Damn it Australia Post

[Diminuendo]

I am so frustrated right now, my postman keeps folding my subscriptions to fit them in the letterbox. He has now damaged around $175 (AUD) worth of books.

His latest victom.

Never mind the fact that those little blue cards are specifically for packages that don't fit in the letterbox, never mind the fact the package clearly says "do not bend."

I've made several complaints in the past; after you email them your complaint, they send you a "are you sure you want to complain?" email which sends you to a webpage that does not work, as you are unable to respond, AusPost decides you didn't really mean your complaint. There has been no movement from their formail complaints process.

So I went directly to Australia Post, where they told me it wasn't there problem, as it came from their ditribution centre. So I went directly to the distribution centre, who also told me it's not their problem.

I honestly have no idea how to progress, he doesn't do it every month, but it's annoying that there is ZERO method for making a complaint that works.

I'm nearly at the point of cancelling my subscriptions and going purely PDF.

[Diminuendo]

Been on hold for 30min... Great customer service...

[Kobold Catgirl]

Geez. Is there a way to contact him directly? Craigslist someone to stand by the mailbox and yell at him? :P

[Helaman]

Yeah Auspost sucks the sweat off a dead dingo's donger.

[Raynulf]

Helaman wrote:

Yeah Auspost sucks the sweat off a dead dingo's donger.

Harsh... but sadly fair.

The last townhouse we lived in was down the bottom of a steep driveway (went down about a storey), and the Auspost guy periodically threw packages at our door from the top of the drive, if he couldn't crush them into the mailbox.

Having boxes of metal mini's and hardcover books hurled into the screen door (or general vicinity) doesn't do good things for anything.

Our complaints were usually met with "Oh. We don't really have a dedicated driver or anything for that area, but we'll let them know not to do it again." and similarly dismissive responses.

[Diminuendo]

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

Geez. Is there a way to contact him directly? Craigslist someone to stand by the mailbox and yell at him? :P

I tempted to set up a webcam facing my letterbox.

[sanwah68]

Not what you want to hear, but getting a PO Box could fix it.

[John Kretzer]

Could you get a bigger mail box?

I know you should not have to....but just a way to solve it without driving yourself to commit murder.

[Kobold Catgirl]

As an American with little understanding of Australia or its mail service, my advice is to purchase an attack dingo.

[Diminuendo]

I'm renting, so I can't replace the mail box.

Paying for a PO Box would be very expensive reguarding my eixsting postal arrangement costs $0 to recieve mail. If I'm spending that much to fix the issue I might as well go pure PDF for my Paizo Stuff.

[The Purity of Violence]

As a Sydneysider I used to get similarly crap service from Australia Post, with several subscriptions left out in the rain. One time the package was jammed in the letterbox so the water could actually pool on top and really soak through everything.

What I found worked was going to my local Australia Post shop with the ruined packaging, the ruined book(s) and an invoice. Bit hard to argue when confronted with the evidence in the flesh. Got a full refund every time (though this was probably about 5 years ago). After about three big payouts noticed the postie was making more of an effort.

Got a letter from Australia Post 'recommending' I get a bigger letter box, which I did... but the standard A4 slotted 'larger' boxes have a slot just a few mm too narrow for the standard Paizo packaging. Doesn't affect most single book but AP #100 suffered some minor damage.

[shadram]

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

As an American with little understanding of Australia or its mail service, my advice is to purchase an attack dingo.

As a Kiwi with a rather selective understanding of Australia, I believe that is exactly how it works.

[Auke Teeninga]

Any nearby friends/family with a bigger mailbox?

[Cole Deschain]

I was able to get packages delivered safely and without undue torsion in a rural Alaska village of 150 people with zero access to the road system.

Therefor, the breathtaking incompetence and indifference described here is utterly mind-boggling to me.

I suggest lying in wait with a baseball bat and some pointed instructions.

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

Have you tried taking to Social Media?

Try tweeting your complaints to @Auspost on twitter, and/or Facebook.

Most complaints nowadays get ignored unless they come with social media repercussions, (what a nightmarish dystopia we live in).

I've never had any issues with Australia Post, usually packages are left at my doorstep, but I've heard plenty of horror stories.

[Scythia]

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

As an American with little understanding of Australia or its mail service, my advice is to purchase an attack dingo.

Nah mate, attack spiders. Dingo're just the distraction. Ask anyone who lives beyond the black stump, it's the spiders you watch for.

[ShadowFighter88]

Scythia wrote:

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

As an American with little understanding of Australia or its mail service, my advice is to purchase an attack dingo.

Nah mate, attack spiders. Dingo're just the distraction. Ask anyone who lives beyond the black stump, it's the spiders you watch for.

There was also that bloke who tried to train drop-bears for it. Poor bastard; nobody deserves a fate that gruesome.

[Diminuendo]

The Purity of Violence wrote:

As a Sydneysider I used to get similarly crap service from Australia Post, with several subscriptions left out in the rain. One time the package was jammed in the letterbox so the water could actually pool on top and really soak through everything.

