Australia Post scrambles to deliver parcels before Christmas

Australia Post scrambles to deliver parcels before Christmas

THE staff at Australia Post’s social media headquarters are being kept busier than Santa’s elves.Dozens of complaints about missing parcels and Christmas cards are pouring into the national carrier’s Facebook and Twitter accounts every hour, as the clock ticks ever closer to Christmas Day.
Frantic with just one more working day to go until the holidays, desperation is reaching its peak among those who are yet to receive their items. And there is little comfort for Australians whose gifts have been misplaced, stolen or lost in transit.
Sydney’s Rachel Cassidy reported that her parcel, a tracked delivery, was “brought to me by neighbours having been found in the middle of the road, run over and opened by some scumbags”.
An Australia Post representative promised to investigate and suggested: “In future it may also be best to ask the sender to send it with signature on delivery or even sign up to our parcel lockers”.
Ms Cassidy was not impressed, replying that there were “zero secure places” to leave packages near her place.
“Instead of paying more to have it signed for, recommend your drivers don’t leave parcels outside front doors,” she said.
THE LOCKER WAS BAREParcel lockers appear to have issues of their own, with one customer reporting that their item disappeared without a trace.

“Today I went to pick up a parcel and the locker was empty, now it thinks I have my parcel,” Andy Cownie wrote on Wednesday night.
“Christmas presents are missing, now I have to buy more. How does a parcel go missing between staff putting it the locker and me going to collect it!?”
Australia Post replied promising to look into it, saying 

“I hope we get to the bottom of this before Christmas”.
A vanishing handmade dreamcatcher had one customer tearing her hair out after it was marked as having been “safe dropped” at her work, when it was nowhere to be found.
“No one had to sign for it, he didn’t even ring the door bell, and he didn’t have to have any proof that it was delivered,” she wrote. “Thanks for ruining my Christmas.”
People waiting on deliveries from overseas were astounded by the contrast between the speed of getting an item into the country, and Australia Post’s sluggish domestic delivery.
“My husband ordered a package from overseas for my Christmas present on December 5. It has been sitting in Sydney’s Alexandria business hub since December 12,” South Australia’s Eve Rogers complained on Wednesday night.
“Took seven days to get in to the country and then stalls when it gets here. He ordered it in good time and now it’s not going to make it!”
Another customer said their parcel had been sent to Japan instead of Queensland, while a Townsville man said he’d been waiting three weeks to receive a box of Hawthorn flags from Geelong.
“Either you have lost my package, gone to the wrong address or it has been stolen,” he wrote.
Paying for Express Post appears to have provided no guarantee, with multiple customers saying they were still waiting several days after paying for next day delivery.
“Express post? What a joke! Waiting for an express post package that according to the tracker hasn’t moved since Tuesday,” Beth Williams wrote on Thursday.
“Why bother having a tracker that never updates and Express Post that’s not express?”
THOSE PESKY MISSED DELIVERY SLIPS

“Shoddy” contractors employed by Australia Post to service peak demand have been blamed for the continuing scourge of missed delivery slips left in letterboxes, with no attempt made to actually deliver items.

The lazy practice, where the postie declines to even knock on the front door of the address, is a major thorn in Australia Post’s side— and the organisation has failed to clamp down on it. News.com.au previously reported cases where video evidence backed up frustrated customers’s claims. At best, it means the recipient will have to find time to go into their local post office during business hours to pick up the item.One woman reported that a contractor had tried to leave notification cards or parcels for other people at her house, which was “not the right street number and more often not the right street”.

The union representing postal workers said contractors paid as little as $1.00 per delivery were cutting corners while frantically trying to complete deliveries.

“When the heat’s on at Christmas time, there’s only so many hours in the day,” Communication, Electrical and Plumbing Union organiser Peter Chaloner told the ABC. You’re not getting paid for extra hours, you’re just getting paid for extra articles, so shortcuts are taken,” Mr Chaloner says.

And the problem is not confined to the Christmas period; a survey by consumer group Choice earlier this year found that half of those who had received delivery of a package in the past 12 months had experienced problems, with the most common complaint “missed delivery” slips being dropped off when the customers were actually home.

JUST ‘ISOLATED INCIDENTS’                        Australia Post officially requires drivers to knock three times and call out at the door when attempting home delivery.The carrier, which delivered a record two million parcels within 24 hours last week, insists it is performing “exceptionally well” and that there are 

“no issues” with deliveries. It has been processing more than a million parcels each day since October.
“Our 10,000 posties and delivery drivers have been working very hard to deliver Christmas gifts on time,” it said in a statement.

“In those isolated instances of delayed delivery, we urge customers to contact us directly so we can act.”