Amazon, I-Parcel and then Australia Post - The Circle Jerk of Success
This is a combination of corporate stupidity and I dunno.....
All I can say is I would not willingly hire Australia Post, ever again, for any reason - and this is long before this issue came to the fore.
A fast recap - just off the top of my head.
The local Licensed Post Office operator likes to do things like make up stories and wave his fists in my face... The 5th time around in a decade or so...
Followed by 6 months of trying to get like 32 aerograms in, so I could catch up with a whole heap of fairly mobile and transient people overseas - prior to investing in sending them packages - but ... twas another epic failure in salesmanship.
Summed up with - "You have got issues... see you later."
But I was still getting goods and parcels delivered to me via Australia Post.
What arose as a result of this, is in amongst the corporate infighting that came with getting all my stuff delivered to another post office, the local guy started to do home deliveries on my signature on delivery items....
And I for one dislike answering the door to people who don't maintain eye contact and instead start peering inside your home, kind of like he is casing the joint, types of looks... Something to talk about with all his mates - just creepy.
So anyway I raised these issues, and the come back was "He is welcome to come to the post office provided that he is only there on post office business."
Well duh. What else do you go to the post office for? Unless your going there for "postal reasons" - there is no other reason to go there for. I mean what an idiot thing to say....
And I pushed the issue that he could stick his post office up his arse and with the signature on delivery issues - I don't want the guy coming around and as far as I am concerned, just drop it off in the letter box and go - I don't even want to have to look at him.
So the come back, was that the management of Australia Post refused to waive that, and this was followed up by a letter from one of the bored of directors, does not equal sticking it on board with some couriers, or waiving the signature on delivery.
No - no signature on delivery = return to sender.
Then I changed to using the post office in the next town along.
LOL
What a fun time that turned out to be.....
First off - I deal with an online trading company that has an appalling record for account security - like many shit hole American companies....
So I fudged my personal details ever so slightly..... to obscure the ID theft issues.
Things that were mostly accurate, but the mistakes could be passed off as typing mistakes by a sloppy operator.... So everything got to me - but as soon as I informed the "charming and insightful" woman that runs that post office, she got all postal nazi about it, and decided to send it back and that I must get it resent with EVERY LITTLE DETAIL perfectly matching my ID....
So I said, "Well fuck that" - because I had already paid for the postage, and I wasn't going to have it sent back, and to have to pay for a second lot of postage.
Not inclined to put up with pedantic postal nazi shit...
So began the tunnelling into the bowels of Australia Post - and it's shit hole management and endless professional stone walling and buck passing and it's work shirking middle management.
I fought like cats and dogs with them, I got my parcel and I did not pay for a second lot of postage....
But a very interesting thing came out of this....
Australia Post's parcel delivery times are kind of dodgy at best - 3 to 5 days delivery time - kind of equates to 7 to 14 days....
So if you order one delivery from Melbourne (~300Km away) and another from Perth (~2500Km away), you never know which one will arrive first, and you never know when it will actually arrive - half way through the month? Will it arrive next week or next month?
Further out of a number of packages, only one ever had the SMS message arrive...
Another one showed that it was still sitting at at the senders post office, 3 weeks or more, after it had been delivered.
So I would make a call to that post office once a week or two, when I was expecting a delivery, to see if the parcels had turned up.
It's a 30 second phone call....
Within a few weeks of this, this post office signed up to blocking their number from any callers, as part of the switching all post offices to the National Call Centre number - which is a fucking disaster.....
"Oh you won't have to ANSWER any calls from customers - because we can do it ALL FOR YOU!!!! Oh happy days.....
The calls changed to 15 - 30 minutes on hold, and when one got an operator at the national call centre, nine out of every ten of them, were of the Carol Beer variety - who instead of just calling the post office, resorted to "The computer says" questionair.... with a question set that went all over the place, doing everything except what I had asked for.
Just sooooooo incredibly frustrating.... seriously.
But if you want read up on the details of that disaster, go to the very first entry,
"The National Crawl Centre".... it's all in detail there....
This is where it came to making a sale there, that the business became "a little unusual" - On one run across to that town to make a pick up, they had some wall AA battery operated clocks that had things like busted curved glass covers and things like that - basically unsaleable. I dislike dust getting into clock parts and I liked the busted one for it's spare movement, and hands..
I had not planned to go and buy one while I was there... so when I had asked the price, it was $15, instead of the $30... so I said on the way out, "Oh OK, I will pick it up next time I come over in a week or so's time." - as I started heading all three paces towards the door and out the building....
And out came Sharon, with, "Oh but you have to leave a 50% deposit, and you have to write down your name, your address and number and how much you have left for it - and it has to be signed."
"Yeah... name, address, phone number etc. and a 50% deposit on a broken wall clock that is going for half price...
Me make a a U turn, $7.50 - that I have to leave - and lots of writing - as I am opening to door to leave - Sure."
I said I will be back in 10 days - that's good enough for me - but she apparently has problems listening.
After some 3 or 4 months of ringing this post office, via the national call centre, once every week or two....
There was one week, where there was a combination of I had two parcels coming in, Australia Post's tracking was utterly worthless, the "help" from the national call centre was almost totally bullshit....
And I had to make a call to the national call centre, to ask them to call the post office to see if I had any packages there. Got a guy who was helpful... and the question got asked of them and - before my call with him ended, I asked him to call them back to find out how many packages there were....
I can't remember if it was that call or another, but there are all sorts of "horse racing holidays" that different areas have, different business's remain open or they close and there are public holidays... so I made a third contact, via the national call centre to find out which days they may be closing over the next week to ten days....
Might have been by the same guy in the same call....
So a couple of weeks go by and the cops turn up on my door step, telling me that I have been calling the Wedderburn Post Office, 3 times a day, every day, for months....
And Sharon - claims that I had been harrassing her.....
Hmmmmm OK - at least 5 minutes of bullshit button pressing and impressive Australia Post adds, about digital mail boxes, at least 15 minutes on hold per call... and 9 out of 10 calls to the national call centre get you Carol Beer - and these shit heads will do EVERYTHING except call the post office....
Ring, Ring - "Hi - is his parcel there?" - Naaaaaaaa can't do something as easy as that.
Got to play 72 questions on the computer instead - that ALL lead back to calling the post office after like 20 minutes of go around in circles bullshit.
Yeah I can see myself doing that 3 times a day, every day, for months.....
So this comes care of Dean Marshall at the Australia Post security centre, who is so slack, he made no effort what so ever to check any call logs anywhere, to see if it was actually true, before calling the cops...
