reliable alternatives to australia post in australia

[grannytakesatrip17]

I am fed up with the extravagent prices of Australia Post. I am a private seller who normally has a good clear out in Nov/Dec.

Can anyone recommend an alternative, less expensive but trustworthy courier service. I do not send overseas.

Thank you.

[lyndal1838]

You can read all about Officeworks Mailman on the Officeworks mailman.

I would then advise you to google it and see how unhappy most customers are with the service.

They do use Fastways which is arguably the worst courier service known to man.

They will tell you they ship to all areas but if you trust them to deliver to an out of the way area you can kiss your ebay ratings goodbye.

[grannytakesatrip17]

Checked out this website, it appears to be linked to TNT and there is a minimum send of 20 parcels, maybe good for businesses, but desnt seem to help private sellers much?

[grannytakesatrip17]

Well we will see how this farce turns out. There is no way my daughter will send back a stupid popcorn machine at a postage cost like that. Flaming eejits!

If it wasnt so sad it woud be absolutey hiarious. But I think some of you guys are missing the point. Why are we susidising **bleep** from China which only adds to our own postage costs to make up the massive losses to AP?

[lyndal1838]

As far as I know Riteway Express has been gobbled up by TNT and I doubt that they would be interested in deals with ebay sellers.

They are mainly interested in big business.

Fastways seems to be the courier that is "pushed" by ebay....and my personal opinion of them is pretty well known and is shared by many in the courier industry.

Very few of the larger courier companies are interested in small private companies/ebay sellers etc.   They cater to large businesses.

The best way to access them is through courier brokers such as Sendle and Temando.   You can get some excellent deals through these brokers, but you really do need to be aware of the Australia Post prices for similar services.   Once again  there is no courier company that can compare with Australia Post in coverage.

[lyndal1838]

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grannytakesatrip17 wrote: But I think some of you guys are missing the point. Why are we susidising **bleep** from China which only adds to our own postage costs to make up the massive losses to AP?

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No, we are not missing the point.

Australia is a signatory to the International Postal Agreement that was started in the 1870s which regulates all international postage charges.

The general gist is that countries that are signatories to the agreement guarantee to deliver all mail from other members without charging them are more for the service.

The fact is that the Chinese Government subsidises their citizens postal costs so makes it very cheap for them to send mail here.

If you can persuade the Australian Government to do the same then our mail will be cheaper too....good luck with that one.

[lyndal1838]

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@grannytakesatrip17 wrote:

Well we will see how this farce turns out. There is no way my daughter will send back a stupid popcorn machine at a postage cost like that. Flaming eejits!

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If your daughter opens an ebay dispute for item not as described the seller will have to pay the return postage if they want the item back and your daughter will get a full refund of the money paid.

The ebay Money Back Guarantee is great for items not a described but use paypal for item not received.

[grannytakesatrip17]

Lol, I don't think I have the energy, but this is very outdated for goodness sake.

[grannytakesatrip17]

So......basically from what I have read, we are screwed and stuck with Australia Post?

[vproshop]

Yes! We are screwed and stuck with Australia Post.

I do use Fastway a little bit, (Just marginally cheaper).

Everybody that has replied to this post has pretty much summed it

all.

Stick with AusPost Im afraid.

[clarry100]

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@grannytakesatrip17 wrote:

Oh well, I have seen lots of courier ads, but they are probably too good to be true.

Here is an example of the unfainess of AP system......

My daughter ordered a sauna from China it was around $260.00 compared to paying around $600 here, so she thought it was worth the chance especially as she paid by paypal.

Well they got a call from the local post office saying there is this MASSIVE box to pick up. So her partner drove down there and it was about 5-6ft tall, luckily he had his ute so loaded it on and took it home and when they opened it, it was a commercial, cinema popcorn machine!

So my flabberasted daughter got on to the seller and they suggested that she post it back and that they would then reimburse her and send the sauna, mmmmmmm so she checed with AP because the sellers offered to pay $15 post lol and it would have actually cost $288.00 to post it back.

There is something very wrong here where we are subsidising Chinese and other similar imports and being slaughtered for sending stuff here in Australia.

I sold a lot of my daughters bits and bobs to earn her some money when I was in England last year, what a different system.It was so cheap to send things. Here the postal charge is way more than the value of the object being sold.

Somebody needs to sort this bloody rort out. Any and all suggestios are wecome. Thank You.

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If she bought this machine thru ebay and its still within the 30 days since she received it then open up an ebay Item Not As Described (INAD) case. If the seller wants it back they will have to pay the full return tracked postage cost. If they fail to do that then ebay will give your daughter a refund without her having to return the item. Then if you do not need it try selling it here on ebay.AU.

If its outside the 30-days then you have up to 180-days to raise an INAD case via PayPal where she has paid. Similar rules will be applied. Bottom line is in cases like this you do not have to pay the return postage, the seller does if they want it back.

In any case this is one of the risks you take in buying stuff from China.