Can NZ Post Staff read?

[ssweetpea]

Sometimes I wonder.

There is a town just outside of Christchurch with the same name as a suburb in Rotorua.

They have two different post codes.

Before post codes the occasional piece of mail for my in-laws would wind up in a letterbox on a street of the same name in Cantebury rather than Rotorua. I stopped putting the suburb name on anything I posted to Rotorua as a result.

I thought the new postcodes had solved the problem after a few teething problems with mail addressed to Pukekohe ending up my letterbox on the North Shore as some boffhead had crossed out the Pukekohe and the code and put my suburb and code on instead.

No such luck.

I posted a parcel to my  in-laws last week. Mr Sp addressed it, put the correct Rotorua postcode on it but made the mistake of putting the suburb name on it above Rotorua.

The track and trace parcel has finially shown up.

It is in the Christchurch depot.

[Newtown-Fella]

not always NZ Posts fault ....

Undeliverable Xmas mail items total 15,000

New Zealand Post has received 15,000 illegible or undeliverable Christmas mail items.

Spokesman Michael Tull said the organisation collated the number of items with missing addresses, insufficient delivery information or illegible addresses.

If an item was without a readable return address then domestic and international mail was sent to the "return letter office" in Auckland.

Last week, it held 14,961 items of undeliverable mail, including 3286 items posted that week. Most of the items were cards or letters, he said.

"Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year in terms of mail volumes, so we currently hold a larger than usual number of letters. There's a big increase in the volume of personal mail."

Mr Tull said any loose items were held for three months and, if not claimed, were auctioned and the money given to charity.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/christmas-2011/6186108/Undeliverable-Xmas-mail-items-total-15-000

[ssweetpea]

Sometimes it is very much NZ Posts fault

Even snail mail gets lost
LEIGHTON KEITH Last updated 05:00 26/12/2011


NOT MINE: Loren Dunford was able to see the funny side after a Christmas card was delivered to his Waitara address instead of a similar one in England.

NZ Post cannot deliver 15,000 Christmas mail items because of address problems but even the correct address doesn't guarantee letters will reach the intended destination.

On Christmas Eve, Loren Dunford, of Waitara, who lives at 1Clifton Dr, was shocked to receive a letter intended for the other side of the world.

"I was thinking 'somebody is not going to get their Christmas card this year'," Mr Dunford said.

The Canadian, who has called New Zealand home for 26 years, said the card was addressed to Mr and Mrs Mycock, 1 Clifton Dr, Foxlow Park, Buxton, Derbyshire, England.

It was sent from Browns Bay in Auckland, and Mr Dunford had no idea how NZ Post was able to confuse the tiny town of Waitara with the intended overseas destination.

"Airmail is highlighted. I would like to think they would first look at the country rather than the street address."

Mr Dunford, who uses email because he finds it reliable, gave the letter to the Taranaki Daily News to drop in a post box but remained skeptical that it would arrive.

"Hopefully, it gets out of the country at least, but your guess is as good as mine. It could end up anywhere, but don't ask the post office, because they won't know."

Ad Feedback - © Fairfax NZ News

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6189340/Even-snail-mail-gets-lost

[ssweetpea]

This is the correct addressing format according to NZ Post. What a pity the only way I can guarentee that mail goes to my in-laws in Rotorua instead of a small town in Cantebury is to omit the suburb name.

Addressing tips
 

Write the return address in small letters on one line in the top left-hand corner or on the back of the envelope
 If you want to put the name of a person or business, put this at the top (on the top line)
 The stamp goes into the top right-hand corner
 Print clearly
 Write the address in this order • Receiver (person or business)
 • Delivery address
 • Suburb
 • Town/city postcode
 
Use a light-coloured envelope made of firm paper or card
 Line the address up on the left hand side
 
Download the Quick guide to addressing your letters and parcels (PDF - 154kb)
 
Street addresses
 Use the street number in preference to a building’s name. However, if you only have a building name, put it by itself on the line immediately above the street name and put any unit or floor above the building name
 Don’t use corner addresses, eg ‘corner Main and High Streets’
 Don’t use street number ranges, eg ‘4-12 Main Street’
 If the street number includes a letter, leave out the space, eg ‘21A Main Street’, not ‘21 A Main Street’
 Use the suburb if it is in common use. You can leave out a central city suburb, eg ‘Auckland Central’
 Don’t use a province, region, district or territory name instead of (or in
 addition to) the town or city name.
 