And the only reason Dear Darwin called the cops, was to save himself having to making the drive....
This sums up Dean Marshall in a peanut shell.
https://www.facebook.com/australiapost/posts/10150409838070667
Theft from Aust Post and mail tampering Dean and Steve at post security have basically refused to act even though I've provided detailed information including names of affected customers and description of mail interfered with??
There is a bit more if you follow the link...
When I pressed the admin of Australia Post to press charges against the Wedderburn Post office manager, "Sharon" for making a false statement to police - they refused too.
The perspective gained from all of this, from my own experiences and the hundreds of thousands of complaints - over many, many, years - about not the worst managed business that I have come across - but I can consistently grade it easily within the top 1% of all the worst business's ever.
But it is one of the most grossly mismanaged business's, with some of the WORST customer service ever - The end result?
The Mega Stars of Customer Service are not getting rehired.
It was from that point on, as so many other people do,
I directed ALL mail to be sent electronically and all parcels to only go by courier and to only buy off business's that send by courier.
But from time to time - I get caught out.
This is how this story evolves.
I need a BIG dictionary.
It's from having to deal with a combination of the idiot Merkinised spell chequers that insist that I put the Merkin Z into English words that use S like "organisation", and mark it wrong if it don't.
And computer programs - in the box or online, having dictionaries that are say 2500 words, and I might use 5,000, or 10,000 words. So every time I use a word that is not in the retarded dictionary, they mark it wrong - when in fact it is right.
It's a pity the idiot programmers never designed adaptive dictionaries that would question unknown entries and then cross reference with a data base or bases - before marking it wrong.
But all the spell Czech's have done over a few decades - is just really fuck with my head.
Back to the books we go.
I order a BIG Oxford dictionary - from the UK, via Amazon. No doubt that the $7 postage for a 4Kg book would have been priced matched by Australia Post at a very affordable $50 to the next street.
The order comes with a name, number, street, state, a Victorian post code and country.
And I-Parcel - the international couriers who work for Amazon globally, brought it too Melbourne Victoria Australia and then they put it into the hands of Australia Post.
Where did the people running Australia Post deliver it?
According to the I-Parcel Tracking it came out of customs on the 29th Jan 2014 and by the 30th it was sitting in / had gone / been delivered / through the Murarrie Postal Delivery Centre in Queensland - some 2500Km north of here...
But the same parcel - according to Australia Posts own tracking, it went from Customs, to the Tullamarine international gateway (about 30K north of Melbourne in Victoria) and arrived in the Essendon Fields Postal Delivery Centre (10K north of Melbourne)....
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Where the problem started with all of this is that the "dick heads" running Amazon - globally (in the USA and the UK), do NOT tell you about the complete delivery chain.
They do not tell you up front, "We send it from the UK, via I-Parcel, who put it into the hands of Australia Post, who then deliver it to your place with a SIGNATURE ON DELIVERY required.
A day or so after the due date, I look up the tracking and find TWO different tracking stories.
I emailed the managers of Australia Post and said this:
To: ahmed.fahour@auspost.com.au, ewan.stafford@auspost.com.au, richard.umbers@auspost.com.au, christine.corbett@auspost.com.au, steve.ousley@auspost.com.au, chris.blake@auspost.com.au, paul.burke@auspost.com.au, jane.mcmillan@auspost.com.au
Subject: Your staff really screwed up my delivery.
I bought a BIG Oxford dictionary from a supplier using Amazon in the UK. They sent it via I-Parcel to Australia.
When it came to Melbourne, it was put into the hands of Australia Post... who instead of sending it to me, (Name, Address, Town, State, Post Code), they promptly put it on another plane to Queensland, and delivered it to J. Guzman at / via the MURARRIE PDC.
That is in Queensland - about 2500Km away.
This amount of sending packages to the moon type bullshit - in case you have not noticed, is fairly rife in Australia Post.
I am not going along with any of the game playing, go nowhere, waste my time with any of the staff in the investigations centre - which I also note - there is no where on your crappy website to report stolen packages too...
I am going to deal with you personally and your going to resolve the miss deliveries, and the thieves you have on staff, in your own time and space.
Your now going to get me a NEW copy of the same dictionary, sent to me, from a shop within Australia, within 48 hours.
I want a replacement dictionary on my desk, delivered by courier come Wednesday morning.
Regards
Moi.
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Well that was sent around 9am Feb 3rd.... by 3pm, after 6 hours of bludgerthon since the email I sent to the managers at Australia Post had been spent - I rang them...
The short and sweet of that the CEO's desk jockey made several diversions and I stopped them with their 10 days to investigate, and come back up through the ranks of the complaint process.....
And I recycled a few calls and I put it to them - "It's an open and shut case - It's supposed to come here, and your lot sent it there. Call a book seller in Melbourne and get a replacement dictionary sent to me by courier. Here is the number for Oxford University Press in Melbourne."
This morning on the 4th of Feb at 6am... was this reply back from the i-parcel rep.
Thank you for your follow-up.
Parcel XXYYZZ went to Australia Post under local tracking number ZZYYXX.
We are showing that they had since returned your parcel.
I am checking with our local agents to see if this parcel is still in country for redelivery.
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So the I-Parcel story changes from:
HAVING been delivered to J. Guzman at / C/o the MURARRIE AU Postal Delivery Centre Queensland;
To
"We are showing that they had since returned your parcel.
I am checking with our local agents to see if this parcel is still in country for redelivery."
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A message to i-parcel,
"Hi I really hate dealing with Australia Post - so I want to have all deliveries put into the hands of competent couriers, and to NOT have any further deliveries ever put into the hands of Australia Post ever again. OK. Too many deliveries are getting stolen."
Their reply:
Please note that the delivery scan is our agent and the parcel was
returned due to an insufficient address. As for removing Australia
Post from our delivery service network, that is not a decision made at
our level however your comment will be passed along to those that make
the decisions. For the foreseeable future Australia Post will be the
last mile carrier in Australia used by i-parcel.
As for your shipment, we are confirming with our agent that the parcel
is still in their possession and not returned. If in their possession
we will have the parcel resent out to you at this time. We will keep
you posted of the results.
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So now the staff in Australia Post are coming out with a story for a Victorian delivery that was NEVER made, and a Queensland Delivery that was.
"Oh Oh Oh - we could not deliver it to him because there was an insufficient address" they told the I-Parcel rep....
Who conveyed it onto me....
So we are up to 5 or 7 variations of the story so far.
Different address's, different reasons, different tracking details and locations......
