Postal Delivery Needs Much Improvement

Sadly, for the second time, a parcel mailed to me that didn’t fit in the mail box was just not delivered. They just leave a note instead saying you should pick up the parcel at some far away post office (not even using the post office that is close for some unknown reason – my guess is it is easier for the post office so who cares about the customers). One of the benefits of being in a apartment, normally, is that parcels can just be delivered to the office and tenants don’t have to waste time on pointless trips to pick up mail that didn’t fit in their mail box.

For some reason the Malaysian post office doesn’t take this step to make it easier for customers. I am not sure if the building office would object to helping out their tenants. I doubt it, but it is possible that the building just refused to help.

This also means if I were a business that was mailing packages to my customers in Malaysia I would make sure that I considered the poor mail delivery practices. Foisting on your customers the burden of going to a far away post office to pick up something you mailed is potentially going to annoy them (especially things they didn’t order – which I haven’t done so…).

To deal with this systemic weakness, you have to be pro-active and waste resources to notice if you are mailing to places that are likely to have this problem. Then proactively contact those customers and explain the problem with mail delivery and work out a solution (before you mail something – obviously this is a big hassle but it is a necessary one given the constraints of the system if you care about your customers). Sending the material to their condo office or something.

I am not sure if the private delivery companies are more customer focused. If so, that would be another option – just use a company that will not result in you annoying customers instead of helping them. Poor package delivery practices are quite common worldwide. That doesn’t mean customers should accept such bad practices when they encounter them. The web has provided quite an outlet for bad delivery practices from companies like UPS and Federal Express.

Given the problems caused (all I get is notices that something, that I have no idea about, has to be picked up at some far away location) I would not suggest using your address for any mail you don’t think will fit in your box. Talk to the office of the condo and make sure they will let you just have it sent to them and then you pick it up from the office. The post office will just make it very difficult if you are not available the time they choose to deliver it. Both times I called to have it delivered at a time that would work, or to the office and both times they said they wouldn’t try to deliver it a second time. So they expect you to go way out of your way to pick up some unknown package. How silly.