Singapore Post Lost My Wife’s US$400 Parcel And Does Not Care
Are we really a First World country with a world-class service industry serving the economy? Certainly not if our still unresolved issue with Singapore Post (SingPost) is a yardstick for measurement. A simple request for Singapore Post to re-deliver my wife’s parcel (containing online purchases of clothes from Forever 21) has dragged on for almost 3 weeks with no end in sight. Much worse is the customer service treatment we have been receiving at the hands of this monopolistic (we don’t really have a choice, do we?) Singaporean postal service. Truth is: no one at SingPost seems to care!
‘Parcel is Lost in Our Service’ says Singapore Post
The parcel, with a total purchase value of US$385.16, had been declared ‘lost’ by Singapore Post. And this happened while it was in its care! Unbelievable? Unfortunately, this is true, SingPost officially states so in this email and this one too. And for the record, there WAS an attempted parcel delivery to our door step on 30 December 2009 (more on this later). But it seems as though the parcel simply….vanished!
Obviously, we were deeply concerned and wanted this resolved as quickly as possible. As the lost item was a combined purchase between Elisa (my wife) and her friends and acquaintances, it is only right on Elisa’s part, as purchase coordinator, to rectify this quickly. If the parcel is really lost as claimed, then compensation must be made, especially when SingPost has clearly acknowledged losing it. Simple enough? Turns out, not quite.
Ignored by Singpost?
It is painfully obvious from our interactions that Singapore Post does not see any urgency in this matter nor does it feel totally responsible for this blunder. Despite countless calls and information request via emails, no single person at Singapore Post took the initiative or claimed any service responsibility over our case. Read on to find out how SingPost tries to ‘tai chi’ this problem away. (Note: ‘To tai chi’ is Singlish for shifting work or blame to someone else)
Since January 11, Elisa had been making periodic calls to Singapore Post’s customer service hotline to enquire about this parcel. The same mantras were repeated countless times: ‘We are looking into it’, ‘Our operation team is still investigating’, ‘The parcel is still missing’, etc. And she kept being told ‘We will give you a call’, but never heard back from anyone. Not a single call-back came from SingPost in the course of 2 weeks. Unbelievable but true.
This perceived ‘lack of interest’ by SingPost is also evident in email communication. A certain ‘Jacqueline Lim – Senior Manager’ offered to keep a close watch on this case when Elisa spoke to her on January 22. Unfortunately, that did not happen. See the chain of emails that is still unresponded (and possibly ignored by Miss Lim) since January 22.
All Talk, No Action
From January 11 till the 22nd, this case was ‘ping-ponging’ between Singapore Post’s Customer Service team, their Investigation team and quite possibly their Claims Department. It seems like no one wanted to make any decision. If it takes 2 weeks to locate a single physical parcel, then there must be something seriously wrong operationally at SingPost.
Only on January 22, when we demanded immediate concrete action to be taken, was a police report given to us the very same evening (more about discrepancies of this police report later). We deduced it to be SingPost’s way of saying: ‘Yes, we lost your parcel but can you wait in case it turns up so that we don’t have to claim insurance and save some bucks?’
This whole episode, coming hot on the heels of the controversial Singapore Post’s “Acts of Vandalism” publicity stunt that backfired, does make us wonder the quality of decision-making business managers currently helming the company. SingPost is not exactly doing itself any favour here. And to think I had voluntarily proposed a revolutionary business idea to SingPost previously.
Next, I’ll detail a factual rundown of events that led to this blog post.
What Actually Happened
20 December: Elisa and myself left Singapore for a 3-week holiday in the Middle East.
29 December: Parcel arrived in Singapore on 29 December at 3.10pm. View the online tracking report by United States Postal Service for item CJ242179875US (Elisa’s parcel).
30 December: Delivery was attempted on 30 December by owner of mobile no. +6581461087 to our flat in Toa Payoh Central. The following are text messages (signed off as ‘S’pore post’) sent to Elisa on the same day regarding this attempted delivery:
Another text message was also sent on January 2:
31 December: My mom called on my mobile and mentioned that our neighbour, an elderly lady, had contacted her to inform of a postal delivery man at our door the previous day. Our kind neighbour had spoken to the delivery man and that she was ready to ‘make payment’ on our behalf (we found out later that Goods and Services Tax (GST) was due on Elisa’s parcel). However, our neighbour mentioned that the man was nowhere to be found when she returned to the door later with her money bag.
8-9 January: Elisa sent several text messages to +6581461087, but did not receive any reply.
11 January: Elisa made the first call to Singapore Post’s Customer Service to enquire on re-delivering the parcel. She was told that parcel cannot be located and SingPost advised that it will need at least 2 working days to look for the parcel. SingPost assured her that a return call will be made within the next few days.
Text messages and phone calls made to +6581461087 were still not answered. Gave up on that channel of communication.
13 January: No news from Singapore Post. When contacted, SingPost informed that ‘the Operations team is still trying to locate the parcel’. SingPost also mentioned that if the parcel is not found by January 18, a police report will be made in order to initiate claims. We decided to wait it out and requested to SingPost to provide a prompt update by January 18.
18 January: Again zero communication received from Singapore Post. Elisa made a call and told the same thing: ‘the Operations team is still trying to locate the parcel’.