But it gets WORSE........
I sent the complaint and the link to Amazon.uk and Amazon.com, asking them to tell i-parcel to offer choices - besides Australia Post in the final leg of the delivery.
I also contacted i-parcel about this issue, and how the Australia Post rep had been contradicting them.
I and a LOT of people who don't want Australia Post handling any of their packages.
So I began to think has this been stolen? Is there some kind of a racket going on here? How does a parcel addressed to someone in Victoria, get delivered to a Queensland Postal Delivery Centre?
I notified the Minister for Communications of the issue:
Malcolm Turnbull; as well as the Shadow Minister Jason Clare.
And the I have notified the clerks of the senate committees -
ec.sen@aph.gov.au, seniorclerk.committees.sen@aph.gov.au
I also contacted Today Tonight about this.......
The Legendary Geoff Williams from Australia Post rang me back to day...
Give him a call - he really likes giving customer service.... 03 9106 6934
Geoff Williams and the people in the Bored of directors, are so lacking in imagination, that they can't even send it via courier from the post office, and their collective I.Q. is to tell the local postie, that any packages that require a signature on delivery are to be "Returned to sender." - all the way back to England...
Yes I do have a letter on file from someone on the Board of Directors saying this.
Not that needing a signature on delivery was ever a impediment to the people of Australia Post.
The signature on delivery happens whether they were home or not, or even if it was the wrong person in the wrong suburb, or whether the postie decided to keep the parcel and sign for it themselves - the package going to John Thomas gets signed for by Moby Dick - which was acceptable to the postie delivering it, or some stranger picked it up from the post office - with no ID at all...
And this signature on delivery scam has been going on for a long time, and tens of thousands of people have complained - repeatedly - for months and years and nothing gets done.
Look it up "Australia Post" "signature on delivery" - in Facebook, Google etc.....
Australia Post is a national joke / embarrassment.
So I told Geoff, "The failure to get or use the signature on delivery and the refusal to act on complaints - has never been an issue in the past, so why should it be a problem here?"
He said we are very strict on this, and we act on them the moment we hear about them. What? By going for a coffee break, a donut and having a good pull on the toilet?
We continued and Geoff's story was:
a) The reason why it was sent back was because it was a signature on delivery item.
and
b) He could not figure out why the package had been "returned to sender" at a Queensland international freight depot (Gateway), instead of being sent back to the Melbourne one (Tullaramine Gateway).
I think Geoff Williams was feeling a little bit pressured with all the inconsistencies in the stories.
The first one:
It came into the Australia Post Victorian "International Gateway" at Tullamarine Airport - but it shows as going from customs, to the Essendon Fields distribution centre.
The Essendon Fields Distribution Centre, is a suburban mail distribution centre for the north western suburbs of Melbourne (the city) Victoria and the tracking is showing that it has NEVER left the depot....
It's not an international gateway for international parcels - it's a suburban mail distribution centre.
So why is an international parcel, showing as being in a suburban distribution centre? - that is out of the state distribution network?
INTERNATIONAL PARCELS, go from the Tullarmarine Airport, through customs, and then the Australia Post Tullamarine Gateway -
THEN it goes up to the Bendigo Hub on a few huge trucks, and then it is distributed out from there, for all the small runs, on many many smaller trucks.
If everything is going well, this whole process typically takes 3 or 4 days, from release from Customs, through the Tullamarine Gateway, and to distribution beyond the Bendigo Mail hub;
But the Australia Post tracking shows that the package NEVER left the Essendon Fields suburban mail distribution centre, and it was accepted and delivered within the space of 4 hours.
But the story now changes -
According to Geoff Williams, the tracking details are for the return journey ONLY - when it was brought back from the local post orifice, via the Postal Distribution Hub in Bendigo, and it was returned to I-Parcel, at Essendon Fields - and not the Tullamarine Gateway.
But there is, they claim, NO evidence of ANY scanning or tracking events, in the system, from the Tullamarine Gateway, to the Bendigo distribution centre, and up to here....
And this, according to Geoff Williams, is a big mystery.
The Australia Post tracking shows NO return to sender - or NON delivery, or INSUFFICIENT ADDRESS.
It shows nothing - just DELIVERED.
But following this, came this report from the I-Parcel rep:
"Thank you for your response email. What I have provided is the facts
and I apologize if you don't find that sufficient information.
The signature of this parcel is tied to a employee at our agents location
as it was sent back into this location upon not clearing by Australia
Post for delivery due to an insufficient address.
So Go Figure.
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I then put in a lot of effort to contact the people managing Amazon UK and USA and I-Parcel - to tell them 2 things.
1. Tell everyone at the sale, that you will be delivering their goods, via Australia Post, and require a signature on delivery.
2. And to offer CHOICES, so that people can get their packages delivered, VIA real couriers - for all the people who DO want delivery by courier and NOT just Australia Post.
How do they handle it?
When the original order got sent westwards on a magical mystery tour by Australia Post with the Airy Fairy fart in a fan factory tracking system....
The dummies of Amazon sent out another dictionary, through the dummies in I-parcel and guess what...
In spite of what I had told them all - DO NOT SEND IT TO ME, ON THE LAST LEG, VIA AUSTRALIA POST - Because:
They will mark it as return to sender and send it back....
So send it to me via courier on the last leg instead.
What did they do?
They sent it on the same route, and gave it to Australia Post, with it's incompetent management and bored of directors, and they pulled the same "signature on delivery" scam, and they did the same return to sender, all the way back to the UK.
Just like the time before.
Yes the people running Amazon and I-parcel really ARE that stupid.
So this is where we might be going with this.
Global Ping Pong with Amazon...
See from the UK to Australia and back - it's about 35,000 Km or 11,000 miles, for the round trip.
The original dictionary came from the UK, to Australia, and then up to here by Australia Post - then it was sent RETURN TO SENDER, by Australia Post with Geoff Williams - the big knob Australia Post managers blessing, along with the idiot Bored of Directors backing him up.
An excellent example of more knob than direction or management.
I tell the people in Amazon and I-parcel, that they ought to begin offering delivery by courier in the last stage - AND - to deliver my parcel to me, by courier, INSTEAD of Australia Post, because these Customer Satisfaction Survey Mega-Stars, will only mark it RETURN TO SENDER, and send it all the way back to Melbourne, and give it back to I-Parcel, who will return it back to London in England, AGAIN......
And then these clueless customer service agents will send it back to me, for the THIRD TIME, with the signature on delivery, and then it will be marked as RETURN TO SENDER, and it will be sent back to the UK again, and so on and so forth...
