after our actual independent press gave coverage to the story of amazon.com blocking post to South Africa, the Post Office has kind of given a response. i say actual independent as the main broadcaster in the country, the SABC, is owned by the government like the Post Office is, and thus declined to report. further, the radio station that spends so much time claiming to be independent, the dire, amateur Talk Radio 702, happen to be broadcasting a number of expensive adverts for the Post Office at present, and so - rather bewilderingly - they today, in particular between 4 - 6pm, tried to dress the problem up as being that somehow customers with missing/stolen amazon parcels were in fact the thieves!!!!
here is the full press release from the Post Office, then. i am not sure if i am supposed to include the telephone numbers, but then again they sent them out - if you feel a need to do anything with the information, knock yourself out.
Post Office appeals to customers to assist in resolving Amazon issue
The South African Post Office is concerned and dismayed at the decision of Amazon.com not to send material through the standard or expedited postal services to South Africa. The decision was both unexpected and regrettable as the Post Office was neither informed nor contacted by Amazon.com in regard to this decision, nor given any opportunity to resolve any issues which the international organisation may have.
At this stage, it appears that the standard and expedited shipping options are not available on the Amazon.com website - the only shipping option now offered is Priority Shipping to South Africa. Customers should note that all orders placed before today will still be delivered through the normal mail as far as the Post Office is aware, and customers will receive their purchases in the normal way. The Amazon.co.uk site is still providing normal shipping to South Africa.
“As a member of the Universal Postal Union, we strive to ensure that our postal service is in line with international standards and over the past year significant improvements have been made in-line with security and postal theft. In addition, our Crime-buster hot-line has not registered one complaint about a lost or misplaced Amazon item in the past year,” says Post Office spokesperson, Lungile Lose.
The Post Office is asking customers who have experienced a problem with their Amazon order in the past six months, or who have not received their current orders in the expected time period to please call the Post Office customer line on 0860 111 502 so that the seriousness of the Amazon claim can be more fully investigated.
The Post Office will instigate communication with the postal administration service used by Amazon.com in order to discuss the situation and will report back to customers on the outcome of this engagement.
Issued by: Lungile Lose
General Manager: Communication, South African Post Office
Tel: 012 401 7704
Tel: (012) 401-7711 Fax: 0866 875 683
personally, i was rather taken by the comment "In addition, our Crime-buster hot-line has not registered one complaint about a lost or misplaced Amazon item in the past year". rather strange, as in the last year i have logged at least two incidents, more if you make that the last 18 months. they are, then, either just lying for some obscure reason or do not keep a track of any complaints forwarded to them. my money would be on both being the case.
thanks to all who have hit the Post Office site today to lodge complaints about the theft going on, i believe they crashed one or two times under the volumes, which is probably the only reason that they responded. by all means do keep hitting the site, as i am missing one edition of a magazine and a letter from my grandmother.
it is rather odd that one has to try and persuade a Company of the size of a national Post Office not to steal things and not to hire thieves, but if bombarding them with comments along those lines gives them something to think about, why not?
be excellent to each other, except of course to greedy thieves that work at the Post Office.....................
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