Postal problems strike again

Garyvdh said:
The culture of Theft, corruption and entitlement is so pervasive in South Africa, this will not be solved in the short term. Maybe in ten years when Zuma's crackdown on crime has begun to pay off. Don't look for a short term solution. BTW, this is why our telecomms are so high. It is the same thing. Greed, theft, entitlement. It is not a cultural problem, it is not a race problem... it is a general South African problem.
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ranging anywhere from buying dvd's at the robot to not blinking twice to offer a metro cop R50 to look the other way. then get on ur high horse to complain about corrupt cops. :rolleyes:

indeed. very south african...
 
ike said:
my sentiments exactly. i think ppl hide behind SAPO/whoever else to hide their thieving ways.
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Not necessarily... In the past 9 months I've posted things and had things posted to me (about 60 different things) via speed services and normal mail... It's been great service, until you ship the expensive stuff...
Bought a phone and it never arrived, spent weeks holding on the phone speaking to many different people, and no one ever gets back to you about anything...

It seems, they think they have permission to steal if the item isn't insured and no one gives a damn about it... It's like a companies mission to steal items with no worry of getting into trouble when not insured, that's why I insure everything these days...

Just check hellopeter and you'll see :rolleyes: speed services who work through SAPO, one of the companies who never respond to complaints!!! Just try to speak to "Prince" who deals with lost parcels and you'll see what I mean, he obviously sits in the office sleeping all day
 
I'm pretty certain it's the customs people who are stealing the parcels. They got their leg in thanks to the local Games distributors claiming that the games were counterfeit - so as usual the consumer always pays in the form of higher local prices.
 
B2048 said:
I'm pretty certain it's the customs people who are stealing the parcels. They got their leg in thanks to the local Games distributors claiming that the games were counterfeit - so as usual the consumer always pays in the form of higher local prices.
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but are the games counterfeit? coz if they are, then they are not stolen by them: it's a simple fact of illegal products being confiscated.
 
I've rarely had parcels go missing. And I've only ever once had a DVD stolen. Ordinary mail does sometimes take a long time and often that has nothing to do with South Africa (I've even had couriers ship to the wrong country, then have to re-route back to South Africa, and I have had parcels stuck in another country due to weather conditions there). It would be interesting to see statistics on mail theft in South Africa, and whether a lot of that theft is only happening to a few people. Are they just very unlucky or scamming the sender?

With regard to Amazon and Shopto there is really nothing stopping them from using a method that requires signing for a parcel and hence proving that a delivery was made. Amazon switching to courier only was certainly not justified. It is also then possible for the recipient to contact customs to see if the parcel was ever processed. Another issue with Amazon is that their packaging quality has been going downhill for years, and I now even see people in the US complaining about items arriving severely damaged due to shoddy packaging.

And yeah, I'm not convinced that at least some theft isn't happening at customs. They're the ones opening parcels and thus know whether it is worth stealing.
 
I honestly don't think it is only the PO. I think a lot of people use this to their advantages and even though they receive the item they report it lost anyway and get another one.

Problem with corruption, if the goverment can do it why can't everyone else?
 
boswald said:
I honestly don't think it is only the PO. I think a lot of people use this to their advantages and even though they receive the item they report it lost anyway and get another one.

Problem with corruption, if the goverment can do it why can't everyone else?
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I've had registered and EMS items stolen, as well as unmarked parcels. I can attest that there is a problem, either with CUSTOMS or SAPO or likely BOTH.

CUSTOMS guys who see expensive items whole day also feel bad, some of them think, "This a..hole has so much money to buy so much..., maybe if I just pinch one little thing..."

I've had two parcels opened up and most expensive DVD stolen and in each case the packages OMITTED CUSTOMS inspection. Why?
Because customs officials who inspect parcels have to sign their initials and when they prepare the manifest their name goes on it. There is no way a parcel marked $120 would skip customs when $30 parcels were hit. But yeah, and in each case, items were stolen from INSIDE The box, the box was re-sealed with UNOFFICIAL tape.

DigitalEYEs used to send parcels with special tape, marked with an FBI warning. I would tell the customs guys not to pinch stuff - in a humorous way - and they'd laugh "Call the CSI", except that tampering with Federal Mail EVEN OUTSIDE USA is an offense and US Law allows for prosecution of foreign nationals on foreign soil.
 
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Old news

This is old news.

The people who are actually using the online sites to purchase have already moved on to the next available retailer.

