Australia Post delivery driver deemed couple’s front stairs too dangerous to climb

A couple sued Australia Post and won after a postie stopped delivering their parcels and claimed their front stairs were unsafe.

Wade Short has won compensation after Australia Post failed to deliver the family’s parcels. Picture: David Caird

A Melbourne couple has sued Australia Post for failing to deliver parcels to their front door – and won.

The David and Goliath battle resulted in Wade Short and Veronica Libson being awarded $3100.50 in compensation for the hours taken for them to drive to their nearest post office in Eltham to collect the parcels over an 18-month period.

Australia Post was also ordered to pay the couple’s $217.70 legal bill.

The landmark case could lead to a flurry of other customers launching claims against the mailing agent.

Mr Short, 47, told the Herald Sun that parcels — including crucial medicine for their eight-year-old daughter, Morgan, who is waiting for a liver transplant — stopped being delivered to their door, after he made multiple complaints about his postman.

He said the delivery driver would leave parcels at the door without knocking, or simply leave a card in the letter box without even checking if someone was home.

On some occasions no card would be left at all.

He said the postie even threw a parcel up their stairs after claiming the treads were not safe to climb.

Wade Short on the stairs a delivery driver deemed too dangerous to climb. Picture: David Caird

It all came to a head in June 2020, when Mr Short, who was working in the frontyard when the delivery driver came, confronted him about his poor service.

The moment Mr Short told the driver he had put in a formal complaint to Australia Post about him, he said the postie snatched a parcel back off him and told him, “fine, from now on you can go to the post office to pick up your parcels”.

“I told him I was sick and tired of him not delivering our parcels and that I had made complaints about him,” Mr Short said.

“He carried on and said, ‘your stairs are not safe’.”

A stand-off then persisted with the postman refusing to leave the property, despite Mr Short’s requests.

Mr Short then received email correspondence from Australia Post national resolutions manager Andrew Ballantyne to say parcels would no longer be delivered to him “as the health and safety of its staff was paramount”.

Mr Ballantyne wrote the driver had informed management and reported to police he had been abused at the property.

He even provided a police reference number when asked by Mr Short.

But it was later uncovered police had no record of it and the reference number was false.

Five months later, the postman made a statement to police, but no charges were laid.

“It was just a joke — the whole thing was based on false information,” Mr Short said.

Frustrated that his continual complaints to Australia Post and the Ombudsman were falling on deaf ears, in February last year Mr Short pursued the national postal service in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal for contravening the consumer guarantees of Australian Consumer Law.

“It was the principle of it, not the money,” Mr Short said.

“When they commit to delivering to your door then they should stick to that.”

At court, Mr Ballantyne conceded that the initial decision to stop deliveries to the address was purely on the driver’s advice and a belief there was a police report.

Tribunal member Neill Campbell ruled Australia Post’s parcel delivery was “not undertaken with due care and skill”.

Mr Campbell said there was no basis under the Terms and Conditions for the parcels not to be delivered to the delivery address.

“I find that Australia Post stopped deliveries of parcels to their residence due to Mr Short telling the driver that he had made a formal complaint to Australia Post regarding the driver failing to deliver parcels to the front door,” he said.

“On this basis, I am not satisfied that Australia Post had a reasonable opinion that the parcels could not be delivered to the street address as required.”

He used an hourly rate of $79.50 to work out the compensation figure, saying Ms Libson was inconvenienced by having to take 30 minutes out of her day for her weekly visit to the post office.

In a statement, Australia Post said it “respects” VCAT’s decision, and that it had recommenced deliveries to the address.