Rude Buyer

[munchkin83munchkin]

In all my time, I've not come across such a rude buyer.  I understand that he was upset because his parcel arrived with Aust Post with them telling him he had to pay $13.70 as there was no postage on the parcel.  But surely logic would tell you that something must have gone wrong, as how would it be possible for me to take a parcel to the post office and say "Here you are, please send this parcel for me to Tasmania and by the way I'm not going to pay for it"

No....I got an extremely rude message accusing me of being sneaky and deceitful for sending him his parcel and not paying for the postage.

I calmly wrote back and expalined that I had paid postage and if you give me a few minutes I will send you a copy of the receipt.

To that he responded that I was a liar and there was no way that I even took it to a post office because if I had I would have provided the tracking number and demanding the postage he paid back.

I told him I did add the tracking number once I had it and I gave it to him again as I wanted him to go to the AP website so he could see that it was lodged, went to Sydney and the last tracking showed it was in Transit to Tasmania.

No....again I was just a rotten liar and a thief

I asked him to send me a picture of the parcel and the receipt for the extra payment he had made to AP.  And to my shock, the original label that had been put on the box at my post office was gone!  And AP had put another label on the parcel with no payment....so somehow the original label had come off the box.  I've been selling for years and have never experienced this.

So being the rotten, thieving scoundrel that I am, I call AP helpline, sat in a queue for 25 minutes and then explained to them what the situation was.  They were as shocked as I was and agreed that the only explanation was that somehow the label had come off the box.  They said that to refund the receiver he would have to call them himself and give them his banking information, so we agreed that it would be easier to send it to me and for me to refund it to him to his paypal account.

But I said I wanted an email sent to me explaining the whole situation so I could send it to the buyer, as I know that if I just reimbursed him he would still not believe me.

He has now been reimbursed and I've sent him copy of original receipt with tracking number and a copy of the email from AP admitting fault......and guess what......no apology!

Oh well....that's my rant and now I feel better.

P.S. Has anyone else had this experience with an AP parcel?

[digital*ghost]

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@danieh_6 wrote:

No that's not correct, If something is undeliverable and unopened and nor the sender or addressee can be indetified its treated as lost and if no body claims it it can be opened after 60days. 

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I have a couple of questoins related to this. Say I send something where this happens - recipient and sender can not be identified from any labeling etc on the outside of the package, so the article (presumably) goes to the DLO.

After 3 weeks, I lodge an enquiry with Australia Post to look into it, who require me to pass on as many details of the package and contents as possible. 

Now lets say there are multiple small, flat rate satchels matching the description I provide, so the only thing that will differentiate them is the contents.

How will AP identify my package from the rest in order for me to claim it, assuming it is among them? (I guess X-ray is always an option). 

Is this why it can take 2 months for an enquiry to resolve? Because they have to wait until they can open a package in order to know for sure who it belongs to? What happens when they do open it after 60 days and can identify a sender and / or recipient, but no inquiries have been lodged? Will they deliver or return at that point? 

[danieh_6]

I'll just answer this one by one.

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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@danieh_6 wrote:

No that's not correct, If something is undeliverable and unopened and nor the sender or addressee can be indetified its treated as lost and if no body claims it it can be opened after 60days. 

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I have a couple of questoins related to this. Say I send something where this happens - recipient and sender can not be identified from any labeling etc on the outside of the package, so the article (presumably) goes to the DLO.

After 3 weeks, I lodge an enquiry with Australia Post to look into it, who require me to pass on as many details of the package and contents as possible. 

They ask this incase your package was say damaged and the item was already displaced (I will go into this further below)

Now lets say there are multiple small, flat rate satchels matching the description I provide, so the only thing that will differentiate them is the contents.

How will AP identify my package from the rest in order for me to claim it, assuming it is among them? (I guess X-ray is always an option). 
The thing is they actually can't they also don't have an X-Ray fuction.

Is this why it can take 2 months for an enquiry to resolve? Because they have to wait until they can open a package in order to know for sure who it belongs to? What happens when they do open it after 60 days and can identify a sender and / or recipient, but no inquiries have been lodged? Will they deliver or return at that point? 

Depends on the item but if its a replacable item, likely not. If its something personal they will.

So unless the parcel is actually misplaced then shows up a month later, thats different what happens is that tracking expires after 60days of no updates give or take I assume this has something to do with the 60 days aswell. The T&C's & the Telecommunications act State that regardless of the situation underpaid or lost, AP cannot open the mail without a warrant. After 60 days they can as its deemed undeliverable. Then for another 60-90days items go onto a lost loose items area mainly to see if they can't get back to the adressee or sender. They supposed to be documented but aren't really. After that they get sold off for charity. This system is flawed and rarely why items actually get found. The usual issue is the labels are unreadable.

As for the time at takes, as far as I'm aware they just search the database multiple times through that period, but they don't actively got to the lost and found places to look.

