NZ Post errors 'maddening' to Auckland neighbourhoods

Friday, 27 April 2018

Residents are relying on the goodwill of neighbours to deliver wrongly delivered mail to the correct address.

Kind neighbours are turning into makeshift postal workers, as NZ Post mail delivery errors increase in Auckland suburbs.

Birkdale resident Noel Ho said he can forgive receiving his immediate neighbours' mail but not for the ones a car ride away.

Linda Kimpton said she's noticed a definite increase in misdelivered mail, including NZ Post courier delivery issues too.

'How hard is it to look at the mail in your hand? It's like they don't even know what street they are on?' Ho said.

In the last year, Ho has redelivered many letters, a pillow, a keyboard and a food-sample box.

* NZ Post increases cost of posting a letter from $1 to $1.20 to cover 'significant loss of revenue'

* 'Snail mail' postal experiment finds it takes a letter eight days to travel 200 metres**

Ho said he had noticed the problem getting worse and had contacted NZ Post at least five times to complain.

'The general response is apologising and arranging re-delivery, which I have already done,' he said.

'I don't mind delivering the mail, but I wonder how much of my mail is wrongly delivered and just tossed away? It is maddening.'

A Neighbourly.co.nz post revealed a similar problem happening all over suburbs in Auckland's North Shore.

Residents reported rain-soaked packages, missing electoral roll papers, and hospital appointment letters.

Devonport's Sue Beatson said NZ Post was 'a nightmare' now. Her household had been receiving wrongly delivered mail ever since NZ Post changed to the carts.

'It does make me wonder how much mail we might not be getting,' Beatson said.

In response to questions around adequate staffing levels across Auckland, NZ Post said it regularly reviewed resources to make sure staffing levels were appropriate, as letters declined and parcels increased.

NZ Post monitored service performance and worked hard to deliver all mail safely and within service standards.

'Of the over 500 million letters last year, the vast majority of them were delivered within these standards,' a spokesperson said.

'However, occasionally we can't meet these standards. That may be due to human error, or sometimes for reasons beyond our control, such as an insufficient address.'

Linda Kimpton from Hauraki said she had noticed a definite increase in misdelivered mail, including NZ Post courier delivery issues.

Kimpton said she always delivered mail to the correct address.

One family in Torbay, the Lowe family, said it could be a 1.5 kilometre hike, to deliver mail.