Shipping policy
Over 15 years of powering the e-commerce solutions for some of Australia's largest online coffee brands, we certainly know what it takes to run a professional operation.
It's all about speed - jump on the order straight away, process the items, pack into brand new cartons and have it ready to ship before the daily collections.
Speed is everything in e-commerce.
Generally, it's closer to 3pm as this helps the freight companies process the volumes so that parcels can meet the deadline for interstate line haul departures in the evenings.
If our collection is still pending and your order comes in after 2pm, we will always do our best to rush it through and try to have it packed and ready for collection.
Daily Collection Times
Our freight partners collect from our facility every working weekday (Melbourne).
The timing of these collections vary from day to day - some days it's closer to 3pm, other days it could be 4pm.
On busy days such as Monday, we have multiple collections occurring on the same day due to the significant volumes of parcels we send each day.
If your order arrives to us after the daily collections, it will be processed and made ready for collection the following business day.
Out of Stock
There is a fine line between having enough roasted coffee available to process orders that day versus keeping everything super-fresh. It's not easy and despite having 15 years of perfecting the process, we can't second guess or predict what might sell throughout the day.
Our coffees are roasted early in the morning each day. We try to have enough available to get through the afternoon and in some rare cases we may not have enough roasted coffee to cover an order. In that situation, additional coffee will be roasted the next morning and orders sent out immediately.
How we ship customer parcels
All of our orders are packed in brand new cartons.
We don't use satchels as everyone knows already that cargo gets beaten badly in transit by freight companies.
Roasted coffee beans are delicate and they won't survive well in transit placed in satchels.
Our preferred method is Australia Post business parcel standard services.
We also offer an AusPost Express Parcel services for an additional fee shown on the checkout.
Over the last 14 years our experience with using many couriers for residential deliveries has not been good.
Most couriers don't like residential deliveries. After more than 700,000 deliveries, we know what works best - it's never a decision about costs, in fact AusPost is more expensive than Aramex and Couriers Please, but it's all about making sure the order arrives without incident.
Nobody wants a delivery experience to fail.
Signature Required and Authority to Leave
All of our parcels have Signature Required by default.
This provides a track & trace security for both our customers and us.
Signature Required will mean your parcel is presented at the time of delivery for you or someone at your premises to sign. If there is nobody present or access is difficult (locked gate, fence, etc.) at that moment of delivery, your parcel may be returned to the local Post Office and you will need to arrange collection.
Kindly note, the practice of "carding" a futile delivery attempt is being phased out by freight companies as it is replaced by electronic messages to smart phones. Please be aware that you should not rely upon the existence of a physical "card" in your letterbox informing you that your parcel is waiting to be collected.
As we are living in a digital age all the records of parcel transit are available electronically. A full tracking history is available at Australia Post's website, or you can log into our Store to obtain your consignment details.
We also inform our customers to please do not complain to us if AusPost or a Courier won't leave a card at your premises - we can't control or influence their actions. If deliveries to your premises are consistently failing, this is a matter to take up with the company, e.g. AusPost, not the sender.
If you collect the parcel from Australia Post or 3rd party Courier facility, the agency may ask you to identify yourself which is likely to involve appropriate ID verification.
It's also important to ensure the addressee on the consignment is the same person collecting the parcel as the freight company may refuse to allow a surrogate to collect a parcel. These are freight company rules, not ours.
In the case where Australia Post is delivering your parcel, Australia Post may contact you by SMS before the delivery occurs to ask you if Authority to Leave is possible for your premises. This communication is strictly between you and Australia Post.
When a parcel is instructed to leave without signature, you must understand that in requesting Authority To Leave or Safe Drop, all security of the parcel is placed at your risk. Signature required is our the security feature protecting both us and you.
If your parcel is lost or stolen when Authority To Leave or Safe Drop was selected by you in the cart or with AusPost after we have shipped your parcel, we are unable to replace or submit a claim against this loss as the user/customer removed the essential parcel security.
In this case, you must contact Australia Post directly and request a Proof of Delivery (POD) image. Australia Post will not share this image with us as a 3rd party due to Australia Post's privacy policy - the image was taken on private property and can only be shared with the recipient.
Safe Drop
From 1 April 2017, Australia Post changed their default option from Authority to Leave to Safe Drop.
All Australia Post delivery agents are trained in assessing whether a parcel is safe to be left at a premises.
