Last Thursday I was given a rude awakening by the phone ringing at 9am sharp. Scrambling to get down the ladder from my bed (and nearly fell) I was greeted by someone from Australia Post. The news was that they received my fax to them showing my proof of postage and also the eBay transaction page showing the final closing price of the auction. Unfortunately, she said, they are only able to compensate to a limit of $50. FIFTY fricking bucks for a $460 PDA!! She even had the nerve to ask me why I didn't get it insured, to which I asked her back, "Is insurance an option on Express Post?". Her answer, "No..."My buyer insisted on using Express Post because of the next-day delivery 'guarantee'. A promise that we now know they don't intend to keep. They even got their asses covered by a clause in the T&C that if they don't deliver it on time, they will only refund the postage by way of a free Express Post satchel of the same value, or on occasion of loss, up to $50 compensation. And they DON'T offer any insurance at all. For valuable items, they say, use Registered Post. Speaking of which, a friend had just had his PR approved and sent his passport to Adelaide for the sticker to be attached. He sent it via Registered Post. Guess what happened? Yup, it got lost. And Aus Post's compensation? 100 measly bucks. That's hardly enough to get a flight to Canberra where the Malaysian High Commission is, not to mention the application fees and time and effort wasted to go through the whole passport application procedure. Needless to say, I've totally lost all confidence in the postal system already. You would think such things only happen in Malaysia with our dear old Pos Malaysia, but to have it happen here in Australia too... I'm just speechless. I even felt a bit regretful for sending out Christmas cards a few days ago because I intend to boycott Post and their services whenever I can. The last ditch effort Post has offered to do is to search the dead-letter office to see if they can find my lost parcel there but I seriously doubt it. I have my suspicions that perhaps a postal worker might have had something to do with the loss, cos the Express Post satchel wasn't barcode-scanned as it should have been upon receipt over-the-counter, and thus we were unable to track the progress of the delivery. If they really can't find it, I've already discussed it with the buyer and we'd be splitting the loss, and that will mean I'd be $200+ poorer, which doesn't bode well in my unemployed state. All because Post can't deliver as promised.