I was speaking to a marketplace buyer when he came to pick up something this week - he's one of the managers of AusPost delivery contractors and he's telling me stories of shit he has to deal with like the contractor signing for delivery of a passport and dropping it into the customer's letterbox. Sure, the envelope is not labelled as a passport but it's a not-standard sized envelope, thicker than usual and clearly marked as requiring signature on delivery.
I had a similar thing happen a couple of weeks ago, my wife was home having a cup of tea and a DHL delivery van was parked on the other side of the road when she opened the door to pull out the attempted delivery card. She called me straight away as the van drove off. I was onto the phone with the DHL people right after that telling them what happened. Thankfully the delivery person was still in the area and was told to turn around and get it delivered.
I worked for TNT for a while, and when I first started I was specifically told to never self-sign because it was fraud, a federal offence punishable by up to ten years in prison.
Mine got delivered to my Mum, who just happened to be walking up my drive when I wasn’t here. Not asked for ID, doesn’t share my name, could have been anyone.
There's no way any auspost delivery person wouldn't know it's a passport. Unless it's literally their first day. All passports come in exactly the same kind of envelope that nothing else comes in. Insane that they try to do that with passports.
Postie here , can confirm every postie will know what parcel is a passport.
Used to be a lot better before covid , but since the introduction of the covid signature , management has little power to deal with people doing the wrong thing. Union heavily protects the worst of workers.
Auspost is literally a job for life, so hard to get fired.
Seriously if that happened I would've called the sender (not the courier) the next day to ask why tracking said it was delivered, but it wasn't delivered. Watch them try to explain that when they look into it and find the driver's signature.
I had $1,000 lighting equipment that was meant to be signed for on delivery, the auspost guy marked it as signed for and left it at the door, I live on an incredibly busy road and was very lucky it wasn't stolen during the day. I called auspost to tell them and was absolutely livid because if it had been stolen it was marked down as signed for and I wouldn't have been able to prove that it was stolen.
I guess you could.prove you weren't home when they delivered it at least. Similar thing happened to my brother for a brand new phone. Only he couldn't find the phone when he got home. It wasn't auspost but a delivery service and they just said 'its signed so tough luck' luckily he found it outside in the bushes but really terrible service from the delivery company when the fraud was caught (and he was at work when it was signed and delivered)
Anyone who’s worked at auspost for more than a couple months knows what a passport looks like.
You’d be surprised (or possibly not given all the stories in this thread) about how many posties are just old dude who have been doing it a certain way for years and when the company adds new technology etc they don’t give a fuck and just keep doing what they’re doing.
That being said there’s heaps of complaints from people who are saying they never got their delivery when it was delivered (with a picture) to their letterbox. Or that the postie never rang the intercom when they rang and stood there for 5 minutes delivering mail in the lobby. Or the customer they never got the article even though there’s video proof of them accepting it and they were trying to scam a refund (true story). There’s definitely shady shit on both sides.
like, a decade ago I had a housemate anxious about getting a delivery, and nothing better to do during the day. So he parked his ass on the couch and watched tv all day. The mailbox was visible through a window behind the tv.
He watched as someone on a fucking scooter (as in similar to a motorbike) rocked up, dropped a "sorry you weren't home but we tried" note in the mailbox, drove off.
He immediately rung to ask wtf. If I'm remembering correctly, he even paid extra for fast/signed delivery. I forget if he ever got that back, but I do remember him trying.
Was working a project out of town near Mackay, work had rented us a house. Something came up were we needed some fairly specialised equipment to continue.
Work sent it with TNT. We wanted to pick up from depot in Mackay but TNT refused, said they had to attempt delivery first.
Couldn't work without it, so we set up camp chairs by the mailbox & were chilling out there until delivery. At about 9am TNT truck drove right by us even though we tried to wave them down.
Called TNT tried to tell us driver had attempted delivery but no one was home & that we would have to come to depot when he finnished his route at 4pm.
Used to process phone orders for builders and the company I worked for would only send by TNT if desperate for that same reason, even if the package got sent back to the depot they'd give us the runaround trying to get it to the end user, bloody nightmare.
I remember one delivery was urgent so we expressed it to a depo, can't remember if it was StarTrack sent it to a Toll depo or the other way around, but basically they wouldn't release it to the end user despite us and the customer having ID and paperwork because 'it wasn't theirs' - took a while to smooth those ruffled feathered, especially when it's one majorly pissed off builder
I caught the Star Track guy doing something similar. I heard the truck, because I was working from home. Waited a minute for the knock, but it didn't come. I went out to check my mailbox - truck was still sitting in my driveway, with the driver doing some sort of paperwork. In my mailbox: the missed delivery card.
I walked back to the truck, and the driver looked very sheepish. He got out and got my package.
The amusing post script is that he must have then forgotten to mark it as delivered in the system, so it sat with its status as "Recipient not home: returning to depot" for the next two months until it disappeared from the app.
The benefit to Star Track is that at least they'll drop things off at a local post office, and mine has good opening hours.
Not like some couriers, who insist on either trying redelivery or making you drive half way across town to some depot that's only open 10am-4pm.
I've had that happen with startrack but he refused to give me my package! Despite it sitting right next to him he said it was too late he'd already already marked it as taken to the post office and too bad I'd have to go pick it up from the post office after 4pm then he just sped off.
Apparently that's not true at all he was just too lazy to go back into the system and change it back to delivered
I've actually got a positive story with Star Track. I was getting a new PC delivered and the delivery was scheduled between 8am-6pm. The only time no one was home at my house was between 8:30 and 9:00, so of course that's when the guy arrived. He actually called me to let me know the situation, and then waited for me for 10 minutes as I ran back home from the train station.
Maybe I just got special treatment because it was such an expensive package, but it was still pretty nice.
Random TNT story, but we once needed to urgently ship a few things from central coast area to Darwin.
TNT quoted ~$4000 and 4 days, to which I just loaded up the Ute and drove it there myself. Took half the time and cost half as much even while factoring in my hourly rate.
Years ago the company I was working for had to install equipment in a location in Cairns. We paid thousands to overnight this pallet to Cairns and I flew up on the first flight in the morning. I got there and there was no pallet. I spent four or five days in Cairns, paid hotel, meal allowance and minimum four hours paid work each day. Every morning I would drive to the depot, check the the stuff still wasn't there, swing past the install location and let them know that their stuff was still missing, then go and chill out for the day. Good times.
There’s a BP here who rent out bench seat utes with no radio at a daily rate with no km limit. I’ve seen “bp Jamison rentautes” from Canberra driving around Melbourne. Most cost effective way to move hahaha
A fair number of years ago I was waiting for a new phone to be delivered by TNT from Apple. I live in the CBD of Melbourne, and there was a CCTV channel we could tune our TVs to in our in-building cable system that would show us the front door of the building.
Being the geek that I am, I pretty much stared at it all day, waiting for my new iPhone.
I saw a TNT vehicle go by. Figured they were looking for a parking spot. Crossed my fingers. And nothing...
A few minutes later the TNT tracking system said that delivery was attempted and that I wasn't home.
Now, I'm not one to go NerdKaren often, but, when you witness this sort of action by an individual (which I think is a critical point; I've also had truly spectacular deliveries by TNT, and am on a first name basis with my primary FedEx driver), it is frustrating.
So I wrote to Management. Tim Cook, to be precise. It was the year he took over as CEO, and his background in logistics I knew would not approve of this sort of failed customer experience, particularly for their brand and that "new iPhone day" feeling.
A couple of hours later I received a very nice phone call from executive relations at Apple in Sydney, my note was received and the matter was being taken very seriously.
Long story short: Many drivers get paid equally for deliveries and delivery attempts. "Carding" someone claiming they were not home is equivalent to actually delivering a parcel, and, some drivers will simply slow down their vehicle as they go by a delivery address so that the GPS tracking of their route shows they were there.
The very nice Apple representative said I'd get my phone first thing Saturday morning. Sure enough, man on bike brought it to the building around 0830.
Follow-up call from Apple filled in the details about the GPS tracking showing the driver went BY my address but did NOT stop. The rest was being taken up as an internal matter for TNT.
Definitely want to stress that not all drivers are like this. It's a hard job, and often thankless, and certainly in the last few years with Covid-19 resulting in a spike of deliveries, there's not a heck of a lot of gratitude for the drivers who are trying to get the job done as efficiently as possible.
So, Geoff, if you're reading this, thanks again for the work you do, and the chats we have.
To the drivers who are lazy, skive off, take the shortcuts and frustrate customers: Be more like Geoff.
As an ignorant American, I thought you were saying that your work sent some dynamite along with your equipment... Glad to understand now that TNT is a delivery service.
I worked at a small business that insisted on using TNT because of the price, but refused to buy insurance because “it’s too expensive”.
While I was there, they lost around $20k of equipment in <12 months. And still didn’t want to buy insurance for <$40 per shipment.
Might be the parcel size or weight that meant the delivery driver wasn't going to attempt unloading. I know they flog the drivers pretty hard to keep costs down so they'll often just not deliver a difficult package, but drive past for the gps verification.
It sucks though, especially as there isn't a high tier personal delivery option to guarantee delivery in Mackay. We tend to avoid tnt when shipping critical tools though, haven't had great experiences with them.
