KEY POINTS:
Frustrated posties are having to take parcels back to base because apartment letterboxes are too small.
Narrow delivery slots - in some cases too small to take a chequebook - are favoured by developers, but are forcing residents to go to local post shops for their mail.
The slim-line slots are annoying for both residents and posties, says NZ Post Auckland city team leader Kalua Betham.
"Developers need to work with us [and] ask for the measurements required."
Mrs Betham said she got many phone calls from upset customers wanting their parcels left on top of their box.
Posties could not do that for security reasons, which left residents - including the sick and elderly - to fetch their own mail.
Though larger apartment blocks had on-site managers and places to leave large letters and parcels, at many smaller apartment blocks there was no way to verify whether a parcel had been received.
"We are the last people to handle the parcels, so of course we are going to get blamed [if they disappear]," Mrs Betham said.
Developers should pay for bigger letterboxes, said Queen St Colonial Apartment resident Reno Haumu.
Mr Haumu receives his parcels from apartment managers who collect them and leave a card for him.
However, not all apartment managers are happy to act as ring-in posties. One inner-city apartment manager has had enough. "I don't mind doing it occasionally but it's eating into my time," he said.
It was up to developers to take responsibility for providing adequate letterboxes, he said. "My attitude is I don't work for the developers."
But some developers disagree.
Ben Dearlove of Conrad Properties said he had full-time on-site managers in all apartment blocks who received and redistributed parcels. "I don't think there's a problem."
The company's current construction job boasts pre-fabricated letterboxes with slots 195mm wide by 30mm high, a little narrower than a sheet of A4 paper.
Mr Dearlove said Conrad Properties developed properties only in the Auckland CBD and post shops were nearby if managers were unable to collect parcels.
But New Zealand Post said this put additional strain on post shops such as the Ponsonby branch, which often had queues extending out the door.
Mrs Betham believed developers were not interested in size recommendations from New Zealand Post because they were too costly to follow.
Auckland City Council bylaws say the size and style of letterbox used is at the developer's discretion.
