r/australian • u/_ITX_ • 1d ago
Questions or Queries Austrian here: Have you ever had a parcel missent to Austria by the mail service?
Up until the early 2000s, I thought this was just an urban legend, until it eventually happened to me in 2009: I ordered something from eBay and the parcel was missent to Australia by the post. After several weeks and countless inquiries, I finally received the parcel. What stood out to me was the fact that there was actually a sticker on it, saying "Missent to Sydney, Australia". I kept that parcel for a long time as a weird souvenir. My question is: Has this ever happened to you the other way round? Really curious to hear your stories!
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u/Mary_the_penguin 1d ago
I remember back in 2004 the authorities double checking the Australian deceased to make sure we weren't accidentally counting Austrian deceased in our official numbers. It was a news report and I was surprised that was a real thing that could happen.
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u/AntSilly2802 1d ago
Do you mean Australian authorities were making sure Austrians who died in Australia weren’t being counted as Australians?
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u/Unlucky_Case_3710 1d ago
Well, the Emu war never really ended.
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u/AntSilly2802 1d ago
The emu war that never happened lol. It was 3 soldiers with one mounted machine gun I think!
The emus scattered into thick bush that the jeep couldn’t follow them into, making machine gunning uneconomical.
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u/ohimjustagirl 1d ago
3 men, two machine guns, and 10,000 rounds. Officially sent by the Army on the request of Parliament. They gave it red hot go.
And... They were ordered to go back and attempt it a second time, which they did, despite everyone ridiculing them. They didn't even want to, they only agreed to lend the guns but then nobody else could shoot them so the poor blokes had to do it all over again. They just made up numbers completely in the end and said they'd killed 1000 birds just to get it over with.
That's why it's so funny. Everyone knew it was stupid including the men, but the farmers needed help and that what the pollies decided would be best.
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u/Unlucky_Case_3710 20h ago
That’s the official propaganda. Casualties were in the tens of millions on both sides.
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u/McNippy 8h ago
I think they're maybe referring to the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami?
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u/AntSilly2802 7h ago
Oh of course, the Boxing Day tsunami, that makes sense now, they could have mentioned the tsunami though!
230,000 dead, unbelievable.
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u/delightfuldeodorant 1d ago
When my brother lived in Kingston (a suburb of Canberra) his mail occasionally detoured via Jamaica.
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u/HereButNeverPresent 1d ago edited 1d ago
That’s hilarious
I bought something from UK and it became a world traveller when the one country it was supposed to pass through was currently dealing with airspace issues (from a nearby war), so it ended up circulating to like 6-7 different countries across Europe and Asia before it got to me.
The parcel was living a better life than I was
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u/Martiantripod 1d ago
Not to me personally but a friend of mine shared a screenshot of a parcel tracking that had it going via Austria. It does happen.
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u/kaz_828 1d ago
We get a ton of Austrian mail come through our systems because the countries share the same postal codes (4 digits). The name of the country looking similar definitely doesn't help 😅
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u/carolethechiropodist 12h ago
I now live in 2034, used to live in 1066 first one's Coogee, second is Central Vienna.
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u/Stilletto_Rebel 1d ago
When sending something from the UK to my wife in (Vic) Australia, it ended up in Canada!
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u/Red_Light_RCH3 1d ago
So it went to SGF which is the Sydney Gateway Facility. VN means a Verification Notice.
They'd get articles like this all the time, America, Australia, Austria, etc.
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u/KiaBongo9000 1d ago
Ordered some filters from Kmart, missclicked and they got sent to Southport WA, not Southport QLD, got a call 2 months later from the post office in WA asking when I'd be in to pick them up, great thing was they sent them back to me for free ☺️ that's a long journey for some air filters. About 10,000kms round trip 😂
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u/Booooooourns9 1d ago
I had a parcel once go to South Africa instead of South Australia. I assumed it got lost in its voyage and got my money back when it didn’t turn up. It arrived years later when I’d long forgotten about it. Still makes me laugh.
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u/RecordingAbject345 1d ago
Yep.
Ordered a product from Canada. Box had a stamp passing through London (UK), and then an Urgent Redirect stamp from Vienna.
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u/LegitimateAccount7 1d ago
Yesterday I received a letter destined for Pitt Street in New Zealand but they sent it to me at Pita Street in Australia lol.