Then we will have an international parcel ping pong match going on.....
UK to Australia and back again, via I-Parcel - back and forth, back and forth......
So what happens, I get the lip service "clueless customer consultant replies" both from Amazon.UK, Amazon.USA and I-Parcel....
"Send it to me by courier, because if you don't, then Australia Post will just refuse to deliver it with a signature on delivery, and they will send it back."
And the clueless customer consultant replies from Amazon...
Typical reply No. 1.
I understand that we have created a replacement for your order and you would like to know what delivery method the parcel will be delivered.
Further to your email you have advised that you do not want this item delivered to you via Australia post.
I’m afraid that we don’t have the ability to assign certain carriers to a specific customer or address but we’ll continue working with all of our carriers to drive improvements for our customers.
I have looked into this for you and I can see the parcel has being passed onto IParcel for delivery and is currently in transit. After speaking to them over the phone they advised that they will be passing the parcel onto Australia post once the item reaches Australia. Unfortunately there is no way for us to have the parcel passed onto a different delivery company.
In this case if you do not want to receive the parcel under these conditions please let us know and we will request for the item to be returned to us and issue a full refund for your order.
We realise this incident reflects negatively upon Amazon.co.uk and the feedback you've provided will be used in reviewing the service provided by Australia Post.
Thanks for taking the time to contact us and to bring this to our attention.
I hope this helps. We hope to see you again soon.
(You mean a phone call to a courier is out of the question? Bullshit.)
Typical Reply No. 2 from the Amazon USA - after I have told them it concerns an order from the UK but you need to consider offering delivery by courier as an option, in Australia as well.
Hello,
I'm sorry for any inconvenience caused to you.
I've researched your order and see that you've placed it from Amazon.co.uk one of our international website.
You'll need to contact our partner site, Amazon.co.uk, for more information about your order, as our international websites operate independently. You can contact them directly at:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/
(Oh fucking Duh - yes I know it's about a UK delivery, because that is what I stated at the very beginning - What about acting on the information to have the people running this company - offer delivery by courier in the last leg, instead of just Australia Post - but no - they are just too stupid - it seems to be a prerequisite for American customer service)
And typical reply No. 3 - from I-Parcel........
Thank you for contacting i-Parcel
I show that your parcel has exported
Once your parcel arrives in country and clears customs it will then go to
The last mile carrier: Australia Post
You will then be able to track your parcel using this link: http://auspost.com.au/
Using your local tracking number
(This is after asking them, "Send it by COURIER to me, when it gets into Australia. Do not send it by Australia Post, because they will send it straight back. The idiot does a copy paste reply and nothing gets done - yes they are that stupid.)
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So I figure that at 35,000Km for a round trip per dictionary delivery, I think if I just sat on my arse and said it never turned up, I could eventually hold the world record for the longest distance ever travelled by a package before delivery....
This could be a noble achievement to add and give meaning to my otherwise worthless life....
20 round trips a year, and 10 years later... and still the consultants and management of Amazon UK, USA and I-Parcel along with Australia Post are still at it....
This is what dreams are made of - I will be in the Guiness Book of Records.
"Yes his dictionary travelled 70 million kilometers - world record!!! Hurruh, Hurruh!"
Still refusing to provide couriers for the final leg of delivery, still refusing to act on my request, still refusing to call I-Parcel and to ask them to deliver it by courier and Australia Post doing their return to sender racket, instead of bypassing the local agent and sticking it on a private courier - as they all do with overflow or gluts of traffic..
Send it out, no signature on delivery, return to sender, send it back, send it back out, no signature on delivery, return it to sender etc.....
Forever....
Here is proof - the resend of the original order - same package two completely different stories.
This is I-Parcels tracking.
Out of customs on the 13th of Feb - and delivered to the Narre Warren Delivery Centre - about 20Km south east of Melbourne. It's now the 17th of Feb.
And Australia Post - and their shit hole tracking...
Out of customs to Australia Post in Tullamarine Airport 30K north of Melbourne - to Sunshine West - 20K west of Melbourne, then to Essendon Fields 10K north of Melbourne and then back to the international gateway at Tullamarine Airport 30K north of Melbourne....
And thanks to the idiots running Amazon and I-Parcel - who are too stupid to use couriers, when they are asked too, complete with the reasons for doing so - it's back to the UK.
17,000Km here, the idiots running Amazon and I-Parcel put it back into the hands of Australia Post again, who shuffle it 100 or so K's between customs, the delivery centres and then back to the airport and 17,000Km back to the UK.....
LOL
Let the game of global ping pong commence.
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I guess that is why I really hate having to deal with really stupid people.
Getting Australia Post and it's idiot management and the agents who have "peculiar" ideas on how to earn the customers trust and business, out of ones supply chain, is just so totally worth it.
If the people running Amazon and I-Parcel had of actually advertised that they ONLY use Australia Post for the last leg of the delivery - I would have negotiated to some degree, but generally speaking their impenetrable front line gives appalling lip service, "Oh our contracts are blah blah blah and we can't do nothing about it." - Well you can if you got off your arse and made a phone call to TNT or DHL or Fedex etc., but you and your management are too stupid to be able to do that".
But if the issue was unnegotiable even for an extra fee etc., I would have dumped the sale.
When it comes down to it, having Australia Post in the supply chain is just not worth it.
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A thought has just occurred to me.
I think the management of Australia Post sling the really low ball prices, for imports and gouge the Australian consumer for EVERYTHING - because I think the story they concoct about the International Postal Union telling them to deliver packages to here for like $5 from the other side of the planet, for what they charge like $40 for delivery to the next suburb, may in fact be total bullshit.
Australia Post have done deals with all the major book sellers, to grab the market share and it seems to me that they are colluding to squeeze the other transport services out of the market.
I think the story about the International Postal Union sticking it to them, and we the consumer having to subsidise the international imports is bullshit....
Amazon.com, Amazon.UK send all their gear via I-Parcel, for distribution within Australia by Australia Post.
Fishpond, Bookworld and Booktopia - all in Australia, all use Australia Post exclusively, which I don't think is particularly healthy - and customers ought to be insisting on delivery by courier - and not Startrack either.
http://www.fishpond.com.au/helpdesk.php?question_id=11
http://www.bookworld.com.au/delivery-information/
http://www.booktopia.com.au/helpCentre.ep#top
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This is how organisations and people who have their act together do it and have been doing it for a LONG time....
The History of Freight Trains...
They TRACK every product in every container, every step of the way.