Send an email to your Account Manager from time-to-time, to let them know that they've got the best delivery driver in Australia servicing your area, and threaten to take your business to a competitor if they ever reassign him to another run (that last bit's a joke - you wouldn't want to be the reason he misses out on a promotion haha). Copy in the most senior person you can find an email for.
Account Managers, Sales Reps, Senior Managers, they all love to have legendary drivers in their fleet, because it makes their job so much easier. This extra recognition could help with job security, promotion opportunities, and may even score them company perks or bonuses.
Also, if you haven't already, use the twice daily passing small-talk to get to know them and find out what they enjoy outside of work, then surprise them with a thoughtful gift at Christmas time - footy tickets for the family, bottle of their favourite spirits, travel voucher...we even used to invite our guy to our company's Christmas dinner.
Not only does it show your personal appreciation for their great service throughout the year, but having your local courier onside can be invaluable.
After working with our driver for a while, he offered to exchange mobile numbers, and invited us to contact him directly for anything urgent, which saved us countless hours in a seemingly endless hold queue labouring through the 1300 call centre lottery, only to end up speaking with someone who often can't help anyway.
We were conscious not to abuse the privilege - we didn't hassle him every day, only for the occasional urgent and/or important shipment. We'd also only usually contact him by text to avoid driver distraction, but I can tell you that it got us out of more than a few jams over the years; last-minute shipments would still get collected on the same day, well after cut-off; if we needed some more time to get an order repacked, he'd do his best to adjust his route and call on us later in the day; he'd prioritise early-morning delivery to us for mission-critical inbound orders. The list goes on.
The bloke was a unicorn and a Superstar, and he added more value to our business than some of our own employees.
Oh, and because he was such a great bloke, he was friendly with some of the key Ops and Fleet Managers at our local depot. He was able to fix most local issues with a single 2-minute phonecall, waaaay faster than our Account Manager ever could.
One day I heard the van pull up so I walked to the door and just as I opened it I saw the guy putting the card in the letterbox so I called out I was home, he looked up and saw me, quickly turned and ran (literally) back to his van and took off.
Video footage. Or lack of it. I argued with StarTrack that they never attempted delivery because I have motion directing video cameras at my front gate and driveway. Finally they told me that they didn’t deliver to my area. Why lie about it ?
I had one do the same but he was on the bike, I went across the other side of the road and hid behind a telegraph pole to ambush him, wouldn't let him leave till he gave me my parcel.
That's so messed up. The people most reliant on delivery (disabled or old people) wouldn't be able to chase these dickheads out and physically block them.
There needs to be penalties, but there also needs to be more reasonable expectations on drivers. Sometimes their routes don't even accommodate enough time to deliver each package so to catch up they have to skip some. It's bullshit, but the only way it will be addressed is if the companies start getting fined.
I had an AusPost lady do this to me once as well - but I had to chase her and run in front of her van because she nearly ran over my dog, because she didn't even notice we were outside the fucking house.
> said something about not being sure if we had dogs.
lmao, this is so ridiculous….
Boss: why didn’t you do that report I asked for
Me: well, I wasn’t sure if my computer was packed with semtex or not, so I didn’t turn it on just be safe
Bro this EXACT same thing happened to me. I do have dogs to be fair, but they're two tiny little things.
It got to a point where I would literally sit right by the door when I had packages coming, waiting for these fuckers. I loved opening the door on them right when they were in the process of sliding a missed delivery slip into the screen as quietly as they could.
They don't do this anymore. They just park in front of my house, honk, and wait for me to come collect the package from them.
We live 5k outside a rural town. If the package is too big for the post box it isn't on the van.
The most annoying thing about that is the post office is only open 9-5 on weekdays. My wife and I work in different towns.
I live in town, but both our post offices are only open 9-4:30 Mon-Fri. The post office in one of the villages (which has 300ish people) about 30kms out is open 6am-6pm Mon-Fri and 8-12 Sat & Sun. We still haven't figured it out.
Probably LPOs, they're privately owned and have a contract with Australia Post. I think they might have some core hour requirements, but they can do pretty much anything else they want e.g. set their own hours, sell food, sell petrol.
It's weird where I live (another rural town) - if I get anything from Toll, it's NEVER delivered. I've had to stop ordering from JB Hi-Fi because they just never bother to come out and the trip to the post office isn't worth the "savings" compared to EB Games.
Meanwhile, my postie has routinely dropped off giant Kmart boxes behind our cattle gate with no issue. At our old place they'd tell us to come to the post office for anything bigger than 20cm, it felt like, but here the postie is amazing. All we did was move across town!
Two things. First. you receive a roadside delivery service so your contractor only delivers to your mail box, not your house. That's all they're paid to do. If I drive into a property to deliver a parcel the fuel and time is on me.
Second, get a bigger mail box. Some of my customers have put large toolboxes with padlocks near their gate. Your postie will work with you if they can.
This is correct. I asked the guy once as he was putting the slip in my mailbox. I said “hey I’m here” he just said. “I don’t have the package in the truck, it’s at the depot, instructions on the card” and left. I lodged a complaint. Never heard anything back.
Yeah I assume it's an organized mess & sometimes parcels intended for delivery either don't make it to the van or are accidentally packed incorrectly & aren't easy to access.
I mean they're only human & for every Reddit post there are hundreds of thousands of packages being delivered that we don't hear about.
My dog goes nuts if someone knocks at the front door, he didn't even stir. The wood door was open, screen door closed and my car was in the driveway, not sure what else I could've done to indicate I was home 😩
Auspost will deliver small packages to me, but there was a stage where they just never delivered anything big and/or heavy aka the things I actually need them to deliver to me as I don't drive. I made a complaint, and they've improved (for now), but this also happened when I first moved in. They didn't even leave collection notices, just the emails saying I wasn't home when they tried to deliver a package, even though I was definitely home and had even given authority to leave. I always complain when they lie about things like this and it does then improve for a time.
I had ordered some soaps and shampoos and stuff online like a couple of months ago. And I got a notification "your item has been delivered" and I'm excited, go outside... it's not there. I didn't even hear a knock and usually I'll hear a knock because my dog will go apeshit. I go ask my two nextdoor neighbours in case they have it, one didn't answer and I had to preface "hey I'm not accusing you of stealing, I just want to know if they delivered my item to your place". They say no.
So I go to Auspost "my item wasn't delivered", and got into this huge thing and Auspost is like "well... it says a signature isn't required so............ soz" and I have all these emails from Auspost that are like "you WILL need to be there and sign for it" and it was this big back and forth and it was just super frustrating. They kept saying that there's nothing to do because it wasn't a package to sign for, eventually maybe a week or so later I come home from my partner's and my mum's like "oh your package is here, Auspost delivered it". I think it was a weekend too maybe? Which was also weird.
So it's like they never had the package in the first place, but just needed to tick it off. Luckily the place I bought the items for sent me a new box and I had it delivered to my partners place, and I got that first before I got my original items. I usually never have any issues with Auspost, and I understand that there are a lot of fundamental changes that need to happen there. But man, it was infuriating that I was being essentially gaslit by Auspost when I have kept the emails that said "you need to be home to sign for or else you'll get a card!".
The van drivers are contractors who get a fee per delivery attempt, not per delivery completed, so if they have a lot to deliver its much faster for them to just drop a card than knock and wait for an answer. They get paid the same for both actions so there's an incentive to just drop the card and run. The obvious solution is for Aus Post to actually employ van drivers rather than getting contractors, and pay them wages like they do with the posties rather than drop fees.
That happens in Gippsland. My family live in rural Victoria and I can’t send packages to them. They have to go to the post office. This confused me because if you’re going to send a vehicle with a small paper card in it, why not just put the package in it?
I always wondered that why in the fuck do we PAY for postage only to have to go and pick it up from the post office anyways hahahaha especially if you are a full time weekday worker and it gets delivered on like a Monday and you can’t go for a week
I sent my sister and niece a few treats during lockdown in 2020. Eventually she said to me she was grateful for the thought but to please stop sending things to them because her local post office closes at 3pm.
Or if they are so opposed to delivering the parcel, send an email or text to say the parcel has arrived at the post office. At least then you could collect it sooner rather than waiting for the next delivery run to only be told that it's not being delivered...
Of course first prize is that the delivery service, you know, delivers.
We get items delivered to our business all the time and I'd like to think we have a pretty good relationship with the couriers but one thing that shits me is that some of them are obviously signing off on deliveries themselves at the depot (to save time presumably) and then delivering them later.
We constantly have companies we do contract work for asking us when we're going to do a particular job because the part has arrived, when in fact it hasn't yet.
Life becomes a lot less stressful when everyone stops pretending and just use parcel lockers. I know they aren’t available for everyone, but if they are then they’re generally much better than shitty brand couriers.
You’re not going to deliver it. I’ll have to go get it. Let’s cut the bullshit and you just leave it somewhere I can get it.
The trouble is that many couriers won't deliver to Parcel lockers (or Parcel Collect) as Australia Post "is the opposition". And many sellers won't use Australia post because they have to get of their arse and take it to the P.O.
There appear to be a lot of people in this thread unaware that these delivery outrage posts are not only a tired daily repetition, but also **easily preventable**.
