Saturday 27 February 2010

The problem with monopolies

I ordered a few sets of cute Fred and Friends food face over amazon sometime ago. Paid extra for Amazon to deliver it to vpostUSA in 2 days so i could receive it when i got back to Singapore.

I waited and waited.... The package was late, it only arrived in Singapore after i came back to Beijing. Given the CNY holidays and weekends, i think it's understandable that the package MAY have been held up at the customs.

But 18 days later still no package. Why?

This was what happened in chronological order...
  • 24 Feb morning- I got an email saying that they delivered to my old address which was the address in my vpost PROFILE but nobody answered the door. They were going to arrange for re-delivery on 26 Feb.
  • 24 Feb late morning- I called Speedpost from Beijing to tell them to deliver item to DELIVERY address (which was the whole point of me filling in the delivery address right?)
  • Speedpost tells me that they don't know, must call Vpost.
  • Vpost apologised and said they will deliver to DELIVERY address.
  • Just in case, i emailed and filled in the feedback on vpost website to inform them that the item is to be delivered to DELIVERY address, not PROFILE address.
  • 25 Feb- I received email from Vpost acknowledging that they will arrange delivery to DELIVERY address.
  • 26 Feb- I received an sms from my mom who received an sms from the tennant (currently living in my PROFILE address) that she received an item from amazon.
  • Now i'm trying to call and leave message on webpage but they are closed for the weekend.

Pardon my language but WHAT FUCKERY IS THIS!? Funny thing is they've gotten it right the last 10 times i used vpost. Is someone in Vpost is out to get me? In this case i think the theory of screw-ups is more probable than the theory of conspiracy.

I tell you the problem with Singapore, too many monopolies. Lack of competition breeds stupid SOPs that don't make sense, and they hire customer service officers who obviously never shopped online before because they don't know the difference between DELIVERY and PROFILE addresses!!!!

I AM FUMING. What would u have me do? Threaten to not use their service? Wait i can't cos i have no options.

Complain? Cannot also cos on their web page there is only an option for "compliment", no option for "complaints", such audacity. Singapore is a service oriented city MY BIG-FAT-GIGANTIC-BIRTH-GIVING ASS.

SIL: If u're reading, now u know why the plates never arrived. there's no resolution yet.

6 comments:

lilsnooze said...

OOOOH! How cute is foodface!!!

And...I've long given up on vpost. Borderlinx is so much more efficient and service is much better too!

Imagine, tehpeng clicked 'deliver" on Thurs morning and the packages arrived at our home on Sat afternoon!!

imp said...

VPost can be very annoying. We kicked up a very very big fuss when they delivered a heavily insured item to an address that's not even ours 2.5km away. During the process, VPost insinuated we accepted item and wanted to claim compensation- i.e. trying to hoodwink them. My partner got very angry. VPost got hell. Now, we get express priority service frm VPost's corporate office. So we haven't switched a service provider. But generally I think they suck.

Hope your item gets to you soon, switch to Borderlinx and then u don't have to ever deal with VPost again.

h o b o m o b o said...

Hey I had problems with Vpost before too. My Japan shipment came almost a month late cos of system screw ups - they can't do manual posting everything must wait till system recovers!

But I was impressed with the customer service. They were pretty empathatic.

yAnn said...

Sorry to hear about that!

But ditto on Borderlinx. It's fast and efficient! Plus it's delivered via DHL so you can get all obsessive and track the package (erm, that's just me). VPOST is just too slow and too clunky.

heats68 said...

So I had to check out this plate you had shipped in all the way from the US. And I want one!!!!! Its so super cute.

I've been quite lucky with Vpost so far - touch wood. I've always thought they were quite good! Next time you can ship things to my office ler. I'll pick up for you.

lovexiaolongbao said...

I am so switching to borderlinx!