Auspost: Sorry We Missed You Card When We Were at Home

Auspost delivery driver dropped the card without even knocking on the door. he just slipped it in the mailbox and left. I have him on camera.
I contacted auspost on twitter complaining but how can we stop this from happening?
I paid for home delivery and not parcel pickup.

edit 02/01/2018:
thank you all for your comment. I wanted to get the message out there so maybe auspost will care about having a good feedback channel and improve the service.
I ended up pick the item from the post office. this item was bulky and hence I wanted it delivered. I always have other carriers deliver to my door, austpost is the exception.
Here is the link for the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m73I1IeBuy8&feature=youtu.be

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Comments

      • lol. Nothing like zero transparency to build trust and confidence.

        • +1

          Haha yep, my brother would love to comment and explain the processes but unfortunately that leaves him open to a lawsuit or unemployment. Shame the bad eggs really ruin the overall image..

    • What do you want to know?

  • I hate Australia Post so much. Had this happen to me all the time when I lived in houses. Luckily in an apartment building they can't get away with it as we have a 24/7 concierge who collects parcels.

    But my issues have not ended. Now I deal wth an (profanity) postie who continually delivers my regular mail to the same numbered apartment in a building down the road and he gives me their mail in return. Both me and the other apartment have made numerous complaints to Australia Post and nothing gets done. I actually caught him in person when he delivered for a second time to me mail that belonged to the other apartment! It had my writing on the front saying "please deliver to correct address". Went up to him and asked him nicely to deliver it to the correct address. When I walked off he put it back in my box! Could not believe his nerve.

  • I had this happen with Toll two out of two times.

    Heard from newsagent where I arranged for item to be dropped off so I can pick up that ALL logistics drivers do the same.

    For AusP I get it since you no home then it's straight collect from PO.

    But for Toll or fastway or similar, you can arrange a redelivery,. Wouldn't that double their workload???

    Or they are betting on you will arrange a pick up from a newsagent ?

    Wonder if they make extra buck for doing a second attempt delivery.

    But again, I agree it is truly annoying.

    Missing delivery while at home.

  • This keeps happening again and again and I think it’s not because drivers don’t want to deliver it and likely other pressures on them - the root cause is likely either a requirement to deliver X parcels per hour/day as a contract condition or some bad performance metric which gets reported to these supervisors - like number of parcels delivered per day (not taking in account or distance or allowing sufficient time to deliver properly). If this is the case - I cannot blame them and we have the tackle the root cause not the symptom.

    Can any delivery driver confirm this is the root cause?

  • Had this a few times at my old address. House on a street with a fence with a buzzer next to the mail box. He never pressed the buzzer. It took 3 web complaints and an angry phone call before he finally started doing his job.

    I have always wondered if you could get reimbursed for your wasted time picking up parcels that should have been delivered.

    1. Set up a video camera and record every time he leaves a card and doesn't knock
    2. Bill them $x/hour + travel costs to pick up the parcel.
    3. Send an invoice to head office.
    4. After a few times if they dont pay, take them to small claims court.

    Its bloody ridiculous that they aren't doing what they are paid to do. It takes me 30 minutes + ~10km of fuel/car costs to drive to the post office and pick up something they should have delivered.

  • +1

    You have to realise that the business model AusPost now employs is to outsource as much of the delivery operations as possible.

    A parcel is classified as ‘delivered’ by a subcontractor when a card is placed in your box/through the door. As subcontractors are paid on the number of parcels they deliver most don’t even bother delivering the items and just give you the card. I have seen one subcontractor at my apartment block just stand at the mail boxes and place all the cards through the boxes and not even bother attempting to deliver the parcels. It’s an absolute disgrace.

    In the long run this practice will cost AusPost more as they will have to store undelivered packages longer, open longer hours and employ more staff to actually hand over parcels to people who have to collect them.

  • I think the reason is that Auspost are using contractors for deliveries and they are paid on a per delivery basis. This is why sometimes you may get deliveries on a weekend if the driver works for himself and feels like working that day.