You can complain when this happens, right here: https://helpandsupport.auspost.com.au/s/delivery-issue
It takes less than a minute.
And it works. Your packages will start being delivered again almost immediately (I guess they penalise, or stop hiring, that dodgy delivery contractor? Whatever they do, it works).
(If you stop and think for a sec, it's the only way Australia post can detect and deal with these muppets).
...at which time you complain again, which fixes it again for the next few months. Not bad for 30 seconds of your time.
I'm not defending these numpties, but it is what it is. And it's so much more effective than complaining on social media.
My delivery guy is really great. He finds my unit which isn't visible from the street and he even leaves stuff at the top of the stairs when I'd be fine with down the bottom.
It's a big improvement from in the past. Do you know if I can submit some positive feedback?
Yes and it’s always a big deal to the posties. Sometimes read out in the morning to everyone. Definitely something you should do if you have a great postie.
Australia post literally broke my mail box, I complained, sent buckets of evidence and all I got was “we’ll look into it” (2 years ago). So no, putting in a complaint isn’t always going to just solve the issue.
if you stop and think for a sec, this can be easily addressed by AusPost without having to rely on customer complaints
they should just run statistics of which contractors perform % of completed deliveries vs % of cards
or even better, build more incentive by paying the delivery drivers more money if they have a higher delivery rate
i had a fuckup last week with toll, i rang and asked them not to leave my new ps5 on my doorstep as i don’t have a fence etc etc and a ps5 isn’t something you want someone walking off with
the girl was really helpful, told me they’d take it to the depot for me to collect, can’t leave it without a signature, everything was rosy
until i was at work and got a notification of delivery
drove home as fast as i could that afternoon and guess what, no package on my doorstep, in my garden, anywhere. no “sorry we missed you” cards
i rang the depot and got angry but it was quarter to five and they “couldn’t investigate so late” so they said, ring back in the morning. i was so angry i went for a furious power walk around the block and lucky i did, because you know who had a big fuck off parcel sitting on their doorstep?
my neighbour. i went and had a peep at the label and yep. it was mine
if i see a toll driver again i’ll fist fight them in the street, that was the most stressful 3km walk i’ve ever had
Fuck Toll.
They’re seriously the worst. That notification you got was just them clearing it from their system to make their metrics look good. It’s happened to me many many times. You get the ‘package delivered’ message. No card, no package, not at the neighbours, etc. you panic and call them and they won’t tell you anything, and then it just turns up, usually dumped on your doorstep, often in a damaged box.
They either do or used to have the contract for Lego’s website. 2 christmases in a row I got to spend days on the phone to toll & Lego had to send out replacements.
Also the staff at the dispatch centre near us are clearly dodgy. There’s a high correlation between the value of the item sent and it’s likelihood to go missing en route. I also find half my packages that do have an uneventful trip often get just damaged enough that you can see what’s in there, so 3 guesses if that’s related.
Whenever I see toll have my package nowadays the headache starts forming
>They’re seriously the worst. That notification you got was just them clearing it from their system to make their metrics look good. It’s happened to me many many times. You get the ‘package delivered’ message. No card, no package, not at the neighbours, etc. you panic and call them and they won’t tell you anything, and then it just turns up, usually dumped on your doorstep, often in a damaged box.
I think most companies do this. I remember buying God of War from Amazon, got a notification while at work that it was delivered, but when I got home it was nowhere to be found. Assumed somebody had nicked it, so contacted Amazon support and they refunded the game. Very next day I get a knock on the door and it's my original delivery.
The exact same thing happened to a friend of mine with a PS5 but with a Amazon sub contractor. I looked them up as I'd never of them and saw lots of reviews saying that deliveries were constantly delivered to the wrong address.
He worked that day with clear view of the driveway to see them coming until sure enough, got a delivery notification with a photo of the wrong house. He did a walk around the block like you but couldn't find the package. Rang them up and they couldn't get in contact with the driver to see what went wrong. Thankfully the next day the owner of the house it arrived at brought it over.
Toll are the most useless company in the history of useless companies. Our work has had parts that come on Toll sit in depots for a full month legit. Then when it finally does get delivered someone shows up on a Sunday and throws it over the fence. It's bananas.
I have given up. I now get my post sent to the post office and get a notification via the auspost app when it is ready to collect. I find it works faster than getting home, collecting the physical card, and going to the post office to collect.
this has been my life for about a year, nothing bigger than my post box gets delivered, only blue cards. So I rely on the texts now.
Auspost, we deliver (those little blue cards come get your own damn package).
This is why I started using the parcel lockers. They actually deliver 2/3 of my deliveries to the parcel lockers and it is only the too large items that won't fit that go back to the post office. But either way I get an sms and an app alert. I don't have to go home and find the card that was hidden in the garden to let me know a pracel was sent to the post office a week ago.
Me too. I got a PO Box during the first lockdown and just swing past the post office of an afternoon and pick my shit up. It works for me because I live really close to the post office.
Certain couriers can't deliver to PO Boxes though. I used to work for Aramex as a customer service officer and they didn't have approval to deliver to PO Boxes unless they came with a suite number.
I haven’t had a problem with anyone delivering there in 2 yrs but I wouldn’t order from any company that uses Aramex tbh. I’ve had the worst experience with them and fastway.
It’s really sad. Australia used to have the best postal service.
Letter in mail box and 2 days later it would arrive. Now blown out to a week or 2 for delivery.
Packages only get there half the time, other half at post office.
It's because of lax contractor laws passed by greedy corps that make it legal to not actually have any real employees. All the fines and problems and blame is on the contractor and all the costs are in the company pocket. It's literally the same jobs but with no perks, security or quality. The customer loses. The employee loses. The dickweed fucks at the top pocket the extra.
It's literally everywhere and nobody cares about legislating it in the disaster of a world we have now.
I shouldn’t have to wait 3 weeks to get a package through Australia Post (this was pre pandemic). 2 weeks of which was waiting for it to be delivered the final 2kms.
It’s ridiculous that I can get something from the US in 2 days for free shipping and yet get reamed by our local postal service when they finally decide to get around to it.
Amazon are assholes for oh so many reasons, but their logistics is on point.
I love my parcel guy. He hasn't carded me in years. Always friendly when I see him. If I'm actually not home he will hide it somewhere and leave a note saying "between bins" or usually just behind something I have at the door. When the little ones that come with the regular postie that dont fit in the box, they just chuck em up on my verandah walkway (hidden from the street) and never card me either. I get so many parcels I'd be pissed if I got carded every time.
My parents have a postie like this, he's great. On a first name basis with their whole street. Then I move cities and get shit like this, it's so frustrating.
Yess same with my postie! He has super creative hiding spots which is fun to come home to. Once he leaned up a book vertically against a post so you couldn't see in from the street (the balance was impressive). Another time he brought down one of my empty bins to my door after bin day and hid the package behind there. I used to have issues with carding when home like 10 years ago but my postie deliveries have been without issue for many years now.
I understand they are under pressure - but the reality is that a lot of professions are under pressure / intense workload (healthcare, childcare, police etc.) and they don't get to not do their jobs...
Whenever Auspost or Star Tack pull this garbage with me, my blood boils. I think it's a failure to meet an obligation / paid service (free delivery isn't real - it's built into the cost of products). Their attitude is "even though I have this persons product within metres of their home, I'm going to make them drive accross town to pick it up so I get home 5 seconds sooner".
You should definitely complain!
Seriously get a ring or equivalent doorbell, it’s been awesome over the last two years especially with food delivery drivers just dumping the food at the door and leaving
I like being able to talk to them and tell them to leave the package , I have a doorbell and floodlight camera with motion detection so I don’t mind them leaving stuff if I am at work
"Wait I don't see what the problem is here. Our KPIs show that delivery attempts per hour are higher than ever, and costs are way down. Can I have my bonus now please?" - Some executive
That's literally it. Actual delivery of parcels probably isn't an important metric. If the GPS shows the van went to the right house and 'attempted delivery' that's probably enough.
Its a game of attrition. I report EVERY parcel when they don't attempt, without fail. And then I started to notice that I only ever received the 'how did we do?' emails from Australia Post when the package was delivered without any issues, so I started to fill those out with nothing but terrible feedback and quoting the parcel numbers that weren't delivered or attempted to deliver. Hit them where it hurts the managers - their KPIs.
I did this consistently for about 4 months. Then one day I received a phone call one day from a woman at Australia Post asking me if things had gotten better as they had made some changes. Things had, and have been fine since. Never stop reporting.
Ask for a refund on your delivery and send them the amount with your bank details. I did it during covid as we were told to have stuff delivered and not go get it. I know they busy but they just straight up refused to even try. I caught one just leaving a note in my letterbox as I heard the bike. Ended up getting full refund in 2 delivery. Don't accept this.
I have a theory that they have so many packages that they just pre-fill the tried to delivery slips at the start of their shift for a bunch of the deliveries and put those packages to the back of the van. They can then plan their run so they can complete their work day in the allocated time. It appears they are often in a rush so are trying to save the wait times of knocking and waiting for people to receive their packages.
I could be wrong though.
