A Sydney couple said their engagement rings were accidentally knocked into a bin by an Australian Post staffer and the saga has activated my fight or flight response.
Peter Du and his fiancé Kyra found their dream engagement rings in December. Together, the rings cost about $2700 plus the indescribable price of finding true love. The rings were sent out by the jeweler a few weeks later via Australia Post.
Du did not give Aus Post authority to leave the package without it being handed to and signed by him. But the postman signed for the package themselves and left the rings unattended in the mailroom with their other packages.
A second postman came by later that day around noon and moved their packages to the side. That caused the parcel with the couple’s rings in it to fall into a bin nearby.
SCREAMS. This is not good, mon amie. A moment of silence for this couple’s wedding ring fingies.
The postman didn’t appear to realise that he had bumped the other parcel with their engagement rings, according to CCTV footage of the incident.
Du told PEDESTRIAN.TV they checked with their local post office. Staff there told them it had been signed by someone and provided them with a name. He ran the name by their building manager who said nobody with that name attended the property that day. His building manager then helped him access the CCTV footage.
CCTV Video 2 – The large brown box is another one of my packages. The engagement rings are the small package placed on top. A third package gets placed next to it and at the end of the video you can see the postie leave in the reflection, without anyone signing for the package. pic.twitter.com/2xTsatWXZ6
— Peter Du (@ChoboCrucius) February 15, 2022
“When I first saw how things unfolded I was absolutely speechless, it was the perfect storm of mistakes,” Du said.
“The rings were delivered on a Friday and we weren’t able to look into the missing parcel until Monday, by which point the building’s waste was collected and disposed of. They are pretty much lost for good.”
Du lodged a complaint with Australian Post on January 31. He claimed that the company’s response to it on Tuesday this week showed it took “zero responsibility” for the incident.
“We have investigated with the Chullora Parcel Delivery Centre and we have been informed something went wrong with delivery and we are unable to locate this parcel,” Australia Post customer service worker Adam told Peter in a message about the investigation.
“This means that we now consider your item to be lost in transit.
“I would suggest that you contact the sender in the first instance and ask them for help with your order. If the sender is unable to assist you, please let us know.”
They’ve said they spoke to the driver who claimed he handed it to someone and that they signed for it. They requested to see the CCTV footage I have and then said that they “are unable to locate” the parcel and wrote it off without any solutions being offered. pic.twitter.com/pwIJeR3Qxr
— Peter Du (@ChoboCrucius) February 15, 2022
Du held off on calling out the national postal delivery company on social media but said that its recent message “clearly show[ed] [it] [didn’t] give a shit”.
“We know exactly how things unfolded and after reviewing the footage themselves, only to have come back today and write it off as lost without any further recourse is extremely disappointing,” Du said.
“The original rings hold a lot of significance for us. It was already upsetting enough to see something so meaningful for us literally be treated as rubbish. It’s frustrating to drag it out and not have this matter fully acknowledged.
“All we want is a fair and reasonable outcome where Australia Post take responsibility for their errors.”
Peter Du said he is now trying to get in contact with the Postal Industry Ombudsman for assistance.
