Auspost - Postie Left Passport (Express Post, Signature Required) in The Letter Box

Lvavs on 16/10/2015 - 00:38
Last edited 16/10/2015 - 11:24

Hi all,
As in the title… my wife applied for renewal of passport a few weeks back. On Tuesday, she got an sms that it was despatched and would be delivered on Wednesday. She cancelled her plans and stayed home. Nothing happened. We decided to wait one more day before enquiring. Cancelled plans for thursday, stayed home. Nothing till evening, so I checked the letter box, just in case, and there it was - an express post, signature required, with both her old and new passports.

We were relieved that we had got it, but I was quite upset that it was just left there - we are not australian citizens, the situation would have been pretty messed up if it had got lost.

Over time, we have been conditioned to accept mishaps in the postal service, but I expected a bit more care when the envelope/cover had a sticker saying it contained passports. Perhaps I should not have.

Thanks for the response.

This is a picture of the cover
http://i.imgur.com/NLCiiJp.jpg

Poll Options

  • 73
    Report to Auspost
  • 1
    Report to Sender
  • 3
    Confront postman
  • 2
    Try to develop a rapport with postman (hopefully he will take more care next time)
  • 8
    Let inner peace deal with it
  • 1
    Other (Explanation in the comments section please)
General Discussion

Related Stores

Australia Post
Australia Post

Comments

  • iridiumstem on 16/10/2015 - 00:45
    +2

    Report it to the Auspost, probably it was the postman not realising how important the package was.
    Passport is one of the few, if not only, document that proves who you are if you are staying overseas and it's very important as a result; Passport going missing can create serious problems, it's worse than people losing drivers' license because we are foreigners basically. Usually it costs a lot to replace and causes more headaches as well.

    If you are seriously seriously concerned and believe that this is a serious problem, report it to embassy as well. They will lodge in a formal complaint to the government or Auspost if this kind of thing happens a lot. From what I've heard from my country's embassy, they keep record of these complaints and try to rectify problems if the problems are severe and common. I'd assume that is the case for many embassies? Though I think reporting it to the Auspost would probably do enough as is.

    • vavs on 16/10/2015 - 01:12

      Thanks, OS, you have set me thinking - what are we trying to achieve by my action - is it preventing similar occurrences with my postie (a bit selfish goal - served by options 1,3,4)? or is it an attempt to contribute to reforming the system (altruism - served by 1,2). Perhaps I should do both.

      • iridiumstem on 16/10/2015 - 02:12

        Frankly speaking, I don't see a harm in just reporting it to the embassy, not to make drastically make the situation larger, but to make sure that the embassy knows about what's happening with the passport. They are there to help their people staying in Australia, it's their job. I'd probably lodge in a complaint to Auspost and talk to embassy about what happened (not to complain, but to inform).

    • MATTDAMON on 16/10/2015 - 03:48

      Oh he would of knew, passport 'letters' are very very recongisable, and they handle quite a few (at one point we were pulling 3-4 ULD's worth out of the sydney office a day)

      Normally they would just card it, but yeah he must of been feeling lazy or did not understand that the passport offices express post required a signature (which is easy to do given most express post items are not signature on delivery and can be safe dropped)

      Just report it and move on, the postie will be notified and that will be the end of it.

      OP was an express post satchel by any chance? or eparcel with express post on it?

  • scrimshaw on 16/10/2015 - 01:00

    You can only report it to Austpost. Sadly, Australia post is wholly owned government business enterprise, have pretty much a monopoly in postal services and as such they give zero f's about their customers — they can't really lose any business when they're the only players in the game.

    You can see their amazing feedback here.

    http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2014/07/ask-lh-how-can-i-make-s…

    • iridiumstem on 16/10/2015 - 02:14

      Be fair, I wouldn't be leaving a review there unless I had a shitty experience or an amazing experience that I want to share with everyone.

      That said, yeah, pretty much, monopoly at its finest. :P

  • vavs on 16/10/2015 - 01:19

    1.9/5! Goodness, I didnt know it was that bad. Quite sometime back, I made my peace with the fact that there will be occasions when I dont get expected deliveries. But irregularity with deliver of passport - I didnt expect that.

    • vavs on 16/10/2015 - 01:19

      Oops, that was a reply to Scrimshaw above

  • DarkOz on 16/10/2015 - 06:17

    Train up a homeless person and take the postie's job.

  • Geewhizz on 16/10/2015 - 06:54

    As an aside, do you not check your mailbox daily? Although the actions of the postie were quite wrong in dropping a 'must be signed for' item straight into the box, having done so might have saved your wife having to wait around for the extra day.

    • Forfiet on 16/10/2015 - 07:17

      As a ozbargainer I have to check multiple times a day…. not everyone has that much time to waste.

      (P.S I'm not joking I can get stuff from vans and bike posties, add to that couriers and the randomness of delivery.)

