A small business owner has slammed Australia Post for refusing to reimburse her for products worth almost $1,000 after they were destroyed in a truck fire.
Primary school teacher Emma Benli, who sells planners, was horrified when eight of her products were damaged in transit on March 16.
‘I’ve never been so disappointed… Eight of my packages were on an Australia Post truck heading to Western Australia,’ she said in a social media video.
‘They were involved in a car accident resulting in a fire, (in) which eight of my planners were unfortunately burnt and damaged.’
Ms Benli claimed neither she nor her customers were contacted by Australia Post about the fire, adding: ‘My customers had to contact them.’
On April 1, Australia Post published an update on its website, noting: ‘A third-party truck caught fire in Western Australia while travelling from Sydney to Perth.
‘The driver is safe, but unfortunately all parcels on board were damaged and could not be safely recovered.’
Ms Benli said she only realised something had happened after receiving a surge of emails from WA customers who had not received their planners.
Small business owner and primary school teacher Emma Benli has criticised Australia Post after she claims she was not informed her products had been damaged in a vehicle fire
‘They said, “Can you chase up Australia Post for me? I can see it’s been shipped but it just hasn’t been delivered,”‘ Ms Benli said.
‘What really disappointed me is that it informed (one) customer that they had already contacted me about this and compensated me, which is false.
‘I decided to contact Australia Post, thinking they may have forgotten to contact me, (to) compensate me, and that everything will be organised and sorted.
But, Ms Benli said she only received a reply from Australia Post after messaging them several times.
‘I got an email saying I will not be compensated for the accident because they were not the vehicle that was at fault,’ Ms Benli said.
‘They will only be compensating me for the shipping that I had to pay for each of the packages.
‘When I read that email, I was like, “You’ve got to be kidding me. There has to be some kind of a small print here that I’m missing.”‘
The teacher estimated that she would not be compensated for almost $1,000, which was significant for her small business.
Australia Post said compensation is decided on a case-by-case basis (stock image)
‘I’m not going to stop until I do get compensated because, (for) a small business like myself, I trust Australia Post to deliver my goods safely to my customers and then this happens,’ Ms Benli said.
‘You would think that it’s just a no-brainer that they would compensate any business whether they’re at fault or not.’
When contacted by the Daily Mail for comment, Australia Post said compensation was decided on a case-by-case basis.
‘We understand how frustrating and disappointing it is for customers when parcels are impacted by accidents like a truck fire,’ a statement on Thursday read.
‘Compensation is assessed on a case-by-case basis in line with our terms and conditions, and we work with merchants and delivery partners to support impacted customers.’
