Today I was surprised to hear the news that online retailer Amazon.com has announced that it will no longer ship to South Africa using ’standard shipping’ through the postal system. It will only send items to the region using courier services, which cost considerably more than conventional postage, citing theft of parcels as its primary reason. Is the South African postal system really that bad? I don’t believe it is, and I am developing a theory about the real reason Amazon has halted its postal services to SA.
I personally do a lot of online shopping, and have been doing so for at least eight years now. I have never had anything go missing in the post. I also refuse to believe that I am just lucky in this regard. So today I made a point of asking almost everybody I came across if they had ever lost post in South Africa. No one had.
From IOL
According to a statement on Thursday, the Post Office had not registered a single complaint about a lost Amazon item in the past year. It is now appealing to any customers who have experienced a problem with their Amazon orders in the past six months to call the Post Office customer line on 0860 111 502.
I also use Amazon a lot; at least 10 books a year. And I buy other stuff over the net as well; movies, software, t-shirts, etc that get delivered by SAPO, and I have never lost a parcel. I think Simon is right, there is another reason for Amazon's decision.
Sadly, the usual SA-bashing crowd are having a field day with this.
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