An online Australia Post auction for undelivered items has outraged customers as the nation’s postal service faces backlash for widespread delivery delays.
Australia Post is facing criticism for advertising an auction online for undelivered goods in Western Australia while shoppers still wait for packages.
Televisions, gaming consoles, drones and first aid kits are just some of the items to be put under the hammer.
Australia Post customers waiting weeks for packages were outraged after an online auction for undelivered goods was advertised online in Western Australia
The auction listed items like televisions, drones and gaming consoles up for sale with all proceeds donated to charity
Despite regularly hosting auctions for lost items Australia Post’s recent sale has struck a nerve with disgruntled customers on Facebook.
‘Maybe they should just deliver the parcels. I don’t know how many times in the last couple of months they have said we don’t have your parcel and then it has been delivered that week,’ wrote one Facebook user.
‘This is totally unacceptable. Most of these items were lost by AP and now they’re trying to sell them back to us. How disgraceful,’ commented another.
‘Ah….so this is what’s going on….Australia Post ‘loses’ heaps of parcels then miraculously ‘finds’ them only to auction them off ,’ added a third.
‘They will probably lose it posting to you,’ one person joked.
Australia Post has received mounting criticism for widespread delays as it tries to cope with demand during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last month a shocking photo emerged showing an Australia Post warehouse with an immense number of parcels still waiting to be delivered.
A ‘terrifying’ image (pictured) of inside an Australia Post warehouse has emerged online showing the shocking number of parcels the company is processing each day
The image was taken inside Australia Post’s Sunshine West distribution warehouse in Melbourne.
The mountain of parcels comes after more Australians were forced to turn to online shopping during lockdown.
Border restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic has also added to the delivery headaches.
The postal service has maintained its first priority is to make sure all packages reach customers, with items marked undeliverable due to an incorrect sender and recipient address.
‘If an item can’t be delivered due to incorrect addressing and can’t be returned to sender, it is sent to a Mail Redistribution Centre (MRC),’ Australia Post told Daily Mail Australia.
Australia Post general manager of corporate affairs, Michelle Skehan said the company is struggling to find solutions to cope with the backlog of parcels, hiring over 1000 new staff in Victoria alone and delivering on weekends
‘At the MRC, the item will be opened, catalogued and stored for two months. This catalogue is accessible by our contact centre team who will use it to reunite customers with their missing mail.
‘If the two-month retention period lapses and the item hasn’t been claimed, all identifying markings are removed and the item will be auctioned with 100 per cent of the proceeds going to charity.’
The postal service added in rare circumstances a customer may recognise a lost item listed in an auction and if so they are encouraged to contact them.
‘Our National Customer Contact Centre will work with the customer and if proof or ownership can be established, the item is withdrawn from the auction and returned.’
Australia Post paused deliveries from eCommerce retailers from Friday, October 1 to Wednesday, October 6 in order to safely catch up on the large backlog of orders they have
Source: DailyMail