Australia Post Monitor

Australia Posts Click and Sends service has been plagued by problems over the past feel months.  It has suffered from security vulnerabilities , but also from not being able to cope with the load.

This Monday 26th November Click and Send was having trouble coping with the load. It was throwing errors and very slow to operate. This is probably the first busy week of the Christmas posting season. Click and Send cannot cope now, how is it going to cope next week, and in two weeks time?

 

Australia Post click and send was shut down for the 2nd time this week. It was closed down with another security flaw, the 3rd noticed inside a month. Australia Post promised increased security a month ago, but the Click and Send site still has flaws. Australia Post wants to introduce a new secure digital mailbox system, yet is unable to secure its existing online systems.

Many on-line businesses and eBay sellers rely on Click and Send for the processing and delivery of their packages, and to have Click and Send shut down for the 2nd time in a week is a great inconvenience.  Australia Post upgraded Click and Send many weeks ago, and many sellers have complained, citing its slow speed, and frequent failures.

Some tweets from today:

bdstratton @auspost when is click & send going to be fixed it’s been down for 24 hours

@auspost lucky for you the Govt pays your way – you would be out of business by now!

@auspost @nickmorganau ‘Australia Post has been racing competitor Digital Post’ this does not give me confidence of security testing done

@auspost is clickandsend down this arvo?

@auspost hi guys, any indications on when click and send will be back up and running? post office shuts at 5 and mail picks up at 6.

@auspost click and send offline for the second time in a week! Fantastic business service!! FAIL

@auspost Hi, is there any word on when the Click and Send service will be back online and ready to use

@auspost Do you know when will the service back online? Our work has deeply integrated with the click&send system, we can’t do it without it

@auspost When is click to send coming back online? Have people waiting for stuff!!

To the above  tweets @auspost answered:

The site is currently down at the moment. To enable us to fix a system error, the Click & Send service ….Jess

However the real reason was a security flaw observed by an Australia Post customer

From Australia Post Facebook page today

Melodye  I think all C&S customers should be send satchels as compensation.

Sandra  more service delivery problems … why am I not surprised

Stacey  At OUR EXTRA COST !!!!!!!! 🙁 :(* 🙁 🙁

Stacey Sounds like our personal details wwere leaked AGAIN!!!!!!!

Brendan  How bout less time apologising, more effort sorting your shit out? Although, it’s unusual to hear you admit there’s a problem or take any responsibility for said problems. So wassup with that? Why start now? Hoping to avoid another ACCC investigation or something?

Bridgette At extra cost… what is being done to offer services at the same price to compensate for the system being down? Surely its the least that could be done?

Tony Allegedly it has happened several times. At least AusPost is now acknowledging they have a security problem. Fancy thinking no-one would be smart enough to change a url to hack a website.

Helen  As all my parcels are packed and ready to go, can I just slip in an address and lodge at the PO and pay there instead of online, or do I have to take them out, go buy a prepaid envelope for every one, repack and then post at a greater cost for signature and tracking?

Stacey  Wait didn’t post cost just go up due to “improved” services?? Correct me if I am wrong….THIS IS NOT AN IMPROVEMENT!!! Once again stuck with a tonne of packages and no way to send! Refuse to take to the PO and spend twice as much if not more all because you can’t get your act together!!!! Seriously getting to the point of just paying more and using a courier

Lisa Circumstances beyond their control?? The system is down because they had to take it down. The site had a security issues that allowed unauthorised access to people’s address & personal details.

Colin  Australia Post just hopeless…..at all they do….

Misty  only problem Bekki – if you run an online business and have over 20 parcels to send, waiting in line at the post office and paying more for each one is a pain in the butt, especially if you have the parcels at home, as you have to reparcel everything. it isn’t just the convenience of the internet with click and send. i for one am pregnant and have two small children, taking a bucketload of parcels to the post office is not possible at this stage so click and send being down is a huge pain in the ass.

Donna  Am I still able to access the “old click and send” website when this issue has been sorted out? I did not get a chance to print off my tax invoices. If you can advise that would be great.

