More venting I'm afraid, this time, it's regarding our much maligned postal carrier, An Post - 'The Post' in Gaelic, to the uninitiated!
First, the backdrop. Way back in January 2021, I ordered an Atari ST USB transfer interface from a guy in the Czech Republic, namely, the PARCP-USB adapter. A couple of months passed, no package, but as the 'sc@mdemic' was in full swing, I figured this was the reason, so patiently waited some more. Alas, in vain.
No biggie, I figured, the package had a Tracking number after all. And tracked it was, at least on the Czech side, the carrier having acknowledged receipt & dispatch of my order to the Emerald Isle. But no further - it never found its way onto An Post's tracking system.
I contacted the Seller, who promptly got onto the Czech postal carrier, and relayed back to me that said carrier would contact An Post, who in turn would contact me. More months passed, but eventually I did get a letter via snail-mail from An Post requesting a signed & returned form to them, acknowledging the non-receipt of the Czech package. This I did.
Fast forward another 9 months to today, a full 15 months since the order had been placed. With no further follow-up from An Post, I attempted to submit a Lost Package request via their web-site, only to discover that either their system hasn't been updated since the 80's, or that they are deliberately trying to limit the number of successful Lost Package submissions to a minimum. The problem? - An Post doesn't appear to realise that most online ordering these days doesn't require the buyer to submit, or even have knowledge of the Sellers address & telephone number - BUT INSISTS THAT THESE BE PROVIDED IN ORDER TO PROCEED!!! This is insanity. Had I ordered from Ebay, Aliexpress or Amazon, would I be expected to source name & address details for any of these behemoths?!?!? Or in my case, from a small commercial Seller.
So, Unable to proceed any further on that front, as a last resort I turned to An Post's online-help - and what a farce that turned out to be. After trying to explain all of the above 'live', and in as concise a manner as 'live-help' will allow, I was told flatly that there was no trace of my order "on their system", and that the Seller probably hadn't even sent it! Exasperated, despite having told (typed) to bubble-head "Paulina" that it was the Czech Carrier that had contacted An Post (not me) about the missing package, and that An Post had then sent me the letter, requiring acknowledgement of non-receipt of package!!! - indication enough I thought, that the Seller had indeed posted my order, and that the Czech carrier had indeed passed it onto An Post - but all of this was lost on poor "Paulina". If it wasn't on "their system" I was told again, then it 'obviously' hadn't been sent in the first place! I started to type that if it was on their system, it wouldn't have been lost and I wouldn't be here trying to explain the obvious to her - when in mid-sentence, I'd had enough, and typed "...never mind, fuck off!" and disconnected! But not before their automated 'cuss-word detection spat back that "abuse" would not be tolerated and that the infringement had "been noted". This at least gave me a laugh.
An Post is clearly an institution more worried about its bottom-line, than about helping its customers. Any company whose sole response is to deny all responsibility for a missing package, by citing "well, it's not on our system, so we can't have received it.", despite the loss having been initially brought to their attention by a fellow postal-carrier, deserves to fail. I've ended up losing €50, but I can easily envisage An Post losing quite a bit more, and deservedly so. I just hope it won't be at the tax-payers expense.
Edit.
I forgot to include what triggered my potty-mouth, the straw that turned exasperation into infuriation. 'Paulina' had the gal to insist, more than once, that it was the Seller, not the Buyer (me!) that should be requesting this information from her, and that I should instead be communicating with him - which I took as short-hand for, "Just go away & stop bothering me!" But if this is 'company policy', and not just bubble-head having a blonde-moment, then it is indeed sad.
Final Edit.
I took one last stab at this and filed a complaint with An Post.
To whom it may concern.
An Post lost a package (value €50) containing an item at I ordered from the Czech Republic, order placed on 23/01/2021. This was while the COVID hysteria was in full swing, and I presumed the parcel had merely been delayed - but after 6 months, it still hadn't arrived. (Seller's name: Petr Stehlík <pstehlik@sophics.cz>)
I know An Post lost it because the Seller, on hearing that I still had not received the item, contacted the Czech Postal Service, who informed him that they had handed it off to An Post - the package's online-tracking, available to me at the time, seemed to confirm as much.
The Czech Postal Service also told the Seller that they would contact An Post, who would in turn, contact me about this.
This An Post eventually did (after about 6 months) in the form of a letter asking me to return a 'parcel-not-received' form to them, confirming that I had not received the package in question. This I promptly did.
Then nothing. An Post never followed up on this.
As a last resort, I recently tried to resolve this issue via An Post's online-chat service, which proved to be a fiasco. I tried explaining all of the above to the person I communicated with, but they had either a limited attention-span, or more likely, were merely working from a prepared script designed to fob people off. Nothing was achieved but the raising of my blood pressure.
Question.
How can An Post, simply shirk off any responsibility for a package that gets lost, when online-tracking at the time confirmed what the Czech Postal Service had asserted - namely, that they had successfully handed it over to An Post? Remember, it was An Post that contacted me about this initially, not my contacting them, and after they had been contacted by the Czech Postal Service. This in itself is a clear indication that the parcel went missing after it had been handed over to An Post. The online-help(!) person I spoke to had the gal to state, several times, that if it wasn't 'on the system', then it COULDN'T have been received - so, An Post's omnipotent now... She went on to state that neither was there a record of the form of non-receipt that I had returned to An Post, "on the system". If that truly is the case, then that's two letters, not just the Czech parcel, that An Post has managed to 'lose', at least in the shirking responsibility sense.
There is no doubt in my mind that the parcel was lost by An Post. The fact that An Post contacted me, seeking confirmation that I had not received it, is evidence of such. But what was the point in having me return a non-receipt form, if policy is just to ignore it?
Respectfully,
xxxx
Unlike their follow-up on my missing parcel, their almost instant response was succinct and to the point.
Good evening xxxx,Any package or item that goes missing or is failed to deliver has to be investigated by the sender of the item through the original postal service.The letter sent to you to confirm non receipt is done to be sent back to the original postal service in the Czech Republic. We would have no further dealing with yourself and would only engage with the postal service in the Czech Republic who would engage with the sender of the item. It is then the sender of the items job to engage with you for any further dealings.We cannot do anything further for you.Kind Regards
Aaron
Customer Services
At least I appreciate that they responded quickly, giving me a straight answer, unlike that useless drone I communicated with via live-chat. In a nutshell, on-line Tracking is a mere courtesy, and even if, (as here), it strongly suggests that it was An Post that lost my package, it has no value in proving culpability - basically if An Post loses a non-insured package, it's a case of...
'TOUGH LUCK CHUMP!!!'
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