TL;DR: Looking for a sanity check. With all the media about auspost and dog attacks, including carrying dog spray, could Auspost be having a new policy on shut gates that goes a bit far?
Had a "we missed you" from Auspost today while I was home.
Photo of attempted delivery is of a terrace house fence. Could be mine, but it looks like one up the road near where the parking starts.
Seemed a bit off because our posties have been great the last couple years. Maybe a new guy?
Felt conflicted, but decided to raise it by live chat. Maybe new guy is doing this a lot and no one else is speaking up. Maybe it's nothing.
Rep says they might have got the house number confused by accident.
I replied all the houses are clearly marked.
Rep says something like they might not have checked closely for the house number, as posties don't have to deliver to houses with shut gates, where they can't tell if there are dogs.
I replied, these are terrace houses where the front yards are all clearly visible, and yeah, no dogs (more below). Gates freely swing at hip level, and rest shut.
Bit of back and forth, but they didn't want to consider the difference a terrace house gate with a fully visible yard makes. My guess is they have a script to run, which is a bit annoying. Not their fault.
Thought I'd ask here for a sanity check given we get lots of packages delivered. With all the media stuff about posties and dogs, someone here probably knows more than me.
My view is that, while I sympathise with posties, and if they can see a dog they absolutely shouldn't assume it's safe, nothing has stopped the thousands of every other delivery on the street. My house accounting for the majority of them I'm sure. I feel a bit like they might have seen the gate, decided not worth checking for dogs even well enough to check for the house number, and took it to the post office instead.
There are more factors to the story that probably make auspost look better:
Next door's tradies doing a renovation have a dog that sits and minds the tools and front door. There's a big fence between our front paths. Maybe the postie driving past spotted the dog and confused the houses?
I have a dog too that's never out the front. Is it possible auspost has access to registration records of dogs and drivers have houses marked - maybe then a zero tolerance policy on shut gates? Just a thought I guess.
post shop is really close, and likely parcel will be there within an hour. Along with the rain, maybe postie made a solid risk/reward decision, and I'm being a dick by blowing up the risk part.
Anyway, I'm going to use a rope to tie my gate open on delivery days. It's a bit annoying because there's been some front yard thefts lately and I imagine the gate is like a 1% deterrent.
What are your thoughts? Noticed any other changes related to dogs and auspost?
Considering the LPO is close as you say, is it easier just to use a free parcel locker? If I didn’t have someone at my work warehouse to sign for packages I’d be using parcel lockers for sure after I got hit by a porch pirate 2 weeks ago.
My suspicion would be postie running behind and don’t want to be done on not hitting delivery KPI or whatever.
Flip side, if I was a delivery person I would not be risking my ass if I even suspect a real danger within the delivery area.
I will however support your right to be outraged though irrespective of what actually may have happened.