Rural addresses
 Use 'RD' plus the RD number instead of a suburb.
 'RD' has no spaces or punctuation (eg. 'RD 1' not 'R D 1').
 Include the name of a registered occupant if the rural address doesn't have a street number.
 Don't use floor levels in rural addresses.
 Use the correct mail town – this is the town name of the rural delivery route - it is not always the town where the address is located.
 
PO Box and Private Bag addresses
 If you're using a PO Box or Private Bag address, don't include a street address as well.
 PO Box and Private Bag numbers have no spaces (eg. 'PO Box 23226', not 'PO Box 23 226').
 'PO' has no spaces or punctuation (eg. 'PO Box 23226' not 'P O Box 23226' or 'P. O. Box 23226').
 You can leave out the box lobby name if it's exactly the same as the town/city name.
 Always use a postcode
 
Unique postal addresses
 
We have a unique postal address for every delivery point in New Zealand. Addresses are made up of multiple lines of information which vary depending on the type of address. There are three types of New Zealand Post postal address:
 Urban
 Rural
 PO Box, Private Bag or Counter Delivery (known as delivery service addresses)
 
Address types shouldn't be combined. For example, you shouldn't combine an urban or rural street address with a PO Box address. All mail items must also show a full return postal address.
http://www.nzpost.co.nz/sending-within-nz/how-to-address-mail/different-address-types-envelope-layout

[Alicat]

I have had 2 very bad experiences with Courier Post. I complained both times and felt like complaining about the 'Complaints Officer.'

The first experience was early in the year. Dad was terminally ill and I was going back and forth to Hastings. There were heaps of things to sort out and each time I went up there I was in a rush getting things done before I returned to Wellington. I took an urgent phone call on my parents landline then made a dash for the door as my ride to the airport had arrived. In my haste I left my cellphone behind. It was Friday midday. By the time I discovered it was missing I was at Napier Airport. Mum took my phone into NZ Post Shop and paid extra to have an overnight delivery to my work place on Saturday morning.

All calls relating to Mum and Dad's care were via that cellphone number. All of the Medical and Nursing Staff, the Hospice and the Caregivers all had that number and were instructed to use it rather than further stress Mum out. I needed that damn phone.

Saturday morning came and went - no package for me. I rang Courier Post - they close at midday on a Saturday. I rang Courier Post on Monday morning first thing and while the Call Centre were polite and tried to be helpful, no-one knew where the phone was. I asked to speak with someone with some authority. They said that they would get their 'Complaints Officer' (not her real title) to call me back. She rang me back but was on the defensive from the get go. I was not impressed. I found her rude. I tried to explain to her how important the package was and that Dad was terminally ill and Mum had been having hospital admissions for a heart condition. No apology - no help. She actually told me I was wrong in thinking there was an overnight delivery from Firday to Saturay. Mum had paid extra for it. She got all defensive and said she was sick and tired of the Call Centre and NZ Post staff giving wrong information out. I recommended staff training and better communication. She eventually initiated an investigation and discovered the package was in Napier! In the end she had to fly it to Wellington and ring to say when it would be delivered. I asked for a contact phone number in case there were any problems. She didn't like that at all. I asked her where I could go to take it further as in a formal complaint. She asked me what I meant!

The next one was a package I sent from Lower Hutt to Hastings for Mum. It was an urgent package to be delivered to the door. Mum waited around all day for it. It didn't arrive but later that evening a man from a neighbouring address came over with the package. It had been dumped in his letterbox. Mum was furious. The man had moved out of his address a week previously and only came back to collect something from teh house. While there he checked the letterbox and there was Mum's package. If he had not gone back to his address by chance, Mum's parcel would not have been located. I rang Courier Post and asked for an explanation. They said they would ring me back. That was mid November and I am still waiting to hear.

[nitpicker1]

aww ali!

my bad experience was absolutely trifling, and my own fault really because the girl at our post shop had given me the wrong postpaid envelope that I thought was a track 'n'trace

Seems to me that NZPOST uses robots to read addresses and shoot the mail into appropriate destination lists.

