"Australia Post.......... FAILing" Topic

Sorry if this post comes across as a rant but…….

I ordered some gaming goodies from a manufacturer in the US, and have been waiting patiently for their arrival. USPS tracking (ALWAYS ensure that you can track your stuff!) indicates that, the package was on its way from Fort Wayne, Indiana on the 29th of April, and Arrived at Kingsford Smith cargo handling on the 3rd of May. That amounts to five calendar days. Supposedly, it left Kingsford Smith on the 4th of May "en route to its destination". Today I discovered a further tracking entry that says the package was "processed through a sort facility" and is "on the way to its destination" as of 1307hrs on the 8th of May. Five calendar days (so far!) en route to me, here in Western Sydney, from Kingsford Smith. Drive time from me to K.S. would probably be just over an hour.

Australia Post really has NO EXCUSE for wondering why customers are exploring alternatives.

I have occasionally chosen to use other carriers for goods purchased overseas, but will now be giving more serious consideration to the likes of FEDEX, DHL, and UPS on a more regular basis. Especially, since the cost of other services can be competitive with the USPS equivalents.

It's no good putting the blame for events like this at the feet of the Royal Mail, or the US Postal Service, since I've more than enough indication, through online tracking, that the hold-ups begin on arrival in Sydney.

Across over forty years of ordering from overseas in this country, I know Australia Post has been capable of better service, but they plainly are just not trying now.

Rant Mode Off….

Thanks for reading.

Duck

I hear you mate, had the same thing a couple of times recently. Items that are processed through the sort facility, on way to destination and then "delivered" to my PO box. when I check, they are not there. Express post items that take longer than normal mail and so on.

They used to be really spot on, but now it seems to be slipping. The cynic in me wonders whether it is an artificial attempt to show good service delivery prior to full privatisation.

I know how you feel. Mid 2014 USPS package carefully tracked from Jersey to NY and hence to Sydney. A weeks delay and then returned to NY. Not to be outdone by their Australian counterparts NY then sent it to Atlanta where it vanished. Tracking or not your parcel still does not always arrive. Regards Alan

Since we're piling on. I ordered something from the east coast of the US in mid-2013. Tracked it, reached Sydney in a week, and was being processed… and processed… and processed… somehow this took FOUR WEEKS and just when I had notified the seller that it appeared to have been lost in transit it pops out the other end and into my hand. Vermont to Sydney in a week, and Sydney to Canberra in a month!

There was an item in the media a week or two ago about how Australia Post's new parcel system is sending parcels on bizarre journeys around Oz. Hopefully, just teething problems.

Hi Alan

I had exactly the same experience. It's very frustrating to see your package go back to the US and disappear in Atlanta.

Was going to put in a $200 USD+ order with War & Peace games, then I looked at the postal details on their site, only sent by Oz post, no tracking and it's your responsibility if it goes missing.
Where is there any customer service there?
Maybe it should say…..send us your money, if we have the goods because we might just have put them on our we store without having the physical items yet, we may send them out. But if we don't? We'll just say we sent them on Auspost!

I'm not accusing W&P games of anything, but their website makes me search for alternative overseas suppliers, and then we hit the OP's problems!!!!!!

1st world problems eh? :-)

I've spoken with delivery drivers who flat out say they often don't bother delivering things if it's not convenient that day. ie. not going 5mins out of the way unless they have at least a couple of deliveries. Packages can sit in vans for days for no reason. The bosses at AusPost deny this but that's the reality.

Where we are Auspost delivers three days a week which is an improvement from where I was previously where Auspost would not deliver at all.
None of the other companies will deliver here at all, we are 13km from town alongside a highway.

Don't always assume tracking information is accurate either.

The good news is that packages thought lost can be delivered 5, 10, 15 or more years later. For some of us it wouldn't matter as our projects can easily take that long…or longer!

I have no experience with commercial shipping, but from Christmas gift exchanges with our Australian friends I noticed that packages just sit in processing forever before the friends finally receive the package. At least for the other direction, American customs agents engage in a rapid orgy of destruction, sampling all of the food and trying on all of the clothes before quickly sending out the package to the US Post office for delivery to us.

Nothing delivered today, now five complete working days since the package supposedly left Kingsford-Smith. Just thirty-odd kilometers……

Duck

I stand staunchly behind the USPS. Never had anything but impeccable quality of service.
Is AUS Post going through some kind of re-organization?
Secondly, I'll add that full privatization will be disastrous, IMHO. The worst carrier service I've had came from using the commercial carriers(UPS and FED EX).
I've never had a problem with US Customs agents sampling any food goods or touching anything else. And I've ordered goods from Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Poland, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, and UK…. Just saying…
-Edgar

@Duckancover- is there any other recourse you can take? Does AUS Post have any sort of insurance available?

I have been lucky by the sounds of things. I order stuff from all over the world and it always arrives in a timely fashion. Maybe a problem on the east coast only?

I use Australia Post a lot, and have problems with less than 1% of the parcels I send or receive.
Given that we now have tracking on everything, a call to Australia Post should help expedite things. I was very impressed by the service I received last time I chased a missing parcel.

Nic EUREKA MINIATURES

Well, the eagerly awaited package arrived this morning (safe and sound), seven working days after being dispatched from the receiving center at Kingsford-Smith. It spent five days getting from there (as I've said, a travel time of just over an hour), and two days getting from the satellite distribution facility (about twenty five minutes from me).

The total time for that journey amounted to almost twice what it took to get from Fort Wayne to Sydney.

I only know about the timing and locations for these places because, in my more enthusiastic youth, I worked in parcel delivery, in Sydney for a period of about six years. I had occasion to visit both locations more than once, and was well acquainted with the getting quickly to and from them.

I never had any doubts that the package would actually get here…. just the timing. Of course, things may change here……. Australia Post is, very recently, making noises about changes to services and costs, and rumors of ultimate privatization of some or all of its services still circulate.

I too remember that time, not that long ago, when you went and got the Postal Money Order or Bank Draft, and sent your hand-written order off to the seller, allowing that it would take about two weeks to get (where ever) there. Then, in good faith, you really didn't expect to see your goodies for at least another fortnight. So, a turnaround of a month was, in the day, deemed perfectly normal and acceptable ( I'm aware the mileages did vary enormously with this.) And actually calling the seller overseas with your credit card number (whilst novel, at the time, when they would accept it) really didn't contribute much towards a faster turnaround.

I've posted on the forums, more than once, that we've become a little spoiled in our expectations, in our current PayPay/eBay/Internet/Information Age.

I know that, 'round the world, we all have stories of our local postal systems, the wormhole-like fast arrivals, and the epic fails in speed and safe handling. We also tend to focus mainly on the positive aspects of those services in the respective nations of our fellow members often forgetting that they too, have their horror stories.

I too, have had nothing but good service from place like Spain, The United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Poland Ukraine, Portugal, and Russia (but,YMMV with these too).

This was just one sniffle story of many, that ultimately had a successful conclusion.

And I just needed to vent.

I thank you for your interest and patience.

Duck

Like others here, I generally don't doubt that the stuff will arrive, and I order a lot from overseas and from all over. I'm well used to variations and anomalies, but you do wonder why, when stuff gets around the world in a week or ten days you then spend a month waiting for something else from the self-same area of the world.

Don't get me started on the Melbourne to Sydney thing…..

Duck

Glad you got your toys, DuckandCover. 👍🏾
I agree we are generally spoiled, but that is just reflective of the advanced in technology and processing we have today.
At least we can be greatful that we can communicate and track most items being shipped these days.