This is really good too.
All I can say is I would not willingly hire Australia Post, ever again, for any reason - and this is long before this issue came to the fore.
A fast recap - just off the top of my head.
The local Licensed Post Office operator likes to do things like make up stories and wave his fists in my face... The 5th time around in a decade or so...
Followed by 6 months of trying to get like 32 aerograms in, so I could catch up with a whole heap of fairly mobile and transient people overseas - prior to investing in sending them packages - but ... twas another epic failure in salesmanship.
Summed up with - "You have got issues... see you later."
But I was still getting goods and parcels delivered to me via Australia Post.
What arose as a result of this, is in amongst the corporate infighting that came with getting all my stuff delivered to another post office, the local guy started to do home deliveries on my signature on delivery items....
And I for one dislike answering the door to people who don't maintain eye contact and instead start peering inside your home, kind of like he is casing the joint, types of looks... Something to talk about with all his mates - just creepy.
So anyway I raised these issues, and the come back was "He is welcome to come to the post office provided that he is only there on post office business."
Well duh. What else do you go to the post office for? Unless your going there for "postal reasons" - there is no other reason to go there for. I mean what an idiot thing to say....
And I pushed the issue that he could stick his post office up his arse and with the signature on delivery issues - I don't want the guy coming around and as far as I am concerned, just drop it off in the letter box and go - I don't even want to have to look at him.
So the come back, was that the management of Australia Post refused to waive that, and this was followed up by a letter from one of the bored of directors, does not equal sticking it on board with some couriers, or waiving the signature on delivery.
No - no signature on delivery = return to sender.
Then I changed to using the post office in the next town along.
LOL
What a fun time that turned out to be.....
First off - I deal with an online trading company that has an appalling record for account security - like many shit hole American companies....
So I fudged my personal details ever so slightly..... to obscure the ID theft issues.
Things that were mostly accurate, but the mistakes could be passed off as typing mistakes by a sloppy operator.... So everything got to me - but as soon as I informed the "charming and insightful" woman that runs that post office, she got all postal nazi about it, and decided to send it back and that I must get it resent with EVERY LITTLE DETAIL perfectly matching my ID....
So I said, "Well fuck that" - because I had already paid for the postage, and I wasn't going to have it sent back, and to have to pay for a second lot of postage.
Not inclined to put up with pedantic postal nazi shit...
So began the tunnelling into the bowels of Australia Post - and it's shit hole management and endless professional stone walling and buck passing and it's work shirking middle management.
I fought like cats and dogs with them, I got my parcel and I did not pay for a second lot of postage....
But a very interesting thing came out of this....
Australia Post's parcel delivery times are kind of dodgy at best - 3 to 5 days delivery time - kind of equates to 7 to 14 days....
So if you order one delivery from Melbourne (~300Km away) and another from Perth (~2500Km away), you never know which one will arrive first, and you never know when it will actually arrive - half way through the month? Will it arrive next week or next month?
Further out of a number of packages, only one ever had the SMS message arrive...
Another one showed that it was still sitting at at the senders post office, 3 weeks or more, after it had been delivered.
So I would make a call to that post office once a week or two, when I was expecting a delivery, to see if the parcels had turned up.
It's a 30 second phone call....
Within a few weeks of this, this post office signed up to blocking their number from any callers, as part of the switching all post offices to the National Call Centre number - which is a fucking disaster.....
"Oh you won't have to ANSWER any calls from customers - because we can do it ALL FOR YOU!!!! Oh happy days.....
The calls changed to 15 - 30 minutes on hold, and when one got an operator at the national call centre, nine out of every ten of them, were of the Carol Beer variety - who instead of just calling the post office, resorted to "The computer says" questionair.... with a question set that went all over the place, doing everything except what I had asked for.
Just sooooooo incredibly frustrating.... seriously.
But if you want read up on the details of that disaster, go to the very first entry,
"The National Crawl Centre".... it's all in detail there....
This is where it came to making a sale there, that the business became "a little unusual" - On one run across to that town to make a pick up, they had some wall AA battery operated clocks that had things like busted curved glass covers and things like that - basically unsaleable. I dislike dust getting into clock parts and I liked the busted one for it's spare movement, and hands..
I had not planned to go and buy one while I was there... so when I had asked the price, it was $15, instead of the $30... so I said on the way out, "Oh OK, I will pick it up next time I come over in a week or so's time." - as I started heading all three paces towards the door and out the building....
And out came Sharon, with, "Oh but you have to leave a 50% deposit, and you have to write down your name, your address and number and how much you have left for it - and it has to be signed."
"Yeah... name, address, phone number etc. and a 50% deposit on a broken wall clock that is going for half price...
Me make a a U turn, $7.50 - that I have to leave - and lots of writing - as I am opening to door to leave - Sure."
I said I will be back in 10 days - that's good enough for me - but she apparently has problems listening.
After some 3 or 4 months of ringing this post office, via the national call centre, once every week or two....
There was one week, where there was a combination of I had two parcels coming in, Australia Post's tracking was utterly worthless, the "help" from the national call centre was almost totally bullshit....
And I had to make a call to the national call centre, to ask them to call the post office to see if I had any packages there. Got a guy who was helpful... and the question got asked of them and - before my call with him ended, I asked him to call them back to find out how many packages there were....
I can't remember if it was that call or another, but there are all sorts of "horse racing holidays" that different areas have, different business's remain open or they close and there are public holidays... so I made a third contact, via the national call centre to find out which days they may be closing over the next week to ten days....
Might have been by the same guy in the same call....
So a couple of weeks go by and the cops turn up on my door step, telling me that I have been calling the Wedderburn Post Office, 3 times a day, every day, for months....
And Sharon - claims that I had been harrassing her.....
Hmmmmm OK - at least 5 minutes of bullshit button pressing and impressive Australia Post adds, about digital mail boxes, at least 15 minutes on hold per call... and 9 out of 10 calls to the national call centre get you Carol Beer - and these shit heads will do EVERYTHING except call the post office....
Ring, Ring - "Hi - is his parcel there?" - Naaaaaaaa can't do something as easy as that.
Got to play 72 questions on the computer instead - that ALL lead back to calling the post office after like 20 minutes of go around in circles bullshit.
Yeah I can see myself doing that 3 times a day, every day, for months.....
So this comes care of Dean Marshall at the Australia Post security centre, who is so slack, he made no effort what so ever to check any call logs anywhere, to see if it was actually true, before calling the cops...
And the only reason Dear Darwin called the cops, was to save himself having to making the drive....
