A Christmas gift you sent to the UK has not been received. You sent the goods through a New Zealand PostShop but it did not include tracking. Is there any chance of establishing where the goods have disappeared to?
Unfortunately, you will be unable to avail yourself of New Zealand Post’s international tracking service. There’s a lesson in that for next time, given that tracking is not expensive. But if you still have the receipt, you can lodge a claim on the New Zealand Post website.
Go to “Contact and Support”, click on “Missing, damaged, delayed item”. Fill out the simple online claim form. It requires you to be specific about its destination, when it was sent, from where, weight and value, etc – a lot of these details are on the receipt.
I can’t advise you on your chances in succeeding, though. If you suspect the recipient wasn’t home for the delivery, you could ask them to enquire at their nearest post outlet. There may be a record of the parcel being returned to a holding centre.
You have befriended a family who’ve recently arrived in New Zealand from Iran. You have tried to help them with consumer issues around renting or purchasing a house, but you are severely limited by language. Are there any agencies with multilingual support that could help them?
Yes, you could start by contacting the Office of Ethnic Communities, which runs Language Line. They provide interpreters over the phone who, among them, can speak 44 different languages. Email them at [email protected].
The Citizens Advice Bureau also provides a specialist language service called Language Link, which can offer consumer advice in more than 20 languages. The service is based in Auckland but it can be accessed from anywhere in New Zealand. The CAB has 2400 volunteers in offices around the country, many of whom speak another language. They should be able to put you in touch with someone who can speak your friends’ language. Google CAB Language Link or email [email protected] to find out more details.
Hopefully that information is helpful – and good on anyone who offers support and friendship to new arrivals from overseas, particularly those with language difficulties.
