Australia Post

[Yenn]

Posts are stuck in the ground to support fences and it appears that Australia Pos is no different.

I posted a couple of brake shoes from S Grafton on April 1. maybe that date is significant. Today I opened the tracking app and am told they will be delivered to Capalaba on 12 to 14 April. Talk about snail mail!

[Jerry_Atrick]

Gives the posties time to fit new brake shoes to their vehicle and replace your package with the used ones...

 

Bonza, mate!

[onetrack]

I have a better story than any Australia Post story. On 13th March I ordered 2 radiator hoses from Sparesbox, a company in St Peters, NSW. They packaged and dispatched the hoses on the 17th March, to be sent via CouriersPlease.

The shipment of hoses had to go from a Sydney suburb, to an inner-city Perth suburb. At the most 10-14 days, in this day and age of delayed deliveries. In the "old days" (pre-COVID) it was usually 7-9 days for delivery East coast to West coast.

 

Sparesbox dispatched the hoses on the 17th March with the following message:

 

Delivery Time: 9-18 days
Our delivery partner has estimated that your order will arrive within 9 - 18 business days. Please note: delivery time may vary during sale or peak periods due to high order volumes. Please excuse any delay in delivery during these times.

 

It is now the 9th April and the hoses have still not been delivered. The last message on CouriersPlease tracking page says; "Accepted in depot (W.A.) for initial processing - 11:47AM, March 28th, 2022."

 

I reckon Couriers Please must have reverted back to couriers on foot, to deliver items.

[Old Koreelah]

I didn’t find that amusing at all. Cheap laughs at the expense of an essential, but probably underpaid workforce.

If he has parcel to deliver, our postie drives past the mailboxes a couple of hundred metres right to our door, or the neighbours’.

Our school bus driver does the same with the little kids in our neighbourhood. Both of them are risking a hammering from the legal fratenity by giving that extra bit of thoughtful service.

[old man emu]

I'm getting a parcel from a nice person at Inglewood, WA. It was received by AustPost at a post office around lunchtime on the 4th April and was booked into the Perth mail centre at midnight on the 5th.  No indication of its having left there as yet.

 

I posted this simply as part of the conversation, not intending to complain ... yet.

[onetrack]

Might I add - my shipment from Sparesbox went from Sydney to Melbourne, to Perth - so it's obviously taking the longest and cheapest route - with the most handling!

[pmccarthy]

I ordered a magneto and received a bundle of old Playboy magazines. Last week. A mistake by the dealer , not Auspost, but amusing.

[Jerry_Atrick]

1 hour ago, Old Koreelah said:

Cheap laughs at the expense of an essential, but probably underpaid workforce.

I have no idea how accurate this is; I am guessing it is based on voluntary contributions: https://www.payscale.com/research/AU/Employer=Australia_Post/Salary

 

A postie is definitely not high paid, but is Australia post really essential in these times? Letters and document delivery has been steadily dropping in demand for years.. Yes - some people don't have the electronic means or desire, but they are reducing in number as well. And why not open up postage to competition? Australia Post doesn't have a monopoly on parcel delivery - why should it have a monopoly on letter delivery = after all - postage are really just tiny parcels?

 

They privatised the Royal Mail in 2014. Part of the deal to get more money for the government in the privatisation (i.e. prop up the IPO price) was that the Royal Mail would retain a monopoly on retail/private postage, but other companies can and do compete for letters and small docs deliveries in the commercial sector. Since I arrived here in late 1996, I always thought the RM was a great organisation - super reliable and trusted.. they sent passports and cash (small amounts) through the mail. No need to send cash through he mail these days, but they still send passports, and often just in standard postage.

 

They are the better parcel delivery company of the large ones; we are lucky in the sense it is a big market over much smaller distances, so logistics is a lot easier for them. I have never had a problem with ParcelForce (Royal Mail's courier company); I have had minor issues with some of the other companies. However, if they were really bad, they wouldn't be used by retailers/ecommerce companies long, as it is the supplier's responsibility and they have to send a new item if it is not received by the buyer.

 

Note, the Royal Mail share price is lower than its IPO:

 

This would indicate a monopoly on private letter delivery has bot been a benefit. Alsom, their stamp prices have increased wildly over the years.

