Invercargill woman Anne Maree Corkery was tasked with posting wedding invitations for her son Paddy’s wedding to Steel player Kendall Corkery (nee McMinn) on February 14.
While in Dunedin for her husband’s radiation therapy, she put about 20 invitations in a post box in George St on December 20.
When her sister-in-law called at the end of January asking where her invitation to the wedding was, Mrs Corkery realised the invitations had not been delivered.
"It was incredibly stressful. I thought I’d forgotten to post them initially.
"I then had to call everybody and confirm whether they were going or not."
The intended recipients had made it to the wedding because she had contacted them individually, Mrs Corkery said.
"It was messy and quite embarrassing for me.
"I know I was later than normal for wedding invitations and I was among the Christmas post. I understand a bit of a delay but I thought they would get there in January."
Two and a-half months later, friends and family received the invitations.
"They’ve been showing up with the priority stamp on them dated March 2. That’s not much good when the wedding was February 14," Mrs Corkery said.
"It’s very, very poor service.
"I don’t think those boxes have been cleared since December."
NZ Post did not answer specific questions, but in a statement a spokeswoman said the investigation into what happened was continuing.
"We would like to say how very sorry we are that this has happened.
"It’s not the service that we, and the public, expect."
She said it was an isolated incident, confined to two post boxes in George St.
"We have been contacting some of the larger senders, but people can also contact us via our website or 0800 501 501."
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Comments
This is absolutely unforgivable and is entirely telling of a dysfunctional postal service which appears to be hell bent on its own demise. New Zealand Post over recent years has removed countless post boxes and reduced delivery days to a point where the service is becoming unusable.
One can sympathise with a business which is built on vast volumes of letter posting, which of course with communications technology is in decline. But in a deregulated environment where other businesses can make a success of it, not to mention comparable postal services in other countries with a similar regime which are flourishing, it is utterly incongruous.
It is maddening that given ODT’s respondents testimony, NZ Post had ample opportunity to identify any process failure. It instead chose to dismiss complaints with inept and hollow responses. It is clear they hadn’t even bothered to investigate.
NZ Post continually bemoans loss of profit due to decreasing letter volume. How is it that in this age where vastly increased parcel volume can’t counteract this trend? Rather than the tired old complaints of a sparse population, learn some lessons from Northern Hemisphere counterparts.
Couldn't have put it better myself.
We all want New Zealand Post to succeed and survive, but honestly! How can anyone trust them when there are instances like this!
Perhaps they need to watch a few black and white movies about the Pony Express for inspiration and encouragement?