Complaints are mounting about Australia Post's parcel delivery service and an automatic scanning system that sends parcels thousands of kilometres in the wrong direction, or refuses to recognise home addresses that have been used for decades.
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And a tough approach to under-paid mail has started turning people off letters, with one distressed lady saying she now lumps her beloved postal service "in the same basket as the big banks and electricity companies".
Australia Post introduced a new two-speed delivery service earlier this year that was supposed to save money on overnight processing and transportation.
Australia Post has been relying on revenues from the parcel business as letter volumes decline, with parcels contributing half of the group's $6.3 billion revenues. However, new automated parcel systems installed in late 2014 appear to be wasting resources by sending packages the wrong way or failing to recognise established addresses. And after several bad experiences people, Melbourne cartoonist Oslo Davis said he would rather hand-deliver parcels whenever possible.
"Earlier this year I sent an artwork from Collingwood to South Yarra and it went via western Sydney then Perth then Sunshine [Victoria]. Took thirteen business days. Should have just driven it myself," he told Fairfax Media.
Sydneysider Alexandra Hordern ordered a parcel from South Australia and online tracking service shows it arrived in Chullora, New South Wales on a Thursday, but the next day it went to Sunshine, Victoria, then back to Adelaide. After complaining Miss Hordern was told automatic scanners missed the post code and the parcel could not be manually sorted until it "goes through three times with the post code scanner mis-reading it".
Tracking information showing a parcel travelling from Adelaide to Chullora, NSW, to Sunshine in Melbourne, and then back to Adelaide.
Tracking information showing a parcel travelling from Adelaide to Chullora, NSW, to Sunshine in Melbourne, and then back to Adelaide. Photo: Alexandra Hordern.
And when one woman bought Christmas gifts for her family, they never arrived because Australia Post no longer recognised the address her parents have been using for several decades. The parcel bounced between Queensland and New South Wales before finally being returned to the retailer. When Amy Stockwell complained, Australia Post said the address her parents had been using for 30 years did not exist.
"As discussed, [the address] is actually located in Vernor, not Fernvale, so I would recommend providing this address to senders in future," the response read. Both suburbs share the same postcode and her parents live within five kilometres of Fernvale. They had never used Vernor as an address.
Problems appear to stem from automatic scanners that do not use common sense. For example, another woman told Fairfax Media she sent out 40 invitations for a work function, but all were returned the next day. She suspects sorting machines read the return addresses as the delivery address, a mistake that a human sorting through dozens of envelopes would be unlikely to make.
And Cathy Coote, a communications manager at an environmental non-profit, says expensive air monitoring equipment ordered from the United States was returned to the sender despite her attempts to collect it from the post office. According to the tracking information Australia Post attempted delivery three times, then gave her only one minute to collect the parcel before switching its status from "awaiting collection" to "returning to sender". Ms Coote says the sender would now re-post it using a different courier service.
A spokeswoman for Australia Post said it was investigating this complaint and would like to speak to Ms Coote, who told Fairfax Media she has been unable to speak to anyone Australia Post despite numerous attempts.
Meanwhile Australia Post continues to hit targets of delivering 94 per cent of mail on time, according to the spokeswoman, who also confirmed they received a bump in complaint numbers following the introduction of two-speed mail.
But Australia Post's own belt tightening was now also discouraging letter writers. Carlton North resident Petra Stock recently sent a letter containing two photographs to her parents in Adelaide. She let her child choose the envelope, but because it was an irregular size she asked how much postage to pay. A few days later she received a bill for $2.50 for underpaying by $1.
"I was a bit shocked because I had done all the right things and I felt like I would have even preferred they returned the letter than sending this unexpected bill in the post. I felt like the post had suddenly become this nasty corporation," Ms Stock told Fairfax media.
She tried to complain but was told she could only provide feedback through their My Support website, which she was unable to sign up to. The bill could only be paid in a post office or using Australia Post's own Post Billpay service, not Bpay like most other utilities.
"Letter writing is something that I absolutely love and something that I really want my kids to enjoy as well. It doesn't bother me about increasing postage, but now I wonder if my kids will get a bill [after posting a letter]. It has really changed my impression of Australia Post."
The Australia Post spokeswoman said it did not use BPay because it "only offers online payments – even then it is only for those logged on to Internet banking".