What I found worked was going to my local Australia Post shop with the ruined packaging, the ruined book(s) and an invoice. Bit hard to argue when confronted with the evidence in the flesh. Got a full refund every time (though this was probably about 5 years ago). After about three big payouts noticed the postie was making more of an effort.

Did this, told me ther wasn't anything they could do. useless.

DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:

Have you tried taking to Social Media?

Try tweeting your complaints to @Auspost on twitter, and/or Facebook.

Most complaints nowadays get ignored unless they come with social media repercussions, (what a nightmarish dystopia we live in).

I planned on trying this before I saw the sea of complaints already on there page.

[Matt Goodall]

I've lost track of the dinged corners on RPG supplements I've had mailed by AusPost.

All I can say to any RPG company: pack anything you are sending to Australia assuming that someone is going to throw the package across a room as hard as they can onto a concrete surface at some point.

Please bubble wrap, put in foam thingies, and use those cardboard corner protectors as much as possible.
Thanks.

[The Purity of Violence]

If Australia Post won't acknowledge a problem, go to the Postal Industry Ombudsman. Don't let the bastards win.

[Diminuendo]

The Purity of Violence wrote:

If Australia Post won't acknowledge a problem, go to the Postal Industry Ombudsman. Don't let the bastards win.

THANK YOU! I'll look into it tomorrow.

[Alleran]

Helaman wrote:

Yeah Auspost sucks the sweat off a dead dingo's donger.

Said dingo probably ate a baby beforehand.

[Rednal]

If possible, try to get some pics. Being able to say "Here's the untouched package bent in the mailbox, here's the tag on it obviously saying 'Do Not Bend', here's the opened package with obvious damage, here's ALL THE OTHER damaged products..." should help your case.

[John Kretzer]

Diminuendo wrote:

I'm renting, so I can't replace the mail box.

Paying for a PO Box would be very expensive reguarding my eixsting postal arrangement costs $0 to recieve mail. If I'm spending that much to fix the issue I might as well go pure PDF for my Paizo Stuff.

Talk to your landlord. He might be reasonable with why you need one....or worst case scenario...accidentally on purpose break your mailbox...

Also if the Australia post office is government control you could complain to your local politicians.

[GM_Beernorg]

As a bibliophile that damage to your AP books hurts my feelings all the way in the US. Seriously, If it were me, I would wait outside for the postman and make him hand me the package. (alas, let me guess, post always arrives while you are at work, because, of course it has to)

Wait, could you have your books delivered to your FLGS? Maybe offer them a little incentive to hold your stuff for you, I would think as they are open when the postman delivers, maybe that will work out better?

This reminds me of when I ordered a very old and hard to find novel, and Fedex delivered it where you ask, to my gorram garbage can, yeah, great thinking there, good thing I looked in there and found it before garbage day.

[GM_Beernorg]

I rather likes John suggestion, hey, mailbox accident happen all the time. My parents mail box used to be killed every year by the snowplow hitting it, no matter how far from the road they placed it. While I assume your area of Australia does not have snow, I dunno, cover the evil mailbox in meat and hope dingo's destroy it??

(annoyingly I had to help dad put it back up every year too, with increasing mail box armor added and more quick-crete poured)

[GeraintElberion]

Wow, that's horrible.

Suddenly, I feel more positive about Royal Mail.

So, um, yeah... maybe try moving to the UK?

.
..
...

I am really bad at advice.

[Fergie]

Take it to your local member of parliament, and all the way up to the prime minister!

Sorry, that episode, the Crocodile Dundee movies, and Mad Max movies make up all I know about Australia...

[GM_Beernorg]

I tend to go with "Australia, Natures End Boss" and "The land where literally everything is poisonous, including the male duck-billed platypuses." :)

["Crocodile" Mika Dundee]

Would filling your mailbox full of large black rubber spiders so they pour out possibly scare your mail carrier into "retiring"?

[Matt Goodall]

Just received my latest Paizo package via Aus Post. It was one of the standard 'golem' cardboard boxes, with foam thingies inside, then contained inside that was one of the white Paizo card stock envelopes and in that was my latest Player Companion.

The box had still been thrown/dropped hard enough that the Player Companion had a ding in one corner. >:-/

I picked this up from the Post Office so it's likely that this was done before it got to the local postie, meaning this is probably a widespread problem.

I'm going to beg a favor from the Paizo warehouse folks, can we Australians please have the cardboard corner protectors on the corners of white envelopes when they are inside bigger boxes. It's about the only way I'm ever going to get a product without corner dings.

Thanks.

[Diminuendo]

I really hope this is the year AusPost goes bankrupt, so we can get private postal services in

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

Diminuendo wrote:

I really hope this is the year AusPost goes bankrupt, so we can get private postal services in

No thank you!

[Shifty]

You have the best Postie ever mate!

Mine is too lazy to do their job and simply drops a slip in the box that says 'Sorry we missed you' and then bugger off and I have to go to the local Post Office during their stupid business hours - which happen to be late opening and early closing, I even caught the bloke at the mailbox one day as I KNEW a package was coming and I was waiting.

Bunch of Muppets.

