‘Too lazy to walk to the door’: Posties slammed by furious residents over sneaky behaviour
Australia Post’s delivery drivers have been called lazy, with dozens of customers claiming posties have left "sorry we missed you" cards at their door without bothering to ring the bell or knock to check someone is home.
Many customers from all over the country have reported being home while their postie has been to visit, and witnessing them failing to do their job and deliver packages.
Instead of having their items delivered, red cards have been left for the customers to take to the post office to collect their package themselves, dozens have said.
One customer shared a screenshot to Reddit on Tuesday of a text message chain that appears to be from the AusPost customer service team.
The customer’s response is timestamped one minute after the initial text message, but the sender informed them it was too late and the driver had already been to their home - apparently in the space of a minute.
This sparked an avalanche of comments from users all over the country complaining of “lazy” posties who failed to deliver their packages.
“I was home all day yesterday, got my mail delivered in my postbox, but the postman was too lazy to walk to the door to hand me my package so he carded me,” one person wrote.
Most of the almost 400 comments told of similar experiences.
Another wrote: “I get a text message, confirm someone will be home, as there is always at least a few people at my place at all hours, but then I get home and find a nice little red card in my letterbox telling me that I need to go to the post office to pick up my package during my work hours as ‘there was no one home to accept the package’.”
One user claimed they watched the driver pull up, sit in his car, and then put the slip in their mailbox. When the customer confronted him, they claimed the postie said he couldn't do anything because he already marked it as “couldn't be delivered”.
“Happened to me too,” another told. “Was sitting in the garden with my toddler and saw the van pull up. By the time I'd got up and walked to my gate, he'd left the slip and driven off. Was furious.”
It was the same story from a customer who said it happened to them four times.
“I’ve submitted an online complain to Auspost and also called. The most ridiculous thing that they even have a term for this - ‘carding’.. and the guy on the phone was super casual about it,” they wrote.
“Casually not even a follow up call/email on any of my complaints, no apologies whatsoever.”
Australia Post says most drivers ‘do the right thing’
An Australia Post spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia most of its posties were doing the right thing and delivering parcels without a problem.
“Our posties and drivers must knock at the door three times and call out before leaving a card or safe-dropping the parcel, and the majority of our parcels are delivered without a problem.
“We do sometimes receive complaints from customers who received a card instead of a parcel and if this has happened we ask people get in contact with ask so we can investigate.
“Sometimes our people may leave a card without knocking because of access or safety issues – such as an off-leash dog – and this might happen when a customer is home.
“We regularly remind our drivers of our policies and what we expect of them to ensure our customers receive a great service.”
The furore comes days after alarming footage emerged of Australia Post couriers throwing parcels onto the ground in a Perth car park.
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