So no police report had been made. When asked when exactly the police report will be filed, the Customer Service Officer quipped that she had just updated the system for the ‘Operations team’ to file the police report. Ping! Pong! Among other things:
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Was also told that the police report would take THREE working days to complete
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After which the report will go to the Claims Department to look into the matter and handle the proceeding steps Ping! Pong!
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Will be updated via a phone call regarding the police report and claims
I guess Elisa and friends have to wait. Again.
The Singapore Post’s Police Report Mystery!
22 January: Still no update on a late Friday afternoon so we decided to give Singapore Post a call.
No police report had been made! The atrocity!
The SingPost Customer Service officer on the line said ‘Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it and will call you back on Monday’. ‘NO WAY!’ we protested. Eventually, by sheer verbal force, Elisa and yours truly managed to speak to Jacqueline Lim (Senior Manager, Customer Service) and she agreed to file the report so that a compensation claim can be initiated as soon as possible.
Do see the chain of emails here on this. Notice an attempt to delay official action again, despite an earlier verbal agreement with Jacqueline Lim. Elisa highlighted this in her last email reply.
A police report was eventually lodged by SingPost on the same evening and we duly received a copy of this report. Please do view the full copy of this police report.
Now, let’s play detective! Notice the following discrepancies in the police report:
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Police report was made in the personal name of ‘Ayub Bin Hamzah’. Is this normal practice? I assume this is a safeguard so that Singapore Post, as a business entity, is likely to be absolved from any connection or responsibility in case a criminal offence had been committed.
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No signature or name and details of police officer-in-charge visible in the report. The informant ‘Ayub Bin Hamzah’ did not sign as well. Extremely odd! I wonder what is the real story here. Anyone familiar with police reports?
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Look again at the following text message sent by owner of mobile no. +6581461087 on the afternoon of 30 Dec when the parcel was still in his/her possession:
Notice the time and date message was sent and received:
30 December, 2.59pm
Now look at the ‘Time of Incident’ for loss of parcel as stated by Singpost in the police report.
30 December, 11.47am-11.59pm
So Many Questions!
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The parcel was reported/discovered ‘lost’ between those hours when it is obvious that, evidenced through the text messages sent to Elisa, the owner of mobile no. +6581461087 still had the parcel in his possession. Isn’t this downright fishy? A parcel gone missing while being delivered? Should this not be grounds for a criminal investigation?
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Who is the owner of mobile no. +6581461087 anyway? Singapore Post’s official response to us on this query is “We do not know to whom this mobile number belongs to”. ???
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Singapore Post does not keep track of its own delivery men/women? Inconceivable? Apparently so.
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Could the owner of mobile no. +6581461087 be ‘Ayub Bin Hamzah’?
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If parcel was already ‘lost’ on 30 December, why did Elisa receive another text message from +6581461087 on January 2? What was its purpose? There was no other communication after this message.
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How is it possible that a parcel, in SingPost’s care and ready to be delivered to owner, can go missing and untraceable within the space of a week? Aren’t all parcel shipments individually tagged and tracked?
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There was never a ‘Request for Re-delivery’ note left behind at our door by owner of mobile no. +6581461087 or was there ever an official SingPost call made to Elisa to arrange for re-delivery afterwards. Is this an attempt to cover up something?
25 January: No call from SingPost, specifically from the Claims Department.
26 January: Still no call and no news. So Elisa made a direct call to Jacqueline Lim to ask for status of the claims.
Jacqueline’s reply was: ‘Oh, no staff contacted you yesterday? Someone was supposed to call you. Ok, let me try to get hold of someone from the Claims department and have them speak to you.’
We felt really numb by now. Ping! Pong!
Later on a Fadila called, informing Elisa that the claims process will take several days. However, Jacqueline had earlier agreed to resolve the claims process by Monday, January 25. Fadila claimed that she was ‘unaware of this’. Com’mon, SingPost, COMMUNICATE!
When asked to speak to Jacqueline, Fadila informed that she had left for the day and instead a ‘Miss Uma’ would be calling by 9.30pm that evening. Unfortunately, Elisa missed this call. A return call to ‘Miss Uma’ was, however, unanswered.
The Final Straw: Singapore Post Washes Hands and ‘Tai Chis’ Tasks to USA Post, Forever 21 and Us!
27 January: Elisa picked up the phone and called a ‘Miss Umamagasvary – Asst Manager, Customer Relations’ (we theorise that the concept of calling back or following up apparently does not exist in SingPost’s operations manual). In the call, the message communicated by Miss Uma simply astounded us! Elisa asked that this be documented in an email, which was received promptly. The full copy of the email is available for viewing. Reproduced here is an excerpt from Miss Uma’s email:
Dear Ms Elisa
ENQUIRY ON USA PARCEL NUMBER CJ242179875US
Please refer to your conversation with our call center dated 12 Jan 2010.
We are sorry to inform you that despite a through search, we are unable to locate the parcel. As such, the parcel has been declared as lost in our service.
We have reported the lost of the parcel to the USA Post and have requested to liasie with the sender accordingly. We have also informed them to compensate the sender at our expense as in accordance with the UPU Regulations.
As the sender would have the prior right of claim, please advise your sender to file a claim with the USA Post.
