charles' footsteps: February 2009

Chronological sequence of preceding events:

Feb 7 (Sat)
Article could not be delivered, cos no one was home. A delivery notice was left, to which I responded online to request for a redelivery on Feb 9 (Mon) morning.

Feb 9 (Mon)
Article not delivered. No attempt made to inform me about the lack of intention to deliver.

Feb 11 (Wed)
Made a call to check up on the delivery status. Was told that they had missed the delivery request, and could re-do the delivery, not on Thursday (too busy) but on Friday. Arranged to deliver on Feb 13 (Fri) morning. Was also told that the article was in their Paya Lebar branch.

Feb 13 (Fri)
Article not delivered. No attempt made to inform me about the lack of intention to deliver.

Now sequence of emails - parts in red are highlighted for information with my comments in (blue):

Monday, February 16, 2009 9:20 PM
From: Me; To: SingPost Pickup (SingPost)
Subject: Article SF### - failure to deliver

To whom this may concern,
The above-mentioned article was not successfully delivered on 7 Feb (no one was home at the time of delivery), and while there was 1 online request to re-deliver on 9 Feb, and 1 phone request to re-deliver on 13 Feb, both requests were not met, and there was no information from Speedpost that these delivery would not be followed through.

Could you please let me know if it is possible to get this article? Or perhaps you can request for the original sender to contact me directly?

Regards, Charles

Tuesday, February 17, 2009 11:18 AM
From: SingPost - Courier Priority (SingPost) To: Me
Subject: RE: Article SF### - failure to deliver

Dear Mr Charles,
Thank you for your email.

Regards to your item, record shows it has been returned to sender on 9/2/09 therefore I am unable to arrange for any redelivery or redirection to any post office. (fine... so I must contact the sender myself... thanks for the non-solution and lack of explanation what-so-ever)

Item is a 2009 Management Diary & Calender from Singapore Airlines (SIA). I sincerely apologise for any inconvenience it has caused you.

Yours Sincerely, XXXXX

Tuesday, February 17, 2009 4:32 PM
From: Me To: SingPost Pickup (SingPost)
Subject: RE: Article SF### - failure to deliver

XXXXX,
Thank you for your response.

It is very strange that even though it is stated that articles will only be returned to the sender after 3 days of non-collection (which should mean Feb 10, since the original delivery was Feb 7, if we think Sunday is included), the article was returned to the sender on Feb 9.

Moreover, the online redelivery request was made to be done on Feb 9 morning. On calling the service line on Feb 10 (or 11), the customer service personnel informed me that the article is in Paya Lebar, and agreed for the delivery on Feb 13 morning.

Could someone provide a better explanation for the situation? I am not concerned about the article in question, but about the amount of time my family had wasted in waiting for the delivery attempts.

Regards,
Charles

Thursday, February 19, 2009 3:33 PM
From: SingPost - Courier Priority (SingPost) To: Me
Subject: RE: Article SF### - failure to deliver

Dear Mr Charles,
Thank you for taking time to communicate to us why our service did not meet your expectations.

First of all, let me apologise for the inconvenience of the non-delivery of your item. It has been noted in the system that you have requested for a redelivery of the item on 9/2/09 & 13/2/09. However, due to the surge in our volume during the peak season, we needed more time to retrieve the article in order to proceed with your requests. (Good reason. I'm sure the delivery service's job is NOT to deliver and NOT to follow through.)

In addition, we will further evaluate how we can prevent this problem from occurring again in the future.

Mr Charles, while we realized that your experience with Singpost could have been more pleasant, we thank you for giving us another opportunity to provide you with better service.

Moving forward, another check has been made with the relevant department. We have managed to retrieve the item & arrangement has been made to redeliver the item on Friday 20/2/09 between 2pm to 6pm. Please let me know should you need to make any changes to the appointment. (So somehow, you have managed to retrieve the article, which was actually in your care, or did you contact the sender to get the article to resend? Perhaps the previous response was just done without checking, and now you've FOUND IT!!! Amazing. And you arrange the delivery on the next day, expecting people to be waiting for your delivery all the time? Nice move.)

Please accept our sincerest apology for any inconvenience we have caused you. Again we highly appreciate your feedback and suggestion as it will assist us in becoming better at what we do. It's our goal to retain you as a satisfied customer and will hope to serve you again in the future.

Yours Sincerely,
XXXXX

Friday, February 20, 2009 11:46 PM
From: Me To: SingPost Pickup (SingPost)
Subject: RE: Article SF### - failure to deliver

Dear XXXXX,

I am glad that the item had been retrieved from the sender again to be delivered. I am away for these few weeks, and hope my family had been at home at the time of today's delivery.

Thank you for taking time to reply to my feedback, and hope that the company will be able to handle volume surges during future peak seasons.

Regards,
Charles

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Just for fun, I googled "SingPost", "SpeedPost" and "complaints" and came up with only 105 results. Below are the links to a few...
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/singpost-speed-post-service-c25563.html
http://comment.straitstimes.com/showthread.php?t=16651
http://www.sgclub.com/singapore/lousy_service_speedpost_68084.html

Honestly, i did not think i would be interested in a ride up on the Singapore Flyer, and when the incident of the wheel stoppage occurred, one of the thoughts that went through my mind was "what if I never get to board this touristy vessel before it ceased to operate?" ... of course the other thought was about how tough it was to stay without a toilet break for 6 hours...

When my pals suggested to take a ride yesterday - and it was an instant "OK" from me. The day ride gave us a better view, and we might have been a very rowdy bunch... much to the horror of the 3 couples who boarded the same cabin. But hey, it was fun for us...