How Long to Wait for Auspost Article before Requesting a Refund

ronafios on 11/11/2021 - 07:28
Last edited 11/11/2021 - 07:29

I ordered some Airpods from a Melbourne company on 29 September. They still haven't arrived and the tracking hasn't been updated since 3 November. It seems to have pingponged from Melbourne to Sydney and back (I'm in Canberra).

I've requested a refund from the vendor, but they say to wait for Auspost to investigate. That could be weeks.

I'm tempted to initiate a chargeback. What have others done after a delay of 5 or 6 weeks for a domestic parcel? Even factoring in COVID-19 difficulties, that's a long wait (42 days so far).

Customer enquiry lodged
Thu 4 Nov, 5.42am

Delayed – waiting to be sorted at facility
Wed 3 Nov, 3.44pm

In transit to next facility in SUNSHINE WEST VIC
Wed 27 Oct, 1.39pm

Item processed at facility
SYDNEY NSW
Wed 27 Oct, 1.35pm

In transit to next facility in MELBOURNE SOUTH EAST VIC
Wed 27 Oct, 6.51am

Item processed at facility
SYDNEY WEST NSW
Wed 27 Oct, 6.38am

In transit to next facility in SYDNEY NSW
Mon 25 Oct, 2.14am

Item processed at facility
MELBOURNE SOUTH EAST VIC
Mon 25 Oct, 12.48am

Delayed – waiting to be processed for delivery
Sat 23 Oct, 12.00pm

In transit to next facility in SUNSHINE WEST VIC
Thu 14 Oct, 11.32pm

Item processed at facility
MELBOURNE SOUTH EAST VIC
Thu 14 Oct, 11.21pm

Received and ready for processing
Thu 30 Sep, 1.05pm

Shipping information approved by Australia Post
Thu 30 Sep, 11.04am

Shipping information received by Australia Post
Thu 30 Sep, 10.34am

General Discussion

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Comments

  • oscargamer on 11/11/2021 - 07:33
    -1

    They aren't coming.

    Request refund.

  • try2bhelpful on 11/11/2021 - 07:46
    +4

    Australia Post does seem to have dropped the ball on this one. Recently, I had a parcel that sat in one spot and didn’t get updated for a week; then it showed as delivered to the local post office, I wanted to pick it up from, with no further updates in between. I would give the vendor a deadline for when you want the investigation to be completed and ask them to chase AusPost, again, for an update.

    The question, also, comes down to what will you do if it does meander to your house. Will you ship the parcel back to the vendor? Several years ago I had an overseas parcel, that appeared to be lost, so I asked the vendor to reverse the charge on the basis I would repay if the items finally turned up. Sure enough about a month later they turned up so I recontacted the vendor and repaid the amount. The vendor was happy I’d been honest.

    • ronafios on 11/11/2021 - 08:28
      +2

      I've sent this today, "Thank you for your reply. There has been no tracking update since 3 November. The article was ordered 29 September. I’m requesting a refund. Can you please initiate a refund by 18 November. If I haven’t received a refund and there’s been no tracking update by then, I will initiate a credit card chargeback. If the item does eventually arrive I will return to sender and provide tracking."

      • try2bhelpful on 11/11/2021 - 08:52
        +1

        Yup, that looks good. You’ve given them time for Auspost to do the right thing, you are giving them fair warning about what you want and your intentions from there.

      • try2bhelpful on 11/11/2021 - 10:57
        +1

        Could you please provide an update when this is sorted. Thanks. I got, very, frustrated with my last parcel. By the time it was delivered the shops had reopened. I much prefer click and collect to waiting for stuff to be delivered to me.

  • mskeggs on 11/11/2021 - 07:50
    +1

    I give stuff a month usually, after the tracking stops being updated.
    Your parcel isn’t lost, it is just being misdirected. I bet when you receive it there will be an address anomaly or something that is causing the sorters to misread the sender address for the destination or similar so it has been sent on a wild goose chase.

    I reckon it will get there when the investigation finds it and slaps a big sticker on it and sends it off toward Canberra. Annoying, but sometimes things stuff up.

    • try2bhelpful on 11/11/2021 - 08:10
      +1

      The other problem is, with Covid outbreaks, they are, sometimes, shipping these things interstate to be sorted. Christmas is going to be “fun”. Hopefully, we are getting to where outbreaks will be less disruptive due to “you know what”. I don’t want to trigger the usual suspects.

  • Pelicannn on 11/11/2021 - 08:43
    +1

    I've ordered two things from the USA, They left the USA on 5 Oct and 19 Sep respectively, and both never made it to Australia according to the tracking. One said it was with Australia Post which Australia Post said it definitely wasn't, the other never had further tracking from "left USA for destination country". I contacted them about it and they believe both parcels were lost. I have never lost a parcel in 15 years so to lose two in consecutive orders seems really rare to me. I think they are struggling to keep up with the amount of parcels.

    Both items have now been refunded through shipping insurance though if they turn up i'll just contact the companies and pay for it given they were both very helpful in organising refunds

  • jjjaar on 11/11/2021 - 08:58
    +2

    AusPost has been ridiculously slow lately. I’ve had parcels take 6-8 weeks from about 5km away. Or even longer for interstate. There’s barely any updates on mine as well. But all items have eventually arrived.

    I understand the businesses view that they can’t really do anything until auspost investigates. They also have no control over what auspost do or don’t update. Auspost are also awful in that they won’t investigate until they want to (like a week after it’s officially considered “delayed” which for some items is about 8 weeks after posting).

    This is not the businesses fault and they shouldn’t be punished for auspost failures right now.

    From the businesses perspective they’ve posted the item and now you’re going to get a refund and then in a few weeks the item too, and they’ve lost. They won’t be able to claim from auspost if it is delivered.

    And as above, when it does arrive, will you ship it back? Will you pay them for it again?

    • mskeggs on 11/11/2021 - 09:19

      To be fair, the parcels that have just never turned up for me have been with private couriers.
      There is a mountain of delayed and misdirected parcels at every logistics company. Eventually they will probably turn up.

  • freefall101 on 11/11/2021 - 09:48
    +2

    6 weeks doesn't seem like much at the moment (even normal packages that arrive without issue take 4-5), last one I had that I started a refund process the box had ripped open and needed to be packaged up again so it took over 2 months. Looks like they've started sending it back to the sender somehow though or been scanned in incorrectly. Could have broken or something like that.

    IMO I wouldn't start a chargeback yet because the sender can show evidence to your bank that it's still in transit. Not sure you'd win that one.

  • Muzeeb on 11/11/2021 - 09:49
    +2

    I can guarantee it will turn up.

    Be patient grasshopper.

    Australia Post delivery times and tracking is absolutely f$#@%d at the moment.

    I don't know why they have started an advertising campaign (with the singing letterboxes) to encourage more business when they are already fubar'd.

    • pharkurnell on 11/11/2021 - 10:14
      +1

      Aus Post need to update their tracking system from the current 1980's useless model that worked when they only had 1000 parcels a day

  • bongom on 11/11/2021 - 11:29

    I now have orders delivered to a parcel locker but it has made no difference to the delivery time. If the parcel never makes it to the parcel locker then I'd expect the refund process to be successful since they can't claim that it was delivered?

    • try2bhelpful on 11/11/2021 - 13:28

      That is my thinking with the parcel locker as well.

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