Postal Problems. Our Continuing Mission To Figure Out What To Do With Our Mail

We've previously mentioned that we set ourselves up with a virtual mailbox company to handle most of our mail. While sensitive financial stuff was going directly to family members, to limit the volume of mail they had to deal with, the rest of our mail was to go to a virtual mailbox company. They would notify us of new envelopes and give us the option to have mail shredded, stored or opened, scanned and emailed to us. It sounded perfect and our early testing went well.

Unfortunately events since then have shaken our confidence. We were notified that some envelopes arrive. One in particular looked important so we elected to have it opened. A week later there's still no sign of the contents of that envelope. Who knows what's going on on their end but when it comes to mail from a government department you don't want to mess with, this isn't good. Our confidence in their capacity to handle important paperwork has taken a hit so we've switched to plan B.

Sadly all of our mail will now be arriving at the homes of our long suffering parents. Sorry guys.

While working out the mail redirections involved to make this switch happen we've also encountered some curiosities about the way Australia Post work. It appears that more or less anyone can cancel a mail redirection. If, however, you want any money back because you are canceling a redirection with more than 11 out of the 12 months you paid for still to go you need the original printed receipt. Your personal details or your customer reference number are not good enough. No receipt, no money back. We've been on a merry adventure around two post offices, a regional mail distribution center and Australia Post's customer care line and have been told many variations on “we can't help you but maybe someone else can.” In the end it appears that the truth is no receipt, no refund. $70 and half a day down the drain. It's not a lot of money but in 2011 its annoying to realize that some organizations still rely so heavily on paper.