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[munchkin83munchkin]

Good advice. I will look into that....though I live in a small community with its own post office and I like to support all of my local business including them. Maybe I'm old fashioned in this way, but I do worry if we all do things via the computer, etc that these facilities will end up closing their doors like the banks have done.

[munchkin83munchkin]

Sorry about my dribblings. I often look at this forum, but rarely post anything, so I'm probably not doing it correctly

[danieh_6]

They still get commissions for scanning articles not to worry 🙂

[munchkin83munchkin]

Oh well, that's good to know.  That makes me feel better about going down that avenue

[lyndal1838]

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@danieh_6 wrote:

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

A missing address label is considered as the parcel being damaged and undeliverable and qualifies for being opened to see if there is anything inside to identify the destination.

And the seller posted the information about the hand written address some 5 minutes before your reply was posted.

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No that's not correct, If something is undeliverable and unopened and nor the sender or addressee can be indetified its treated as lost and if no body claims it it can be opened after 60days. Furthermore, please provide an example of where this has happened, Not from border force & not from australia post who have damaged the article that made it open.

During my working life I was an AaE subcontractor and my OH has been an AaE subbie and later with StarTrack for over 30 years.  They work under the same rules as all AP contractors with regards items with missing address labels.

What has border force got to do with anything?

If you are referring to Customs or other border control authorities opening parcels....they don't!   It is Australia Post that opens any mail that has been sent using their services that requires inspection by border control authorities.

AP opens the mail under the watchful eye of Customs if that is who has requested the inspection.

Over the years I have had several parcels that have been inspected by Customs....all resealed and containing a letter informing me that they have been opened and inspected at the border.

I have also had damaged parcels (including damaged address labels) opened by AP to check for delivery details.....and resealed as already described.....and not held for 60 days.

No need to get technical here, I had the page open started reading and stopped then came back and hit quick reply, I don't sit here spamming f5 checking for updates.

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[joztamps]

Over the years I have had several parcels that have been inspected by Customs....all resealed and containing a letter informing me that they have been opened and inspected at the border.

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Me too, with the resealing tape carefully located over the top of the lightly postmarked (equivalent) $20 stamp.

[danieh_6]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

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@danieh_6 wrote:

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

A missing address label is considered as the parcel being damaged and undeliverable and qualifies for being opened to see if there is anything inside to identify the destination.

And the seller posted the information about the hand written address some 5 minutes before your reply was posted.

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No that's not correct, If something is undeliverable and unopened and nor the sender or addressee can be indetified its treated as lost and if no body claims it it can be opened after 60days. Furthermore, please provide an example of where this has happened, Not from border force & not from australia post who have damaged the article that made it open.

During my working life I was an AaE subcontractor and my OH has been an AaE subbie and later with StarTrack for over 30 years.  They work under the same rules as all AP contractors with regards items with missing address labels.

What has border force got to do with anything?

If you are referring to Customs or other border control authorities opening parcels....they don't!   It is Australia Post that opens any mail that has been sent using their services that requires inspection by border control authorities.

AP opens the mail under the watchful eye of Customs if that is who has requested the inspection.

Over the years I have had several parcels that have been inspected by Customs....all resealed and containing a letter informing me that they have been opened and inspected at the border.

I have also had damaged parcels (including damaged address labels) opened by AP to check for delivery details.....and resealed as already described.....and not held for 60 days.

No need to get technical here, I had the page open started reading and stopped then came back and hit quick reply, I don't sit here spamming f5 checking for updates.

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I suggest you do some research before opening mail, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-27/australia-post-has-no-way-to-detect-drugs,-explosives/7664922

Furthermore I made the point that provide an example of where the the mail was opened by australia post. I was emplying not damaged opened parcels and not using borderforce as an example as national security

Again Australia Post does not have any legal authority to open mail. Unless its deemed "lost" . What ever you have been told is wrong.

90Q  Undeliverable articles

             (1)  This section applies to the article if it:

                     (a)  cannot be delivered to the intended recipient because it is not addressed, or it is inadequately or incorrectly addressed; and

                     (b)  cannot be returned to the sender because it does not bear the sender’s address, or because the sender’s address is not shown, or is inadequately or incorrectly shown.

             (2)  An authorised examiner may open the article and examine its contents for the purpose of obtaining sufficient information to:

                     (a)  deliver the article to the intended recipient; or

                     (b)  return the article to the sender.

             (3)  Subject to section 90X, after an authorised examiner has opened and examined the article, he or she must:

                     (a)  if sufficient information is found to deliver the article to the intended recipient—close up the article and return it to the normal course of carriage; or

                     (b)  if paragraph (a) does not apply but sufficient information is found to return the article to the sender—close up the article and return it to the sender; or

                     (c)  otherwise—deal with the article in accordance with the applicable provisions of the terms and conditions determined under section 32.

An authorized examiner is a person who is NOT employed by Australia Post

[*tippy*toes*]

Nothing in your quotes mentioning parcels have to be held for 60 days before being opened. Unless I had a boy look..........