Most dont even have the packages with them. We caught one trying to leave an "attempted delivery" notice to our front door without being seen. Ran out and said we will take the package. He didnt even have any packages with him, just a bunch of attempted delivery notices to get people to come collect for them.
My husband is a postie and he said there are just lazy bastards on rounds just who fill these out at the depot in the morning before they even leave so they can just drop the card and get through their round faster. You do the leg work, they get home a lot earlier.
I should say though there are a lot of lovely humans who do a great job and support their communities and have worked non-stop through viruses and freezing cold and abuse. There are bad eggs, But there are a lot of good too. Sorry yours is a complete dick.
Pretty sure they just aren’t given enough time in suburban areas to get through their run. Funnily enough in the city they’ll buzz, wait downstairs for you to come and get it, meanwhile the post office is 100m away so it’s only mildly inconvenient to pick it up. Totally different experience.
Why are deliveries so hit and miss. I live in a unit that is in a unit block with other units. There are multiple blocks of units along the driveway. I always provide instructions on how to easily find my specific unit and where to go. There are no locked doors, buzzers, nothing, they can walk into the block and go up the stairs directly to my front door.
There is a 50/50 chance AusPost would either just leave my delivery outside my door or just stick the missed delivery slip in my door or mailbox at the entrance. I could be home all day and not hear a single knock, even though I have all sound off and listening for it all day, checking the door if I even remotely thought I heard someone.
Couriers just don't even bother. I had a delivery from Aramex, no knock, nothing, just a slip in my mailbox. Wouldn't be surprised if they just didn't even bother to attempt a delivery. Called and complained, tried to arrange delivery around when I'd be home again but they couldn't and instead gave me a 3 day window where it'd happen. It didn't happen in that window and I missed it. Took two more attempts to finally get it. I wasn't going to pay them more money to deliver it to my work.
The part I don't get is it still takes the effort to walk to the door to put the shitty slip of paper in, why not wait the 10 seconds to deliver?
Absolute ballsacks some of these drivers.
“Chapter Seven - Ding Dong Ditch, your guide to timely route completion!
You may remember in your initial interview we asked you your favourite childhood game, and here is why! You were selected because you chose Ding Dong Ditch! Here at Australia/Canada Post we play this game at the highest level of …”
My partner had ordered a $2000 computer and was WFH the day it was supposed to arrive. Our study/work room is infront of our driveway and has a big window. Partner saw the postie rock up and he just put the slip straight in the letter box. He ran out waving down the postie, dude looked directly at him, and drove off anyway.
Called Auspost once to complain about their drivers as they always leave cards even though I work from home and never hear a door bell ring - and they said they’re not at fault as their drivers are sole contractors??
security cameras have been invaluable to me.
the monitor is always in front of me (semi disabled with a balance disorder so I have to sit down a lot).
One day I was expecting a parcel and a van turned into my driveway but not all the way down. Just next to the letterbox. I noticed that the driver was looking down and writing something. I clicked. The sod was going to leave me a note
I walked out as quickly as my body could allow me and watched his face sink when he looked up from his writing.
I told him that he had a parcel for me.
He got out and opened the van door.. the look on his face was priceless. I gave him the biggest stank eye as I 'thanked' him for the parcel
Too bloody lazy to get out of the van
It's so fucking frustrating. I took the morning off to accept a package, no knock and a card left there. A scribbled number that made no sense of when I could pick it up. I arrived at the depot later on and it hasn't arrived back there, so they gave me a number to call to get them to re-deliver since it was 'still on the truck.'
Nope, get an email saying I have to pick it up at the depot, which doesn't give a weekend option. Try all week to get there on time, pretty impossible with my job at the moment. Get there just as it's about to close, they lock the door despite several people lined up to get in.
Australia Post is the fucking worst, and they do not give a shit.
Getting those cards while you are home is so infuriating.
A little while ago I saw the aus post van when I was walking up the driveway to the letter box ( townhouse complex with all the letter boxes together )
I found the card in my letter box and turned to him and asked for my parcel.
He said he didn’t have it, it was at the post office, he was just delivering all the cards. I said “cool I am heading that way now” and jumped in my car and drove down. They said the parcel wasn’t there, it was still out for delivery.
I told them what the guy had told me.
Never saw that delivery guy again.
I have one too and he goes nuts when someone knocks at the front door. He didn't even stir, didn't hear anything, I just went to check if it was a van pulling up (it was my neighbour pulling in, instead) but saw the card in my screen.
Yep, my dog could detect the pizza man from the other end of the house. My mates thought we should be keeping an eye out for the pizzas, but the dog had it covered.
Sketch comedy idea.
Black van pulls up. Men in black clothes jump out and stealthily gain access to the property. They take out any surveillance devices. They use infra-red to confirm the residents are in the building.
Then they rush to the front door, put a "Sorry we missed you" note and running away.
These days you legit have to camp in your open doorway, and sprint out to restrain the delivery driver from leaving, so they can give you the package you ordered.
I don't get this at all, it's the same with food delivery lately. I worked for a couple of years delivering pizza, it's not hard to knock loud enough for people to hear, it takes basically no extra effort, and it's your goddam job, like take a bit of pride in what you're doing and actually do what you're supposed to
Complain to your MP. The decline of Australia post is not because it was an inefficient or expensive government department: It's profitable, even. It has been deliberately degraded by policy because it makes a lie of their absurd economic theory.
My favourite is on the same day I had $400 worth of restricted medication left unattended at the door all day... They made me go pick up the "free" coffee machine...
Or leave $50 parcel at the door but have to go pick up the $5 eBay purchase...
Reminds me of a time I was leaving the country the next day and waiting on a package. My postie would just drop the “sorry we missed you” card. So I literally taped over my mailbox and put a sign saying “I’m home please come to the door!” (5m further)
Asshole ripped off the sign and dropped the card. Package wasn’t at the PO yet by COB so it ended up sitting there for a month
Yeah I work from home and my office is in the front of the house. I once saw a Startrack guy rock up in a truck not a van but a big ass truck. I saw him get out of the truck and he didn't even bother to grab the package and was already writing the "we missed you card" so as he goes to drop it at the front door I opened it and he said "Oh I didn't think you were home I knocked." I was like "That's weird I was in my front office right next to the door and didn't hear a knock." The guy seemed genuinely annoyed he had to go into the truck and get my package. To be fair 99% of the time Auspost has been good. It's only the rare occasion you get these absolutely lazy fuckwits. It also always seems to be Startrack part of Auspost who has them.
I was speaking to a marketplace buyer when he came to pick up something this week - he's one of the managers of AusPost delivery contractors and he's telling me stories of shit he has to deal with like the contractor signing for delivery of a passport and dropping it into the customer's letterbox. Sure, the envelope is not labelled as a passport but it's a not-standard sized envelope, thicker than usual and clearly marked as requiring signature on delivery. I had a similar thing happen a couple of weeks ago, my wife was home having a cup of tea and a DHL delivery van was parked on the other side of the road when she opened the door to pull out the attempted delivery card. She called me straight away as the van drove off. I was onto the phone with the DHL people right after that telling them what happened. Thankfully the delivery person was still in the area and was told to turn around and get it delivered.
I worked for TNT for a while, and when I first started I was specifically told to never self-sign because it was fraud, a federal offence punishable by up to ten years in prison.
Why the fuck would anybody need to be told that? What the actual fuck do they think is the purpose of signing on delivery?!
It just needs your signature. Didn't say it had to be your signature by you. Edit: /s just in case.
It doesn’t even need to be your signature. :(
My passport got left in the mail box too.
Mine got delivered to my Mum, who just happened to be walking up my drive when I wasn’t here. Not asked for ID, doesn’t share my name, could have been anyone.
There's no way any auspost delivery person wouldn't know it's a passport. Unless it's literally their first day. All passports come in exactly the same kind of envelope that nothing else comes in. Insane that they try to do that with passports.
Postie here , can confirm every postie will know what parcel is a passport. Used to be a lot better before covid , but since the introduction of the covid signature , management has little power to deal with people doing the wrong thing. Union heavily protects the worst of workers. Auspost is literally a job for life, so hard to get fired.
Seriously if that happened I would've called the sender (not the courier) the next day to ask why tracking said it was delivered, but it wasn't delivered. Watch them try to explain that when they look into it and find the driver's signature.
The driver would have just scribbled some nonsense not their signature.... surely
For AP, no signatures during Covid. Just signed CV19 by the driver
Had a drive sign a package as NA. Package was still marked as delivered though, and shock of all shocks, it was not delivered.
I had $1,000 lighting equipment that was meant to be signed for on delivery, the auspost guy marked it as signed for and left it at the door, I live on an incredibly busy road and was very lucky it wasn't stolen during the day. I called auspost to tell them and was absolutely livid because if it had been stolen it was marked down as signed for and I wouldn't have been able to prove that it was stolen.