Our sincere apologies for the lost of the parcel and the inconvenience experienced
Yours sincerely
Uma (Ms)
Asst Manager, Customer Relations, Customer Service (Business Division)
DID: 65 68456222, Fax: 65 68425114
Case closed?! This is totally unbelievable! MAJOR PING PONG!
This is as good as Singapore Post saying:
‘Sorry, we fxxked up, please help clean the mess after us’.
After 3 weeks of dealing with Singapore Post’s Customer Service and after it admitted to losing Elisa’s parcel, SingPost now wants to close off this matter by making USA Post, Forever21 and us to ‘take care of business’. How much more crazier can this get? There are even more questions now:
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Why is Singapore Post getting USA Post involved in this when it is pretty obvious that SingPost lost Elisa’s parcel in Singapore? The parcel was delivered and arrived safely in Singapore on 29 December at 3.10pm. It went missing under SingPost’s watch, for goodness sake.
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And why is Singapore Post making my wife do their work for them? “Please advise your sender to file a claim with the USA Post”. Not content with making Elisa constantly following up with customer service at SingPost (who lost Elisa’s parcel, by the way, if I haven’t already mentioned that), she is suddenly asked to TAKE CARE OF HER OWN BUSINESS? Nasty.
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“Compensate the sender”: Whatever happened to the person whose money and time has been spent in this? In this email from Miss Uma, there is ZERO mention of claims or compensation to my wife, the paying customer. An oversight? Nah. It is likely that SingPost just does not care. Instead, the email implied as such: ‘Sorry, we tried our best but you are on your own. Now shoo. Leave us in peace.’
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Is this a way for Singapore Post not to claim compensation on its insurance? Or not to fork out any money from its own coffers by making the sender claim from its own insurance, etc.? In the real world, if I were to lose someone else’s property, I should jolly well be made responsible for it.
Answer our questions, Singapore Post!
Elisa and myself have given enough opportunity and time to Singapore Post to ‘play’ nice’ and resolve this matter amicably. Yes, Elisa will probably be fully compensated, albeit in a ‘gazillion years’. But there are still so many questions that need answers, even legal ones.
Thus, we decided to bring this out to a public forum. We decided to let you be a witness and, hopefully, a commentator to this issue. We are always lamenting about our Singaporean service industry and this is probably just one of many cases you’ve heard. Now here’s a platform for your thoughts so that we can all learn from this unfortunate episode.
But above all, we would like Singapore Post to respond publicly to our many unanswered questions and the mysteries surrounding the vanished parcel, police report, compensation etc. Keeping it quiet and under wraps have not worked at all in our favour. We have stopped believing in your ‘stories’ over the phone and now we desire some real deal honesty.
On to you, Singapore Post.
The Digital Customer Advocate:
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Fierce advocate of great customer service as a marketing and social media strategy, alternative browsers and all things Marketing 2.0. 
I’m really sorry to hear that. This situation really sucks! And I hope that it gets resolved as soon as possible.
I have a similar situation though its not as bad as yours. I had a registered package which I ordered in November to be sent to me. And when it took such a long while for me to receive, I got concerned and checked with the sender.
I used the tracking code in Singpost and to my horror, it said that an attempt to deliver was sent and then it was unclaimed and then its sent back to the sender.
But the strange thing is, I never got a notification slip. When I called up Singpost for verification, the lady on the line said “Probably the address was sent wrong.” And when I asked if she could confirm the address with me, she said “Once the item is sent back, we cannot track it anymore”.
So, initially I thought that the sender wrote the wrong address. But after communicating, in the end, the address that he wrote tallies.
I’m very disappointed. I could have had my package while I was in Singapore in December.
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
Hi Rina, thanks for sharing your experience! The exact same situation happened to me previously too. It was an attempted delivery of mailorder parcel. No note was left behind too. Only found out later that it was sitting idly in the post office. No one told us!
That’s the underlying issue here. The inept service being provided eventually cost us, the customer, more time and monetary cost. Too hard to swallow.
[Reply]
leslie Reply:
February 2nd, 2010 at 8:59 pm
@Isman Tanuri, I’ve had the same experience as well, FOUR times!
The postman would consistently fail to leave any ‘attempted delivery’ slip for my registered mail and parcels. I wouldn’t know if the mail was in the post office if I hadn’t been really kiasu and checked the online tracking records.
After the third time, I lodged a formal complaint and the delivery base manager who called me was really concerned and said he would look into it.
One month later, the same thing happened. And I just gave up. I pay more for EMS or Fedex shipping whenever possible, now.
[Reply]
rinaz
28 Jan 10 at 6:04 pm
Singpost’s service is terrible.
They have lost many of my mails (usually online shopping loots) over the years and I think the total sums up to about $300++
Each time I call the post office to enquire about the consistent lost mails, the guy said that he would “follow up” on my address and no other action was taken.
The other time, they even lost this huge a4 sized bag and claimed that “they received no such mail” despite my sender saying that she sent it out. And i believe her because she’s a credible seller.
Singpost u suck! do ur job properly pls
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Hello Del, that must have been frustrating, it accumulates, doesn’t it? We have heard so many of such similar horror stories that there must be some truth in this. Now I am wondering if a website can be built for common folks to submit an account of their lost parcels or mails. I am sure the total amount will be staggering.