This sums up Dean Marshall in a peanut shell.
https://www.facebook.com/australiapost/posts/10150409838070667
Theft from Aust Post and mail tampering Dean and Steve at post security have basically refused to act even though I've provided detailed information including names of affected customers and description of mail interfered with??
There is a bit more if you follow the link...
When I pressed the admin of Australia Post to press charges against the Wedderburn Post office manager, "Sharon" for making a false statement to police - they refused too.
The perspective gained from all of this, from my own experiences and the hundreds of thousands of complaints - over many, many, years - about not the worst managed business that I have come across - but I can consistently grade it easily within the top 1% of all the worst business's ever.
But it is one of the most grossly mismanaged business's, with some of the WORST customer service ever - The end result?
The Mega Stars of Customer Service are not getting rehired.
It was from that point on, as so many other people do,
I directed ALL mail to be sent electronically and all parcels to only go by courier and to only buy off business's that send by courier.
But from time to time - I get caught out.
This is how this story evolves.
I need a BIG dictionary.
It's from having to deal with a combination of the idiot Merkinised spell chequers that insist that I put the Merkin Z into English words that use S like "organisation", and mark it wrong if it don't.
And computer programs - in the box or online, having dictionaries that are say 2500 words, and I might use 5,000, or 10,000 words. So every time I use a word that is not in the retarded dictionary, they mark it wrong - when in fact it is right.
It's a pity the idiot programmers never designed adaptive dictionaries that would question unknown entries and then cross reference with a data base or bases - before marking it wrong.
But all the spell Czech's have done over a few decades - is just really fuck with my head.
Back to the books we go.
I order a BIG Oxford dictionary - from the UK, via Amazon. No doubt that the $7 postage for a 4Kg book would have been priced matched by Australia Post at a very affordable $50 to the next street.
The order comes with a name, number, street, state, a Victorian post code and country.
And I-Parcel - the international couriers who work for Amazon globally, brought it too Melbourne Victoria Australia and then they put it into the hands of Australia Post.
Where did the people running Australia Post deliver it?
According to the I-Parcel Tracking it came out of customs on the 29th Jan 2014 and by the 30th it was sitting in / had gone / been delivered / through the Murarrie Postal Delivery Centre in Queensland - some 2500Km north of here...
But the same parcel - according to Australia Posts own tracking, it went from Customs, to the Tullamarine international gateway (about 30K north of Melbourne in Victoria) and arrived in the Essendon Fields Postal Delivery Centre (10K north of Melbourne)....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Where the problem started with all of this is that the "dick heads" running Amazon - globally (in the USA and the UK), do NOT tell you about the complete delivery chain.
They do not tell you up front, "We send it from the UK, via I-Parcel, who put it into the hands of Australia Post, who then deliver it to your place with a SIGNATURE ON DELIVERY required.
A day or so after the due date, I look up the tracking and find TWO different tracking stories.
I emailed the managers of Australia Post and said this:
To: ahmed.fahour@auspost.com.au, ewan.stafford@auspost.com.au, richard.umbers@auspost.com.au, christine.corbett@auspost.com.au, steve.ousley@auspost.com.au, chris.blake@auspost.com.au, paul.burke@auspost.com.au, jane.mcmillan@auspost.com.au
Subject: Your staff really screwed up my delivery.
I bought a BIG Oxford dictionary from a supplier using Amazon in the UK. They sent it via I-Parcel to Australia.
When it came to Melbourne, it was put into the hands of Australia Post... who instead of sending it to me, (Name, Address, Town, State, Post Code), they promptly put it on another plane to Queensland, and delivered it to J. Guzman at / via the MURARRIE PDC.
That is in Queensland - about 2500Km away.
This amount of sending packages to the moon type bullshit - in case you have not noticed, is fairly rife in Australia Post.
I am not going along with any of the game playing, go nowhere, waste my time with any of the staff in the investigations centre - which I also note - there is no where on your crappy website to report stolen packages too...
I am going to deal with you personally and your going to resolve the miss deliveries, and the thieves you have on staff, in your own time and space.
Your now going to get me a NEW copy of the same dictionary, sent to me, from a shop within Australia, within 48 hours.
I want a replacement dictionary on my desk, delivered by courier come Wednesday morning.
Regards
Moi.
Oxford Dictionary of English [Hardcover]
Product details
- Hardcover: 2112 pages
- Publisher: OUP Oxford; 3rd edition (19 Aug 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0199571120
- ISBN-13: 978-0199571123
- Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 22.3 x 28.2 cm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well that was sent around 9am Feb 3rd.... by 3pm, after 6 hours of bludgerthon since the email I sent to the managers at Australia Post had been spent - I rang them...
The short and sweet of that the CEO's desk jockey made several diversions and I stopped them with their 10 days to investigate, and come back up through the ranks of the complaint process.....
And I recycled a few calls and I put it to them - "It's an open and shut case - It's supposed to come here, and your lot sent it there. Call a book seller in Melbourne and get a replacement dictionary sent to me by courier. Here is the number for Oxford University Press in Melbourne."
This morning on the 4th of Feb at 6am... was this reply back from the i-parcel rep.
Thank you for your follow-up.
Parcel XXYYZZ went to Australia Post under local tracking number ZZYYXX.
We are showing that they had since returned your parcel.
I am checking with our local agents to see if this parcel is still in country for redelivery.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So the I-Parcel story changes from:
HAVING been delivered to J. Guzman at / C/o the MURARRIE AU Postal Delivery Centre Queensland;
To
"We are showing that they had since returned your parcel.
I am checking with our local agents to see if this parcel is still in country for redelivery."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A message to i-parcel,
"Hi I really hate dealing with Australia Post - so I want to have all deliveries put into the hands of competent couriers, and to NOT have any further deliveries ever put into the hands of Australia Post ever again. OK. Too many deliveries are getting stolen."
Their reply:
Please note that the delivery scan is our agent and the parcel was
returned due to an insufficient address. As for removing Australia
Post from our delivery service network, that is not a decision made at
our level however your comment will be passed along to those that make
the decisions. For the foreseeable future Australia Post will be the
last mile carrier in Australia used by i-parcel.
As for your shipment, we are confirming with our agent that the parcel
is still in their possession and not returned. If in their possession
we will have the parcel resent out to you at this time. We will keep
you posted of the results.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So now the staff in Australia Post are coming out with a story for a Victorian delivery that was NEVER made, and a Queensland Delivery that was.
"Oh Oh Oh - we could not deliver it to him because there was an insufficient address" they told the I-Parcel rep....