    • paid on a per delivery basis

      or per card basis it seems. I don't count that as a 'delivery'

  • +2

    i'm one of the lucky few. My postie is excellent, cards me when not home for registered mail, and the parcel delivery bloke is brilliant. Always knocks, courteous, or leaves me a card in letterbox if not home.I cant complain with that.

  • +2

    I Searched: 'australia post management salaries'. I got: How much does the CEO of Australia Post earn?
    "In June 2014, Ahmed Fahour was widely criticised for his $4.8 million salary, whilst sacking 900 staff. He was once Australia's highest-paid public servant, receiving a total salary package of $5.6 million (including a $1.2 million bonus) in 2016." If this is up-to-date, feel free to assume about 200 people at the top of AusPost are making huge amounts of money, and hundreds more one level down making heaps too. When this, and what we're writing about here, happened in the US ages ago, 'Fedex' went ballistic. US post was close to shut down and had to be overhauled. Now, US Post picks up letters YOU post at your address, and much more. I'd pay a competitive price for Aus Post to do what they contract to do (say 20% more than now) but I'd like a serious decrease in what management are paid with the savings going to the contractors for, wait for it, actual 'performance'! Oh, and I'd like them to offer services like 'go on-line and ask us to re-deliver'. Maybe one price for 'full service' that includes multi-delivery attempts, or an SMS or phone call, and a much cheaper one for what we all have now? (Except the stuff that gets delivered to the wrong address…far too often!) In a block of 9 units, we get about 30% from AP actually delivered. Rose Bay PO is backed up out the door with 60% of the people there picking up undelivered parcels, and the staff hate this situation nearly as much as we do. BTW, anyone tried to phone their local PO to see if a late parcel etc. is there? There is ONE number for nearly all this stuff, and it never gets you connected to your local PO.

  • +4

    I had my daughters citizenship certificate thrown on the road… one fine morning I had cops knocking the door to hand it over to me.. some good Samaritan handed it over in the local police station … I called Aus post to complain about the same..they were clueless and gave me the standard apology..will check with the delivery drivers manager..blah blah blah.. the tracking still shows that it is in transit.. lol

  • I like you, most of the time our company sends deliveries and the customer contacts us to follow up on the delivery.

    I wish people were more pro active and contacted / blamed the courier service. They really are the ones at fault and in all honesty some drivers out there are shocking.

    We've had parcels just left outside a "For lease" Store with no signature and marked as delivered. I mean the original owners obviously moved…. lol Marked as shipped and package went missing… of course.

  • +1

    I have a good relationship with my postie so they always knock/call to see if I'm home.

  • -1

    So what is OP going to do?
    Demand the driver goes to prison because he has video evidence?

    Auspost is entitled to make certain delivery exclusions for whatever reason and OP's case may be one of them.

    You ask how I know? - An Auspost delivery driver explained it to me.

  • +3

    I was a motorbike postie a few years ago, reason for carding a registered mail or something that requires a signature is the ridiculous time frame Aust post gives their staff to do a round. If you done everthing 100% you would blow your time and have to explain to the team leader. Get a few of those time blowouts and you'll be out on your ear.

    • +3

      But the card is a flat out lie much of the time, and money was paid for a service never attempted. That's theft.

  • I can see how it could be a recurring issue.

    I have thr exact same postie dropping stuff off for me from post office. Pretty nice vietnamese fella, always rings the bell.

    Id imagibe if you have a lazy fella delivering to your area, hed probably do the same thing everytime

  • You got a card? That's lucky! We've had packages returned internationally because they didn't even bother leaving that. We've complained that no card was dropped, and had backdated cards suddenly turn up later.

  • maybe put a sticker on your letter box saying, "this mailbox is under surveillance, for parcel delivery please knock on door first."

  • Happened to me as well.

    So he waits around for a minute and doesnt even get the item out…

  • the postie who does Augusta Crescent Forest Lake did it all the time.

    the postie at my new address is good: will leave small parcels on fence with a rubber band if no signature required.
    I thought a little rude that she toots horn for signature and makes me come out to her, but at least I get my package.

