People Are Calling Australia Post The “Christmas Grinch” Over Parcel Delivery Failures

Upset customers are accusing Australia Post of failing to deliver parcels properly ahead of Christmas.

People are claiming drivers are simply distributing pick-up slips and dumping items at the nearest post office, reports the ABC.

Nicky Breen, spokesperson from Choice, said the delays are especially frustrating for people waiting on Christmas deliveries.

“The biggest bugbear is for a consumer to walk out of their house and find a missed delivery notification in their mailbox,” she said. “Even though they’d been home all day.”

Then they’re left to face lengthy queues at the post office to retrieve their parcels. (No one likes lengthy queues.)

Earlier this year, Choice did a survey about common parcel delivery problems. The most common complaint they found was about receiving “missed delivery” notifications when the customers were actually at home.

Ms Breen says if people think drivers aren’t making genuine attempts to deliver their items, they should notify Australia Post.

“It’s much easier now to trace delivery to drivers, so if you’re having an issue… make a complaint,” she said.

Union representative Peter Chaloner told the ABC that drivers are under serious pressure in December. “When the heat’s on at Christmas time, there’s only so many hours in the day,” he said.

“You’re not getting paid for extra hours, you’re just getting paid for extra articles, so shortcuts are taken.”

Delivery drivers are required to knock and call out, according to Australia Post policies. “We encourage our customers to contact us if our delivery drivers are not attempting delivery to the door,” the company said in a statement.

“That way we can follow up with our drivers in that area to ensure they do follow our national policy of knocking and calling out to the door before leaving a card.”

Hopefully, you don’t have this happen to you. (Not Australia Post, but still.)

Photo: Facebook (@australiapost)