 

[willedoo]

2 hours ago, pmccarthy said:

I ordered a magneto and received a bundle of old Playboy magazines.

Either way, it would have sparked you up a bit.

[onetrack]

Hold on! - a bundle of vintage Playboys are probably worth more than a replacement magneto today!! 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Depends on what condition those magazines are in.

[red750]

The Australia Post Complaints Facebook page has some interesting reports. Here's one....

 

"Made a big mistake on this one.
I’d discovered only after they posted it that the item was only 12 minutes down the road from me, here in Victoria. I could’ve picked it up instead. 
My punishment for letting Auspost handle it is that it’s now in Queensland. 
Fantastic.…"

 

and another...

 

"They won’t let you collect from a depot. I had a parcel 10 minutes down the road and it kept going back to another state. I called and asked if I could pick it up and they said no. Next day it was off again on another adventure"

 

and this....

 

"Wtf why would my express parcel be at the Penrith sorting Center (15mins away) for about a week!
now my tracking is saying it’s now at Strathfield? (40 mins away )
Shouldn’t it just stay at Penrith and then put on the drivers local run?
Am I actually going to get it or are the just going to send it all over the country first ?
It’s being sent from QLD before the heavy rain."

 

What is wrong with this mob?

[facthunter]

A magneto is a self exciting bit of gear and so is a Playboy magazine at certain stages of ones life for art students.  Nev

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

Playboy magazine

I only ever bought it for the artwork.

[nomadpete]

Artwork?

Oh, you mean all that airbrushing?

 

Those artists can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!

[onetrack]

I can't ever recall buying a Playboy, but I may have in a rare moment of weakness. I do know I've kept some really good cartoons, and a few good stories from the few Playboys that I encountered.

One of the stories was about a bloke and his mate doing a porn theatre crawl in the U.S. in the late 60's, and being upstairs in a sleazy little theatre about 2:00AM, where one black guy was running a constantly annoying commentary down the front, about the crap scenes in the movie that was showing.

He said they were half asleep when this stentorian deep voice came from behind them - "SHUDDUP, NIGGA!!". They were both wide awake by now, and becoming somewhat concerned about the angry man up the back.

The "SHUDDUP, NIGGER!" was replied to with a call, "WHO SAID DAT?? COME HEAH, YOU SONOFABITCH, AND SAY DAT AGAIN!!" The pair slunk lower in their seats, this wasn't sounding like anything they wanted to be caught up in.

The stentorian voice came back, somewhat louder, "I TOLD YA! - SHUDDUP, NIGGA!!". This only got a higher-pitched reply from the idiot up front, along the lines of the earlier reply, only with more epithets and name calling.

Right after this, the bloke reckoned an absolute giant of a black man, about 6' 9" in U.S. measures, rose from his seat at the rear and walked past them, on down to the mouthy one - who he promptly grabbed bodily with both massive hands, lifted the mouthy one straight out of his seat, right up above his head - and then threw him bodily over the balcony!!

This was followed by a scream from the mouthy one, followed by the sound of multiple seats below being smashed - followed by cries of pain and moans from the mouthy one.

The huge black bloke simply walked out of the theatre, and absolutely nothing else happened. The show went on, no-one appeared from anywhere, no-one said a thing.

The pair got up and looked over the balcony, to see the several flattened seats and the moaning, writhing body of the mouthy one.

They decided they'd better leave - but as they went out, still nothing happened - no sirens, no police, no response from management - who obviously simply turned a blind eye to a lot of things that didn't concern them. Only in the U.S.

[old man emu]

The joke from Playboy that I best remember is of one of the male fairy folk running through the forest crying out, "The condominiums are coming." It wasn't clear if he was spreading the news that multi-storey housing developments had been approved, or if a supply chain issue had been solved.

[red750]

Just look at this classic...

 

The journey of my parcel send from northern rivers nsw to Cooma NSW. If only we got frequent flyer points for the travel this parcel has done.