    Australia Post seems like an inefficient system to me, especially now with the communications technology we have. Send me an email to pickup from local centre (or organise for someone to pickup for me). Not these stupid lockers that only some transport companies can use, and can only handle certain sized packages.
    Oh - and make the cost minimal of course.

    • I actually got a text with my last parcel to message back to let the driver know that 'yes I will be home'… Ingenious really. Incredible to believe its taken this long to come up with.

  • "Can any delivery driver confirm this is the root cause?"

    When a parcel is carded and it's from a sender who has a corporate account, AP charges the sender an additional fee for redirecting to the post office - this is as much as $9.

    SO, they are incentivized to do this whenever there is a corporate sender identified for the parcel. It's not just "fee for no service" as it's "fee for unwanted service"

  • +1

    Haha maybe all the taxi drivers now contracted to deliver parcels for Auspost. This should combine with the taxi drivers sue Uber and when the Uberpost rises Auspost is going to sue Uberpost etc.

  • I'm in WA and my postie is a bloody champ. Knocks & hands me my parcels instead of leaving them in letterbox. Has a quick chat sometimes. Top bloke. What state is OP in?

  • +1

    I laugh at their new tv ads with the slogan "because we care"

  • Happens all the time from one of our AusPost drivers, and it's a thing they do according to our regular postie.

    If it's a 'bulk' item they'll don't want to carry it to your door, they just fill out the card with no intention of delivery.

    I've complained at the post office, but nothing happens. Might have to take your route.

  • +3

    Had something similar with a DHL driver last week. Was home waiting for the delivery, saw the driver walk past the front window towards the front door, got up to greet him but he just droped a card on the front mat and started walking away (thought it was somehow logical to make the effort to come to the front door to deliver a card but not the parcel).

    Quickly stepped outside and called to the driver, did a quick glace over his shoulder and kept walking to his van. Did the 100 metre sprint to get to him before he closed the driver door and asked for a WTF. Stammered a bit about how he thought no one was home, told him bluntly if he doesn't want to do his job give it to someone else, but before that give me my parcel.

    • +1

      Similar thing this week with Toll Priority; Genuinely missed the parcel though I opted for the re-delivery offer, as the following days were my time off would rather recuperate catching up on sleep instead of having to go out of my way to pickup from the depot. Filled out the card and attached it to my front door.

      Got up next day to find the card still there. I checked the tracking to find the driver had supposedly attended, and marked the parcel for "Awaiting further instruction." Called Toll and requested another attempt, had to explain to the call centre the card had been attached to my door all night / morning (operator informed me there was a comment from the driver in their back end saying there was no card).

      As an experiment I got up early and waited near the front door whilst keeping an eye on the tracker, same update appeared in the tracking with a no show from the driver. Called Toll again was informed driver had entered the same comment. I informed the operate of my little experiment.

      TL;DR the next day a disgruntled driver turned up my door; received package with nary any verbal communication from him.

  • Remember ding dong dash? Congratulations. AusPost is hiring!

  • This happened to me constantly in the past.

    I think someone else mentioned it here. They bulk fill the “attempted” delivery slips and then “attempt” the delivery. Apparently when this happens they receive a $7 kick back from the depot they drop the parcels to. This is what i’ve heard.

    Don’t waist anymore energy. Get your delivery fee back from the supplier and they’ll get theirs back from Auspost.

    I went to town on the complaints to them, and the contractor got sacked. A new guy took his place and deliveries started happening again.

    • Apparently when this happens they receive a $7 kick back from the depot they drop the parcels to. This is what i’ve heard.

      Where did you hear this from?

  • Happened to me wit pet circle.
    2 big bags of cat food and the guy was too lazy.
    I complained to petcircle and they asked if the driver can go back to redeliver it but they said no.
    They said they can send another item but I said no point, the cost should come from the driver as it’s not pet circles fault and they gave me a voucher
    Very nice of them!

  • Happened to me before, was on a day where i happened to be home and was like WTF?

  • +1

    20 bucks an hour and kpi 50 items/hour to be delivered.what can you expect reasonably.

    • Considering often they send a text to check if you are going to be home for delivery, it generally takes less time to walk to the door and knock than to fill out the damn card.