The staff in Australia Post have just contradicted the i-parcel representative...
Who conveyed it onto me....
So we are up to 5 or 7 variations of the story so far.
Different address's, different reasons, different tracking details and locations......
But it gets WORSE........
I sent the complaint and the link to Amazon.uk and Amazon.com, asking them to tell i-parcel to offer choices - besides Australia Post in the final leg of the delivery.
I also contacted i-parcel about this issue, and how the Australia Post rep had been contradicting them.
I and a LOT of people who don't want Australia Post handling any of their packages.
So I began to think has this been stolen? Is there some kind of a racket going on here? How does a parcel addressed to someone in Victoria, get delivered to a Queensland Postal Delivery Centre?
I notified the Minister for Communications of the issue:
Malcolm Turnbull
And the I have notified the clerks of the senate committees -
ec.sen@aph.gov.au, seniorclerk.committees.sen@aph.gov.au
I also contacted Today Tonight about this.......
The Legendary Geoff Williams from Australia Post rang me back to day...
Give him a call - he really likes giving customer service.... 03 9106 6934
Geoff Williams and the people in the Bored of directors, are so lacking in imagination, that they can't even send it via courier from the post office, and their collective I.Q. is to tell the local postie, that any packages that require a signature on delivery are to be "Returned to sender." - all the way back to England...
Yes I do have a letter on file from someone on the Board of Directors saying this.
Not that needing a signature on delivery was ever a impediment to the people of Australia Post.
The signature on delivery happens whether they were home or not, or even if it was the wrong person in the wrong suburb, or whether the postie decided to keep the parcel and sign for it themselves - the package going to John Thomas gets signed for by Moby Dick - which was acceptable to the postie delivering it, or some stranger picked it up from the post office - with no ID at all...
And this signature on delivery scam has been going on for a long time, and tens of thousands of people have complained - repeatedly - for months and years and nothing gets done.
Look it up "Australia Post" "signature on delivery" - in Facebook, Google etc.....
Australia Post is a national joke / embarrassment.
So I told Geoff, "The failure to get or use the signature on delivery and the refusal to act on complaints - has never been an issue in the past, so why should it be a problem here?"
He said we are very strict on this, and we act on them the moment we hear about them. What? By going for a coffee break, a donut and having a good pull on the toilet?
We continued and Geoff's story was:
a) The reason why it was sent back was because it was a signature on delivery item.
and
b) He could not figure out why the package had been "returned to sender" at a Queensland international freight depot (Gateway), instead of being sent back to the Melbourne one (Tullaramine Gateway).
I think Geoff Williams was feeling a little bit pressured with all the inconsistencies in the stories.
The first one:
It came into the Australia Post Victorian "International Gateway" at Tullamarine Airport - but it shows as going from customs, to the Essendon Fields distribution centre.
The Essendon Fields Distribution Centre, is a suburban mail distribution centre for the north western suburbs of Melbourne (the city) Victoria and the tracking is showing that it has NEVER left the depot....
It's not an international gateway for international parcels - it's a suburban mail distribution centre.
So why is an international parcel, showing as being in a suburban distribution centre? - that is out of the state distribution network?
INTERNATIONAL PARCELS, go from the Tullarmarine Airport, through customs, and then the Australia Post Tullamarine Gateway -
THEN it goes up to the Bendigo Hub on a few huge trucks, and then it is distributed out from there, for all the small runs, on many many smaller trucks.
If everything is going well, this whole process typically takes 3 or 4 days, from release from Customs, through the Tullamarine Gateway, and to distribution beyond the Bendigo Mail hub;
But the Australia Post tracking shows that the package NEVER left the Essendon Fields suburban mail distribution centre, and it was accepted and delivered within the space of 4 hours.
But the story now changes -
According to Geoff Williams, the tracking details are for the return journey ONLY - when it was brought back from the local post orifice, via the Postal Distribution Hub in Bendigo, and it was returned to I-Parcel, at Essendon Fields - and not the Tullamarine Gateway.
But there is, they claim, NO evidence of ANY scanning or tracking events, in the system, from the Tullamarine Gateway, to the Bendigo distribution centre, and up to here....
And this, according to Geoff Williams, is a big mystery.
The Australia Post tracking shows NO return to sender - or NON delivery, or INSUFFICIENT ADDRESS.
It shows nothing - just DELIVERED.
But following this, came this report from the I-Parcel rep:
"Thank you for your response email. What I have provided is the facts
and I apologize if you don't find that sufficient information.
The signature of this parcel is tied to a employee at our agents location
as it was sent back into this location upon not clearing by Australia
Post for delivery due to an insufficient address.
So Go Figure.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I then put in a lot of effort to contact the people managing Amazon UK and USA and I-Parcel - to tell them 2 things.
1. Tell everyone at the sale, that you will be delivering their goods, via Australia Post, and require a signature on delivery.
2. And to offer CHOICES, so that people can get their packages delivered, VIA real couriers - for all the people who DO want delivery by courier and NOT just Australia Post.
How do they handle it?
When the original order got sent westwards on a magical mystery tour by Australia Post with the Airy Fairy fart in a fan factory tracking system....
The dummies of Amazon sent out another dictionary, through the dummies in I-parcel and guess what...
In spite of what I had told them all - DO NOT SEND IT TO ME, ON THE LAST LEG, VIA AUSTRALIA POST - Because:
They will mark it as return to sender and send it back....
So send it to me via courier on the last leg instead.
What did they do?
They sent it on the same route, and gave it to Australia Post, with it's incompetent management and bored of directors, and they pulled the same "signature on delivery" scam, and they did the same return to sender, all the way back to the UK.
Just like the time before.
Yes the people running Amazon and I-parcel really ARE that stupid.
So this is where we might be going with this.
Global Ping Pong with Amazon...
See from the UK to Australia and back - it's about 35,000 Km or 11,000 miles, for the round trip.
The original dictionary came from the UK, to Australia, and then up to here by Australia Post - then it was sent RETURN TO SENDER, by Australia Post with Geoff Williams - the big knob Australia Post managers blessing, along with the idiot Bored of Directors backing him up.
An excellent example of more knob than direction or management.
I tell the people in Amazon and I-parcel, that they ought to begin offering delivery by courier in the last stage - AND - to deliver my parcel to me, by courier, INSTEAD of Australia Post, because these Customer Satisfaction Survey Mega-Stars, will only mark it RETURN TO SENDER, and send it all the way back to Melbourne, and give it back to I-Parcel, who will return it back to London in England, AGAIN......
