Thread: Australia Post - value for money?

We get lots of enquiries form O/S, but we do not sell to O/S as we have no control once it leaves our shores and don't need the hassels. All it takes is a Yak to fall off a trail in the Himalayas or a Llama to break a leg in the Andes and the parclel doesn't arrive and then have the customer put in a paypal dispute wanting refunds.

I ordered a book from England on April 17 and its promised to arrive by May 20 via surface mail so I think that indicates the speed of the snail mail service.

Had a doozie last night, I ordered a pair of brake rotors off Ebay the weekend before last and the parcel was promptly dispatched. Got a message from Aust Post on Friday saying my tracked parcel was unlikely to be delivered on the estimated day (Friday). Parcel showed up last night, suspiciously light for a set of rotors. I photographed the box before and after opening thinking the vendor might have done something silly like packing pads instead.
In the box was an opened satchel from the UK containing a jacket from a promo ware company with the parcel addressed to someone in Sydney. My Rotors had obviously been removed by an AP employee and the opened satchel that didn't hold anything interesting put inside my box to hide the fact that they had opened it as well.

I'll go to my local Post office and get them to send off the satchel with the jacket to its intended destination And I bought a set of rotors off Supercheap at 25% discount with their current online sale that I'll pick up this arvo.

Unfortunately for the Vendor I'm one of those customers going to Paypal asking for a refund but for a postage cost of $25 they could have sent it road freight instead.

Disappearing shipments was one of the factors that killed NSW railways freight operation that had a monopoly over NSW freight until the 1980s I can see the same thing happening to Aust Post as well if this starts happening on a more publicised scale.

Australia post were silly enough to send me a survey asking how did they do this morning

Regards,
Tote

Originally Posted by Tote

Had a doozie last night, I ordered a pair of brake rotors off Ebay the weekend before last and the parcel was promptly dispatched. Got a message from Aust Post on Friday saying my tracked parcel was unlikely to be delivered on the estimated day (Friday). Parcel showed up last night, suspiciously light for a set of rotors. I photographed the box before and after opening thinking the vendor might have done something silly like packing pads instead.
In the box was an opened satchel from the UK containing a jacket from a promo ware company with the parcel addressed to someone in Sydney. My Rotors had obviously been removed by an AP employee and the opened satchel that didn't hold anything interesting put inside my box to hide the fact that they had opened it as well.

I'll go to my local Post office and get them to send off the satchel with the jacket to its intended destination And I bought a set of rotors off Supercheap at 25% discount with their current online sale that I'll pick up this arvo.

Unfortunately for the Vendor I'm one of those customers going to Paypal asking for a refund but for a postage cost of $25 they could have sent it road freight instead.

Disappearing shipments was one of the factors that killed NSW railways freight operation that had a monopoly over NSW freight until the 1980s I can see the same thing happening to Aust Post as well if this starts happening on a more publicised scale.

Australia post were silly enough to send me a survey asking how did they do this morning

Regards,
Tote

The trouble with a lot of those surveys is they steer you toward a particular answer and unless there is a free format area you struggle to vent your frustration. But who at the AP end would read the free format stuff, too difficult to wrap performance metrics around that :-)

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

I ordered a book from England on April 17 and its promised to arrive by May 20 via surface mail so I think that indicates the speed of the snail mail service.

So, just to prove me wrong, the book arrived today.

So, I got confirmation that the parcel arrived safely at BBS Tuesday night (our time). So 12 days, not less than 5 as contracted.... But I suppose at least it got there in good condition. Hopefully BBS can turn it around quickly and get it back to me in a timely manner.

I didn't realise I was stirring the pot when I had my little rant. Interesting feedback on good and bad service and I think I read into it that the sub-contractors that AP use may have a significant direct influence. Obviously their own system has issues, and the artificial delaying of non-premium parcel transit has caused things to go AWOL also. I've had this happen a few times where as soon as I chased something they've suddenly found it and it has then moved on swiftly from there. But lost in the black-hole of a sorting center while they held it for a couple of days per their new operating procedure. It's a far cry from when I was a lad and the post was revered and world-class. Now it's unreliable, slow and expensive by developed-world standards. How's that for progress? Compare AP to Royal Mail or Deutsche Post (as examples) and they fall well short in every regard. Even the Yanks seem to do this better than us.

I'd be really interested to get a quote from one of the big independents (DHL, FedEx, etc) and see what it would have cost for a similar service and what the timing would be. $102 and change buys a lot of courier IMHO....

At least it arrived.
A friend in Thailand was sent a Christmas cake by his mother in the USA. When he opened the box it was empty, except for some crumbs.

Originally Posted by DiscoClax

I'd be really interested to get a quote from one of the big independents (DHL, FedEx, etc) and see what it would have cost for a similar service and what the timing would be. $102 and change buys a lot of courier IMHO....

I was proposing to buy a new Muncie aluminium case close ratio gearbox from a Florida vendor, US$1300. If the freight was to be frightening I was not going to buy. They got a quote from FedEx of US$960. Sorry, fellas, no deal. They then got quotes from UPS and US Post Office ( an over-dimensional parcel). UPS US$630, USPS US$360. OK, send it by the post office. The post office subbied it off to FedEx who no doubt charged the PO less than $360. I bought two special sealed beams for a classic car from a San Jose vendor and requested they be sent via post. They stuffed it up and sent them via FedEx who charged me US$125. I was livid. They would have fitted in a small flat rate box for US$35 at the post office. Their so what attitude convinced to never buy from them again. I now always give clear instructions to US vendors that if they can't/won't send by post office then forget about dealing with me. Then there are the US vendors who do not accept a credit card that was not issued in the US or won't ship[ outside the US..