A series of complaints from Facebook pages has sparked debate over Australia Post’s delivery reliability. In the Cove decided to investigate the situation in the Lane Cove local government area.
The postal service has come under fire after a Facebook group, dedicated to complaints against the company, went viral with customers’ negative experiences.
The complaints range from a series of uncompleted delivery scenarios, with one customer in the group claiming that out of “57 express packages” sent this week, “only 6 were delivered.”
Another expressed their frustrations, writing that they received a text saying their delivery was unable to be completed due to an “unrestrained dog” despite there being “no dogs in the yard.”
Numerous Lane Cove residents also had their say concerning their local posties, with most responses going against the broader community grain.
This hyperlocal response was echoed by representatives from Australia Post, who told In The Cove that the sudden rise in infamy against their service does not reflect their data.
“Last financial year, the number of complaints that the call centre received on delivery was actually less than the year before,” an AusPost representative explained.
“The notable thing with that is, there’s an increased volume of people that are buying things online and getting them delivered, and having less complaints, it’s a good sign for us.”
Australia Post further mentioned they have 20,000 team members delivering 10 million parcels on average every week across all areas nationally and are just one of many courier delivery services.
In The Cove has received numerous complaints from readers over the years regarding courier deliveries from Australia Post.
We took to our own Lane Cove Chat by ITC Facebook group – dedicated to the community to have their say – and found primarily positive feedback towards residents’ local posties.
Lane Cove Has Their Say on Local Posties
“Only good experiences here..the posties deliver items to our doorstep and ring the bell,” a reader commented.
“No problems here!” Another added, “Very cheerful postie who always says hi. Plus their app is great and seems to now be providing a realistic time period for delivery too!”
Some referenced their beloved posties by name; one member shared “Our Aust Post driver Chris is awesome, and to be fair, all others have been fine so far as well.”
As admired are Lane Cove motorbike posties by locals, less be the couriers delivering parcels, it seems.
“AusPost for us are incredible. Our Postie, Neo, is brilliant… Couriers Please though!! They do not even attempt delivery then take my parcels miles away for me to collect.”
Much negative feedback centred around the local area was expressed towards courier services.
One Lane Cove resident with a disability retold their dilemma of deliveries being transported straight to the “Post Office instead of buzzing my unit.”
“I’m in a wheelchair so having to go to the PO to get a large parcel is very annoying.”
A woman shared her concern for her 92-year-old grandmother who never received “a heavy medical package ordered,” only to discover it had been at the post office for a week.
“No card left. She doesn’t have internet for tracking… I had to get it for her. Lazy delivery man and slack for not leaving a card.”
Not all courier deliveries are owned by Australia Post, with the high influx of parcels outgoing daily, many couriers are outsourced.
AusPost told In The Cove these business partners are investigated and dealt with internally as any employee would be and that residents should report any complaints about the service.
“If they’re delivering Australia Post products, they were obviously under the conditions and stipulations of delivery,” the representative said.
“A customer’s best bet is just to call their contact centre and flag it, and then we just get to the bottom of it, regardless of whether it’s an Australian Post official, Australia Post employee, or if it’s an external contractor.”
Australia Post’s protocol for parcel deliveries requires the courier to knock three times and wait 30 seconds when delivering to households, no answer means the parcel will be delivered to the nearest Post Office.
There are also protocols which customers can follow to ensure they receive their package promptly while also creating a safe and approachable environment for their local postie.
“It can be pretty simple things like just making sure that if they’ve got gates, they’re not locked. If there’s a dog in the yard, that’s not restrained or on a leash, the chances are that they’re not going to go in there.
“Even just basic things like overhanging branches and stuff can be hazardous… We work with local councils to just flag anything that might be hindering posties’ ability to be able to drop things up people’s properties.”
If you have a complaint about a delivery you can contact Australia Post via their website or phone 13 POST (13 7678).
On a personal note ITC loves their postie and during COVID our postie loved the free books we had out for locals – he is a John Grisham fan. Our new postie we got to know when we were getting numerous toy deliveries for The Lane Cove Toy Library and he was wonderful and ITC would always asked him if he would like a glass of water.
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