Seems to me that the "lost mail" department uses robots to send snailmail communications with the sender of lost items, and seems to me that even robots get pissed off and stuff up the information that the sender of the lost item has given them when initiating a search for a lost item


                      



 

[Newtown-Fella]

even Govt House cant address mail correctly ...

an apartment number but no street but the suburb and city along with my name was all that was on the envelope ...

someone had written on the envelope " try ........ xxx street "

im happy to say i got the invitation ...

crazy when i had to provide full name and address details when i was asked for them ....

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Seems to me that NZPOST uses robots to read addresses and shoot the mail into appropriate destination lists.

And that hits the nail right on the head.

The big flash mail sorting centres NZ Post uses these days are equipped with automated address readers that read the address on ALL mail, including hand-written mail. Stuff that cannot be read by the automated address reader is rejected and then supposedly read by hand. However, if the automated address reader mis-reads addresses on mail, then supposedly the mail is automatically sorted to the mis-read address in whatever location it is in. Don't you just luuuuuurve gee-whiz technology?

And while on the topic of those big flash mail sorting centres....if I post an item of mail into the mailbox outside the door of the PO Box lobby in Masterton (where I have a PO Box) to another PO Box in the same PO Box lobby, the item of mail goes over the Rimutakas to NZ Post's mail sorting centre at Petone to be sorted, then is transported back to Masterton and delivered to the PO Box only a few feet away from the mailbox I posted it into in the first place. And this is in spite of the secondary mailroom behind all of those PO Boxes, and a NZ Post mailroom just around the corner from the PO Box. I wonder how much greenhouse gases get spewed into the atmosphere every year carting mail over to Petone and back that was posted in Masterton destined to Masterton addresses? Faaaaaaaark!!!

[guest49]

If theres a possible way of cocking it up, courier post will find it.

NZ Post is worth about 1 on a scale of 1 to 10, in my opinion.  I use local couriers now, after 3 or 4 bad experiences with NZ Post.  It may cost more, but I can send it without  worrying about NZP's russian roulette.

[Newtown-Fella]

Seems to me that NZPOST uses robots to read addresses and shoot the mail into appropriate destination lists.

And that hits the nail right on the head.

The big flash mail sorting centres NZ Post uses these days are equipped with automated address readers that read the address on ALL mail, including hand-written mail. Stuff that cannot be read by the automated address reader is rejected and then supposedly read by hand. However, if the automated address reader mis-reads addresses on mail, then supposedly the mail is automatically sorted to the mis-read address in whatever location it is in. Don't you just luuuuuurve gee-whiz technology?

And while on the topic of those big flash mail sorting centres....if I post an item of mail into the mailbox outside the door of the PO Box lobby in Masterton (where I have a PO Box) to another PO Box in the same PO Box lobby, the item of mail goes over the Rimutakas to NZ Post's mail sorting centre at Petone to be sorted, then is transported back to Masterton and delivered to the PO Box only a few feet away from the mailbox I posted it into in the first place. And this is in spite of the secondary mailroom behind all of those PO Boxes, and a NZ Post mailroom just around the corner from the PO Box. I wonder how much greenhouse gases get spewed into the atmosphere every year carting mail over to Petone and back that was posted in Masterton destined to Masterton addresses? Faaaaaaaark!!!

whos a clown then ?

there is a slot in every PO Box Lobby for misboxed mail .....

ive used that to post a letter to another Box Holderr in the same place and i include the postage ....

im surprised that the trains dont carry the mail these days still

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

im surprised that the trains dont carry the mail these days still

Why would they?

KiwiRail is NOT a freight-fowarding company.

They are a bulk linehaul company.

KiwiRail leave the fiddly freight-fowarding stuff to freight-fowarding companies, although they do carry out line-haul for several of the freight-fowarding companies, including Mainfreight (who are currently building big new freight-fowarding depots at the various major railfreight terminals around NZ with the intention of eventually exiting from line-haul on main road routes).

NZ Post virtually operate their own freight-fowarding operation with owner-driver truckies driving their own trucks, but branded NZ Post.

[ssweetpea]

Seems to me that NZPOST uses robots to read addresses and shoot the mail into appropriate destination lists.

And that hits the nail right on the head.

