NamPost ‘liberating’ parcels

A NamPost customer has accused the postal company of tempering with mail and also delaying delivery.

The customer who only wanted to be identified as M Kelly says NamPost employees target nice looking parcels from Europe.

“When I first moved to Windhoek a decade and a half ago, I was warned by people here that certain parcels, subscriptions and gifts sent from overseas to me might get ‘liberated’ in the post on the way to my post box,” the customer said.

M Kelly was thrilled to be able to prove these naysayers wrong at that time since mail always arrived quickly, including post coming from overseas.

“It was rare for even international mail to take more than a couple of weeks to arrive and I got all my bank statements and other critical documentation necessary to run a business within days of inland postage.”

M Kelly said two Christmases ago, 30 cards that were sent from different countries in various continents around the world got ‘lost’ on their way to Namibia.

“When I complained at the way my post had disappeared, NamPost told me that the issue arose in South Africa, through which all our international mail is routed. Which begs the question why, decades after we disconnected ourselves politically from that country, we still need to depend on them to bring our mail to us.”

M Kelly wondered how it is not possible for mail from the rest of the world to be routed straight to Namibia since customers pay for it to be expedited by airmail.

“Last time I looked, aeroplanes still touch down in Namibia so why can’t they be used to bring our mail from abroad? Why must we rely on the notoriously porous South African mail service?”

M Kelly says despite the poor service, NamPost is quick to remind customers to renew their postal subscription.

“Recently I have been taking a good look at the postage dates of the mail I receive in Windhoek that has been posted in the capital city too. It sometimes takes several months to arrive, and important post – such as bank statements – sometimes fail to ever emerge from the system at all, so I end up printing them out myself from my account online.”

“Wake up NamPost. Not everyone can access their bills and statements through email or SMS and not everyone has a printer at home so that they can duplicate important documents. If someone takes the trouble to send us a letter or a card or an invoice then you should take the trouble to deliver it. Isn’t that what we buy stamps for?”

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