Courier firm's response leaves woman stressed

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A woman who had her passport, birth certificate and other crucial documentation lost by a courier company was left stressed and disappointed by its initial response.

Cheryl Gray, 30, sent documents including her passport, birth certificate and qualification certificates to Immigration New Zealand to renew her working visa.

CourierPost has since found the package after an urgent night-time search of its Avondale depot.

But Ms Gray said the outcome could have been different had she not contacted top managers at the company and Immigration, as well as the Herald.

Online tracking showed the package reached Auckland on April 5, but when it failed to turn up Ms Gray made an urgent call to CourierPost last Friday.

No-one called her back, so she rang again on Monday and was told her package had been lost and she would have to lodge a claim through Immigration.

"I'm like, what happens then, are you going to do a further search? And he said, 'No, you have to do a claim, and you have to get Immigration to lodge it from their side as well'."

Ms Gray, a team manager at an Auckland call centre, said she was "devastated" by the news, and feared becoming a victim of identity fraud.

She sent emails to CourierPost managers and top Immigration officials, and told the company that she had contacted the Herald.

A search by CourierPost employees that night found her documents stuck to the bottom of a delivery bag.

CourierPost spokesman Aaron Hanson said the investigation began as soon as Ms Gray contacted the company, and was not influenced by her subsequent emails.

CourierPost is part of Express Couriers Ltd, a joint venture between DHL and NZ Post.