Australia Post Tracking - Why is it hopeless?

[ol' boy]

For the passed 10+ years, Aus Post Tracking has been hopeless, (for me anyway)
Either failing to report the whereabouts of an item from Seller to Buyer, or just so behind the curve it is pointless

Next, the Australia Post Tracking website doesn't even recognise the tracking numbers im given. Ever!
(maybe i try a different browser)

Do others find this?

The cheapest purchase from China has 100 times better tracking, and its faster, yet once it arrives in Australia it turns into snail mail in the truest sense of the word.

I spent some time on Google and seems this is a very common issue for many people

What the hell is going on here??

[RogerTheDoger]

Yes I've found it useless also. I suspect that items are not scanned anywhere along the route taken. I only see when it was accepted and when it was delivered.

[fandtm666]

its fooked have parcel sitting at chullora for 12 days now

[enf]

its fooked have parcel sitting at chullora for 12 days now

I've had the same crap, obviously not Chullora, but the same.

I reckon it's all a typo. Its not parcel tracking, it"s TREKKING!! The number has always showed mine all over the place....

[wotnot]

It's hopeless because their terms and conditions allow it to be ->

[ol' boy]

The main issues i find, is sellers provide you with a Tracking Number

1. These number have many different formats (i guess for the different levels of service)
2. They point you to this website to check progress
3. I am yet to see a provided number even work on the page above

Next, the built-in eBay tracking

I think we all get the standard response:



Then in my cases, it goes from there, with not a single other update and arrives at my Post Office
Or, as in lately, it's just gone!!!
Leaving you to wonder.... Are fake Tracking Numbers being used with some Sellers?




I'm just amazed, with an advanced western country like Australia, where parcels are scanned at every point, that they can not do what China can manage handling 10,000 times as many items

[Godzilla]

Try NOT sent with Aus post, everyone assumes it is but quite often its not.

The listing may show Aus post however the seller makes the choice depending on postcode, some couriers are far more expensive than others so the seller may choose to use a different service.

Contact the seller, mention the tracking does not work with Aus post, see what they say.

Unless of course they put up a dodgy tracking number to appease the ebay gods that its sent, buying time to get it in from the supplier id guess.....

Edit, yep and Aus post hate scanning, it drives ebay management up the wall, ebay try pushing ebay plus and guaranteed delivery with buyers getting something back if its late and here is Aus post not scanning so there is no proof it was sent late.

[ol' boy]

Thanks for the Live Chat Australia Post, its on par with your Tracking Service

Don't we pay the CEO of Aust Post $300,000 a year or something?

[peteramjet]

Where are your packages coming from?

I find items posted from within Australia, either standard tracking or express post, to Australia track fine on most occasions. Of the 12 recent tracked parcels in my AusPost app from with Australia, 10 of them have dropped, processed, on board and delivered notifications. 2 do have the ‘dropped’ or processed info as it likely wasn’t initially scanned in, but all other info is there.

The items from outside Australia are a different story. They have a tracking number, but generally all I’ll get is a processed mitigation, sometimes an out for delivery and most of the time a delivered notification.

[fandtm666]

Where are your packages coming from?

I find items posted from within Australia, either standard tracking or express post, to Australia track fine on most occasions. Of the 12 recent tracked parcels in my AusPost app from with Australia, 10 of them have dropped, processed, on board and delivered notifications. 2 do have the ‘dropped’ or processed info as it likely wasn’t initially scanned in, but all other info is there.

The items from outside Australia are a different story. They have a tracking number, but generally all I’ll get is a processed mitigation, sometimes an out for delivery and most of the time a delivered notification.

well mine is still at chullora hasnt moved in 13 days no reply to my lodgement
and was sent from mulgrave in sydney .