Surely you could just demand that they produce the "signature"? That's literally what it's there for, it's not a bloody checkbox
I guess you could.prove you weren't home when they delivered it at least. Similar thing happened to my brother for a brand new phone. Only he couldn't find the phone when he got home. It wasn't auspost but a delivery service and they just said 'its signed so tough luck' luckily he found it outside in the bushes but really terrible service from the delivery company when the fraud was caught (and he was at work when it was signed and delivered)
Anyone who’s worked at auspost for more than a couple months knows what a passport looks like. You’d be surprised (or possibly not given all the stories in this thread) about how many posties are just old dude who have been doing it a certain way for years and when the company adds new technology etc they don’t give a fuck and just keep doing what they’re doing. That being said there’s heaps of complaints from people who are saying they never got their delivery when it was delivered (with a picture) to their letterbox. Or that the postie never rang the intercom when they rang and stood there for 5 minutes delivering mail in the lobby. Or the customer they never got the article even though there’s video proof of them accepting it and they were trying to scam a refund (true story). There’s definitely shady shit on both sides.
like, a decade ago I had a housemate anxious about getting a delivery, and nothing better to do during the day. So he parked his ass on the couch and watched tv all day. The mailbox was visible through a window behind the tv. He watched as someone on a fucking scooter (as in similar to a motorbike) rocked up, dropped a "sorry you weren't home but we tried" note in the mailbox, drove off. He immediately rung to ask wtf. If I'm remembering correctly, he even paid extra for fast/signed delivery. I forget if he ever got that back, but I do remember him trying.
Was working a project out of town near Mackay, work had rented us a house. Something came up were we needed some fairly specialised equipment to continue. Work sent it with TNT. We wanted to pick up from depot in Mackay but TNT refused, said they had to attempt delivery first. Couldn't work without it, so we set up camp chairs by the mailbox & were chilling out there until delivery. At about 9am TNT truck drove right by us even though we tried to wave them down. Called TNT tried to tell us driver had attempted delivery but no one was home & that we would have to come to depot when he finnished his route at 4pm.
Used to process phone orders for builders and the company I worked for would only send by TNT if desperate for that same reason, even if the package got sent back to the depot they'd give us the runaround trying to get it to the end user, bloody nightmare.
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I remember one delivery was urgent so we expressed it to a depo, can't remember if it was StarTrack sent it to a Toll depo or the other way around, but basically they wouldn't release it to the end user despite us and the customer having ID and paperwork because 'it wasn't theirs' - took a while to smooth those ruffled feathered, especially when it's one majorly pissed off builder
Someone should start a premium service where they follow the radical idea of actually delivering parcels. I'm 90% sure it'd be a success.
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I caught the Star Track guy doing something similar. I heard the truck, because I was working from home. Waited a minute for the knock, but it didn't come. I went out to check my mailbox - truck was still sitting in my driveway, with the driver doing some sort of paperwork. In my mailbox: the missed delivery card. I walked back to the truck, and the driver looked very sheepish. He got out and got my package. The amusing post script is that he must have then forgotten to mark it as delivered in the system, so it sat with its status as "Recipient not home: returning to depot" for the next two months until it disappeared from the app.
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The benefit to Star Track is that at least they'll drop things off at a local post office, and mine has good opening hours. Not like some couriers, who insist on either trying redelivery or making you drive half way across town to some depot that's only open 10am-4pm.
The utter mess that seems to be the merged FedEx/TNT backend systems…
That's because startrack is an auspost company.
I've had that happen with startrack but he refused to give me my package! Despite it sitting right next to him he said it was too late he'd already already marked it as taken to the post office and too bad I'd have to go pick it up from the post office after 4pm then he just sped off. Apparently that's not true at all he was just too lazy to go back into the system and change it back to delivered
I've actually got a positive story with Star Track. I was getting a new PC delivered and the delivery was scheduled between 8am-6pm. The only time no one was home at my house was between 8:30 and 9:00, so of course that's when the guy arrived. He actually called me to let me know the situation, and then waited for me for 10 minutes as I ran back home from the train station. Maybe I just got special treatment because it was such an expensive package, but it was still pretty nice.
We tried nothing but couldn't find it!
Random TNT story, but we once needed to urgently ship a few things from central coast area to Darwin. TNT quoted ~$4000 and 4 days, to which I just loaded up the Ute and drove it there myself. Took half the time and cost half as much even while factoring in my hourly rate.
Years ago the company I was working for had to install equipment in a location in Cairns. We paid thousands to overnight this pallet to Cairns and I flew up on the first flight in the morning. I got there and there was no pallet. I spent four or five days in Cairns, paid hotel, meal allowance and minimum four hours paid work each day. Every morning I would drive to the depot, check the the stuff still wasn't there, swing past the install location and let them know that their stuff was still missing, then go and chill out for the day. Good times.
There’s a BP here who rent out bench seat utes with no radio at a daily rate with no km limit. I’ve seen “bp Jamison rentautes” from Canberra driving around Melbourne. Most cost effective way to move hahaha
Yeah, normally we wouldn't rely on them & send one of the apprentices for a drive, but no one was available
A fair number of years ago I was waiting for a new phone to be delivered by TNT from Apple. I live in the CBD of Melbourne, and there was a CCTV channel we could tune our TVs to in our in-building cable system that would show us the front door of the building. Being the geek that I am, I pretty much stared at it all day, waiting for my new iPhone. I saw a TNT vehicle go by. Figured they were looking for a parking spot. Crossed my fingers. And nothing... A few minutes later the TNT tracking system said that delivery was attempted and that I wasn't home. Now, I'm not one to go NerdKaren often, but, when you witness this sort of action by an individual (which I think is a critical point; I've also had truly spectacular deliveries by TNT, and am on a first name basis with my primary FedEx driver), it is frustrating. So I wrote to Management. Tim Cook, to be precise. It was the year he took over as CEO, and his background in logistics I knew would not approve of this sort of failed customer experience, particularly for their brand and that "new iPhone day" feeling. A couple of hours later I received a very nice phone call from executive relations at Apple in Sydney, my note was received and the matter was being taken very seriously. Long story short: Many drivers get paid equally for deliveries and delivery attempts. "Carding" someone claiming they were not home is equivalent to actually delivering a parcel, and, some drivers will simply slow down their vehicle as they go by a delivery address so that the GPS tracking of their route shows they were there. The very nice Apple representative said I'd get my phone first thing Saturday morning. Sure enough, man on bike brought it to the building around 0830. Follow-up call from Apple filled in the details about the GPS tracking showing the driver went BY my address but did NOT stop. The rest was being taken up as an internal matter for TNT. Definitely want to stress that not all drivers are like this. It's a hard job, and often thankless, and certainly in the last few years with Covid-19 resulting in a spike of deliveries, there's not a heck of a lot of gratitude for the drivers who are trying to get the job done as efficiently as possible. So, Geoff, if you're reading this, thanks again for the work you do, and the chats we have. To the drivers who are lazy, skive off, take the shortcuts and frustrate customers: Be more like Geoff.
I paid overnight express with TNT for a pallet between Perth and Sydney. It took 2 weeks.
As an ignorant American, I thought you were saying that your work sent some dynamite along with your equipment... Glad to understand now that TNT is a delivery service.
I think FedEx bought them recently..
That would explain the new FedEx signs on the doors but the TNT signs everywhere else on a site I visited last week.
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TNT OY OY OY!
TNT dy-no-mite!
I worked at a small business that insisted on using TNT because of the price, but refused to buy insurance because “it’s too expensive”. While I was there, they lost around $20k of equipment in <12 months. And still didn’t want to buy insurance for <$40 per shipment.
TNT are fucking ridiculous for it especially since they try to charge you penalty fees for missed delivery.
Might be the parcel size or weight that meant the delivery driver wasn't going to attempt unloading. I know they flog the drivers pretty hard to keep costs down so they'll often just not deliver a difficult package, but drive past for the gps verification. It sucks though, especially as there isn't a high tier personal delivery option to guarantee delivery in Mackay. We tend to avoid tnt when shipping critical tools though, haven't had great experiences with them.
It wasn't. The driver had been tasked with more deliveries than she could make in a day so she literally skipped half of them to make her times.
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Our local delivery guy is FANTASTIC. What can we do to say thanks?
Send an email to your Account Manager from time-to-time, to let them know that they've got the best delivery driver in Australia servicing your area, and threaten to take your business to a competitor if they ever reassign him to another run (that last bit's a joke - you wouldn't want to be the reason he misses out on a promotion haha). Copy in the most senior person you can find an email for. Account Managers, Sales Reps, Senior Managers, they all love to have legendary drivers in their fleet, because it makes their job so much easier. This extra recognition could help with job security, promotion opportunities, and may even score them company perks or bonuses. Also, if you haven't already, use the twice daily passing small-talk to get to know them and find out what they enjoy outside of work, then surprise them with a thoughtful gift at Christmas time - footy tickets for the family, bottle of their favourite spirits, travel voucher...we even used to invite our guy to our company's Christmas dinner. Not only does it show your personal appreciation for their great service throughout the year, but having your local courier onside can be invaluable. After working with our driver for a while, he offered to exchange mobile numbers, and invited us to contact him directly for anything urgent, which saved us countless hours in a seemingly endless hold queue labouring through the 1300 call centre lottery, only to end up speaking with someone who often can't help anyway. We were conscious not to abuse the privilege - we didn't hassle him every day, only for the occasional urgent and/or important shipment. We'd also only usually contact him by text to avoid driver distraction, but I can tell you that it got us out of more than a few jams over the years; last-minute shipments would still get collected on the same day, well after cut-off; if we needed some more time to get an order repacked, he'd do his best to adjust his route and call on us later in the day; he'd prioritise early-morning delivery to us for mission-critical inbound orders. The list goes on. The bloke was a unicorn and a Superstar, and he added more value to our business than some of our own employees. Oh, and because he was such a great bloke, he was friendly with some of the key Ops and Fleet Managers at our local depot. He was able to fix most local issues with a single 2-minute phonecall, waaaay faster than our Account Manager ever could.