Regardless of the request for "Authority To Leave" if the delivery agent determines that it's not safe to leave the parcel as it could be seen and taken, the parcel will not be left at the premises.
Examples we have seen where this caused a lot of anger and frustration with customers - a premises with large fences and locked gates - it was not possible to leave the parcel at the front of the boundary in public view.
Under some circumstances, delivery agents will not open gates or enter closed premises as there is a risk of pets escaping out from the property via the opened gate.
There are also issues with dogs attacking delivery agents - in this case a delivery agent may decline entering a premises where it appears there is a risk of attack. We are not responsible for delivery agent decisions.
Customers need to be fair and reasonable by accepting that if you have fences, gates, dogs and other items that might be obstacles, it is your responsibility to accept the risk of a parcel being left at a depot or LPO for collection.
StarTrack parcels are set for Authority to Leave as we are charge a hefty fee if the delivery attempt is futile.
Tracking Notification
Most customers these days are familiar with the tracking notification emails and SMS messages.
These messages are sent to your registered email address at various stages throughout the transit commencing with the initial notification once the parcel has been collected from our premises (dispatched).
The tracking notifications are issued by freight providers - not us. We won't send you SMS notifications about deliveries.
Once your order leaves our facility we also mark your order as Dispatched or Fulfilled and generate an email notification informing you the parcel is on the way.
All tracking of your order is performed on the freight provider's systems - not ours. We provide only links.
On the day of delivery, the freight provider may send you a notification that the parcel is to be delivered today and another notification indicating the parcel is onboard with a driver. Again, these notifications are sent by the freight service provider, not us.
In some cases a delivery provider may ask if it's OK to leave the parcel or if someone will be available to receive the parcel. These last-leg communications are between you as the receiver and the shipping company.
Transit Times
Senders are not able to control or influence the performance of freight companies in relation to transit times.
Senders are also unable to provide delivery arrival indicators over the phone or email as the service is entirely out of the sender's control.
You are made aware the order has shipped. It's then up to the shipping provider and you the receiver to manage the successful delivery.
We do our best to lodge your parcels fast, without delay.
Every merchant and every parcel in the network experiences an equal level of performance - there are no faster services unless you selected the Express option.
During holiday periods, all freight slows. This causes frustration with recipients.
Delays also occur in what is deemed as the "peak season" from late October through to the week before Xmas. There are too many parcels in networks, things take longer to arrive. Transit times may also slow in January as delivery company staff may be on leave.
We recommend you visit the freight provider's website to learn more about transit time frames.
It is not possible to lodge a Service Request with freight provider regarding a consignment yet to be delivered if it is still within their recommended delivery time frames.
Some freight companies may revise your estimated delivery time frame once your parcel is in transit and this often happens around the peak season, Easter, School holidays, etc. We are not able to help with adjusting those arrival delays.
Loss or damage in transit
Please be aware that parcels sent by Australia Post do not have transit insurance.
In the case of an Australian Post consignment, if your parcel is lost, stolen or damaged, we are unable to lodge a claim on our freight provider.
These are the terms and conditions of Australia Post's standard eParcel Merchant Agreement.
If you are concerned about the risks associated with freight damage, you must contact us to arrange Transit Insurance prior to the parcel being sent from our Facility.
Once your order has left our premises, you cannot add insurance.
Insurance is $3.90 (incl.GST) per $100 of transit cover.
We are aware of Australia Post support centre staff incorrectly advising recipients to "go back to the sender and claim the refund". This is wrong and illegal as Australia Post support staff are able to view the parcel record in their system and see clearly it does not contain insurance.
AusPost Support Centre staff are setting the wrong expectation that a receiver is entitled to a claim or benefit when an incident occurs. This is not the case.
NO Australia Post Express Guarantees
IMPORTANT NOTE - Australia Post Express Parcels have no delivery time frame guarantees.
When Australia Post launched the Express Post service, it offered guarantee delivery time frames for many capital city destinations.
Originally, it was a letter and small documents based service that was expanded to satchels and parcels that were ordered over the counter at licensed Australia Post outlets.
The key point to understand here is that Australia Post Express Parcel guarantees are only available from the AusPost branded satchels, cartons, envelopes, etc. purchased over the counter at Australia Post retail outlets.
The delivery guarantees do not apply to merchants using Express Parcels - this is the same policy that affects all AusPost merchants.
It's a very important distinction as we continue to see customers demanding refunds for Express Parcels that did not arrive within expected time frames, e.g. next business day for capital cities.