Here is a link, which is already one month old from your own site with regards to shopto.net:

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=151784&page=7

Given that theft is still a problem all over, but we already know this as well.

Don't see the purpose of this article other than to upset people over old issues. Bringing up the issue here, again, isn't going to solve the problem.
 
I have just recently had, 'or do have rather' a serious problem in wich 21 items over a14 day period have gone missing from April. I was selling on bid or buy and the fact that this stuff was confirmed to have been sent via Hong Kong Post they have to date not arrived and we can imagine how popular I am right now. I feel like i am some kind of crook. I even decided ok customer service let me just redispatch.... Bad idea i just lost R8000 we have an investigation ongoing and most clients are understanding but why should i be in this position. We have tracking numbers that show the goods left Hong Kong. we have never had a problem before but we too now have stopped supplying to South Africa in my case the loss represents a 94% loss rate.

Really all the stress for what?
 
I had a watch stolen from a package sent by a Hong Kong seller. The box arrived with no contents. I know it was not the seller because of his extremely sound eBay rating.

We should be baying for their blood - SA'fricans tend to be too complacent about these things.

They could easily extend video surveillance and scanning to pinpoint the workers involved. It's just the motivation to do so that's lacking.
 
I got two parcels from US - one insured and one EMS on their way to me, the insured one is a bit delayed.
Also got a SAL package from Japan shipping today.

We'll see....
 
xtenda said:
I have just recently had, 'or do have rather' a serious problem in wich 21 items over a14 day period have gone missing from April. I was selling on bid or buy and the fact that this stuff was confirmed to have been sent via Hong Kong Post they have to date not arrived and we can imagine how popular I am right now. I feel like i am some kind of crook. I even decided ok customer service let me just redispatch.... Bad idea i just lost R8000 we have an investigation ongoing and most clients are understanding but why should i be in this position. We have tracking numbers that show the goods left Hong Kong. we have never had a problem before but we too now have stopped supplying to South Africa in my case the loss represents a 94% loss rate.

Really all the stress for what?
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There is a problem with the HK postal route,especially with the RA numbers (registered post).Lost 2 high value parcels,another shipment was sent out yesterday only,althought it was handed in 12 May.Most of these lost parcels never enter the country,which make me think it gets stolen BEFORE it enters SA.In a batch 2 weeks,8 bags was registered from HK to SA,only 4 of that batch was received.
 
There is simply no surprise in this happening. I am just surprised that it took the suppliers so long to get fed up. WHo can blame them, coupled with false claims etc. Besides its not that much more to use a proper courier service and have that piece of mind your goods will arrive?
 
bradel said:
There is simply no surprise in this happening. I am just surprised that it took the suppliers so long to get fed up. WHo can blame them, coupled with false claims etc. Besides its not that much more to use a proper courier service and have that piece of mind your goods will arrive?
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Couriers charge anything from 2x to 4x the cost of EMS or Airmail.

Sometimes the delivery charge is more than the value of the item!

Secondly courier charges an extra R114 customs clearance fee, you pay that HERE.

Couriers don't operate on weekends, while you can pick up your deliver at the Post Office.

Deliveries are fast abroad as is the transfer, but once an item gets to SA it takes 2-3 days to end up in your hands, even though it clears customs quickly.
SA-side of courier delivery is similar to general levels of service in South Africa - abysmally poor and SLOW.

Finally, most couriers now don't accept COD or cheque at delivery to pay these fees anymore, you have to pay these clowns by EFT (don't even accept CC) beforehand. Often they don't even let you know in advance and you end up delaying delivery by an additional 2-3 days - all to get something down really quickly.

I must have saved thousands of dollars over the years in not selecting couriers by going with (insured) airmail, airmail and EMS.
 
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Ah, good 'ole South Africa...theft is a way of life here for the majority of the population.
When i send parcels to people, I usually mark them as "hazardous materials". lol
 
robdutchmonkey said:
It seems, they think they have permission to steal if the item isn't insured and no one gives a damn about it... It's like a companies mission to steal items with no worry of getting into trouble when not insured, that's why I insure everything these days...
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Spoke to a guy who claimed to be Zuma's 1st wife's nephew. He said if it's insured, he's entitled to take it.

fsuck!ng cunnt.
 
Would love to ship a parcel locally with a GPS tracking device plus a GSM signals to triangulate where the package is too see where the "problem" is ? \
GSM device (service like www.look4me.co.za) if their is no GPS coverage.
 
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