Did you know if your mail goes missing in transit, it’s up to the sender to chase it up?
So as a consumer, if you buy something online and the seller posts it or arranges a courier - and the item doesn’t turn up – that is not your problem.
It can also be grounds to reject the purchase if the seller can’t get it delivered to you in reasonable time.
That’s been our consumer law since 2015. That law is great but has limits. It has been little help to Joy Paton.
Joy mailed something home from overseas - so Joy was both sender and receiver. Or so NZ Post said when it had to tell her sorry, her mail had been stolen.
In the normal course of events, Joy would have to backtrack to the overseas services – the UK Royal Mail and US Postal Service – and report the theft and seek compensation. Or try to claim on her insurance for theft from her letterbox.
Trouble was, it didn’t get to the letterbox because Joy also pays NZ Post for another service – a post office box. That box is meant to guarantee a secure location for mail to arrive at, whether the boxholder is at home, or moving to a new house, or in this case, away on the trip of a lifetime posting souvenirs to avoid excess baggage charges.
Joy could see from parcel tracking they’d reached the post office but returned from her trip to discover they had since been stolen from a parcel holding lobby at the branch. Joy was not happy to be told to go back to Memphis and San Francisco and London to chase compensation.
After Fair Go got involved, NZ Post apologised to Joy, paid her $950 for the lost parcels and has agreed to review its policies and procedures.
Fair Go hopes that includes changing the terms and conditions for post office boxes, so it’s clear when NZ Post has taken delivery and accepted responsibility for the mail you and others have entrusted to their care.
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