My very basic thought (based on physics): Physical products do not disappear into thin air :)
[Reply]
del
28 Jan 10 at 6:41 pm
Why not, instead of them making a police report, you made a police report against them?
And upon that,you can sought legal advice? Just a suggestion. Maybe it’ll go somewhere soon after that. :)
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Hi Yann, thanks for your comment.
It did come across our minds to make a police report earlier on, primarily because the manner in which the parcel was ‘lost’ is very suspicious. But SingPost mentioned that they will make a police report for the lost item, so we suppose they were serious about it. Only later on did we realise that some of the ‘facts’ did not add up, hence the content of the blog post.
Just to update, Forever 21 has contacted my wife on claiming for the lost purchase. We were pretty sure that we will get the money back because SingPost did admit to the parcel ‘lost in our service’. That we did not doubt at all. However, it is the manner of the ‘loss’, the customer service treatment we received and the many questions that we still have that made us seek for answers.
[Reply]
yann
28 Jan 10 at 6:46 pm
actually I’ve had quite pleasant experiences with SingPost– in the 2 years I’ve been sending packages with them, only once did they lose something I sent. They also have never lost anything I was supposed to receive, and even repackaged some of the mail for no extra charge when its packaging came apart.
Do they tend to “lose” packages which are expensive? :/
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Hello Nicole, now you made a great point! Elisa and myself used to run a mailorder music label business (http://www.myspace.com/fruitrecords) for a number of years. We sent out lots of purchases to international customers and I can only remember a single instance when an order did not arrived. However, I would really attribute the successful delivery of our customers’ orders to the postal services in those countries. Once the orders left this country, I am not too sure if SingPost is still involved.
To be fair, I indulged in mail ordering too and received most of my purchases, although typically these are on priority or express. And I remember getting my parcels from Swiss Post too. Never had a problem.
[Reply]
nicole c
29 Jan 10 at 2:24 am
Hey bro,
Just some suggestions, Do you think it’s possible to go to small claims? I think they can help. Also, maybe you might want to write to Penn-Olson and see how their readers can help you spread this case. Make it as viral as possible….:)
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Hey Rod, as an update, Forever21 has contacted Elisa to initiate the claims for lost items (kudos to them!). We were pretty convinced, that once SingPost declared the item lost, Elisa will be compensated for the purchase. As I have mentioned earlier, the many questions that we have made us frustrated. We really wanted some honest answers from Singapore Post, that was our prerogative.
Don’t mind taking up your offer on Twitter though. Will keep you posted :)
[Reply]
Roderick
29 Jan 10 at 11:32 am
I do sympathise with your plight, and I agree that it seems very fishy that the parcel was reported missing on the day that it was being delivered. There may be a case worth pursuing there. However, I personally don’t think this kind of situation is particularly rare. People all over the world complain about their postal services. I lived in Australia for 4 years, did a lot of buying and selling online, and I’ve heard many horror stories about things going wrong. It ALWAYS pays to be cautious, and if you have valuable items being sent, it might be worth insuring the parcel or using a reliable courier service.
Also, in terms of lack of internal communication, it’s hardly surprising either. Happens with large corporations everywhere.
I sincerely hope you get some form of compensation though. Good luck!
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
January 30th, 2010 at 10:27 am
@Nave, Hello Nave, appreciate your comments and your wishes! Indeed, from the feedback we’ve been getting, lost parcels and deliveries are quite common. Just that we can’t comprehend, where do these physical items disappear to? I guess, we’ve learnt a great lesson too, to be careful in future mail order purchases. Anything can do wrong! Cheers!
[Reply]
Nave
29 Jan 10 at 12:13 pm
Losing of packages is not uncommon in freight forwarding company. As the goods are transferred through many different hands.
But singpost could have done better in handling this matter.
There is usually a maximum amount that can be reimburse back to the client, like $100 or $200 by Singpost or other company. The rest of the amount will fall back to client responsibility in taking up an insurance to protect their package or taking up the risk of losing the package.
If the insurance was taken up, the insurance company will take care of this matter.
Freight forwarders will not take up the insurance for their client, if they do, the additional charges will be pass to the client.
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
January 30th, 2010 at 10:33 am
@Justin Ng, Thanks for the information on insurance, Justin. We do agree, untrackable or unregistered tend to carry with it high risks of not turning up. However, in our case, we have evidences (also an online report) that showed package had arrived. For mere fact that the delivery guy was at our door and neighbour spoke to him showed that the parcel was in hand. Then vanished.
For the record, kudos to Forever 21 for getting back to us quickly regarding the missing purchase. They’ll be initiating investigation. I believe they have insurance on their part.
[Reply]
Justin Ng
29 Jan 10 at 12:17 pm
Dear Mr Isman
I apologise for the unpleasant experience with our service. We have contacted you and look forward to meeting with you and/or your wife at your earliest convenience. I assure you that we take your feedback seriously and will resolve the matter expeditiously.
Regards
Lily Loo (Ms)
AVP, Customer Service
SingPost
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
January 30th, 2010 at 10:40 am
@Lily Loo, Hi Ms Loo,
Thank you for responding to this blog post and we appreciate that you have left the note. We are glad that SingPost will be looking closely into this matter and looking forward to have our enquiries addressed.
Rest assured that we will communicate our thoughts and update visitors to this blog as factually as possible. We look forward to meeting with you soon.