The big flash mail sorting centres NZ Post uses these days are equipped with automated address readers that read the address on ALL mail, including hand-written mail. Stuff that cannot be read by the automated address reader is rejected and then supposedly read by hand. However, if the automated address reader mis-reads addresses on mail, then supposedly the mail is automatically sorted to the mis-read address in whatever location it is in. Don't you just luuuuuurve gee-whiz technology?

And while on the topic of those big flash mail sorting centres....if I post an item of mail into the mailbox outside the door of the PO Box lobby in Masterton (where I have a PO Box) to another PO Box in the same PO Box lobby, the item of mail goes over the Rimutakas to NZ Post's mail sorting centre at Petone to be sorted, then is transported back to Masterton and delivered to the PO Box only a few feet away from the mailbox I posted it into in the first place. And this is in spite of the secondary mailroom behind all of those PO Boxes, and a NZ Post mailroom just around the corner from the PO Box. I wonder how much greenhouse gases get spewed into the atmosphere every year carting mail over to Petone and back that was posted in Masterton destined to Masterton addresses? Faaaaaaaark!!!

If I post something on the North Shore it goes to Auckland Airport to be sorted then back again. Once apon a time (when I was a kid) we could put any local mail in a postal slot at the Post Office. All the Post Offices around here had 3 slots, Air mail, Standard and Zone 9 &10. Auckland 9 was the east side of the North Shore and Auckland 10 the west side. Only the big cities had codes, New Plymouth didn't.

As for robots reading handwriting - that may explain why putting the suburb on my in-laws mail causes the high possibility of it ending up in Canterbury. Oddly enough there isn't a street of the same name in the town concerned but there is in Rangiora and that is where it often winds up. We know this because the person living there wrote to my in-laws after receiving so much incorrectly delivered mail. Much of that was before there were post codes for every place.

[ssweetpea]

This didn't happen to me but there is a reason why I post most of my parcels at the tiny Post Office in Beach Haven rather than Birkenhead or Glenfield. Dominic, Sam and Top have never failed in locating the desination in NZ no matter how small or obscure.

The awful truth about post codes

Kirsty was at a North Shore Post Shop last week and was drawn into a rather surreal exchange between two New Zealand Post staff and a customer, who wanted to send a parcel to Mangonui in the Far North. Unable to find the town on her computer system, the clerk could not print an appropriate postage label, but suggested Mt Maunganui or Wanganui might be the required destination. Discussing the finer points of New Zealand geography, the customer played his trump card: the postcode, purposely designed for postal sorting and direction. "I'm sorry, sir, our computer systems don't recognise post codes." She left them trying to find a map.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sideswipe/news/article.cfm?c_id=702&objectid=10790469

[akadaka]

They can read but probably in vedic script.i have lost count how many times i post a letter to an address,boldly written with the stamp on the front and on the back small writing saying sender with my business address and the next day the fuckwit postie smiles at reception and hands it back to us.The first 3 times i let it go but last week i stood between him and the door and would not let him go till we all spoke to the mail sorting centre.As usual they apologise and offer a free book of stamps but this time i just snapped.The 2 people at the mail centre were indian as is the postie so i was left listening on speaker phone as they all discussed the problem in indian until i spat the dummy and butted in and told them this better be the last time and shove the free stamps up their arse (as i have 3 books already) but the next time he delivers my mail back to me i will soak him in petrol and set fire to him on gt north road as i thought a cultural retribution threat my sink in more

[Ferney]

Reply #2 from Fairfax.
Stuff have a bit of a cheek with that article as Fairfax are guilty of not using post codes.
Nowhere on their paperwork to us have they ever included their post code.

I also wonder about staff at the Penrose PO box lobby as every month our supplier failed to received our cheque.
Have never had a problem with any other.  We now have an arrangement where we give it to their driver to take back.
It looks bad when you mail a cheque on the 21st every month and they still haven't received it by the 30th.   It happened so often it was no way a fluke.

[ssweetpea]

Ferny - Were the cheques cashed?

As for the mail being sent to the sender's address instead - I have had that happen. I now write the word sender in front of my address and put it in small print on an upper corner on the back to avoid that happening.

The only time I have gotten the mail back since I started doing that was when a parcel wasn't been picked up by the person I was sending it to.

[nitpicker1]

Cocaine lost by traffickers
5:30 AM Saturday Jan 28, 2012 

A 16kg consignment of cocaine lost by Mexican drug traffickers has turned up at the United Nations in New York.