And then these clueless customer service agents will send it back to me, for the THIRD TIME, with the signature on delivery, and then it will be marked as RETURN TO SENDER, and it will be sent back to the UK again, and so on and so forth...
Then we will have an international parcel ping pong match going on.....
UK to Australia and back again, via I-Parcel - back and forth, back and forth......
So what happens, I get the lip service "clueless customer consultant replies" both from Amazon.UK, Amazon.USA and I-Parcel....
"Send it to me by courier, because if you don't, then Australia Post will just refuse to deliver it with a signature on delivery, and they will send it back."
And the clueless customer consultant replies from Amazon...
Typical reply No. 1.
I understand that we have created a replacement for your order and you would like to know what delivery method the parcel will be delivered.
Further to your email you have advised that you do not want this item delivered to you via Australia post.
I’m afraid that we don’t have the ability to assign certain carriers to a specific customer or address but we’ll continue working with all of our carriers to drive improvements for our customers.
I have looked into this for you and I can see the parcel has being passed onto IParcel for delivery and is currently in transit. After speaking to them over the phone they advised that they will be passing the parcel onto Australia post once the item reaches Australia. Unfortunately there is no way for us to have the parcel passed onto a different delivery company.
In this case if you do not want to receive the parcel under these conditions please let us know and we will request for the item to be returned to us and issue a full refund for your order.
We realise this incident reflects negatively upon Amazon.co.uk and the feedback you've provided will be used in reviewing the service provided by Australia Post.
Thanks for taking the time to contact us and to bring this to our attention.
I hope this helps. We hope to see you again soon.
(You mean a phone call to a courier is out of the question? Bullshit.)
Typical Reply No. 2 from the Amazon USA - after I have told them it concerns an order from the UK but you need to consider offering delivery by courier as an option, in Australia as well.
Hello,
I'm sorry for any inconvenience caused to you.
I've researched your order and see that you've placed it from Amazon.co.uk one of our international website.
You'll need to contact our partner site, Amazon.co.uk, for more information about your order, as our international websites operate independently. You can contact them directly at:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/
(Oh fucking Duh - yes I know it's about a UK delivery, because that is what I stated at the very beginning - What about acting on the information to have the people running this company - offer delivery by courier in the last leg, instead of just Australia Post - but no - they are just too stupid - it seems to be a prerequisite for American customer service)
And typical reply No. 3 - from I-Parcel........
Thank you for contacting i-Parcel
I show that your parcel has exported
Once your parcel arrives in country and clears customs it will then go to
The last mile carrier: Australia Post
You will then be able to track your parcel using this link: http://auspost.com.au/
Using your local tracking number
(This is after asking them, "Send it by COURIER to me, when it gets into Australia. Do not send it by Australia Post, because they will send it straight back. The idiot does a copy paste reply and nothing gets done - yes they are that stupid.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So I figure that at 35,000Km for a round trip per dictionary delivery, I think if I just sat on my arse and said it never turned up, I could eventually hold the world record for the longest distance ever travelled by a package before delivery....
This could be a noble achievement to add and give meaning to my otherwise worthless life....
20 round trips a year, and 10 years later... and still the consultants and management of Amazon UK, USA and I-Parcel along with Australia Post are still at it....
This is what dreams are made of - I will be in the Guiness Book of Records.
"Yes his dictionary travelled 70 million kilometers - world record!!! Hurruh, Hurruh!"
Still refusing to provide couriers for the final leg of delivery, still refusing to act on my request, still refusing to call I-Parcel and to ask them to deliver it by courier and Australia Post doing their return to sender racket, instead of bypassing the local agent and sticking it on a private courier - as they all do with overflow or gluts of traffic..
Send it out, no signature on delivery, return to sender, send it back, send it back out, no signature on delivery, return it to sender etc.....
Forever....
Here is proof - the resend of the original order - same package two completely different stories.
This is I-Parcels tracking.
Out of customs on the 13th of Feb - and delivered to the Narre Warren Delivery Centre - about 20Km south east of Melbourne. It's now the 17th of Feb.
And Australia Post - and their shit hole tracking...
Out of customs to Australia Post in Tullamarine Airport 30K north of Melbourne - to Sunshine West - 20K west of Melbourne, then to Essendon Fields 10K north of Melbourne and then back to the international gateway at Tullamarine Airport 30K north of Melbourne....
17,000Km here, the idiots running Amazon and I-Parcel put it back into the hands of Australia Post again, who shuffle it 100 or so K's between customs, the delivery centres and then back to the airport and 17,000Km back to the UK.....
LOL
Let the game of global ping pong commence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I guess that is why I really hate having to deal with really stupid people.
Getting Australia Post and it's idiot management and the agents who have "peculiar" ideas on how to earn the customers trust and business, out of ones supply chain, is just so totally worth it.
If the people running Amazon and I-Parcel had of actually advertised that they ONLY use Australia Post for the last leg of the delivery - I would have negotiated to some degree, but generally speaking their impenetrable front line gives appalling lip service, "Oh our contracts are blah blah blah and we can't do nothing about it." - Well you can if you got off your arse and made a phone call to TNT or DHL or Fedex etc., but you and your management are too stupid to be able to do that".
But if the issue was unnegotiable even for an extra fee etc., I would have dumped the sale.
When it comes down to it, having Australia Post in the supply chain is just not worth it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A thought has just occurred to me.
I think the management of Australia Post sling the really low ball prices, for imports and gouge the Australian consumer for EVERYTHING - because I think the story they concoct about the International Postal Union telling them to deliver packages to here for like $5 from the other side of the planet, for what they charge like $40 for delivery to the next suburb, may in fact be total bullshit.
Australia Post have done deals with all the major book sellers, to grab the market share and it seems to me that they are colluding to squeeze the other transport services out of the market.
I think the story about the International Postal Union sticking it to them, and we the consumer having to subsidise the international imports is bullshit....
Amazon.com, Amazon.UK send all their gear via I-Parcel, for distribution within Australia by Australia Post.
Fishpond, Bookworld and Booktopia - all in Australia, all use Australia Post exclusively, which I don't think is particularly healthy - and customers ought to be insisting on delivery by courier - and not Startrack either.
http://www.fishpond.com.au/helpdesk.php?question_id=11
http://www.bookworld.com.au/delivery-information/
http://www.booktopia.com.au/helpCentre.ep#top
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is how organisations and people who have their act together do it and have been doing it for a LONG time....
The History of Freight Trains...
They TRACK every product in every container, every step of the way.
This is really good too.
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