[Reply]
Lily Loo
29 Jan 10 at 1:13 pm
I would like to know if the parcel was sent by EMS or Speedpost? If yes, parcels uncollected within 10 days will be sent back to the sender. Perhaps it was sent back, therefore Singpost was unable to locate it. But on the other hand they SHOULD be able to know if they have sent it back or not, because in my case, they did tell me my parcel was returned.
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
January 30th, 2010 at 10:43 am
@aes, Hi Aes, parcel was sent via USA Post and on to SingPost for local delivery. This was tracked via an online report as mentioned above.
Indeed, it would have been a simple, easily resolved issue if we had gotten the information we needed. Alas, it has now been reported as ‘lost’ by SingPost. No other details available.
[Reply]
aes
29 Jan 10 at 1:19 pm
On my personal experience, it’s really common for your incident to happen – there are several cases that I am personally aware of (with insider info) whereby the parcels were, in reality, stolen by the staff themselves and then claimed as “missing” and getting someone another party to compensate.
Similar cases happen at Changi Airport as well when parcels are somehow ‘missing’ from the plane even when it’s checked in and is a direct flight.
Sadly, there’s usually nothing much we can do for such cases because the best option the company / management can do is to compensate in cash – while we go through the trouble to buying and mailing the items all over again.
From past experience, the only way to prevent this is to get the most expensive shipping, or at least 2 tiers higher than the cheapest rate.
As long as the bad eggs (greedy staff) are unable to tell what the parcel contains (eg. I presume your parcel must have some indicator that it’s from the Forever21 store), it lowers the chances of it being lost by ‘accidents’. Higher priority mail are less at risk because they cannot tell if they’re important documents related to big corporations.
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
February 1st, 2010 at 3:27 pm
@Toukarin, Hello Toukarin, I have heard about such practices too, although don’t think we have clear evidences here, just some very intriguing questions that needed answering. I suppose the lax attitude in accountability further fuels such occurrences (ie. ‘lost’ items can be easily compensated through insurance pay outs). I agree with you, this is where customers really hurt.
Possibly the fact that its value was probably indicated on my wife’s parcel may have it a very appealing target? :)
[Reply]
Toukarin
29 Jan 10 at 2:14 pm
this is rather common… actually I have had a couple of instances where there were no notification slips… I had to keep really close track check online for status and call to see if the parcel is in.. In fact this is my experience.. when i was home and the postman made a delivery… they rang just once.. lucky i was close to the door and opened it immediately but he was already at the lift… 2nd time I was home but didnt hear the doorbell ring.. Honestly… if I had been in my room by the time I made it to the door the postman would have been gone… our postal service has certainly taught us a lot…
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
February 1st, 2010 at 3:30 pm
@Ebi, I had the SAME exact experience, Ebi! Postman rang once, opened the door and there was a notification slip! Postman not seen anywhere, amazing act of ‘disappearance’ :)
Tell me about it, I’ve heard so many horror stories now, I don’t think we can ignore and let it pass. Something has to be changed.
[Reply]
Ebi Reply:
February 1st, 2010 at 5:51 pm
@Isman Tanuri, yes things need to be changed… but with no competition they are complacent and we customers have little or no say… Much as we gripe about it we still have to rely on them for our mail no matter if we want to or not… Service standards in Singapore leaves much to be desired but having experienced services to other countries namely in the asian part of the world all i can say is at least here it doesn’t suck as much, we as consumers have to be more responsible and rely on ourselves to be more vigilant… Good luck to you, I hope your case gets looked into seriously…
[Reply]
Ebi
29 Jan 10 at 7:01 pm
Hello,
I’ve bought several hundred items from all over the world including bicycles, vanilla beans, truffles and a car so I guess I have some experience in this area.
I agree, Singpost is less than perfect, however
1. They don’t go on strike like Royal Mail, USPS etc.
2. Touching wood, they’ve never lost one of my packages.
3. My delivery guy has my mobile and texts me before delivery (for vPost items).
4. I’ve had my share of nightmare experiences with USPS (damamged items), Royal Mail (stuff went missing) and worst of all Italian Post (a bicycle I had bought went on a 6 week tour of Italy before being sent back to the original post office and getting retrieved by the seller, who finally resorted to Fedex. Unbelievably, both the seller and I watched the entire episode unfold because Italian Post faithfully updated the status of the package the for the entire 6 weeks).
5. Oddly, I’ve had more incidents with UPS, TNT et al. I once opened my mailbox at 7pm to find a delivery note saying the guy had tried to deliver the item at 7.30pm on the same day. However, I am a huge fan of DHL because they work after office hours, their tracking system rocks and they actually call you.
Now, about them telling you to file a claim with USPS, sucks, but that is the correct procedure as the insurance would have been taken out by the seller and only the seller is allowed to claim. So, while Singpost can admit the package was lost and take the extra step to verify this with USPS to speed up your compensation, the claim has to be made by the sender. It works the same way for parcels sent from Singapore to the US, the sender files the claim. Coincidentally, I had a seller in the US file a claim with USPS, for an item that went missing en route to a US airport while on it’s way to me, two years have gone by and that’s still not been settled, because, USPS could not confirm the item was lost. Singpost communicating the loss of your item to USPS means you may actually see some money before you collect your CPF, unlike me.
