Once upon a time, the festive season kept our postal system solvent by means of Christmas card deliveries. Remember them? Those A7-sized thin items that fit easily in your letterbox.
These days those relics have been replaced by virtual greetings with animated fireworks and musical accompaniment. And by parcels. Millions of them. None of which are going to fit through that tiny slot.
This has led to a condition I’ve named Black Hole Syndrome, especially prevalent among apartment dwellers with coded front doors (me). After pulling many packages back from the void, I’ve learned some useful strategies.
Give yourself plenty of time
The Christmas cut-off dates for postage within Australia are fast approaching (the last day for cards and letters is Thursday 15 December) and many deadlines have already passed.
Don’t ship to your own address
After many missteps, I nominated my local post office to receive my most recent online purchase. A text message alert came just days later informing me of its safe passage and giving me 10 working days to collect it.
Another option is to nominate a 24-hour Parcel Locker. A text message will give you a code and 48 hours to collect the package. If you miss the deadline it will be sent to the nearest post office from which you will have 10 working days to collect it.
Learn your way around tracking numbers
Earlier this year, I accumulated 10kg of excess baggage while travelling for three months in Europe. So I shed some baggage weight by posting it home to my Australian address in two 5kg boxes.
I tracked the parcels’ progress online to my local post office. I watched two failed attempts to deliver, the most recent just days before my arrival home. When I dropped by the post office to pick them up on my return – well within the mandatory two weeks – I was told the boxes had been returned to France, and to contact the sender to get them back. The address of the sender (me) was an unoccupied stone cottage in a tiny village in Burgundy.
But by changing the letters in front of the packages’ tracking numbers sent from France from FR to AU, an AusPost support staffer was able to trace them before they left the country, and the boxes arrived back within a week. So if you’re sending to or ordering from overseas, check that the tracking number is international.
When possible, use PayPal
A few weeks later I ordered some homewares from a well-reviewed website in what I wrongly assumed was the United States (the price was in US dollars). The tracking number came through from Hefei, China. I tracked it from sorting centre to sorting centre and ultimately to an outbound flight to Australia. On 21 November it was marked as out for delivery. It still is.
The supplier classified the delivery as “successful”, having sent it to a residential address and obtained a signature. Unfortunately neither address nor signature were mine. When the company stopped returning my emails I applied for a refund with PayPal. The full refund for the missing homewares hit my account within hours.
Be nice to your postie
I ordered a small item from a reputable kitchenware company and – after my previous experiences – followed the tracking number with an interest bordering on the obsessive. I signed up to an AusPost account and requested the package be put in the letterbox if possible. I left my letterbox unlocked in the hope it might fit.
Then I accosted the postie and told him of my travails. He suggested giving him the code to our front door so he could leave the package in the foyer. It arrived safely and I have made a new friend.
