Damn AusPost - rant

[TheWiggman]

I've had a good run with AusPost with one exception - living in central Qld. Sent a game once for eBay and it never showed up, made me look pretty suss. Second one was a Nerf gun in a reasonably sized package for my half brother's birthday to Wagga Wagga. No-show which make me look like a bad brother. My mum send a gift to my son once and again, never saw it. Literally about a third of the packages to or from my address interstate went missing. When things did turn up though it generally took 4-5 days.
I echo Coogee's comments though - companies often don't have their customers' expectations in line with the capabilities of their employees. A brother in law of mine is a truckie and he has classic stories all the time. The company will assume a steady trip time at 95km/h between two points and work out how long it should take, then schedule accordingly with 30 mins for pickup/dropoff. This doesn't take into account traffic, hills, customer hold ups ("sorry bro, forklift operator is having lunch) etc. and often they'll base a schedule on the best trip time someone has made in the past. The result is a long day, drivers being questioned all the time, and customers asking why they're 45 mins late.
Switch do delivery contractors. Yes times are challenging so we cut down on staff or try to get more out of who we have, but if you don't take into account the realities of droid try to deliver 700 packages in a day, you will have upset customers if they're expecting a delivery to their door. I suppose the alternative is they get another contractor to get that extra service, but it will come at cost to the customer. Who will switch to the cheaper contractor who promises the same thing but doesn't/can't deliver. And then they'll complain.
A fickle bunch those customer folk.

 

[wynnum1]

Delivery contractors. AusPost was caught out contracting out then that company subcontracted.

 

[droid]

no more delivery for me - finished up delivery last week but have opted to help out sorting for the new people till they get their heads around it all

my Christmas booty now has another $20, shortbread, white wine, 6pack lcpa, chocolates, more shortbread, biscuits, chocolates - oh there bloocy good to me out in Newlands Arm...

...and around 50 Christmas cards that we've sorted (and correctly delivered) so far that either had no address, the wrong number, the wrong street or an old RMB number no longer used...and a few of those with no return address - you know what? i'm sure every one of those cards was written correctly if the customer was asked about it hehehe

Christmas time at the DLO (Dead Letter Office)must be a cracking good time

 

[droid]

btw - had a laugh yesterday, a postie got a Chrissy card for some units in canal rd Paynesville but whoever wrote the card left out the c in canal

 

[Coodgee]

We've all been down that road mate

 

[madpierre06]

On second thoughts, initial rant was based on previous delivery efforts where interstate parcels had arrived within 2 days of ordering. Given that aforementioned parcel arrived in 3 days, they... AP... charge more more for parcel post than years and months gone by, it's only natural to expect that deliveries would take longer.

 

[billygoat]

no more delivery for me - finished up delivery last week but have opted to help out sorting for the new people till they get their heads around it allmy Christmas booty now has another $20, shortbread, white wine, 6pack lcpa, chocolates, more shortbread, biscuits, chocolates - oh there bloocy good to me out in Newlands Arm......and around 50 Christmas cards that we've sorted (and correctly delivered) so far that either had no address, the wrong number, the wrong street or an old RMB number no longer used...and a few of those with no return address - you know what? i'm sure every one of those cards was written correctly if the customer was asked about it heheheChristmas time at the DLO (Dead Letter Office)must be a cracking good time

My aunty lives in Colony Club Drive in Newlands Arm, hope she gave you something Droid.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

On second thoughts, initial rant was based on previous delivery efforts where interstate parcels had arrived within 2 days of ordering. Given that aforementioned parcel arrived in 3 days, they... AP... charge more more for parcel post than years and months gone by, it's only natural to expect that deliveries would take longer.

And people are forgetting the fact the Auspost main thing is more parcels orientated now. Letters are shrinking, but parcels are growing

I drop stuff at the back of the PO and every thing is put into pallet crates, letters, parcels, the lot. and goes to Casino for sorting. Letters are in trays. They do about 6-8 crates a day and there is prob only about 6 trays of letters. 6 trays would be about half a crate, so that gives an idea of the logistical volume difference

Considering the sheer volume of items that Auspost deal with, they do a pretty good job.

I would bet that any talk of it going private would result in mutiny and the burning down of parliament house

 

[Florian]

And people are forgetting the fact the Auspost main thing is more parcels orientated now. Letters are shrinking, but parcels are growing

I drop stuff at the back of the PO and every thing is put into pallet crates, letters, parcels, the lot. and goes to Casino for sorting. Letters are in trays. They do about 6-8 crates a day and there is prob only about 6 trays of letters. 6 trays would be about half a crate, so that gives an idea of the logistical volume difference

I'm keeping my smart arse comment about letters being smaller than parcels and therefore, going by numbers, probably still being more letters than parcels, to myself.

Agree that Auspost does a great job, never had a serious issue with them, and if I want something fast I pay a few bucks extra for express. Simple, really.

Compare them to a 'supposedly' superior postal service like in Germany and we're laughing over here. Big time!
Same goes for government services. All of them!