So, don’t be too harsh on the Singpost fellas, mail goes missing all the time and this time, unfortunately, it’s you. Just remember that if you read the forums in other countries, they have similar, if not worse, problems. In fact, alot of eBay sellers flat-out refuse to ship to Nigeria, Indonesia, and Italy.
BUT, I do find it strange that no notification was left for you and I do agree that if Singpost had taken the time to explain things to you, perhaps you would still be upset but maybe not upset enough to write a blog about it.
Here’s one vote of sympathy for you and one more vote for getting Singpost officers trained to understand that we are customers and need to be treated as such.
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
February 1st, 2010 at 3:46 pm
@Chris, Hi Chris, thank you for sharing your experiences with postal services here, appreciate all the insights as well as your kind support.
Certainly agree with you, that mails go missing all the time, nothing’s perfect. I am sure if SingPost had been forthcoming with their answers and manner of communication, we would have been more than happy to follow the required procedures.
But the fact is that too many suspect circumstances (as evidenced above, including ‘dubious’ police report) and the manner of the parcel’s disappearance made us voice out our story and opinions. We felt it would be too irresponsible if we were to ignore.
Also, SingPost ‘communicating the loss of item to USPS’ does not mean it should be the end of this issue. I am sure the consuming public and ourselves deserve an explanation to the many questions we’ve raised.
By the way, mailorder fan too, DHL certainly rocks! :P
[Reply]
Chris
30 Jan 10 at 12:57 am
Hi,
I just want to say that I had a similar experience but reversed.
I bought a US$1000 item from Ebay and it was a fake product which I discovered only after receiving it (despite the seller having good ratings), so I negotiated with Paypal (as I had Buyer’s Guarantee on the purchase of the item) and they asked me to send it back to them.
I registered the item and sent to back. After a month, there was no reply from Paypal and when I contacted them, they said they did not receive the item.
So I checked with Singpost and since it was registered, I should be able to trace it right?
Nope, the item is not traced AFTER it has left Singpost and passed on to the next agency i.e. US postal service. So they said they would contact USPS to find out.
No news from USPS, no news from Paypal… eventually Singpost said they would compensate me for less than S$20.
The item was lost, which meant, I could not ask Paypal to refund me the payment, USPS did not reply to my emails about the lost item, Singpost says it is out of their hands.
So what’s the point of sending registered post? No point…
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
February 1st, 2010 at 4:10 pm
@Shen Heng, Thanks for sharing, Shen Heng. Really sorry to hear about your incident. US$1000 is a lot of money to be losing. Now my interest is piqued too, I wonder what rights does a ‘registered’ mail entails? We used to run a mailorder shop and had our customers’ parcels registered. Hardly any problem then, but now that you’ve mentioned ‘non-traceable’, sounds like we’ve been wasting our customers’ money all along.
[Reply]
Sha Reply:
February 2nd, 2010 at 5:21 pm
@Shen Heng, registered mail (or at least the add-on costing $2+) will only be tracked locally.
They do not inform you, but for international mail, you would have to use a Speedpost service which has tracking, which I assume costs a lot more. At least that’s what I figure, as I’ve never used it. Perhaps they don’t even have international tracking, now that I’ve thought about it. :/
[Reply]
Shen Heng
30 Jan 10 at 10:39 pm
More than once did I had problems with Singpost, the most common problem being one highlighted by RInaz. I do not understand why they can’t call up instead of leaving slips of papers in dubious areas (if they do actually leave them) or in your case sending SMS. In my case, they simply ship the item right back to UK without even attempting to contact me once.
Another incident that I had was a overseas seller had written my address wrongly (he left out the unit number, everything else was intact) and informed me straight away once the item had left the country. I quickly informed Singpost and they promised to look out for it and call me once it arrived but obviously, nothing happened. I tried to check back once a week, and from nothing every week, to suddenly receive an email from the sender a couple of months later, saying the item has been shipped back to him.
The service is simply ridiculous!!
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
February 1st, 2010 at 4:21 pm
@tattooedbannker, Sounds like a really frustrating time for you, tattooedbannker! I am thinking it might be an operational issue for SingPost, the volume of mails/parcels they get each day must be enormous, I would have to agree they can’t pay close attention to every single item.
But they can do one thing though, do it right the first time and we (including SingPost) will all be saved from unnecessary troubles.
[Reply]
tattooedbannker
31 Jan 10 at 1:19 am
While I DO give credit to Ms Loo for her quick attention to the matter, I have to wonder why matters have to reach this stage before someone within the organisation feels the need to take it seriously.
It makes me think that if you had never blogged about this, Isman, they would have treated you like any other complainee and basically ignore you. I’m not saying that anyone should get special treatment for blogging, but rather EVERYONE should get similar, proper treatment whether or not they blog about it.
We’ve already seen what happens with United Breaks Guitars – how about the numerous other people who have just been bounced and “tai chi”-ed around who aren’t bloggers?
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
February 1st, 2010 at 4:35 pm
@Daryl Tay, Hey Daryl, thanks for dropping by. You are really right. There are so many similar stories we’ve heard, on Facebook, Twitter, in person, etc. Many real, common folks out there who have legitimate issues with our postal service. I hope this is a good opportunity to highlight our collective disappointment and frustrations.