1.22/3 lodged Banora point nsw

2.23/3 processed in Brisbane

3.23/3 in transit to tweed heads

4.23/3 received Tweed Heads

5. 24/3 transferred Redbank QLD

6.24/3 in transit to Tweed Heads

7.24/3 delivered to Tweed Heads

8. 30/3 customer enquiry logged

9. 04/4 processed tweed heads

10.04/4 in transit Brisbane

11.05/04 processed at Brisbane

12.05/04 in transit to Sydney

13. 06/04 processed in Sydney

14. 07/04 in transit next facility

15. 08/04 processed in Brisbane

16. 08/ 04in transit next facility

17. 09/04processed at Sydney

18. 09/04 in transit next facility

19. 09/04 processed Chullora

20.09/04 in transit next facility

21.11/04 processed Brisbane

22 11/04 in transit next facility

AND STILL NO CLOSER TO DELIVERY ADDRESS.

Seriously are the inmates running the asylum

[onetrack]

I ordered some small specialised Li-ion batteries from China on Feb 4th, via AliExpress. They didn't get posted until March 7th. On April 1st I got an email from AliExpress advising me my batteries had been delivered, and would I leave feedback?

 

The problem was - I still didn't have any batteries! I looked at the AP tracking and it said the batteries were still in transit, they'd arrived in W.A. and were being processed for delivery.

 

Then on Friday, I got another email from AliExpress saying my batteries had been delivered! - but they still hadn't! Getting rather cross with them, I lodged a dispute, leaving them a message about their woeful delivery times and even worse tracking communications.

 

Today at lunchtime, the postie rolled up with the batteries! So I cancelled the dispute - but left them feedback saying I thought 65 days just to get some small batteries to me, was pretty pathetic. The 30 days to post them from ordering, was half the problem.

[kgwilson]

I order plenty on line. Sometimes everything works pretty well but quite often when Australia post is involved I'll get a tracking number and nothing happens for a few days. This because the vendor lodges the number apparently but has not delivered it to the post facility. The the next message is "Processed at whatever facility" and anything from almost immediately to several days the next message is  "in transit to next facility at wherever". Then nothing for several days or a week or more.

Eventually it turns up on the dining room table as we do not have postal delivery & my wife has picked it up from the Post Office. Next I get an email & Australia Post proudly announces my package has been delivered when they never even told me it got past the first facility they were sending it to. Then they send me a survey to see what I thought of the process. Do they ever review these? I have given them the lowest score possible on a number of occasions & told them what I think in the comments box at the end. I have never been contacted by them after any of these  so called Feedback" surveys.

 

I ordered a Smartwatch through Ali Express & got it in 8 days, free delivery from Shenzen, China in November last year. Nothing gets here from Sydney, 6 hours drive down the Pacific highway via Australia Post that quick. Most thing I have ordered & sent via courier get here within 5 days though.

[spacesailor]

If you had ' informed ' the seller, they werre lost in transit, you should have had a refund  !.

THEN

When they eventually arrive, inform that slow seller ' do you need them returned at your expense '.

Could end up with a freebee.

Might make them hustle a bit quicker on their next order.

spacesailor

[old man emu]

You can't blame the seller for slow delivery, after the item has been handed over to any delivery organisation. The seller has as little control over it once the delivery organisation has got it. So, if there is a record of the item being received by the delivery organisation, and it does not turn up, then it's the delivery organisation that you must complain to. The seller is just as annoyed as you are that you didn't get the product, so don't try ripping them off. 

[spacesailor]

Not even after 30 day wait !, after payment,  before that seller even posted the batteries.

spacesailor

[old man emu]

7 minutes ago, spacesailor said:

Not even after 30 day wait !, after payment,  before that seller even posted the batteries.

spacesailor

Yeah, that's no cricket. A lot of payments are made for goods before the seller actually receives them into stock. However, as long as they eventually send them, then the seller can only be abused for being slack and idle. 

[Yenn]

The fault is not only with Australia Post.

I have made photobooks using an Australian company. The books are printed and bound in Malasia and then couriered to me. Trouble is that the courier will not deliver past 200 on my road and I am at 455. Delivery is supposedly free, but they will only deliver if I pay extra. The photobook company says their contract with the courier includes delivery. Solution, get it sent to friends at no 120.