My wife also sent a package last tuesday from tweed and finally last night it showed it was in
redbank qld so it took 7 days to travel 100kms

pathetic

[VroomVroom]

Ive found their tracking system hopeless , even back in 2005 when I was a regular user of the Express envelopes. most of the time items got there ok but if there was one going astray it became a nightmare. I'd phone the call centre , quote the tracking number and they wouldn't see it in their system? or it would be being processed interstate ? WTF? clowns

[wotnot]

I saw it work properly in remarkable style once or twice ; bought something in Melb. and I'm 100-odd klms south of Bris. ; watched tracking report the consignment being picked up, getting on a plane, arriving at BNE, going to a mail center, then off the the GoldCoast, turns up at a mail center west of Syd, about face and board another plane to BNE, goes to a different mail center, back to the GoldCoast...and eventually to me.

Not seen that for a couple of years now ... came up with a hypothetical :: if their mail *delivery* service/system screws up, their tracking system, if accurate & on time, effectively would show how screwed up their delivery system is -- a good tracking system make lax/poor handling system look bad. They use a lot of subcontractors too...it's not a cohesive unit like Toll or other logistics companies.

Try reading thru this lot;

&&

On the plus side, at least you don't have to buy from China to get one of those 'fake' USB sticks that claim to be 32gb but only be 8/16gb ...you can just go to your local PO. You know, look in your local PO 'austpost store' ...they are -not- just a carrier (nor are they a 'common carrier') ...go to your local courier depot office, and see if you can buy anything -other- than a consignment contract - you can't - they're only involved in transport, they don't have their own chinabay shop in store.

For me, austpost works (or doesn't work) exactly as expected for a business model that doesn't concentrate solely on mail/postal services -- this is a good read ->

[lsemmens]

Back when I was selling Computers (last century) it would take 4 days for a parcel to arrive in Darwin via courier from Sydney, longer from elsewhere. One company I dealt with was in in Western Sydney (cant recall where or the company now but it was up Penrith way). I ordered a product at 0800 in the morning and it arrived on my desk that afternoon!!! I was stunned as was everyone else I told!! Some small courier company (can't even remember that name now) was able to pick up a parcel, process it and get it to Darwin in 8 hours!!!!! Needless to say, I sang their praises to all and sundry for weeks!!!!

I just remembered:

[ol' boy]

Where are your packages coming from?

I find items posted from within Australia, either standard tracking or express post, to Australia track fine on most occasions. Of the 12 recent tracked parcels in my AusPost app from with Australia, 10 of them have dropped, processed, on board and delivered notifications. 2 do have the ‘dropped’ or processed info as it likely wasn’t initially scanned in, but all other info is there.

The items from outside Australia are a different story. They have a tracking number, but generally all I’ll get is a processed mitigation, sometimes an out for delivery and most of the time a delivered notification.

Mosty from Sydney

[wotnot]

Another perspective, I get when buying stuff from Amayama (Japan) for car parts instead of aussie dealerships (lets say Nissan) -- Amayama can get the part to me cheaper, and 4 days faster from Japan, than if I buy/order the part from Nissan Aust when the part's in Melb. Go figure...and then, on the extremely rare occasion when austpost actually *does* deliver in a reasonable timeframe, not even YOU yourself believe it, let alone anyone else --- with austpost, if it arrives on time, you can't help thinking 'something went wrong'...

...think like this ...(I know a couple of package handlers m'kay)...if you have a standard parcelpost and an expresspost package of the same item, lodged with austpost in say Sydney and addressed to a location in Brisbane, what happens when your operational logistics sees both those packages on the same flight from SYD to BNE ..on the same night, so they arrive at the postal sorting facility in Brisbane at the same time. It's simple....you effectively have to delay the normal parcelpost item, so there's a perceived benefit or gain from paying the additional expresspost fees....and if you don't do that, people will just pay for normal parcelpost instead, because it's just as quick as expresspost...right? Now...what if your tracking system was so accurate, you could actually see this deliberate delay taking place?

Why does austpost tracking suck?...form a mental picture - it's all about money =)

[george65]

The infallible law with couriers or the post for me is the length of the delay something takes to arrive is inversely and exponentially proportionate the the desperation which i am in to get it soon as possible.

If it's not something I am in in any hurry for, will be here from across the world tomorrow.
If My life depends on it, will take a month to get from the next suburb.