Let’s hope our voices are loud enough for them to reassess their operations, especially where customers are concerned. Trust erodes quickly, I say.
[Reply]
Daryl Tay
31 Jan 10 at 1:50 am
Wait till you try UPS in Singapore. I have a billing dispute with them that was unresolved for ONE YEAR! In addition, I sell stuff in the USA and 5% of items are lost on average and they don’t even entertain claims if you did not buy shipping insurance. Even with shipping insurance, the standard claim process takes ONE YEAR. To me, Singpost is considered alright in the postal industry even with the experience you had.
In your case, I think the delivery guy made off with the parcels and the Singpost staff did not know what to do. They can’t admit they hired a thief. In normal lost parcel cases, the process should be fairly straightforward.
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
February 1st, 2010 at 5:02 pm
@Jimmy, Hey Jimmy! I guess its a hit-or-miss at times with postal services, which I agree, but a year wait must be frustrating, especially if you’re dealing in business over post. (I hated repacking items!)
I can’t be certain that they ‘hired a thief’ (no hard proof) but they’d better investigate and report back! :P
[Reply]
Jimmy
31 Jan 10 at 3:37 pm
Reported to CASE?
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
February 1st, 2010 at 5:13 pm
@a_x, Hey a_x, at this juncture, we believe we will get back our money eventually (SingPost had admitted ‘losing’ parcel and will compensate)so we think we will resolve the ‘monetary’ issue soon.
Of more importance, in the interest of public trust, we do need SingPost to respond to our queries. As highlighted, we believe there are some serious accountability issues here.
[Reply]
a_x
31 Jan 10 at 7:08 pm
Hi. I too have had very frustrating experiences with postal deliveries but mine are to do with magazine subscriptions. In the past 3 or so months, my weekly Guardian Weekly has not arrived (a few missing issues in Oct, November and nothing since Christmas). Same problem with my monthly Sight and Sound magazine subscription (August 2009 issue never arrived, and the 2 replacement issues the company sent never arrived, and January issue also gone missing). These are all UK in origin. I wonder if it has to do with the UK end or the Singapore end? Last time something similar happened (lots of missing issues Sight and Sound magazine), I changed the delivery address to a friend’s and there was no more break in delivery. I don’t even know who to complain to. Guardian Weekly and Sight & Sound both have posted replacement copies but nothing has arrived!
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
February 1st, 2010 at 5:30 pm
@Min, Hi Min, sorry to hear about your plight. But consistent missed deliveries cannot be tolerated! I would hate to be in your position and to think that these are paid subscriptions (not just personal mails).
You might want to read Chris’ comment below? He has an interesting theory about differing levels of service at different SingPost branches :)
[Reply]
Min Reply:
February 1st, 2010 at 6:27 pm
@Isman Tanuri,
Thanks for the commiserations. Empathies all around. My paid subscriptions have had no problems until late last year (the 1st time mentioned in my earlier post was 4 years or so back). Now suddenly, no deliveries. I wrote to Singpost this morning via their webpage. Am awaiting response. I noticed the magazines/newspapers that arrive now come with the UK return address covered with a sticker saying “If undelivered, please return to GCM Pte Ltd, 60 Kaki Bukit Place, #07-10 Eunos Techpark, Singapore 415979″ Who are these people? Are they outsourced by Singpost to handle certain mail? Well, I am not getting mine. Maybe I should phone them? Has anyone else suffered the same fate?
[Reply]
Min
1 Feb 10 at 5:59 am
[...] Fifa Tango – The Long and Winding Road: Vel, Vel, Vadivel: Thaipusam in Singapore – a groovyweb: Singapore Post Lost My Wife’s US$400 Parcel And Does Not Care [Thanks Isman & [...]
The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Daily SG: 1 Feb 2009
1 Feb 10 at 11:33 am
Singapore Post Lost My Wife’s US$400 Parcel And Does Not Care | a groovyweb by isman tanuri…
A blog post that highlights irregularities and unanswered questions from trying to resolve a missing US$400 parcel issue with Singapore Post. To make matters worse, the customer service experience by SingPost throughout this episode was also a major le…
breaking.sg
1 Feb 10 at 12:09 pm
@Isman, good of you to be calm and level-headed about this, I guess that’s the key to a long and happy internet shopping career. :)
I’ve read some more of the posts after mine and I must admit that it seems different people have very different experiences with Singpost. Might I propose that it might be a problem at the individual post office branch level. For example, the branch that handles my stuff is Marine Parade and I seem to have pretty decent experiences with them. I always receive a letter reminding me to collect the parcel 5 days after they leave the delivery note. This way, even if the note goes missing, I can count on the letter to remind me.
Not sure if this is the best place for this but perhaps some of you who have had bad experiences can share which branches were responsible, if we consistenly find one branch at fault, it would be easier to highlight this to the people in charge.
Just a thought.
[Reply]
Chris
1 Feb 10 at 4:07 pm
[...] Fifa Tango – The Long and Winding Road: Vel, Vel, Vadivel: Thaipusam in Singapore – a groovyweb: Singapore Post Lost My Wife’s US$400 Parcel And Does Not Care [Thanks Isman] – Reflections and Ruminations: Forgive, but don’t forget [Thanks lary] – Dee [...]