      • Bro,this is 21st century, there's a thing called program.

  • I see. I am new in Oz and this has happened to me a number of times now. Almost all of my bulky or big parcels never come to me. I spent my own time and money in cab fare today trying to collect my computer chair that apparently was not delivered to me due to some stupid "access issue". I did talk to AuPost about it but now I realize what has happened!

  • I wish I had a choice of delivery method of AusPost, DHL, Toll etc when makings an order.

  • This happened to me last week.
    Postie sat on his bike at the end of my driveway in plain view of my security camera and never made an attempt to go to the front door of my house to see if I was home.
    He spent more time filling in the card and shoving it in my letter box than it would have took to go to my front door.
    Complaints accompanied by video footage will be made.

  • We had the same problem for quite some time when we moved into our house. Even had moments when I was standing within 10m of the mailbox, in full view, patting my barking dogs, and they dropped a card and left, while being called out to.

    I complained relentlessly to the owner of our designated pick up post office.

    The offending person eventually lost the contract, and was replaced. Haven't had a problem since.

  • I had a interesting one last week. I use “Parcel Collect” which is like a parcel locker except that it just gets held at the post office for collection instead (I use this service as the LPO is only 200m from my work). On Wednesday last week I get an email saying my parcel had been “Delivered”. Which is strange as it always says “Ready for collection” and then “Collected” once I pick it up, never “Delivered”.

    I go to the post office and they look it up and it had a signature from someone named Nguyen (My name isn’t Asian or close to that at all) and location “City”. So I go to the GPO which isn’t far and they haven’t seen it and say it was delivered not picked up. Obviously I’m like “to where?” as there is no address on the item other than my Parcel Collect number and the name of the LPO. As per usual the staff in store wash their hands of it and tell you to call Australia Post.

    I lodged a support case that day and then called on Friday, currently they have no idea but I should hear back this coming week. Not expecting to see my parcel at all.

  • My postie doesn't even attempt delivery.i paid $10 extra for express post for rdr2 last week. The tracking said my mail center got it on Thursday, and it was marked as out for delivery on Friday morning, updated as even going through my suburb and never showed up. It didn't turn up till Monday morning. Wasted my money on express shipping and couldn't play the game all weekend.

    • Complain and get a refund on express shipping.

  • I left them a message earlier this year suggesting they do a parcel lockers where I live since our post office got shut down last year (in Brisbane inner suburbs). They rang me and informed me their drivers don't have to deliver up stairs. I mentioned that I have 2 young kids and don't drive and it's no longer easy for me to get to the post office, particularly if it's a bulky item and was told that's my own choice for doing online shopping. So their reply was basically 'if you don't like it, don't use us….'

    The other day a driver actually did come up our stairs only to not knock… He had begun heading down the stairs when I opened our door knowing it was my parcel… Useless.

  • They tend to do this a lot.

    I live in an apartment complex. Got the text "will someone be home?" Respond yes, check and it's verified. Work from home all day, checking tracking, then i refresh at 1.30 and it says "carded at 1.15". They made no attempt to buzz the room, no attempt to contact, nothing. Couldn't collect it from post office until the next day either.

    Another day I was out going for a walk, saw the postwoman arrive. Without hesitation, i saw her take parcels, instantly start writing a card, and drop the card off. For every single parcel without fail. Didn't even make an attempt.

    If they are just going to card you anyway, they might as well just deliver it to the post office and let me pick it up myself during the day. Such a pain in the ass.

  • Yeah especially with bulky items they just drop it off at the LPO.
    Subcontracting and kickbacks….I think it depends on the size and weight as well as the luck of who's assigned to your address.

  • -3

    Guy's imagine doing this job and dismounting 50 times to knock and wait at the door. Better security to just pickup from Post Office.

  • Happens to me regularly. Also, I often get parcels left at the local post office with no attempt at delivery or card left. AusPost couldn’t give a damn. As the saying goes, you pay peanuts, you get monkeys…all our deliveries are subcontractors who get the gig with the lowest tender. Is it any wonder there’s no customer service?

  • Happened to me, again today. Been home the whole day, no attempt to knock or ring bell

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