Two fake UN diplomatic pouches containing drugs - which experts said had a street value of more than US$2 million ($2.4 million) - were shipped from Mexico through the DHL shipping company's centre in Cincinnati, Ohio, but had no address on them, nor any return-to-sender details.

UN assistant secretary- general Gregory Starr told reporters there was no evidence that anyone from the United Nations was linked to the bags.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10781697

[ssweetpea]

Ok, this really was in my letter box this morning. We have all had a big laugh over this.

The # is the correct bits for my address.

M RUHI
# ###### #####
ARMADALE WEST
AUSTRALIA ####

It is from Horizons Regional Council

First mistake: For some reason they have spilt the state name over two lines (there is an Armadale in Victoria and West Australia) and omited the country name due to the first mistake.

Second mistake: They looked up the postcode on the NZ postcode finder instead of the Australian postcode finder.

Possible Third mistake: It has been franked with $2.09 rather than the $2.90 required to get the letter/bill to Australia.

Still you would think that someone from NZ Post (like the postie who put it in our letterbox in Auckland, New Zealand) would have noticed.

I have put the following note on the front of the envelope:

Dear Horizons,
Epic Fail regarding address.
Please check 1. Name of State 2. Country 3. Post code for Australia
and ensure this doesn't return to our house in #######, Auckland, New Zealand

Do I take a photo and send it to Sideswipe?

[ssweetpea]

Carterton man's postal address woes
By Tessa Johnstone of the Wairarapa Times Age


10:00 AM Thursday May 3, 2012

 
A Carterton man has been told his mail can no longer be delivered to his home - because there is no such address.
 
Russ Sadler's property number changed last year from number 15 to 21, as a result of a switch to the RAPID (Rural Address Property Identification) system, which is used to assist emergency services locate properties.
 
Properties are numbered based on the distance they are from the start of the road - in Mr Sadler's case, because his property is 210 metres from the road junction, it is number 21.
 
He said he has no issue with the system, but does have a problem with New Zealand Post's response to the change.
 
In a letter sent to Mr Sadler last month, NZ Post said after giving him a period of grace, they could no longer deliver mail addressed to number 15, only to 21, even though he lives in the same house.
 
Mr Sadler said he has informed everyone he can think of about the address change, but he is still missing mail.
 
"How am I supposed to advise people who I don't even know are going to write to me?"
 


He became aware of the problem after a close friend sent him an invitation to his 80th birthday, addressed to number 15.
 
The letter was returned to sender, with the "no such number/street" box ticked on the envelope.
 
Complicating the issue, the 2012 White Pages published his address as number 15, rather than 21.
 
"I hadn't even thought about the phone book," he said.
 
Mr Sadler said in principle mail should be delivered from person to person, not from address to address.
 
NZ Post spokeswoman Jaimee Burke said while she thinks mail is still sorted in Carterton, the policy is to deliver to addresses rather than individuals.
 
"It's simply unrealistic for us to monitor every change and exception to every address." She said that other residents on Mr Sadler's road had complied with the process of updating their details with those that send them mail, and are now receiving mail at their new numbered addresses.
 
- WAIRARAPA TIMES-AGE
By Tessa Johnstone of the Wairarapa Times Age
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10803204

I guess that explains why that letter for Australia wound up in my letter box ...the street address was the only thing read.

Sux if NZ Post were the ones who changed the street number though.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

A Carterton man has been told his mail can no longer be delivered to his home - because there is no such address.

If you enter my residential address into NZ Post's online address finder, it comes up as no such address.

I am at number 27 in my street and their address finder shows number 25 and number 29 (which is really just an extension of a large section in the street behind) but no number 27.

Mind you, the fact that I removed my letterbox several years ago (after vandels trashed it late one Friday night) and the following war or words with NZ Post over not having a letterbox (I rent a PO Box off them, so why provide a letterbox at my residential address for junk mailers to fill up?) might have something to do with NZ Post wiping my residential address from their directory of mail delivery addresses. They actually got quite nasty about me removing my letterbox and refusing to replace it, including quoting some obscure clause in the Postal Act to me, but I refused to budge. I had the same war with them in Gisborne many years ago too! However, the upside is that I don't receive junkmail.

[ssweetpea]

Not just an NZPost problem then.

