A man living with a disability says he was forced to catch four buses in order to collect his parcel, despite the fact he was home when Australia Post said a delivery was attempted.
This is just one of the over one million complaints made about Australia Post in the last financial year. It was detailed in a report by the commonwealth ombudsman Michael Manthorpe in a report released on Tuesday.
Australia Post delivered over 2.6 billion letters and parcels last year to 11.7 million mailboxes, post boxes and other delivery points. The ombudsman said that when compared to the level of complaints about the Royal Mail in the United Kingdom (12.2 billion letters and 1.4 million complaints), Australia Post's complaints rate is high.
Many people complained that Australia Post told them they were not home for a delivery, when in fact they were waiting at home. Australia Post officers are supposed to knock three times, and wait for 30 seconds before leaving a card to notify a person of a missed delivery.
Manthorpe said that his office had received about 500 complaints over the past three years about issues with either receiving a card when home or not receiving a card at all (his office received over 4,000 complaints in total in the last financial year). Delivery issues made up 26% of all complaints to the ombudsman.
About 40% of people who complained about no attempted delivery made by Australia Post said it wasn't the first time it had happened to them.
"A small number of complainants advised they were housebound due to surgery, age or disability which severely restricted their ability to collect parcels," Manthorpe said. "In one case, a complainant with [a] disability reported he had to catch four buses to collect his parcel."
People also complained that Australia Post didn't make it easy to lodge a complaint.
"I was told … that my complaint was not a complaint, it was feedback and that feedback will be entered into the system and the case closed," one person told the ombudsman. "Although I asked for follow up, they dismissed my complaint without explanation and the matter was closed."
Manthorpe said that Australia Post's website, for example, does not offer the ability for customers to lodge a complaint through its general enquiry form.
"Customers are required to establish a MyPost account or an Australia Post account
in order to lodge an online enquiry and eventually a complaint," he said. "In our view Australia Post could improve accessibility to its complaints system to make it more straightforward for its customers to lodge a complaint."
The ombudsman said in the report that people often complained to the ombudsman that no contact was received by the complainant after lodging a complaint, and Australia Post would often not follow up complaints.
When it came to compensation for lost items, the ombudsman found that Australia Post was inconsistent in its decision-making around which cases would get money back and which would not. Some Australia Post decision-makers were reportedly less willing to offer payment for lost items.
"For all we know, your parcel could have contained rocks," the ombudsman reports Australia Post telling a customer.
"We do not suggest that all those who complain should be compensated however, when four out of every five cases we investigated received appropriate compensation after our involvement, it is clear that the internal complaint-handling process is not effective in resolving these disputes," Manthorpe said.