Coronavirus: Frustrated customer can't get through to swamped NZ Post
Monday, 11 May 2020
A frustrated New Zealand Post customer is waiting for his son’s birthday present to arrive two weeks after it was meant to be delivered.
New Zealand Post said it received a record-breaking number of parcels last week, an average of 200 parcels per minute. Staff worked around the clock to try to clear a huge backlog of deliveries delayed due to the coronavirus lockdown.
Steven Yates, who lives on Auckland’s North Shore, has been unable to get through to New Zealand Post to find out about his parcel, which was due to be delivered on May 6.
“NZ Post says to contact them if a parcel is five days or more overdue - I was on the phone for 36 minutes this morning and just got cut off.”
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He bought an X Box controller and a set of gaming headphones from PB Tech on April 30, for his son’s birthday on May 2, and told his son the presents would arrive a bit late.
The controller was delivered ahead of schedule, but the headphones were still ‘delayed’ at the processing centre, according to the Courier Post app.
“I totally understand they’re probably in a crisis situation and they’re doing the best they can, but when they make statements that people are getting things in two or three days, and it is going to be a bit late - it’s coming up nearly two weeks,” Yates said.
“I tried to keep chasing them up on the 7th and the 8th [of May] and I just couldn’t get through, it just came up with a voice recording that ‘our team are overloaded at the moment, please call again later’.”
He had also emailed, with no luck.
“[Max] is only nine, I was ordering it on behalf of his grandmother - I explained he wouldn’t get it for his birthday but now he’s most upset.”
It is the second parcel Yates is waiting for.
He bought a necklace from jeweller Walker & Hall for his fiancee, from her children, for Mother’s Day. It was meant to be delivered by Courier Post on Friday, and has not arrived.
He contacted the jeweller on Friday, which arranged another necklace that he picked up using click and collect on the same day.
“I’m not a person who usually complains, but people need to be aware,' Yates said.
“If I could rectify it myself I wouldn’t make a deal of it, but I can’t - I’ve tried and tried.”
New Zealand Post said the increased demand on its services in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic had seen staff working 24/7 at 11 locations across New Zealand.
While most parcels were being delivered in two to three days, the company warned customers some were being delayed by up to five working days.
'While we’ll continue to pull out all the stops to get your parcels to you as quickly as possible, we expect this volume to continue over the coming weeks, so there will be ongoing delays,' the email said.
Physical distancing requirements were slowing down the process, but staff were doing their best to get packages to their recipients as quickly as possible.
Taxi drivers and shuttle drivers who were not as busy as usual were helping drop off deliveries and about 200 extra vehicles were on the roads.
Staff were delivering hundreds of thousands of packages some days and were completing deliveries seven days a week.
New Zealand Post had also sourced an extra 3000 containers to transport parcels around the country.
'All our people have stepped up and are working incredibly hard to get through the volumes. We’ve got people from right across our business lending a hand to support our delivery and processing teams.'
Contact centre staff were working overtime to answer customer queries and the company asked customers to call them only if their parcel was delayed longer than five working days.
'We know that the parcels you’re waiting for are important to you. Rest assured that while there may be a delay, we will get your parcel to you as soon as we possibly can,' the email said.