Return to sender, postie's confused

2:00 PM Friday Mar 25, 2016

It quite clearly reads "New Zealand" at the bottom of the envelope, but a letter bound for a couple in New Zealand keeps getting delivered to an address 18,000 kilometres away.

Englishman Giles Fairman-Bourn, who lives on a Norton Close address in the English town of Christchurch, Dorset, is struggling to get rid of what he's calling a "boomerang" letter destined for a Norton Close address in Lyttelton, Christchurch, New Zealand.


The letter was addressed to a "Christopher and Nicola" - local property records show a different person listed as owning and living at the home - and has an Australian stamp with the Sydney Harbour Bridge on it.

Mr Fairman-Bourn, 40, received the letter once, only to get it back again this morning (UK time).


He then drew a box around the words "New Zealand" and has written and underlined "Not United Kingdom" next to it before reposting it for the second time.

"I think it's just because it goes to a local sorting office and they just keep not noticing," Mr Fairman-Bourn told the Herald today from his Dorset home.

"They're just looking at the Norton Close and thinking 'Oh yeah, we know where that is' without looking at the Lyttelton and then the New Zealand. They can't see it for looking."

Mr Fairman-Bourn thinks it might be an Easter card and said he wants it returned to its actual recipients as soon as possible.

"It's probably an Easter card because it's kind of skinny and thin," he said. "It's definitely a card, but because it's not for me I can't obviously open it to find out but they won't get it by Easter now, that's for sure."

He posted a photo of the envelope on his Facebook page and wrote: "I feel sorry for whoever Christopher and Nicola are but this little card Royal Mail have made into boomerang post; every time I stick it back in the mail, as Elvis Presley once sung, this letter just keeps comin' back!"

He added: "I hope that it's worthwhile when it gets to them. I don't think it's junk mail, it's certainly some kind of personal card that someone's taken the trouble to write."

- NZ Herald


by Scott Yeoman
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11611728

[ssweetpea]

Meanwhile I have a slightly different problem.

The organisation I work for has a PO Box and no letter box but we do have a street address. Any mail addressed to the street address (most is unsolicited) is redirected to the PO Box. This includes mail address to the other street address, a property that is  not occupied and awaiting development and removal of the old church and hall.

That second street address is 98 and 100 XX Rd.

Before Christmas I was finding so much mail addressed to the family at 96 XX Rd that I went into the Post Office and complained. I was reposting several items a week - and I only clear the PO Box once a week. Once or twice I can live with, 5 or 6 weeks running was a bit much. I wonder if any mail was going through given that it included the power bill and the phone bill.

When the voting papers for the flag referendum were sent out I found two in the PO Box again incorrectly redirected there instead of being delivered 10 properties down the road.

This week there were two items correctly addressed to the Catholic Church at 198 XX Rd in the PO Box. I don't know if the Catholic church uses a letter box or a PO Box or whether the sorting person just saw the address and the word church and sent it my way.

I carefully sort the contents of the PO Box before leaving the lobby and not just to ditch the unaddressed junk mail.

[nitpicker1]

Lol SsweetP.  Return to the letterbox at the gate -  give the Posties some work:


NZ Post announces new vehicle purchase to keep up with changing consumer demands

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/76816997/NZ-Post-announces-new-vehicle-purchase-to-keep-up-with-changing-consumer-demands

[ssweetpea]

Lol SsweetP.  Return to the letterbox at the gate -  give the Posties some work:


NZ Post announces new vehicle purchase to keep up with changing consumer demands

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/76816997/NZ-Post-announces-new-vehicle-purchase-to-keep-up-with-changing-consumer-demands

LOL the thought has crossed my mind more than once. I don't fancy my chances of getting it passed the old folk on the committee that employs me. They still think in terms of cheques in the mail - not that there has been one in the 2 years I have been working there, the few cheques are all hand delivered. The only people who write cheques are old folk or groups run by old folk. There is also the junk mail problem, you wouldn't believe the amount I chuck every week, all of it addressed. I might add heaps more arrives via email. I can get 80 emails for every 10 items in the post and that is after I unsubscribed to a heap.

Part of my duties is to send out invoices. What many of the committee don't realise is that I only put 1 in the post - the rest are emailed.

I could work from home if it wasn't necessary to open the office door to drop ins 4 hours a week. I am constantly amazed by the number of drop ins.