be home during business hours.

[*tippy*toes*]

Parcel lockers are only available in city areas. Rural and regional people don't have them. I have no idea why! The only option we have is Parcel Collect, but your item is still left at the PO (as it's addressed to the PO). You have to join My Post to use that service, which would still give you the 10 days. Thankfully my small local PO has extended trading hours (7am to 6pm).

My concern with all this is, are buyers going to kick up a stink and blame the seller for the fee payable? Are they going to refuse to pay it, therefore item is RTS? I'm thinking like some UK buyers do when they realise they are hit with customs duties (or whatever that fee is they have to pay over a certain amount). I've seen so many negs where buyers complained they had to pay to collect the parcel (and not due to underpaid postage).

[davidc4430]

maybe australia is being 'prepared' for the global shipping program.

make sellers life unbearable until we see the new beaut one stop super postage system, one click and its all done for us