Pullenvale woman’s mail delivery bungle not helped by photo

When this Brisbane mum had a parcel go missing in the post, Australia Post sent her a photo of where it had been delivered. There was just one problem...

Sue Balmer's missing chair legs at someone else's property.

A BRISBANE woman has called for greater accountability from Australia Post after they sent her a photo of where her missing parcel had been left at her address - except that it wasn’t a location she had ever seen before.

Sue Balmer bought $100 worth of furniture legs about a year ago but they never arrived at her Pullenvale home.

She lodged a query with them but never had any resolution until she stumbled across an email in her others folder this week that the postal service had sent almost a year ago.

It contained a photo of her missing chair legs in a box at a mystery location that she’d never seen before.

“We have a new process which enables some drivers to capture an image to confirm delivery for parcels that are delivered when no one is home. Drivers capture an image on their scanners for parcels that do not require a signature on delivery and are able to be left in a secure location at the delivery address,” Australia Post wrote in the email.

But even a year on, Mrs Balmer said the photo contained no clues as to the whereabouts of the missing chair legs.

She posted the photo on Facebook this week asking if anyone recognised the location.

“So couriers can deliver stuff anywhere really - just get a photo,” she wrote.

“Can 4069 solve the mystery of where my furniture legs are? Stay tuned...”

Mrs Balmer said she just wanted to improve the process to stop this happening to anyone else.

Sue Balmer's missing chair legs at an unknown location.

“You go to the disputes page and if you ring someone, you’ve got to tell six different people. You input the reference number and it tells you it’s already an inquiry, so you can’t actually follow up. It’s all just too hard,” she said.

“Then eventually I got this email and they sent me a photo of my parcel. And I thought ‘wow, this mystery might be solved’ but it’s on someone else’s veranda. By that stage, I was just thinking it was funny.”

Mrs Balmer said there was another issue that needed to be addressed when it came to missing mail.

“When people get parcels that aren’t theirs, why aren’t they taking them back to Australia Post?” she said.

“Last year, I had a box of champagne that was delivered to me and it was supposed to go to another address. Luckily it had the lady’s mobile on it, so I called her and she came and picked it up. We get wine delivered all the time and we’ve had wine go missing.”

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“I would say to people, if you get stuff delivered that isn’t yours, tell Australia Post because they don’t know if you don’t tell them. And do the right thing - be honest. Let’s help Australia Post get better.”

She encouraged people to put misdelivered mail back in the post and mark it ‘reposted’ so Australia Post knew it hadn’t reached its intended destination on the first try.

After discovering the email with the photo of her missing parcel, Mrs Balmer sent another email to Australia Post, and got another standard letter in response.

“I don’t want this to be a witch hunt. I just want it to be an opportunity to stop it happening. The trend is for people to buy online and they have to have the confidence to do that,” she said.

“If Australia Post want people to trust them, they have to have something that is accountable. Sending people a photo of your parcel on someone else’s front deck doesn’t instil a lot of faith.”

Australia Post contacted Mrs Balmer yesterday and offered to send a money order to cover the cost of her furniture legs.

An Australia Post spokesman said their posties and delivery drivers work hard to ensure customers receive their mail correctly.

“But this time something has unfortunately gone wrong. We have apologised to the customer and provided compensation,” he said.

“On delivery, our drivers will capture a photo if no one is home to sign for a parcel – this can then be used to assist with any missing parcel enquiries. If customers have any concerns about their mail delivery, we encourage them to contact us on 13 POST so that we can investigate and find out what has happened.”