Australia Post Parcel Pickup Fees

Anyone who has been watching the news knows about the proposed pick up fees soon to be part of Australia Post's service.

For those who are unaware, it goes like this.
You order something to be delivered, in due time you get a notice in your mailbox that the item has arrived and needs to be picked up from your local Post Office.
This is how it has been for many years.
But if proposed actions go through, you will soon have to pay to pick up your parcel.
From August onwards.

Unfair! Unfair! is what I'm hearing from people in the street, people interviewed on TV and people writing in to their newspaper.

I say, hang on a minute. Think about this. 

You have a notice to pick up a parcel. 
Something you wanted. Something you bought. Something you paid for.
 
Perhaps the postie tried to deliver it and you weren't home. A notice goes into your letterbox.
If you know which day it will be delivered, arrange for someone to be home if you can't be there yourself. When organising delivery, if you know you won't be home, perhaps arrange for the parcel to be left with a neighbour.
Okay, none of this is possible and now you have a notice in your letterbox. 

Now you have 5 days to pick up your parcel, before any fees are tagged on to it.
Five days. 
Five!

As far as I'm concerned, five days is plenty of time to arrange time to get that parcel. 
Remember, this is something you wanted, bought, paid for.
Why would you leave it sitting in a Post Office back room? 
WHY?

About the new pick up fees. 
If you pick up your parcel within the five days, there is no fee. That's right. NO fee.
AFTER five days it will cost you three dollars. 
For every five days after that, any uncollected parcel will be charged with an extra three dollars.

And this seems fair to me. 
They're a Post Office, NOT a storage facility. They have limited space and parcels come in all shapes and sizes.
If you can't make it to the Post Office yourself, (in five days you can't find a half hour?) phone them and tell them you are sending a representative.  

Get that parcel, that something you wanted, bought, paid good money for. 
Get it within the five days.


Comments

  1. Exactly as I thought when I saw the story. I've not had a parcel delivered for a while but what really annoyed me was when Aus Post stopped trying to deliver parcels to buildings like ours and just put post office collection cards in our letter boxes. Always on the card would be the time the delivery person tried to deliver, some being times when I was home and could have accepted a delivery.

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  2. I saw that on TV too. Delivery vans were secretly filmed and drivers were found to be simply putting a notice into the letterbox without going to the door. that's wrong and they should be taken back in for retraining or a good talking to, lazy buggers.

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    Replies
    1. I wasn't aware that had been exposed. Good!

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  3. Whenever they deliver a slip to me, it says the item can be picked up after 4:30 at X post office, and I am always there at exactly 4:30 to pick it up.

    However, they have now taken to leaving slips under the front screen door. If I was not expecting a package, I would likely not find that slip for some time. We do not use the front door very often at all! I check the *letterbox* where I believe these slips are meant to be left every day though.

    So in that instance if they tried to charge me I would be very unhappy. :(

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  4. I do a lot of online purchasing; mostly every thing other than my supermarket/food/grocery shopping I do via on line purchase; and every thing I buy on line is delivered to my doorstep. I never have to go to the P.O. to collect.

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  5. Snoskred; you may need to speak to someone at the post Office to ensure notices are put in the letterbox, not under the door.

    Lee; most things are delivered to my doorstep too, unless I'm not home. A lot of what I buy is small enough to fit in the letterbox, which is even better. books, dvds..

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  6. So long as there is some flexibility in it, I don't have a problem. We have had notes put under our front mat. Which remain unseen until I pick up the mat to sweep. Which doesn't happen every day.

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  7. Elephant's Child; another instance where you need to inform the Post Office that under the mat is not acceptable since you won't find it.

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  8. I don't think that sounds bad, either. As you said...5 days should give people enough time to retrieve their package. I think the idea of new fees just tend to make people irrational but this really sounds manageable.

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  9. Cheryl; I think the new fees are justified. Like the news program said, people who don't pick up their parcels promptly should be "fined" in this way. Apparently some people leave their parcels uncollected for as long as a month, with some parcels being returned to the sender.

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  10. Fine unless you don't drive, get sick (I am at the moment) and you know the parcel to be signed for is the size of a regular letter which the postie can handle. All my big books are delivered to the door except when I get a dill who thinks I might have a dog because of the mesh to keep the cat in and then just throws it over the fence. The fees aren't justified because Australia Post has already taken the money to deliver it and what they want is to shut down deliveries altogether and goodbye posties, more jobs lost for profit.

    ReplyDelete

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