The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Weekly Roundup: Week 06
6 Feb 10 at 9:06 am
Dear Mr Isman,
Thank you for taking the time to meet up with us and the opportunity to clarify the matter.
We apologise for the service lapse and the inconvenience caused to you and your wife, Ms Elisa. As agreed, we will wait for your sender’s reply regarding the compensation. If you would like the claim to be handled in Singapore, we would be glad to assist you. With the additional information you have provided, our Postal Security Department will be investigating further into the matter.
As mentioned during our meeting, the police report forwarded to you was lodged online, and hence does not have a signature. SingPost takes a serious view of lost packages and will not condone any dishonest or negligent practices by any of our staff. Strict disciplinary action will be taken against the staff, including referring the matter to the police.
In the meantime, if we can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me or Mr Kelvin Phua.
Thank you.
Peggy Chong (Ms)
Customer Relations Manager
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
March 2nd, 2010 at 6:21 am
Hi Peggy,
Thanks for the message and the phone call made to us. I do apologise for not replying earlier.
It was nice meeting you and Kelvin in our home and we were thoroughly appreciative on the resolutions you had provided to our issue.
As SingPost had initiated the claims process through USA Post, who in turn had activated Forever 21, we have been told by Forever 21 to wait for the claims process to be concluded (although it has been 3 weeks since the claim was initiated). Forever21 had mentioned they will not cancel the process on their end.
Is there any update on the SingPost staff member that was scheduled to make delivery to us? I hope your internal teams have been able to conclude its investigation on this matter.
Thanks again for the message and we look forward to hearing from you again.
Regards,
Isman
[Reply]
Peggy Chong Reply:
March 2nd, 2010 at 6:06 pm
Dear Mr Isman,
We have provided the information given by you and your neighbour to the police. The matter is currently under police investigation.
With regards to your claims with Forever21, do let us know if you require our assistance.
Peggy Chong (Ms)
Customer Relations Manager
[Reply]
Peggy Chong
8 Feb 10 at 2:37 pm
My stressful experience with vPost
On 19 Jan, I ordered and paid for an over-sized item from a US merchant. I notified vPost customer service promptly. My item was promptly transported to vPost’s address in Oregon, US on 28 Jan, SG time.
On 28 Jan, I IMMEDIATELY paid the shipping fee upon receiving notification. I received a payment confirmation via email immediately. 4 days later, on 1 Feb, vPost called me for verification, I asked if things are ok and if my item had shipped, the vPost representative said yes.
Between then and 4 feb, I monitored my item constantly and called and email vPost to check that things are going fine and most importantly that my item had shipped. Vpost assured me.
On 4 feb, feeling uneasy, I called vPost, Oregon, US to verify. No, it’s still there in Oregon, US!
I was very disappointed that vPost did not ship my item as they said. I promptly paid and even informed vPost beforehand of my incoming item. vPost had mis-led me.
If I had not called Oregon, US, what would happen to my item? Would it still be sitting there, subject to god-knows-what while vPost hotline continues to mis-lead me telling it’s on it’s way here to SG?
My constant monitoring of my item is due to numerous bad feedback and complaints on vPost on the Internet.
On Feb 9, I finally self-collected(I insist as I don’t trust them) my item. Much of it was on my pro-active-ness and constant pushing. My item could easily be stuck somewhere in transit. I never felt assured, constant worrying and doubting vpost replies.
Ong K H
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
March 2nd, 2010 at 6:26 am
Hi Ong,
I am sorry to hear about your episode with Vpost. I have seen various mentions on the failure of the Vpost service, more recently on Twitter during the Chinese New Year period. On the other hand, I would like to applaud you on being proactive with the purchasing process. Sometimes, us consumers tend to take it for granted that, since we’ve paid for services and goods, we should be getting them dry and sundry. But it is not always the case. A little monitoring certainly helps and in this case resulted in you receiving your parcel. I can imagine someone else ignoring the monitoring and only realising their lost parcel until too late.
[Reply]
Ong K H
10 Feb 10 at 8:36 am
Hey, I have been following your articles for a couple of days now and was curious. How do I subscibe to your blog? I would like to follow your updates as they come along!
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
March 2nd, 2010 at 6:28 am
Sure, you can add this blog’s RSS to a Reader client, like Google Reader.
[Reply]
Gregory Despain
20 Feb 10 at 11:37 pm
Isman,
Thanks for sharing your experince with us and in detail as well.
Although I have never experienced what you went through, I have experienced bad customer service a few times from Singpost staff, when I am at the post office (both at the Clementi and Jalan Bukit Merah Branch) to either ship something or send a draft overseas maybe it is because of my race or something, I am Pakistani although Singaporean (born and raised here).
[Reply]
Isman Tanuri Reply:
March 2nd, 2010 at 6:41 am
@Sabina,
Hello Sabina,
Sorry to hear about your encounters with bad customer service at SingPost branches. Despite the initiatives for good service standards, I am sure there are some bad apples out there that has not quite lived up to expectations.
As I used to run a mailorder service, I had multiple visits to SingPost over the course of a week and I had a different experience over at the branches I visited: namely the Kitchener and the Towner. Maybe I was a regular hence the familiarity and the consistent good service. Having said that, it is inexcusable that good service is prioritised based on patronship; it should be an all-around, all-customers initiative.
[Reply]
Sabina
22 Feb 10 at 12:21 pm