Grandmother slams Australia Post over grandson's present: "Bad service"
A grandmother has criticised Australia Post after a parcel containing a present for her grandson arrived in Victoria but was then sent across the country.
Pauline Hicks' parcel was dispatched from Queensland and arrived in her state, only for it to be then sent to Western Australia for reasons unknown.
Speaking to 3AW Mornings, Pauline shared her story about how she found out her grandson’s toy dinosaurs were being sent across the country unnecessarily.
Pauline said her package left Queensland on Friday 9th of June, and then arrived in Victoria two days later.
"I thought oh well, that's good they're in the state," she said on air.
However, she discovered that her parcel had been sent across the country, to a sorting facility in Western Australia.
Trying to get answers, Pauline had a frustrating discussion online with the Australia Post ‘chatbot’ on the company’s website.
Pauline asked the chatbot why her parcel was sent to another state for processing, only to be told how a parcel is processed and sent.
The chatbot replied: “There are a couple of steps involved in getting your parcel to you and the quickest route may not always be the shortest or most obvious. Once posted it’ll usually, 1. Go to a hub for sorting. 2. Travel to one of our six major parcel centres for processing. 3. Be prepared at a delivery centre. 4. Be delivered to the recipient.”
She then replied: “So the quickest way from Queensland to Victoria 3328 is via Sunshine West, Victoria, then over to Welshpool WA?? Bad service.”
The chatbot then said: “I’m about to show you an answer you’ve already seen. Would you like to see it again?”
The radio host asked Pauline what kind of answers she wanted from Australia Post.
Pauline said: “How does this happen? Why was it gone to Western Australia especially seeing it arrived in Victoria!'”
After a host on 3AW spoke to Australia Post, Pauline was finally given some answers about the mix up.
“They don't know why it went there (WA), but they are looking into it,” the host told Pauline.
Australia Post General Manager Rob Barnes believes the machine may have accidentally read the label wrong at the Sunshine sorting facility, which is why it was sent to Western Australia.
“It looks like in this particular case, the machine can only sort one package at a time, and it's actually read two labels, and both have gone down the chute,” Mr Barnes told 3AW.
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