Today I enjoyed a lunch time trek to my ‘local’ post office to pick up a package that the Australia Post was unable to deliver to my home. In fairness, it was too large to go through my mail slot. The package however was not too large to be left with my building’s 24 hour reception. Apparently I have lots of free time to do the mailman’s job and go to the post office that is open from 9-5, Monday through Friday and is located nowhere near my house or my office.
Alas, half an hour after leaving my office, I had package in hand and asked to file an official complaint against the mailman / Australia Post. For the umpteenth time in two years, I received no first notice that I had a missed delivery / package waiting for pick-up, only the final notice. And the final notice was pre-dated a day when it arrived in my mailbox. The woman at the post office told me that final notices are actually mailed through the post, and not delivered by the mailman in lieu of the package if they fail to find you at home a second time. Which means that yes, Australia Post does not try to deliver your package more than once. Postage here should really be called a ‘storage / DIY pick-up fee.’
Apparently I was supposed to be grateful that unlike my last package, this one wasn’t immediately returned to sender without any attempt or notice at delivery (a separate complaint was filed multiple times for that, to absolutely no avail). I was also supposed to be grateful that the final notice was delivered to my mailbox instead of to one of my neighbour’s mailboxes (yes, that has happened multiple times) or the floor of the apartment building foyer (yes, that has also happened multiple times).
Since the Australia Post can’t seem to manage to do their job, I think I’ll stop doing the job that inadvertently fell to me when H & I moved into our Perth home two years ago…returning all of the mail of prior tenants to sender. Because in Australia, it costs money to forward mail or change your address and in the fair go spirit, none of the dozen or so former tenants of our apartment felt the need to do this.
Australia Post should be ashamed of itself. In Qatar we literally didn’t have an address, just a landmark that we lived near, yet somehow all of our mail got delivered there.
Alas, half an hour after leaving my office, I had package in hand and asked to file an official complaint against the mailman / Australia Post. For the umpteenth time in two years, I received no first notice that I had a missed delivery / package waiting for pick-up, only the final notice. And the final notice was pre-dated a day when it arrived in my mailbox. The woman at the post office told me that final notices are actually mailed through the post, and not delivered by the mailman in lieu of the package if they fail to find you at home a second time. Which means that yes, Australia Post does not try to deliver your package more than once. Postage here should really be called a ‘storage / DIY pick-up fee.’
Apparently I was supposed to be grateful that unlike my last package, this one wasn’t immediately returned to sender without any attempt or notice at delivery (a separate complaint was filed multiple times for that, to absolutely no avail). I was also supposed to be grateful that the final notice was delivered to my mailbox instead of to one of my neighbour’s mailboxes (yes, that has happened multiple times) or the floor of the apartment building foyer (yes, that has also happened multiple times).
Since the Australia Post can’t seem to manage to do their job, I think I’ll stop doing the job that inadvertently fell to me when H & I moved into our Perth home two years ago…returning all of the mail of prior tenants to sender. Because in Australia, it costs money to forward mail or change your address and in the fair go spirit, none of the dozen or so former tenants of our apartment felt the need to do this.
Australia Post should be ashamed of itself. In Qatar we literally didn’t have an address, just a landmark that we lived near, yet somehow all of our mail got delivered there.
