Courier Post -- a shambles in action

Forums › Off topic › Courier Post -- a shambles in action

frankv

5705 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3666

Lifetime subscriber

#281058 27-Jan-2021 12:49

So, I ordered something from AliExpress (Free Shipping), to be delivered to me at my work address. I follow it on Track & Trace, and it is apparently delivered. But no-one at work knows anything about it. I submit a ticket to Courier Post support, and I get a call back. "The parcel was in a too-cheap-for-courier-delivery postage category, so they have delivered it (and, being signature-required, signed for it in my name) to my company's PO Box". Hmmm, points for inventiveness and blind adherence to the rules, but it would have been cheaper and easier and quicker to just give it to the courier driver who comes round here every day, and fulfil their obligation to the sender to deliver it to the address that they specified. As indeed happened with another parcel from AliExpress yesterday.

However, the PO Box belongs to a different branch of my company. So I've chased it up with the branch manager, and they haven't actually received it.

Back to the NZPost Call Centre. Three days in a row they have told me that the parcel, via "GPS tracking", is located at the Mail Centre. (There is no way for Joe Public to contact the Mail Centre except to physically go there. No email. No phone. It's like they're in the 1920s or something.) Each time, I am promised that the Call Centre person will chase it up with the Mail Centre. To be fair, we have made some progress... the Call Centre has a record of messaging the Mail Centre (on some kind of internal, non-email messaging system... I envisage one of those pneumatic tube popular a century ago in department stores) this morning. There is no way to find out the status of this request. The latest Call Centre operator opined that a search of the entire Mail Centre was probably underway, and that this would take some time.

They have literally one job....

Bung

6734 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2928

Subscriber

#2643055 27-Jan-2021 13:43

You're getting the quality of delivery that you've paid for.

Oblivian

7345 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2117

ID Verified

#2643057 27-Jan-2021 13:51

Have found larger or courier specific paid items go by courierpost. doubt free includes sig? (Or did seller just put it on the label...) Or only if business address with regular drops.

But the majority nzpost red post labels vs courierpost. Their own delivery van out of mail centre, or postie pouch.

The postie will mailbox drop ours almost regardless. Which if was nzpost end mile, rather than courierpost would likely redirect to a po box, where they grab smaller items

richms

29109 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10225

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2643094 27-Jan-2021 15:30

Issue at work is no postal delivery to the street address, so they redirect for free to the po box, but that is another trip thru the slow distribution center, so 10 days to get a posted parcel to the street address is not uncommon.

I asked about getting home made to not accept postal mail and have it sent to my po box for free and they wont do it.

Richard rich.ms

Dial111

979 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 656

#2643095 27-Jan-2021 15:32

Bung: You're getting the quality of delivery that you've paid for.

This, it's not Courier Posts job to deliver a NZ Post item.

Also, if your job isn't registered for post then NZ Post will default it to that companies PO Box if they have one.

SirHumphreyAppleby

2943 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1865

#2643116 27-Jan-2021 16:19

Dial111:
Bung: You're getting the quality of delivery that you've paid for.

This, it's not Courier Posts job to deliver a NZ Post item.

No, it's New Zealand Post's job to deliver the mail. CourierPost is nothing more than a New Zealand Post brand. In the past it existed as Express Couriers Ltd with NZ Post and Deutsche Post as shareholders (NZ Post only in later years).

What NZ Post has said is probably true. These days the packages seem more likely to be delivered by the postie as they're essentially driving miniature delivery vans, while in the past they were almost always delivered by CourierPost no matter how cheap the item was.

frankv

5705 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3666

Lifetime subscriber

#2643119 27-Jan-2021 16:32

Dial111:
Bung: You're getting the quality of delivery that you've paid for.

This, it's not Courier Posts job to deliver a NZ Post item.

Also, if your job isn't registered for post then NZ Post will default it to that companies PO Box if they have one.

I agree it's not Courier Post's job. But it *is* NZPost's job, and they're failing to do it. Given it's not Courier Post's job, why did it go to Courier Post in the first place?

I can accept that they defaulted to a PO Box, albeit the wrong one... it's an understandable mistake. The problem I have is that, after tracking my parcel for thousands of km, NZPost seem to have lost it within their own Mail Centre.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

quickymart

14945 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 13965

ID Verified

#2643149 27-Jan-2021 17:11

frankv:

There is no way for Joe Public to contact the Mail Centre except to physically go there.

Problem with this approach is if they allowed this, everyone and their dog would walk up and complain every time something was delayed, and no one would ever get anything delivered.

andrewNZ

2487 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1461
Inactive user

#2643171 27-Jan-2021 17:56

I think you need to see the mail center and how the process works to appreciate just how hard it is to find a single item in the system, even when it's where it's supposed to be. NZ Post also employ people, and people sometimes do a crap job, so it might not be where it should be.

Your parcel is probably in a ULD (a pallet sized bin or cage) with literally hundreds of other similar parcels, and it may be one of several ULD's for this category of parcel.

Finding it specifically is hard, and takes a lot of time.
It will likely turn up in due course.

As for the situation you're in.
You have asked for a postal delivery to a non postal address, be thankful it isn't being returned to the sender.
The fact that you sometimes get things should be considered good luck.

sleemanj

1515 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 317

#2644771 31-Jan-2021 15:51

This is one of the reasons I stopped using standard postal parcels to send trade me sales - the number of people who would give me a business address and then complain when it didn't arrive, only for me to send them the screenshot from NZ Post address finder showing they gave me a no-postal-delivery address.

You purchased something from Aliexpress, you didn't choose a courier delivery option, you chose a standard postal option. It's not courier. It's delivered by the local postie (or a card is delivered and it's held at the appropriate sorting depot). if you don't have postal delivery to the address you provided, well, good luck with that.

---
James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

quickymart

14945 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 13965

ID Verified

#2644809 31-Jan-2021 17:46

The hours for parcel collection at the Glenfield Mall lobby just changed from 7-9 in the mornings Monday-Friday. Inconvenient much?