A Melbourne woman has suffered stress to the point of physical illness after an Australia Post mistake nearly cost her over $55,000
A Melbourne woman has suffered stress to the point of physical illness after an Australia Post mistake saw her inheritance money vanish.
Claudia Ruhland was expecting $55,000 in bank drafts via a registered letter from Canada after a relative passed away – but after the ten-day mark passed, she was left panicking.
Ms Ruhland ‘feared the worst’ after six agonising weeks, having spent three years in a legal battle for the right to her inheritance, which caused her ‘tremendous and unnecessary stress’.
‘The stress of the waiting alone was unbearable and I feared the worst, that the bank drafts had been stolen,’ the mother-of-two told news.com.au on Friday.
Claudia Ruhland was expecting $55,000 in bank drafts via registered letter, but it never came
‘My Canadian lawyer advised that if this was the case, there was nothing they could do and we would have to accept the loss…I was devastated and could not believe this could have happened.’
She explained that she had been advised that accepting the money in the form of bank drafts was a ‘better option’ than an electronic transfer.
Ms Ruhland received a tracking letter on December 30 after the letter left Canada on December 18 – before the trail promptly disappeared.
Opening investigations with Canada Post and Australia Post proved futile as nobody returned her enquiries. Finally, 46 days after it was posted, the registered letter was found in Lake Grace – a small town of 500 people in Western Australia.
After mysteriously ending up on the wrong side of the country, the letter had reportedly been ‘bouncing’ back and forth between the sorting facility in Perth and the small post office in Lake Grace.
Ms Ruhhand was offered no explanation as to why the letter was incorrectly sorted multiple times and repeatedly returned to WA instead of Victoria.
An employee from the small town post office said that she sent the letter in an express post bag ‘in the hope the error would be sighted by a human employee instead of a sorting machine and sent to Frankston’.
The letter was finally found in Lake Grace – a small town with 500 people in Western Australia
The letter ‘bounced’ back and forth between Perth’s sorting facility and Lake Grace for a month
Upon learning that they had located her money, Ms Ruhland was so overwhelmed to hear the letter had been found she burst into tears with an Australia Post employee still on the phone.
After arranging for it to be reposted directly to her, it finally arrived on February 8.
‘I cannot believe the continuous errors and bungles that occurred with this single valuable item,’ she said, sharing her ‘disappointment’ with Australia Post’s handling of the ordeal.
While she blames a technical glitch and not the staff, she said that ‘at some point you have to rise above what is procedure and use some common sense’.
‘The Australia Post technical system is clearly flawed as the letter did not reach its destination in a reasonable amount of time and instead simply went around in circles. It wasn’t until I, the recipient, intervened that a sensible resolution was implemented.’
Ms Ruhland slammed Australia Post for not communicating even though they had her details
Ms Ruhland blames a technical glitch and not the staff, but said they needed ‘common sense’
An Australia Post spokeswoman said customers with lost mail were encouraged to log an inquiry at www.auspost.com.au.
‘Australia Post takes great pride in the efficient delivery of mail, with the vast majority — over 98 per cent — arriving safely and on time,’ the spokeswoman said.
‘Obviously something has gone wrong here…We have contacted the customer and will investigate this further.’
Ms Ruhland also blames Australia Post for ‘deliberately’ keeping her in the dark as to the progress of her inquiry, even though they had her contact information.