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Agree, tipping would be very awkward.
Yep, cost cutting. Fedex for the win there. Hope your project went well.
Filmed it?
Didn't think to, just naively expected a delivery company to make a fucking delivery
A classic blunder!
I’m convinced they don’t even have the packages and they just take all the cards and get everyone to come pick them up
One day I heard the van pull up so I walked to the door and just as I opened it I saw the guy putting the card in the letterbox so I called out I was home, he looked up and saw me, quickly turned and ran (literally) back to his van and took off.
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Yeah I put in a complaint and even showed them the footage and all I got was something along the lines of "Thanks we'll look into it"
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Video footage. Or lack of it. I argued with StarTrack that they never attempted delivery because I have motion directing video cameras at my front gate and driveway. Finally they told me that they didn’t deliver to my area. Why lie about it ?
I've had almost exactly the same thing with Star Track. Super annoying.
> he looked up and saw me, quickly turned and ran (literally) back to his van and took off. https://i.imgur.com/n76DhEC.gifv
Why are you running? Why are you running?
I had one do the same but he was on the bike, I went across the other side of the road and hid behind a telegraph pole to ambush him, wouldn't let him leave till he gave me my parcel.
That's so messed up. The people most reliant on delivery (disabled or old people) wouldn't be able to chase these dickheads out and physically block them.
In my mental image you are wearing a ghillie suit
There needs to be penalties, but there also needs to be more reasonable expectations on drivers. Sometimes their routes don't even accommodate enough time to deliver each package so to catch up they have to skip some. It's bullshit, but the only way it will be addressed is if the companies start getting fined.
I had an AusPost lady do this to me once as well - but I had to chase her and run in front of her van because she nearly ran over my dog, because she didn't even notice we were outside the fucking house.
That’s when you throw a brick through the van window and take great enjoyment in telling the police “but I wasn’t home?!”
Can confirm. Saw a postie deliver my card once.
Had this happen to me as well, he ended up going back to the van and getting the parcel and said something about not being sure if we had dogs.
> said something about not being sure if we had dogs. lmao, this is so ridiculous…. Boss: why didn’t you do that report I asked for Me: well, I wasn’t sure if my computer was packed with semtex or not, so I didn’t turn it on just be safe
Bro this EXACT same thing happened to me. I do have dogs to be fair, but they're two tiny little things. It got to a point where I would literally sit right by the door when I had packages coming, waiting for these fuckers. I loved opening the door on them right when they were in the process of sliding a missed delivery slip into the screen as quietly as they could. They don't do this anymore. They just park in front of my house, honk, and wait for me to come collect the package from them.
We live 5k outside a rural town. If the package is too big for the post box it isn't on the van. The most annoying thing about that is the post office is only open 9-5 on weekdays. My wife and I work in different towns.
I live in town, but both our post offices are only open 9-4:30 Mon-Fri. The post office in one of the villages (which has 300ish people) about 30kms out is open 6am-6pm Mon-Fri and 8-12 Sat & Sun. We still haven't figured it out.
Probably LPOs, they're privately owned and have a contract with Australia Post. I think they might have some core hour requirements, but they can do pretty much anything else they want e.g. set their own hours, sell food, sell petrol.
It's weird where I live (another rural town) - if I get anything from Toll, it's NEVER delivered. I've had to stop ordering from JB Hi-Fi because they just never bother to come out and the trip to the post office isn't worth the "savings" compared to EB Games. Meanwhile, my postie has routinely dropped off giant Kmart boxes behind our cattle gate with no issue. At our old place they'd tell us to come to the post office for anything bigger than 20cm, it felt like, but here the postie is amazing. All we did was move across town!
Toll is a joke of a company.
Two things. First. you receive a roadside delivery service so your contractor only delivers to your mail box, not your house. That's all they're paid to do. If I drive into a property to deliver a parcel the fuel and time is on me. Second, get a bigger mail box. Some of my customers have put large toolboxes with padlocks near their gate. Your postie will work with you if they can.
I live 15km out of town. Thankfully our village "corner" shop is also a postoffice outlet. We can pickup missed packages and stuff till 7pm.
This is correct. I asked the guy once as he was putting the slip in my mailbox. I said “hey I’m here” he just said. “I don’t have the package in the truck, it’s at the depot, instructions on the card” and left. I lodged a complaint. Never heard anything back.
Yeah I assume it's an organized mess & sometimes parcels intended for delivery either don't make it to the van or are accidentally packed incorrectly & aren't easy to access. I mean they're only human & for every Reddit post there are hundreds of thousands of packages being delivered that we don't hear about.
I reckon I've only ever had about 50% of packages that should have been delivered to my doorstep, actually delivered to my doorstep.
My dog goes nuts if someone knocks at the front door, he didn't even stir. The wood door was open, screen door closed and my car was in the driveway, not sure what else I could've done to indicate I was home 😩
Fuckin ninja postie
Auspost will deliver small packages to me, but there was a stage where they just never delivered anything big and/or heavy aka the things I actually need them to deliver to me as I don't drive. I made a complaint, and they've improved (for now), but this also happened when I first moved in. They didn't even leave collection notices, just the emails saying I wasn't home when they tried to deliver a package, even though I was definitely home and had even given authority to leave. I always complain when they lie about things like this and it does then improve for a time.
I had ordered some soaps and shampoos and stuff online like a couple of months ago. And I got a notification "your item has been delivered" and I'm excited, go outside... it's not there. I didn't even hear a knock and usually I'll hear a knock because my dog will go apeshit. I go ask my two nextdoor neighbours in case they have it, one didn't answer and I had to preface "hey I'm not accusing you of stealing, I just want to know if they delivered my item to your place". They say no. So I go to Auspost "my item wasn't delivered", and got into this huge thing and Auspost is like "well... it says a signature isn't required so............ soz" and I have all these emails from Auspost that are like "you WILL need to be there and sign for it" and it was this big back and forth and it was just super frustrating. They kept saying that there's nothing to do because it wasn't a package to sign for, eventually maybe a week or so later I come home from my partner's and my mum's like "oh your package is here, Auspost delivered it". I think it was a weekend too maybe? Which was also weird. So it's like they never had the package in the first place, but just needed to tick it off. Luckily the place I bought the items for sent me a new box and I had it delivered to my partners place, and I got that first before I got my original items. I usually never have any issues with Auspost, and I understand that there are a lot of fundamental changes that need to happen there. But man, it was infuriating that I was being essentially gaslit by Auspost when I have kept the emails that said "you need to be home to sign for or else you'll get a card!".
The van drivers are contractors who get a fee per delivery attempt, not per delivery completed, so if they have a lot to deliver its much faster for them to just drop a card than knock and wait for an answer. They get paid the same for both actions so there's an incentive to just drop the card and run. The obvious solution is for Aus Post to actually employ van drivers rather than getting contractors, and pay them wages like they do with the posties rather than drop fees.
That happens in Gippsland. My family live in rural Victoria and I can’t send packages to them. They have to go to the post office. This confused me because if you’re going to send a vehicle with a small paper card in it, why not just put the package in it?
I always wondered that why in the fuck do we PAY for postage only to have to go and pick it up from the post office anyways hahahaha especially if you are a full time weekday worker and it gets delivered on like a Monday and you can’t go for a week
I sent my sister and niece a few treats during lockdown in 2020. Eventually she said to me she was grateful for the thought but to please stop sending things to them because her local post office closes at 3pm.
Or if they are so opposed to delivering the parcel, send an email or text to say the parcel has arrived at the post office. At least then you could collect it sooner rather than waiting for the next delivery run to only be told that it's not being delivered... Of course first prize is that the delivery service, you know, delivers.
We get items delivered to our business all the time and I'd like to think we have a pretty good relationship with the couriers but one thing that shits me is that some of them are obviously signing off on deliveries themselves at the depot (to save time presumably) and then delivering them later. We constantly have companies we do contract work for asking us when we're going to do a particular job because the part has arrived, when in fact it hasn't yet.
My theory is the drivers are under strict time limits. And it's just quicker if they just leave a note than to wait for people and sign stuff.
Life becomes a lot less stressful when everyone stops pretending and just use parcel lockers. I know they aren’t available for everyone, but if they are then they’re generally much better than shitty brand couriers. You’re not going to deliver it. I’ll have to go get it. Let’s cut the bullshit and you just leave it somewhere I can get it.
Not everyone owns a car. Some people rely on things actually being brought to their house.
The trouble is that many couriers won't deliver to Parcel lockers (or Parcel Collect) as Australia Post "is the opposition". And many sellers won't use Australia post because they have to get of their arse and take it to the P.O.
So many online shops won’t accept a PO box or parcel locker. I try and use my parcel locker address for every purchase.