Stacey so u offering to come take the 20 packages to the PO for me during rush time with a 4yr old??? Oh and to the PO that has NO air con but about 20 people all smooshed together with rude staff?

Lesley and for another point it costs alot more to post at the post office than through the click and send system.

Diane  What Australia needs is another postal service. Australia post have no competition that’s why they don’t care.

Donna Oh no, I have dozens of invoices that I need for my business 🙁

Cindy  What about those of us who have already paid for services but now can’t send them? I’m out of pocket

Justin  I know if I was running a business I be starting to look at my legal options

Fabian That’s the issue with a monopolised industry, the consumer is forced to wear the cost for the businesses mistakes/inefficiencies.

Simon  Legally we have no leg to stand on. Most of us have pre purchased click and send satchels and by that have shown loyally and commitment to Australia Post. In return we get a pathetic excuse for a lame service that they provide.
We pay about three times more than most other countries for about ten times less service, and it takes about ten times longer for delivery.

Ari sounds like your anthem….your times are always challenging….for your poor bloody clients

Shayla  I had done 2 orders through the click and send system – it accepted my payment but came up as a system error when I went to print the labels out and of purse now I can’t print the labels out. I have held on to my parcels for today hoping the system would be up and running so I can reprint the labels but its not. I can’t hold on to them any more as my customers will start to complain so will I be compensated for those two postage costs? I am a huge fan of your service it really is an asset to my business and its the first problem I have ever had. Thanks so much for your help.

Little It’s not about taking them to the post office, it’s about the extra costs and extra resources. It’s about providing services you are supposed to provide. As a small business owner, if we can’t provide what we promised and charged, we will rectify the issues at our own cost in order to ensure customer satisfaction, even that means we will lose money by doing so. It’s funny that with that many negative feedback on eBay, they can still partner with eBay to make more money, and we don’t have that privilege. At the same time, how many times do you increase your postage price in one year while we have to keep the same price to stay competitive? And the delivery services just got worse. I’m home all day, the postman can’t even bother to ring the bell, he just left a calling card……

Katrina  Somone seriously needs to take on AP in this industry, although I realise the barriers to entry would be massive. I’m getting so over their increasing prices and decreasing service. I’m sick of the rude and badly trained staff, they have never heard of click and send and I have to explain that they need to add the B55 tracking everytime I go in. I’m sick of paying for tracking and the parcels not being scanned and hence not being tracked. I’m sick of lining up for ages because only 1 staff member is serving and the person at the front of the line is lodging a passport application….. I could go on.

Miki : Feel free to go on! I agree with everything you have written !

Brenda  what next – i’m trying to run a business hurry up and fix it

Rachel I hope it’s fixed soon… So over this happening!!!!

Connie  Australia Post have just had another Price increase’ NOW NO Click and Send and they want us to Pay there Huge Prices over the counter. When is it going to end’ If we keep having this many price increases there will be no Businesses posting any more!

Ricky  if you are professional seller, do not use Australia post, use couriers.

Ricky  Only use Australia post when couriers not going there. Australia post is higher pricing, lower quality of service. totally crap. come on, even a small online Click n send programme has such long down time, what else they can do better.

Ricky  Click and send had another down time 2 weeks ago, about half day long

Silvia As a small business owner this is a real disappointment. I have about 20 packages to send off and now have to buy Prepaid satchels as I cannot use the Click and Send satchels which I purchased from you. So now I have to pay $1.65 more per item, which not may seem like much but as a small business it cuts into my profit. Yet I don’t see any cuts being made when people make mistakes or things aren’t working right. Why are the Prepaid satchels more than the Click and Send satchels?

Brenda it’s still down

Tammie– I work in retail for Aust post and we are separate to click and send hense why the staff aren’t aware of the procedures. Click and send is an online service that retail don’t offer. As far as a staff member doing a passport application they have just as much right to be served as the next person..

Brenda  tammie most aust post ebay customers get frustrated because Aust Post staff dont know what their doing and try to tell us the labels dont work when they do. If you were trained properly we wouldn’t complain so much

Brenda  P.S Click & Send is still down its been that way for 24 hours now. This is getting ridicoulous did all the IT staff go home???