    • vavs on 16/10/2015 - 09:09

      I know, and I usually check, it's just that I didn't even think of that possibility in this case.

  • Davo1111 on 16/10/2015 - 07:27

    The first thing they'll do is ask the postie specifically about the situation, mentioning your address.

    Talk to him personally or not at all.

    • vavs on 16/10/2015 - 09:10

      That's my concern - will lodging a complaint or confronting him directly affect future deliveries adversely?

      • Davo1111 on 16/10/2015 - 09:57

        possibly.

  • punter1 on 16/10/2015 - 08:06
    -2

    Get a PO Box, problem is solved

    • vavs on 16/10/2015 - 09:11
      +1

      I don't think the passport office accepts po box address for deliveries.

      • punter1 on 16/10/2015 - 09:49

        Yes, you are right
        My mistake

        • vavs on 16/10/2015 - 12:19

          No probs. :-)

  • ChillBro on 16/10/2015 - 08:12

    Other: engage bikies.

  • Clear on 16/10/2015 - 08:45

    I know of a few posties that will do this when the receiver is not home, because it's a huge hassle trying to get to a post office between 9 and 4 to pick it up when most people have are working during those hours.

    • vavs on 16/10/2015 - 09:14

      Do they do it even if it's something as important as a passport?

      • Clear on 16/10/2015 - 09:21

        It probably didn't happen in this case as they usually do it when someone isn't home. But the question is, how would he have known it was a passport?

        • vavs on 16/10/2015 - 11:27

          It was written on the cover
          http://i.imgur.com/NLCiiJp.jpg

        • Clear on 16/10/2015 - 11:33

          @vavs: I can see how the postie would have missed that. They often just scan the barcode and don't even look at anything else.

          I've had numerous issues where Fastway couriers haven't read the instructions for swap outs and left without picking up the old product.

        • vavs on 16/10/2015 - 12:18
          +1

          @Clear: That would suggest that I let the postie know what has happened (non confrontationally, of course), and give a feedback to the passport office to improve the visibility of importance of contents.

  • Baysew on 16/10/2015 - 09:37

    the situation would have been pretty messed up if it had got lost.

    Don't worry about what might have been.

    Let inner peace deal with it.

    All you can hope for would be a letter of apology, saying that AP didn't meet their high standards on this occasion.

    Maybe the magpies were swooping your postie.

    • vavs on 16/10/2015 - 10:00

      I agree, Baysew, I'm of the firm belief that one can't live life thinking about what might have been. But I also believe giving appropriate feedback in cases of serious/sensitive issues is a responsibility. The question here is - in the Aussie society, is this a serious enough issue? Is it expected of one to leave a feed back?

      • chill on 17/10/2015 - 20:56

        The question here is - in the Aussie society, is this a serious enough issue? Is it expected of one to leave a feed back?

        Are you seeking compensation?

        • vavs on 18/10/2015 - 02:54

          Certainly not. I'm surprised my questions could be taken to imply that. No subtext there, chill!

  • rambutann on 16/10/2015 - 10:07

    Auspost will not give a crap.

  • peteru on 16/10/2015 - 13:22
    +2

    The Australian passport office will not send your passport in express post. They will use registered post with a notice to only deliver to the addressee (no agents), which means a red envelope and an entry in the log book at delivery time. It can be a pain in the butt, because on many occasions that will increase the delivery time and in many cases you will actually need to present in person (with a photo id) at the post office to collect your passport.

    Perhaps the Indian passport issuing authorities take the security of their official documents less seriously, if they chose to use plain old express post. Admittedly Australia Post did not do the right thing here, but that should not come as a surprise to the people sending out the passports. This would not be the first or last time and it should be very easy for the sender to monitor. If they can not obtain a proof of delivery from the post office, then they can not assume that the package can be delivered reliably.

  • Oofy Doofy on 17/10/2015 - 00:43

    This exact thing happened to me just recently…. weird. I didn't think anything of it until now. Hrmm….

    • vavs on 18/10/2015 - 02:56
      +1

      Ah, a fellow traveler!

  • vavs on 22/10/2015 - 22:05
    +1

    Hi all, spoke with the postie today (he wanted signature for an express post delivery!) - he said he could not scan that other parcel because the bar code had been cut, so he left it. And no, he didn't know it contained a passport.

  • xseta on 28/10/2015 - 16:03

    Shirtfront the postman and report it to Auspost.

    • vavs on 31/10/2015 - 10:13

      Done both. :-)

  • lgacb08 on 28/10/2015 - 20:25

    next time, using the register post envelop in your application form, express post envelop has so many add-on and some postie couldn't care reading the fine print. A registered post one will not be treated like this.

  • vavs on 31/10/2015 - 10:13

    That's interesting. Dint know I had that option. Will see if I can use it next time.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join