My letter to the postman

[dazzler]

Hi all

We have a contractor who delivers our mail as we are living rural. Lazy sod never delivers parcels but just shoves the pre written "parcel waiting" card in amongst them so we need to drive to 'town" to collect them.

Anyways, phoned Auspost and they said that was ok under the contract.. but that I could write to the manager to complain. Here is my letter;


The Contract Manager
Australia Post
GPO Box 4000
Hobart TAS 7001

CONTRACTOR MAIL DELIVERY

Dear Madam/Sir,

I am writing to raise an issue with you that is of concern. I currently live at XXX YYYY Road Margate Tasmania and our mail is delivered by a contractor. The previous contractor delivered parcels to the front door of our property however the current contractor does not.

This contractor makes no effort to deliver the parcel even if they can see us standing on the front porch 18metres away. It appears that they already have the red “parcel collection” form completed as they stop and it is already in the mail they are putting in our letter box. The latest one that arrived yesterday (20/7/09) was actually placed inside a food catalogue. These are normally thrown in the recycling directly however my wife dropped it and it fell out.

Today I spoke with the call centre on 131318 and the lady advised that as part of the contract they are not required to get out of their vehicle and deliver the parcel if they don’t want to. I have watched Postman Pat on TV and he seems to be able to deliver parcels in all types of weather including when its snowing and even when the bridge to Alfs house is damaged and he had to go all the way past Mrs Goggins place. Maybe having his cat Jess helps him.

Hoping you could advise on the following;

1. Is it correct that the contractor can decide whether or not to deliver a parcel?
2. If it is correct then please record the fact that my jaw dropped and hit the floor. I now have a bruise on my chin.
3. Is there any way that I can have parcels delivered to my address other than using a separate courier?
4. If I have a “Parcel Sized” mail box is the contractor then obliged to deliver parcels that fit?
5. Would the contractor deliver my parcels if I painted his car red and gave him a black and white cat called Jess?

Many thanks,

Dazzler

PS. I am aware that Postman Pat is a puppet……but he is a very good postman

[wheelinround]

I'd be checking out Australia Post Contract status online if the lazy dope is being paid to deliver parcels and is only delivering the slips he is in breach of contract. Unless of course they are COD.

Might be the same fellow we had in Tamworth did the same thing till he got caught

[Big Shed]

Great letter Dazzler

However, you don't know how lucky you are, at least yuo get your letters put in your letter box.
Like you, we also live in the country, but unlike you we do not even get "roadside delivery".

We have to pay extra to get a Post Office box, so that Australia Post can save money and not pay a contractor to deliver our mail.

A couple of years ago Australia Post sent all the people in the area a questionnaire asking whether we wanted roadside delivery (we've only been asking for some 10 years plus!).

Everyone answered in the affirmative, so we were all expecting roadside delivery "real soon now"!

Imagine our absolute astonishment when we all received a letter from AP which in effect said:

Thank you very much for your overwhelming support for roadside delivery, however due to contractual arrangements we are not in a position to provide this service"

So why ask the question duh!

The wonders of bureaucracy.

Count yourself lucky my friend to get most mail delivered to your letter box on your boundary.

[snowyskiesau]

My previous mail contractor used to be of the same ninja variety. He could manage to leave 'sorry we missed you' card in the letter box even if I was working in the front yard (only 3 meters from front of house to footpath) Not having a car meant a 2 kilometer walk to pick up the parcel.

The current contractor is great. Unless the parcel requires a signature, he'll always leave it on the front verandah and cover it with the door mat. He's never too busy to stop for a chat if I'm home, but I suspect that's more to help with his English.

[dj_pnevans]

We have been lucky with AP contractors they will leave it if no sig is req. We only had 1 bad one and he just didn’t deliver at all it was only that we where waiting so a call to AP and he was delivering on Saturday to catch up with all the deliveries.
David

[Shuttle]

Can't wait to see the reply.

BC

[Cliff Rogers]

The 'lazy' bugger probley won it by quoting to low & can only make it pay by taking shortcuts.

[Burnsy]

Made us laugh greenie on the way

[weisyboy]

mine dose teh same anyhting bigger than a dl letter and i gotta pick it up

[watson]

We drive to town.......or no mail.
Drive to town.......or no rubbish clearance.
Take away means drive to town.
Sometimes I'd pay $50 for a home delivered Pizza, if there was one.

[Ben from Vic.]

Dazzler, you'll probably find that the postman leaves the package at the post office and just brings the pickup slip. Thats what they do here.

However, we're just inside the free pizza delivery radius as the pizza joint is up our end of town.

[Barry_White]

Before our previous mail contractor retired she always brought any parcels> When the new contractor took over on his first delivery there was a parcel to be delivered but he just left the note to pick it up from the post office.

I rang the post office about it because it is a 140klm round trip and that isn't even on the way to town. The lady at the post office said "I will just send you a form to sign and he will deliver any parcels and that gives him the authority to sign for any parcels that have to be signed for" and then they are left in my box which is one of those tradesman's boxes that the use on the back of a truck.

[Christopha]

I don't know what you are whinging about? Before I moved over here to the beach to live we had NO postal contractor that drove past our driveway even though a hundred or so uncontracted cars did every day. Neither us nor any of our neighbours who lived off the main highway had any either. We had to go to the PO in town..
Now I live in a small seaside town and here there is no postie at all. We have to go to the little PO to collect everything. The ladies who run it are beaut and go out of their way to oblige but sometimes I forget to check my mail box for a week or so and boy does it pile up!
The contractors I see about the place usually have a small 4 cylinder car as they have to cover a fair distance every day and as they are contractors they need the most economical vehicle they can manage. I wouldn't fancy filling up a little bubble car with bloody parcels either!

[weisyboy]

pizza delivery in my dreams.

an its only 10 mins to the pizza place.

[mjmjm]

Postman Pat's only a puppet?
Wish ya han't tole me that.