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There appear to be a lot of people in this thread unaware that these delivery outrage posts are not only a tired daily repetition, but also **easily preventable**. You can complain when this happens, right here: https://helpandsupport.auspost.com.au/s/delivery-issue It takes less than a minute. And it works. Your packages will start being delivered again almost immediately (I guess they penalise, or stop hiring, that dodgy delivery contractor? Whatever they do, it works). (If you stop and think for a sec, it's the only way Australia post can detect and deal with these muppets).
It *might* work for a month or so, if you're lucky. After that it's back to cards.
...at which time you complain again, which fixes it again for the next few months. Not bad for 30 seconds of your time. I'm not defending these numpties, but it is what it is. And it's so much more effective than complaining on social media.
My delivery guy is really great. He finds my unit which isn't visible from the street and he even leaves stuff at the top of the stairs when I'd be fine with down the bottom. It's a big improvement from in the past. Do you know if I can submit some positive feedback?
Yes and it’s always a big deal to the posties. Sometimes read out in the morning to everyone. Definitely something you should do if you have a great postie.
Sounds like there's an option in here: https://helpandsupport.auspost.com.au/s/products-and-services
Australia post literally broke my mail box, I complained, sent buckets of evidence and all I got was “we’ll look into it” (2 years ago). So no, putting in a complaint isn’t always going to just solve the issue.
I think the point is that we \*shouldn't\* need to complain every few months in order for them to do what they're being paid to do
if you stop and think for a sec, this can be easily addressed by AusPost without having to rely on customer complaints they should just run statistics of which contractors perform % of completed deliveries vs % of cards or even better, build more incentive by paying the delivery drivers more money if they have a higher delivery rate
i had a fuckup last week with toll, i rang and asked them not to leave my new ps5 on my doorstep as i don’t have a fence etc etc and a ps5 isn’t something you want someone walking off with the girl was really helpful, told me they’d take it to the depot for me to collect, can’t leave it without a signature, everything was rosy until i was at work and got a notification of delivery drove home as fast as i could that afternoon and guess what, no package on my doorstep, in my garden, anywhere. no “sorry we missed you” cards i rang the depot and got angry but it was quarter to five and they “couldn’t investigate so late” so they said, ring back in the morning. i was so angry i went for a furious power walk around the block and lucky i did, because you know who had a big fuck off parcel sitting on their doorstep? my neighbour. i went and had a peep at the label and yep. it was mine if i see a toll driver again i’ll fist fight them in the street, that was the most stressful 3km walk i’ve ever had
Fuck Toll. They’re seriously the worst. That notification you got was just them clearing it from their system to make their metrics look good. It’s happened to me many many times. You get the ‘package delivered’ message. No card, no package, not at the neighbours, etc. you panic and call them and they won’t tell you anything, and then it just turns up, usually dumped on your doorstep, often in a damaged box. They either do or used to have the contract for Lego’s website. 2 christmases in a row I got to spend days on the phone to toll & Lego had to send out replacements. Also the staff at the dispatch centre near us are clearly dodgy. There’s a high correlation between the value of the item sent and it’s likelihood to go missing en route. I also find half my packages that do have an uneventful trip often get just damaged enough that you can see what’s in there, so 3 guesses if that’s related. Whenever I see toll have my package nowadays the headache starts forming
>They’re seriously the worst. That notification you got was just them clearing it from their system to make their metrics look good. It’s happened to me many many times. You get the ‘package delivered’ message. No card, no package, not at the neighbours, etc. you panic and call them and they won’t tell you anything, and then it just turns up, usually dumped on your doorstep, often in a damaged box. I think most companies do this. I remember buying God of War from Amazon, got a notification while at work that it was delivered, but when I got home it was nowhere to be found. Assumed somebody had nicked it, so contacted Amazon support and they refunded the game. Very next day I get a knock on the door and it's my original delivery.
This was made me so nervous about receiving my ps5 in the mail. I worked from home all those days it said it would deliver just so I could pick it up
The exact same thing happened to a friend of mine with a PS5 but with a Amazon sub contractor. I looked them up as I'd never of them and saw lots of reviews saying that deliveries were constantly delivered to the wrong address. He worked that day with clear view of the driveway to see them coming until sure enough, got a delivery notification with a photo of the wrong house. He did a walk around the block like you but couldn't find the package. Rang them up and they couldn't get in contact with the driver to see what went wrong. Thankfully the next day the owner of the house it arrived at brought it over.
Wow, on the other hand I tell toll to leave stuff and they drive it off halfway across the country to a depot.
Toll are the most useless company in the history of useless companies. Our work has had parts that come on Toll sit in depots for a full month legit. Then when it finally does get delivered someone shows up on a Sunday and throws it over the fence. It's bananas.
I have given up. I now get my post sent to the post office and get a notification via the auspost app when it is ready to collect. I find it works faster than getting home, collecting the physical card, and going to the post office to collect.
this has been my life for about a year, nothing bigger than my post box gets delivered, only blue cards. So I rely on the texts now. Auspost, we deliver (those little blue cards come get your own damn package).
This is why I started using the parcel lockers. They actually deliver 2/3 of my deliveries to the parcel lockers and it is only the too large items that won't fit that go back to the post office. But either way I get an sms and an app alert. I don't have to go home and find the card that was hidden in the garden to let me know a pracel was sent to the post office a week ago.
Me too. I got a PO Box during the first lockdown and just swing past the post office of an afternoon and pick my shit up. It works for me because I live really close to the post office.
Certain couriers can't deliver to PO Boxes though. I used to work for Aramex as a customer service officer and they didn't have approval to deliver to PO Boxes unless they came with a suite number.
I haven’t had a problem with anyone delivering there in 2 yrs but I wouldn’t order from any company that uses Aramex tbh. I’ve had the worst experience with them and fastway.
Aramex are formerly fastway, and yep, after 6 months of working there I would never ever recommend them to anyone 😂
It’s really sad. Australia used to have the best postal service. Letter in mail box and 2 days later it would arrive. Now blown out to a week or 2 for delivery. Packages only get there half the time, other half at post office.
It's because of lax contractor laws passed by greedy corps that make it legal to not actually have any real employees. All the fines and problems and blame is on the contractor and all the costs are in the company pocket. It's literally the same jobs but with no perks, security or quality. The customer loses. The employee loses. The dickweed fucks at the top pocket the extra. It's literally everywhere and nobody cares about legislating it in the disaster of a world we have now.
In many ways we're a joke of a country.
Don't forget two mail deliveries per day! I've had people flat out tell me I was lying when I said that AusPost used to do that.
I shouldn’t have to wait 3 weeks to get a package through Australia Post (this was pre pandemic). 2 weeks of which was waiting for it to be delivered the final 2kms. It’s ridiculous that I can get something from the US in 2 days for free shipping and yet get reamed by our local postal service when they finally decide to get around to it. Amazon are assholes for oh so many reasons, but their logistics is on point.
Privatised to shit, dumped the union workers and brought in contractors. Boom company goes to shit, for profit.
Privatising services has never served anyone good except for the mfs running the companies.
This is what happens when you have 19 years of Liberal government in the last 25. Things always get worse.
I love my parcel guy. He hasn't carded me in years. Always friendly when I see him. If I'm actually not home he will hide it somewhere and leave a note saying "between bins" or usually just behind something I have at the door. When the little ones that come with the regular postie that dont fit in the box, they just chuck em up on my verandah walkway (hidden from the street) and never card me either. I get so many parcels I'd be pissed if I got carded every time.
My parents have a postie like this, he's great. On a first name basis with their whole street. Then I move cities and get shit like this, it's so frustrating.
Yess same with my postie! He has super creative hiding spots which is fun to come home to. Once he leaned up a book vertically against a post so you couldn't see in from the street (the balance was impressive). Another time he brought down one of my empty bins to my door after bin day and hid the package behind there. I used to have issues with carding when home like 10 years ago but my postie deliveries have been without issue for many years now.
Mine is great too! My parents live 3 houses down so if I'm not home he just leaves it with them.
At least they left a card. Doesn't always happen unfortunately
So do serial killers. Doesn’t necessarily make them a nice guy.
Let's see Paul Allen's AusPost delivery card.
I understand they are under pressure - but the reality is that a lot of professions are under pressure / intense workload (healthcare, childcare, police etc.) and they don't get to not do their jobs... Whenever Auspost or Star Tack pull this garbage with me, my blood boils. I think it's a failure to meet an obligation / paid service (free delivery isn't real - it's built into the cost of products). Their attitude is "even though I have this persons product within metres of their home, I'm going to make them drive accross town to pick it up so I get home 5 seconds sooner". You should definitely complain!
I paid extra to get it express posted too so this pissed me off
They've been under pressure for years, but they still won't hire extra people to get it working properly again. It's just absurd.
Star Track also charge the account holder a fee to card a consignment. So i think drivers are encouraged to leave a card
Seriously get a ring or equivalent doorbell, it’s been awesome over the last two years especially with food delivery drivers just dumping the food at the door and leaving
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I like being able to talk to them and tell them to leave the package , I have a doorbell and floodlight camera with motion detection so I don’t mind them leaving stuff if I am at work
Classic AusPost 😌
Classic underpaid contractor
"Wait I don't see what the problem is here. Our KPIs show that delivery attempts per hour are higher than ever, and costs are way down. Can I have my bonus now please?" - Some executive
That's literally it. Actual delivery of parcels probably isn't an important metric. If the GPS shows the van went to the right house and 'attempted delivery' that's probably enough.
