I CAN fully empathise with your writer from the last edition of the Highway Mail regarding the Post Office.
I am in a similar situation at the moment. I mailed a package to my granddaughter in New Zealand on Tuesday, 18 September 2018 via surface mail and as per today it has still not left South Africa.
I called the number on the tracking sticker several times but got no response and this was several weeks ago. Finally when I did get through, the woman on the other end told me that they have a huge back log and I got to keep calling every week to check.
When I called them last week again I got a completely different excuse, which is that they are waiting for the containers to fill up and also waiting for the availability of ships.
Since my daughter and her family emigrated to NZ in 2007 I have always sent them packages via surface mail and they have always received them within five weeks.
There was also this representative from the Postal Service on TV who said that they had a back log but this has since been sorted. This was almost a month back. If it has been sorted why is my package still in South Africa?
The conflicting excuses and promises are very frustrating. I wonder if these people are aware of the cost to post parcels overseas.
If my packages have always reached their destination in the right condition, and at the right time, what is the problem now?
I am also disgusted and disappointed and also hoping that this poor service is not here to stay.
Megs Pillay
Pinetown