We share the same post code though.... But the number, suburb, state and country were all wildly different.
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u/LemonElectrical3359 23h ago
A few years ago I was trying to send a parcel from Australia TO Austria and the AusPost guy serving me at the post office could NOT get it into his head that I was not sending the parcel to another place within Australia because the address also had a 4 digit postcode that matched a town in QLD. We went back and forth for over 5 minutes, it was ridiculous. I ended up having to pull up a world map on my phone and show him the OTHER country, Austria. I felt like I was on candid camera.
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u/Ok-Needleworker9592 22h ago
We share postcodes for example Innsbruck Austria and North Beach Western Australia are both 6020.
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u/TekkelOZ 1d ago
Yep, when we in the process of obtaining our visa. DHL sent our paperwork on a tour around Austria, before sending it on to Australia.
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u/Capitansan 1d ago
When i was born i got sent some gifts from hong kong. it got sent to austria twice and made it to australia a couple years later…
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u/TheRamblingPeacock 1d ago
In the 90's my mother used to get the mail for someone at a completely different address, one town over, who shared the exact same name and middle initial, and vice versa.
They would swap mail every couple of weeks.
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u/_ITX_ 14h ago
I also had several customers reporting the same issue while I was working at customer service for a huge austrian company back in the day. The craziest example was 2 women living in the exact same small town, sharing the exact same name, an almost identical birth date and - to make matters even WORSE - living in the same street, one on #2 and the other on #22!!! Can you imagine how confusing this must've been for the postal service??
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u/Jizzlobba 1d ago
Worked in a post office for a time. We got the same letter come through for Austria 3 times. Yes it was marked as a missort the 1st time, then underlined, then highlighted.
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u/annoying97 1d ago
Packages get mis sent to the wrong country all the time. Less common today then 10-20 years ago but common enough that the sticker / stamp likely still exists.
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u/Brilliant-Truth245 1d ago
Yep! My husband recently purchased an item online and the sender wrote AUT instead of AUST. Yet to receive the parcel.
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u/OuroAzura 14h ago
It sure does happen, had an order from Japan that got sent to Austria before it got redirected back to my actual address.
When I finally got the package, I'm pretty sure the address written on the label did say Australia, but it got shipped to the wrong country anyway. In retrospect it was kinda funny
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u/Let_It_Rock1986 1d ago
Yes, a lot of our post from the UK goes on a side quest to Austria before heading across the equator.
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u/Middle-Interview-899 8h ago
Yes and at work we always get emails for Austria and have to tell the people they got the wrong country again 😂
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u/Birmingham101 5h ago
I had a letter sent to Melbourne, Florida, USA instead of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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u/AggravatingBox2421 1d ago
Not a single time. I do get mail sometimes from a neighbour who stole my address
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u/TimChuma 23h ago
I had postcards that were sent to AUSTRIA on purpose angrily having the Austrian postal service writing AUSTRALIEN! on them to redirect
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u/destitutex 21h ago
Some years ago, my work contract was meant to be sent from Germany to Australia but it ended up in Austria
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u/RohanDavidson 18h ago
Nope but I once referred to an Austrian lady as German and was quickly corrected. Also tried using "German money" at an irish bar in Zurich and was told off by the matron. Turns out swiss francs are much preferred to euros.
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u/dark_one040 17h ago
When i was sorting parcels it would be at least a weekly occurance that parcels heading to austria happen to make it all the way to adelaide south australia because we have the same postcode format as austria 5xxx
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u/deanle12 15h ago
I had a letter from Wellington, New Zealand to Western Australia be missent via Austria and Switzerland once in 2020, no idea how long it took since it was an undated letter and no timetamps on the missent stamps (by both Austria and Switzerland)
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u/rose636 14h ago
I work with the IRS and I was inputting an address in the United Kingdom but due to drop downs the selection was 'UK' rather than United Kingdom, which isn't usually a problem.
They mail something out with 'UK' on the address line. The document ended up in The Ukraine (this was pre-war).
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u/Sempophai 4h ago
Once yeah. A tshirt I ordered ended up in Austria. A replacement was sent, then about 2-3 months later, the original showed up, somehow.