Some of you guys don't seem to realise how good we have it over here.

 

[droid]

My aunty lives in Colony Club Drive in Newlands Arm, hope she gave you something Droid.

I know you may not want to divulge her name or address but give me a first name and we'll see how good the Ol' memory is, last name is too easy - pretty much know every last name on my run...breaks the monotony of sorting to look at the names. Also more accurate too

Btw I'll have to put my faith in the new postie to hand over the prezzies haha

 

[manticle]

Are you sure thats not a card from the police crime scene following a break in.....

I did think under the pillow was a tad creepy but at least it stayed dry.

 

[Kumamoto_Ken]

I posted the pic below in a similar thread last year with a comment about my postie not getting a six pack for Xmas.

Since this thread is already going I won't bump the old one...but I am very pleased to say that this year our postie is either new or has had an epiphany about providing superb service.

We had a series of thunderstorms roll through on Wednesday arvo with some very heavy rain, but when I got home the mail was actually sitting up on the front doorstep out of the rain.
Similar thing on Thursday with a couple of larger items that last year would have been bent and shoved into our (admittedly ******) letterbox...this time sitting up next to the door.

I'm on leave now so I might listen out on Monday or Tuesday and dash out to surprise him/her with a gift...I don't really want to leave anything by the letterbox because this is Queanbeyan afterall...it'd be gone before you could say 'yoink'.

 

[droid]

bugger I spose ill have to give the postie a coldy too now, been leaving beer out for the garbo's at Chrissy since living here which seems to be appreciated - tho they do have to stop the truck and dive out to grab it hehe

 

[wynnum1]

bugger I spose ill have to give the postie a coldy too now, been leaving beer out for the garbo's at Chrissy since living here which seems to be appreciated - tho they do have to stop the truck and dive out to grab it hehe

The leaving of alcohol could be offensive to persons of certain faiths or recovering alcoholics and a target of under age drinkers leaving a gift voucher may be safer .

 

[antiphile]

(antiphile goes into "in my day..." mode)

Things used to be different several decades ago, before this technology and efficiency drive depersonalised a lot of these services like the postie and the garbo). The postie, often on a pushbike, delivered the mail and blew his whistle. You knew when he was around and many people actually were waiting at the letterbox to say a quick hello and a brief chat. Similarly, before wheelie bins were common, the garbos would come around to your place (and enter the property if you'd forgotten to put the bins out) and empty them. Inevitably, you'd have quite a few regular interactions during the year.

And as a result, one of the few perks of their jobs was a six pack or something similar from a large proportion of the people. I vividly rememebr that the pickup before christmas, they used to have some mates in utes following the trucks to pick up all the booze etc so they could fit it all in. These days, I reckon, they could fit both of the sixpacks and the single lottery ticket on the passenger seat. The postie also had arrangements 'cos it's bloody hard to ride a bike with 20 slabs of beer.

It's a real shame these days 'cos I wouldn't recognise the letter postie if I fell over him, and I can't even recall the last time I actually saw the garbo. Yet out of stubborn habit, I've still gotta leave out something for them to avoid the guilt.

 

[manticle]

Yeah but only seven people lived in your street and two of them were your parents.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Hate to say it, but....

Our postie delivers, tops, twice a week. Never if it's wet (or even cloudy) or hot or not hot (it's never cold in Qld).

The thing is, I used to curse our postie in NW Coast of Tassie, but at least he'd get out 3 or 4 times per week. Parcel guy hardly delivered, and would leave a calling card (despite the front door being 2 metres from the driveway) regardless, and I'd go down to the PO after hours.

But, our postie/parcel guy in Tassie was a million times better than here. I live 9km or so from the Brisbane CBD, and struggle to get anything delivered on time. At least in Tassie, it was an even money bet at worst.

 

[wobbly]

Well my experiences are much better than the average. On a couple of occasions I have had parcels delivered from Auckland to Bibra Lake Perth is less than 4 days delivered to the door.

My latest was a 1kg parcel from Auckland to Bibra Lake (Perth suburb) posted in Auckland PM Friday 19th/12/15 and delivered to my house (ring on the front door bell) at 9:30 am this morning. Parcel was sent parcel post by New Zealand Post and delivered by Australia Post.

A good job by both organisations. No complaints here!!!

Cheers

Wobbly

 

[Bruer]

You want ****** up? I'm in perth. I just popped the question and she said yes. One problem - the ring was too small. Our jeweler is in Adelaide and said the best way to get to him is express post. So that's what we did.

Turns out express post from perth to anywhere is a load of horseshit. Not only was it not there within a day, or two, the ******* thing is completely AWOL without a trace. Thank **** it's insured through our jeweler. What a clusterfuck

 

[antiphile]

It's OK Bruer. I've seen the movie "The Imitation Game" several times, and every time Keira Knightly accepts a coiled piece of copper wire as her engagement ring. So with a 100% success rate, you'll get away with that or a coiled piece of coathanger wire (at a hell of a better price).