[Nohwear]

I find it sad how often reasonable attempts, such as what you have tried, are often ignored, and that only extreme measures are taken seriously. Thus it seems, that you must either try and sue their pants off, or use social media to unleash hell.

[GM_Beernorg]

I feel like I should move to Australia and open a private post company, sounds like I would be a rich man if I just, you know, delivered things on time without destroying them.

I am going to talk to the wife about this, plus, I have always wanted to see Australia anyway, and I really like deserts. Wonder how hard it is to use Kickstarter to open a Fedex style business down under, this requires consideration.

[Terquem]

What makes me angry is how stupidly I fall for the promises of the US postal service every time I ship something to my daughter in Melbourne. I let myself get suckered into paying the extra $20 to get it delivered a couple of weeks faster than the "normal time," only to have the packages show up five weeks later because Aussie Customs just sat on the package for as long as they possibly could.

[Rednal]

Alternate Strategy: Start shipping things to your daughter five weeks earlier?

[Terquem]

*pffft* be prepared, bah, that's asking way too much of me.

[Rosita the Riveter]

Diminuendo wrote:

I really hope this is the year AusPost goes bankrupt, so we can get private postal services in

Might not help. I have more problems with Fedex and UPS than I do with the Post Office.

[Gallo]

Diminuendo wrote:

I really hope this is the year AusPost goes bankrupt, so we can get private postal services in

I run an online toy and game store. If you think Australia Post are bad, try dealing with some of the private courier companies. AP has its issues but they are generally the best of a bad bunch.

The main problem I find is with the delivery of parcels I send out. Nowadays most of the parcel delivery drivers are contractors who get paid per delivery - an item that they card for collection at a post office does not count. If a delivery address is out of their way they often don't even bother to try to deliver it or don't spend the few seconds it takes to write a "sorry we missed you card".

My advice:

- have items addressed to your work address (admittedly not always an option) or someone you know will be home.

- if an item arrives damaged take a photo of it in the letter box, or better still video the process of getting it from your letter box all the way through opening it.

- take the item and video to an Australia Post shop (not a AP sales agent like many local post offices are nowadays) and kick up a stink (in a polite but firm way).

- use the Ombudsman as suggested above

- ringing AP over the phone is a process guaranteed to drive you mad. It seems they have internal rules that dictate you must be transferred to at least three different areas whenever you call. I push over $50k of business to them each year and I still get a runaround whenever I have an issue.

If you purchase using Paypal (unfortunately not an option with Paizo), immediately raise a dispute with Paypal and email the sender for a replacement. Include lots of photos to both parties. Paypal invariably refund your money and it is up to the seller to provide it was sent properly.

[Shifty]

Gallo wrote:

- have items addressed to your work address (admittedly not always an option) or someone you know will be home.

.

That's the route I went - get it delivered to an alternate address where I know the reception desk is always staffed.

Toll is not that flash, and DHL can get special too.

[BigNorseWolf]

Helaman wrote:

Yeah Auspost sucks the sweat off a dead dingo's donger.

Leave them some water so they're not QUITE so thirsty?

[Helaman]

Its desert mate - can't be giving away water now.

We do that and we'll need to dust off the Stillsuits.

[ShadowFighter88]

Gallo wrote:

If you think Australia Post are bad, try dealing with some of the private courier companies.

I've seen some hints of this at work. I work at a medical supply shop (mostly stuff for either first-aid kits or treatment of surgical or chronic wounds) and we use this lot called Fastway Couriers to send stuff around town and down to Brisbane pretty regularly.

One incident we had was when we were sending a parcel to a business in Brisbane, Endodontics Queensland. Now I can say with absolute certainty* that the address on the parcel was for them. But it ended up being delivered to another company in Brisbane we send stuff to regularly called Endodontics Group who are in a totally different suburb of Brisbane and a completely different business. Trick is; the address on the box when we send stuff to them is using another name for them "Watkins Dental Services" - same business, I think one name is just who the invoices go to and the other is the lot actually using the stuff we send them.

The boss called Fastway and explained it, but the driver swears up-and-down that he delivered it to the address on the box and the company was suggesting the mistake was on our end, which I am certain is not the case. It's just been the one incident and I couldn't say if the driver just read part of the address and assumed it was the other business and not realise that he made a mistake or is bluntly lying to cover his own ass, but it's an example of how the private companies aren't necessarily better than the Post.

*I know it was the right address because the address on the box is the same one on the invoice. The one on the invoice is generated by our software when we select the account the invoice is going on (which you have to do before adding any items to the invoice). It also prints two copies of the invoice - one we send to the customer in a clear wallet on the outside of the box, doubling as the delivery address, while the other is filed away for our own records. When I found out about it being delivered to the wrong address, I did assume that I'd put it on the wrong account at first and checked both the system and our copy of the invoice. Both were for the right account with the right delivery address. The only way that the one on the box could be the address for Endodontic Group and not Endodontic Queensland would be if the computer suffered a very specific bug that printed the wrong address only on the customer copy of the invoice, a bug that has never happened before or since.

Now what sounds more likely; a one-time, incredibly specific computer bug, or a driver mis-reading the address?