How honest has Australia Post been regarding international parcels?

[padraicpaul91]

For the past three weeks I have been regularly been in contact with AP about the situation. When I do the usual response has been " please be patient, we are doing our best". My reponse to this has been " I know this but please tell us the actual situation".

Now it appears the actual situation is worse than AP was prepared to admit. That may help explain why their facebook page has stopped responding to my queries. I must admit the most recent reponse from AP was they don't know what is happening.

Case in point: A parcel destined for Germany was tracked as having departed on March 23rd. This morning, this became 'departed as sea mail on May 8th'.

I am one that can deal with adverse situations and make plans accordingly, as long as I know the real situation. But this lack of honesty has crushed the credibility of Australia Post.

[digital*ghost]

---

@padraicpaul91 wrote:

But I take exception to the sea mail situation. They were planning this. Even though a parcel was marked as in air transit, it was actually in a small mountain, just waiting somewhere in Melbourne for a boat.  It's AP estimated delivery date was, coincidentally, the back dated tracking advice of it being placed on a ship. Near seven weeks lost.

---

I agree on that (and if my posts come across as steadfastly defending Aus Posts in all aspects of how they have handled the situation, that's not what I meant to do, nor does all my empathy go to them - I'm now getting messages almost daily from buyers who are waiting for packages to arrive sent before I shut down international shipping, so I know only too well how frustrating and potentially costly the situation is), but I'm not so sure they planned it. 

I don't know what kind of volume is going by sea and what's going by air, but I expect that some packages are making it onto air cargo flights - they have some countries where only sea mail is available, so they clearly aren't opposed to advising customers if that's the only way a package can get from here to there, and they have other countries where only express post options are available, so for the rest it stands to reason that flights are available for some of the non-express packages, but that perhaps it's pretty lucky to get a regular parcel on a flight. 

[digital*ghost]

I'm having severe internet issues causing posting problems 😞 There was meant to be a paragraph in the above post referring to how all of their updates talked about flight cancellations, country lockdowns and looking for alternative options to get mail to their OS destinations, so it was clear from the outset they didn't have any plans set in stone to deal with the situation, but were trying to come up with ways to reduce impacts and keep things functioning well enough - on that they ended up failing. 

[porcelain_dolls_by_me]

We sent a package to Sweden via Express Post on 10 April and tracking shows it left Australia on 14th April.

The Swedish postal authorities claim they have no record of the package, and yet when I call AusPost they inist the package left Australia on 14th April.

What I could not get the AusPost representaive to confirm wasas that the bag containing my package was actually sent to Sweden, and not the wrong country.  That is, was the bag (not item) tracked as being received in Sweden.?

Whilst I do sympathise with the postal authorities during these times, my situation is that (a) I shipped an item woth $350 via Express Post (b) AusPost says it was sent to Sweden and (c) Sweden say they never received it.

What does one do?

[davewil1964]

Not post overseas in the middle of a global pandemic?

Understand the meaning of delays? Especially given that the Swedish postal system wouldn't log the item unless and until it cleared Swedish Customs. Or that once it clears Australian Customs, it still has to manage to find a berth on an aircraft going to Sweden, or at least Europe. Or a boat.

[south.coffee]

Even with local posting, items are delayed not lost. If every late parcel during the pandemic was lost there would be massive pile of stuff sitting somewhere... more likely any international parcel is sitting in a crate in a logistics warehouse waiting for on transit. Incoming parcels are usually scanned when they hit customs.

I certainly would not be selling internationally in curent situation. Far too risky with eBay INR cases left right and centre from impatient non understanding buyers who are still living in 2019...

[padraicpaul91]

Two thing occurred regarding late items

!. There is an ebay post stating INR's will require the item  to be 30 days past the estimated delivery date.

2. I have the log of CS chat, where the ebay rep states that ebay will underwrite forced refunds. I will not hold my breath on that one but I do have it in writing.

[kitty-kat-kollection]

I don't usually post overseas, but had a special request about 2 weeks ago from a buyer in Norway. I checked the standard Aus Post site for international shipping, sent the buyer their invoice with extra shipping, they paid, I then went to the post office to post the item and was told there was no posting to Norway anymore. No flights, and Norway was not accepting mail from us anyway as of a few days prior. Ahhh, ok. So I wrote to the buyer, apologising and then refunded them. Disappointing, but no big deal.

My point is nobody really knows exactly what's going to happen even a week into the future, right now is unprecedented times, everyone is struggling in their own way, people and companies are trying their best, and it would make all of this just a little bit easier if people tried to be kind and understanding.

In terms of the person who asked why something was tracked as leaving via airmail to Germany in March but was then updated to leaving via seamail in May, I can only assume it was loaded onto a flight just before the borders closed and flights were suspended, then it may have inadvertently sat somewhere for a while as everything was chaos, before being shipped out via sea, possibly along with a lot of other backlogged mail from the many cancelled flights.

For me anyway, while it's important to have some form of functional postal system, it's not my main priority. I just want to be able to see my parents in Melbourne, not have to constantly worry about their and my health, and eventually re-book my long-awaited-but-now-cancelled USA holiday.

[padraicpaul91]

Just so you understand my frustration: The INR will be accepted on the parcel to Germany by ebay next week, May 20th, whilst it sits on a ship, somewhere between Melbourne and Rotterdam. 

If I am to continue understanding  and supporting Australia Post's problems, I think it fair that they understand the issues of their business customers. If it is not a two way thing, stuff them.