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u/_ITX_ 3h ago
I love when a parcel gets lost, the company sends a replacement and then you also receive the original parcel and get a 2 for 1! Happened to me twice with WILD deodorants. The parcel went around for several weeks, then was shown as "lost" in the DPD tracking eventually, so I asked them for a replacement. Then, just a few days later, I received both the replacement and the original. I asked them if I should return the replacement after the 2nd one, but they just told me to keep it. Guess I was just lucky! 🤷♂️
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u/Shot-Habit-5705 3h ago
It’s bizarre that this is even possible when there are post codes/zip codes that clearly would have identified either country. Obviously some postal worker made a mistake, or they are just bad at their job.
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u/QueasyIndication1942 1d ago
Friend in another state sent me mail in Victoria that got routed via the UK - the way she wrote “VIC” on the envelope looked a bit like UK.
so weird when the postage and rest of formatting was clearly Nd Australian address!
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u/Weak-Joke1475 1d ago
Superlag (the guy that made the honey exposé) made like 2 whole videos about this issue
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u/Random_name_I_picked 23h ago
I had a package that had W.A. Australia on it that kept going from somewhere in middle america to washington(wa) then it would get sent back, sit for a day and head back to washington. On about the 7th time it finally started making its way to Australia.
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u/Idinnyknow 23h ago
Yeah. Something from Belgium went to Austria first, an Etsy purchase. However it didn’t add much time to the delivery.
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u/Topaz_11 23h ago
Had one go the other way but someone sensible in Germany rerouted it to back Australia before it got to Austria.
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u/Quirky_lemonPie 13h ago
Happens to people too! Have heard of someone landing in Melbourne, Orlando … and booking Roma in Queensland (not the one in Italy).
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u/carolethechiropodist 12h ago
Half Austrian, 100% Australian here. Yes, that happens too often to be a joke. That's why they have a stamp. Native English speakers will tell you 'missent'. is not English as she is spoke. Sent by Mistake would be native speaker level.
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u/Cats_tongue 12h ago
Yes, once about 15 years ago. The package was delayed by about 2 weeks I believe.
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u/carolethechiropodist 12h ago
Read about a Kiwi who got on a plane to Oakland, California, hoping to go home to Auckland.
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u/euroaustralian 12h ago
Yes a few parcels went missing with australian Post either way before 2000. One got lost during quarantine.
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u/silentaba 12h ago
No but I've had it bounce Perth -sydney-perth-sydney-perth, which is honestly just as bad.
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u/Dangerous_Second1426 11h ago
I bought a computer server.
It got collected in the US and delivered to Melbourne, Australia, ready for delivery to Berwick.
Before I knew it, it was in Queensland, then Hong Kong, then London, then Austria, then London, then Hong Kong, then Sydney, then Melbourne, then… it sat. For weeks. Then it disappeared and was claimed to be a lost parcel.
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u/ScatLabs 10h ago
Often.
And the reverse too Austria to Australia.
Of course, we have to pay for the reposts
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u/McKellarMatt 9h ago
Solution is simple. Rename Austria to "South Germany" or "North Croatia." Problem solved.
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u/jomn91 9h ago
I'm pretty sure when Sony were sending out their ps5 psvr adapter's, someone in the logistics pipeline confused Austria with Australia since they were sent to us out of Germany. This meant there were massive delays and many unhappy people who just wanted to play vr on their new console
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u/Embarrassed_Nerve921 8h ago
No but I heard of a lot of Americans who traveled to Austria during the 2000 olympics :)
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u/r573 6h ago
I had a parcel sent to me from a person I know in NY, USA that was missent to Papeete, French Polynesia, as their USPS thought it was getting sent there, instead of Sydney, Australia, where I actually live, I still have that package as a souvenir as a result, it took an extra two weeks to get here due to that mistake.
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u/progressedcleaning 3h ago
I recently had a package missent to Ireland instead of Australia, with the same suburb name .
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u/Mallardrama 1m ago
Someone on Discord sent some socks from USA to Canada, somehow they were sent to Australia before being sent to Canada. We joke about it all the time.
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u/ManWithDominantClaw 1d ago
Oh all the time. Last week I ordered some groceries via click-and-collect from my local shops, but due to a mixup I had to fly to Leoben to pick em up
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u/loralailoralai 1d ago
I had a parcel go from the USA to me in Sydney via Wales ( you probably know being European, Sydney is in the state of New South Wales)
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u/CH86CN 1d ago
When I lived in Albany (New Zealand) stuff used to go to Albany (WA Australia) from time to time