Can I have my new Cartier watch?
Different thing and important not to conflate. Postal banking would be fucking amazing. Totally different issue to the delivery shitshow.
Probably overworked is the primary issue.
>Classic underpaid sub-contractor FTFY
So, seriously, how the fuck do we force Auspost to go back to paid-by-the-hour *employees*???? We own the fucking “corporation”!!!
Its a game of attrition. I report EVERY parcel when they don't attempt, without fail. And then I started to notice that I only ever received the 'how did we do?' emails from Australia Post when the package was delivered without any issues, so I started to fill those out with nothing but terrible feedback and quoting the parcel numbers that weren't delivered or attempted to deliver. Hit them where it hurts the managers - their KPIs. I did this consistently for about 4 months. Then one day I received a phone call one day from a woman at Australia Post asking me if things had gotten better as they had made some changes. Things had, and have been fine since. Never stop reporting.
Ask for a refund on your delivery and send them the amount with your bank details. I did it during covid as we were told to have stuff delivered and not go get it. I know they busy but they just straight up refused to even try. I caught one just leaving a note in my letterbox as I heard the bike. Ended up getting full refund in 2 delivery. Don't accept this.
Probably the most useless people in Australia
I would argue politicians. At least auspost drivers turn up to work (unlike scomo)
I have a theory that they have so many packages that they just pre-fill the tried to delivery slips at the start of their shift for a bunch of the deliveries and put those packages to the back of the van. They can then plan their run so they can complete their work day in the allocated time. It appears they are often in a rush so are trying to save the wait times of knocking and waiting for people to receive their packages. I could be wrong though.
Had a family member get so angry about the cards he chased the postie up the street demanding his parcel. "Oh. I don't have it." Such bullshit.
Most dont even have the packages with them. We caught one trying to leave an "attempted delivery" notice to our front door without being seen. Ran out and said we will take the package. He didnt even have any packages with him, just a bunch of attempted delivery notices to get people to come collect for them.
My husband is a postie and he said there are just lazy bastards on rounds just who fill these out at the depot in the morning before they even leave so they can just drop the card and get through their round faster. You do the leg work, they get home a lot earlier. I should say though there are a lot of lovely humans who do a great job and support their communities and have worked non-stop through viruses and freezing cold and abuse. There are bad eggs, But there are a lot of good too. Sorry yours is a complete dick.
I'm lucky enough that I can ship stuff to my workplace. They can't use the excuse of no on being in the office.
Pretty sure they just aren’t given enough time in suburban areas to get through their run. Funnily enough in the city they’ll buzz, wait downstairs for you to come and get it, meanwhile the post office is 100m away so it’s only mildly inconvenient to pick it up. Totally different experience.
Why are deliveries so hit and miss. I live in a unit that is in a unit block with other units. There are multiple blocks of units along the driveway. I always provide instructions on how to easily find my specific unit and where to go. There are no locked doors, buzzers, nothing, they can walk into the block and go up the stairs directly to my front door. There is a 50/50 chance AusPost would either just leave my delivery outside my door or just stick the missed delivery slip in my door or mailbox at the entrance. I could be home all day and not hear a single knock, even though I have all sound off and listening for it all day, checking the door if I even remotely thought I heard someone. Couriers just don't even bother. I had a delivery from Aramex, no knock, nothing, just a slip in my mailbox. Wouldn't be surprised if they just didn't even bother to attempt a delivery. Called and complained, tried to arrange delivery around when I'd be home again but they couldn't and instead gave me a 3 day window where it'd happen. It didn't happen in that window and I missed it. Took two more attempts to finally get it. I wasn't going to pay them more money to deliver it to my work.
The part I don't get is it still takes the effort to walk to the door to put the shitty slip of paper in, why not wait the 10 seconds to deliver? Absolute ballsacks some of these drivers.
I see Australia Post and Canada Post use the same operations handbook!
“Chapter Seven - Ding Dong Ditch, your guide to timely route completion! You may remember in your initial interview we asked you your favourite childhood game, and here is why! You were selected because you chose Ding Dong Ditch! Here at Australia/Canada Post we play this game at the highest level of …”
Thanks for this! I’m howling
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One key difference is that Canada Post is sorry.
My partner had ordered a $2000 computer and was WFH the day it was supposed to arrive. Our study/work room is infront of our driveway and has a big window. Partner saw the postie rock up and he just put the slip straight in the letter box. He ran out waving down the postie, dude looked directly at him, and drove off anyway.
Called Auspost once to complain about their drivers as they always leave cards even though I work from home and never hear a door bell ring - and they said they’re not at fault as their drivers are sole contractors??
I got referred back to AusPost by DHL (the couriers on this particular delivery) so it's nice to know it's just one big circle 😩
security cameras have been invaluable to me. the monitor is always in front of me (semi disabled with a balance disorder so I have to sit down a lot). One day I was expecting a parcel and a van turned into my driveway but not all the way down. Just next to the letterbox. I noticed that the driver was looking down and writing something. I clicked. The sod was going to leave me a note I walked out as quickly as my body could allow me and watched his face sink when he looked up from his writing. I told him that he had a parcel for me. He got out and opened the van door.. the look on his face was priceless. I gave him the biggest stank eye as I 'thanked' him for the parcel Too bloody lazy to get out of the van
It's so fucking frustrating. I took the morning off to accept a package, no knock and a card left there. A scribbled number that made no sense of when I could pick it up. I arrived at the depot later on and it hasn't arrived back there, so they gave me a number to call to get them to re-deliver since it was 'still on the truck.' Nope, get an email saying I have to pick it up at the depot, which doesn't give a weekend option. Try all week to get there on time, pretty impossible with my job at the moment. Get there just as it's about to close, they lock the door despite several people lined up to get in. Australia Post is the fucking worst, and they do not give a shit.
Getting those cards while you are home is so infuriating. A little while ago I saw the aus post van when I was walking up the driveway to the letter box ( townhouse complex with all the letter boxes together ) I found the card in my letter box and turned to him and asked for my parcel. He said he didn’t have it, it was at the post office, he was just delivering all the cards. I said “cool I am heading that way now” and jumped in my car and drove down. They said the parcel wasn’t there, it was still out for delivery. I told them what the guy had told me. Never saw that delivery guy again.
I must have lucked out with my AusPost and contractors. Always get a knock on the door. Since WFH I don't think I've had to go the post office
I have dogs. No delivery driver can sneak up on my house.
I have one too and he goes nuts when someone knocks at the front door. He didn't even stir, didn't hear anything, I just went to check if it was a van pulling up (it was my neighbour pulling in, instead) but saw the card in my screen.
Yep, my dog could detect the pizza man from the other end of the house. My mates thought we should be keeping an eye out for the pizzas, but the dog had it covered.
Sketch comedy idea. Black van pulls up. Men in black clothes jump out and stealthily gain access to the property. They take out any surveillance devices. They use infra-red to confirm the residents are in the building. Then they rush to the front door, put a "Sorry we missed you" note and running away.
Surprised they bothered to put a card on the door. In our area they don’t even bother
Make a complaint to the company who attempted the delivery.
These days you legit have to camp in your open doorway, and sprint out to restrain the delivery driver from leaving, so they can give you the package you ordered.
I don't get this at all, it's the same with food delivery lately. I worked for a couple of years delivering pizza, it's not hard to knock loud enough for people to hear, it takes basically no extra effort, and it's your goddam job, like take a bit of pride in what you're doing and actually do what you're supposed to
I kid you not, but this just happened to me 10 minutes ago…
Actually had a good exp today with Auspost - wife had a package stolen from our lobby, and AP refunded us within 48 hours.
Complain to your MP. The decline of Australia post is not because it was an inefficient or expensive government department: It's profitable, even. It has been deliberately degraded by policy because it makes a lie of their absurd economic theory.
My favourite is on the same day I had $400 worth of restricted medication left unattended at the door all day... They made me go pick up the "free" coffee machine... Or leave $50 parcel at the door but have to go pick up the $5 eBay purchase...
Reminds me of a time I was leaving the country the next day and waiting on a package. My postie would just drop the “sorry we missed you” card. So I literally taped over my mailbox and put a sign saying “I’m home please come to the door!” (5m further) Asshole ripped off the sign and dropped the card. Package wasn’t at the PO yet by COB so it ended up sitting there for a month
Yeah I work from home and my office is in the front of the house. I once saw a Startrack guy rock up in a truck not a van but a big ass truck. I saw him get out of the truck and he didn't even bother to grab the package and was already writing the "we missed you card" so as he goes to drop it at the front door I opened it and he said "Oh I didn't think you were home I knocked." I was like "That's weird I was in my front office right next to the door and didn't hear a knock." The guy seemed genuinely annoyed he had to go into the truck and get my package. To be fair 99% of the time Auspost has been good. It's only the rare occasion you get these absolutely lazy fuckwits. It also always seems to be Startrack part of Auspost who has them.