What happens when Australia Post delivers your parcel to another address? I will share my recent experience.

I check the delivery status online, so the absence of my parcel was noted quickly. Australia Post now provides a photograph of the letterbox as proof of delivery. In this instance the photograph was not of my letterbox, but fortunately I recognised the house it belonged to. With this information I sent an enquiry to Australia Post which included a Google Map link to the address where my parcel was sent. A few days later I got a response from Australia Post that might have come from a Kafka novel. On checking the parcel status again I noted that I could no longer access the confirmation of delivery photograph.

As it was, I picked up my parcel from the address this morning, so all is well, but the response from Australia Post seemed more about hiding the fact that my parcel had been delivered to another address rather than solving a problem. A better response might have been:

We are sorry. Accidents happen. Try retrieving your parcel yourself. The recipient may deliver your parcel (the nice lady who gave me my parcel intended to drop off my parcel at her convenience). Australia Post will redeliver your parcel should it be reposted (e.g. marked rts). Should none of these actions succeed, you may seek compensation for your lost items.

I can post Australia Post's response (redacted) if anyone is interested.

Hi Fester,

With the decline of addressed mail, the Posties are now delivering unaddressed mail (letters addressed to the "Householder"), junk mail (or as my son does say, for his business, its "quality advertising material") as well as small parcels, only 3 days a week. My Postie is a nice young chap from Africa, drives what seems to be a mini cut down golf cart, all very yellow in colour, Aussie Post is big on high viz).
He does however have an annoying habit of putting the wrong mail in the wrong box, my box! As my car rego papers didn't arrive this year, I assume he also puts my mail in the wrong box as well! So at times I have become an honorary Postie, delving letters around my area.
In defence of my little African friend, sometimes he does get the right house number, but the wrong street, other times, the right street, but the wrong house number. Then, he does lose the plot altogether, with a double whammy, wrong house number and wrong street!

With our online shopping, my wife loves 'Temu' (and others to numerous to mention) great Chinese mob is Temu, wife calls them whanau (Maori family, according to the wife Maori people are related to the Chinese from the long distant past, probably from the Hong Dynasty 500BC, makes buying off them all okay) got everything in this world has Temu, want a packet of paper clips Temu have got it, want a rocket ship to the Moon, Temu have got it. AND my wife seems to be determined to buy one of everything Temu has. Temu offers free delivery with orders over $50, so the wife will place an order for $100, just to make sure she gets that free delivery. BTW Temu are cheap up to half the shop price. Just purchased a wall stud finder, 20 bucks, half Bunnings price.

Hi Paul,

Yes, I'm a big online shopper as well. Very convenient for ordering parts for my bicycles. What annoyed me in this case was not the error, but AP's response to having me point out the error. Here is AP's response:

"Thank you for contacting us about your bicycle parts parcel delivery. I can understand your concern that you haven't received this item although it was marked as delivered.

----, I've checked the tracking for your parcel, and can see that it has been scanned as delivered on Tuesday, --/05/2025 @ ----. Parcels that do not require a signature will either be delivered to the letterbox or left in a safe location out of street view such as a meter box or behind a pot plant, along with a card advising of this location.

Since you have indicated that you haven't yet received the article, I have taken the liberty to contact the ---- Delivery Centre so they can speak with the delivery staff who delivered the article to see if any further information can be provided to assist with locating this parcel."

So AP's action as far as I can see was to remove access to the delivery confirmation photograph and to ignore my suggestion that my parcel was delivered to another address. Maybe it had something to do with the Privacy Act? Anyway, case closed.

Hi Again Fester,

The biggest problem with parcel delivery in our area is theft, many instances put up on social media (Facebook Group) of vids of people stealing from peoples front doors etc. Some online stores also use private couriers like 'Fast Horse' If a parcel is not delivered by AP, often a contractor,It then ends up in a parcel locker at the local PO. The couple of wrong parcels delivered to me, usually have a mobile number of the receiver, I just give them a call, and tell them come to my house and pick up your parcel. In one case, I think it was a young girl, not far from us, 5 min walking distance, I rang and spoke to her, said she would pick it up, I said I'll leave it in my letter box for you. despite leaving 2 or 3 messages later, she never came and picked it up, it was a couple of girls tops, gave em' to the granddaughter.

Unreliable delivery services, and not confined to Australia Post alone), are one small part only of the decline of the West.
Soon enough I can foretell from this distance out, Bonger 1405’s favoured son of Africa, appearing to us Normal Australians as the mobile MacDonalds clown delivery services, will funnel his relo’s band of incompetents into the endless stream of MENA nightmares into the borderless Nightmare Australia now is!
“Ransom your daughter for a lost parcel”, delivery service, African style.

Hi Paul,

I'm sorry about the mail theft where you live. I think I'd elect to pick up my parcels from the post office if I faced that risk. You've made an excellent observation that looking out for one another would bring about the best outcomes when things go wrong.

Hi Diver Dan,

I think you are being a little pessimistic seeing my failed parcel delivery as evidence of a pending calamity. Perhaps it is an example of how, at a corporate level, there is more focus on avoiding liability than solving problems?