Australia Post’s mail redirection under fire
Australia Post has been heavily criticised after errors in the organisation’s mail redirection service sparked thousands of complaints.
Australia Post has been heavily criticised after errors in the organisation’s mail redirection service sparked thousands of complaints.
The Commonwealth Ombudsman has found Australia Post’s reliance on manual systems has led to problems with the service.
Australia Post received 65,000 complaints in 2007 about failures to redirect mail.
The Ombudsman’s report found the use of paper application forms and redirection stickers meant there was more potential for human error.
The report recommended Australia Post introduce an online application system and reconsider the manual redirection process.
Postal Industry Ombudsman John McMillan says Australia Post needs to rethink the way redirected mail is processed and also improve its response to complaints.
“Australia Post and its staff need to be a little more responsive to the problems that people can encounter,” he said.
“[It needs to recognise] that this is a real problem for Australia Post and can cause real disadvantage and inconvenience to people is part of the solution.”
McMillan says the organisation’s response to complaints also needs to be addressed.
“Recognising that this is a real problem for Australia Post and can cause real disadvantage and inconvenience,” he said.
Australia Post’s Alex Twomey says the company accepts the report’s findings. But he says there are now only problems with 3% of redirected mail, down from 4% two years ago.
“With handling 21m items a day, you will have problems, but we think we can significantly reduce that,” he said.
