On Nampost’s Incessant Hubris And Fuss

IN response to the full-colour advert NamPost took out in the July 22 issue of The Namibian, I feel I must apologise for an accusation I levelled toward Mr Patrick Gardiner.

I had claimed he had never responded to an e-mail I sent nearly two months beforehand, but in fact I e-mailed the wrong address. Upon checking my e-mail records I found that I sent a message to patrick@nampost.com.na After some manoeuvring through Google I found the correct address to be patrickga@nampost.com.na.My sincere apologies.Aside from my little faux pas, I’m still quite astonished by NamPost’s incessant hubris.In their advert they mention a ‘stream of letters’ written to the print media making general complaints about their services, and since The Namibian won’t violate its journalistic integrity and release the details of their letter writers, their operational plan is to remain unsure as to whether those complaints are legitimate or from an ex-employee with some sort of retributive motive.This seems to me a bit presumptuous.I’ve never been a NamPost employee, nor do I have an axe to grind.I’m simply frustrated that I’ve come to expect my post to arrive violated or not at all.I suppose I could utilise the proper channels that NamPost has made reference to, but at last count I’ve had four parcels tampered with and two that never made it to my box, not to mention a conservative estimate that 20% of my post – domestic or international, incoming or outgoing – vanished somewhere between the posting box and its intended destination.The CEO of NamPost, Mr Sakaria Nghikembua, is familiar enough with Telecom, and consequently MTC, that he should understand the astronomical costs of phoning around to have our individual issues resolved, especially when they’re likely to resurface when the next parcel arrives just as molested as the one before.I’m also of the assumption that if you had the ability to track down missing parcels, letters, items that were in those parcels, etc.then you would have delivered them intact to begin with.That said, I’m duly impressed that NamPost handles over 90 million parcels and letters a year; that it grew its postal revenue by 20% in a monopolistic environment; and that it provides maverick financial services by simply charging less than the arm and leg required to deposit money into FNB.Actually, I don’t care.It makes little difference to me if their 380 employees are sorting mail into their 100 000 post office boxes if my post isn’t getting sorted into my box.I hate to come across so solipsistic, but that’s the nature of service provision, n’est-ce pas? I invite the NamPost management team to scuttle north and conduct focus sessions with the large international development community that resides there.They’ll find my complaints are shared quite extensively among them.The reason for the letters I’ve written about NamPost hasn’t been to inveigh unnecessarily; it’s been to point out legitimate frustrations stemming from persistent problems.I’m not making things up when I say many of my parcels arrive lighter than they were posted; or when I point out a learner lost out on a holiday in Sweden because it took an egregiously long time for his letter to be delivered from Tsumeb to Windhoek; or even when I mention the desk clerks who treat me contemptuously because I have the temerity to smile and inquire about purchasing a stamp.What I am asking is that NamPost find a way to turn problems like these into isolated rather than general incidents, to make it the exception rather than the rule.That way, in light of their invitation for specific enquiries, they can set about resolving specific cases rather than asking their patrons to endure recurrent patterns of malfeasance.Otherwise, they’re simply relying on customers to measure their postal issues against the inconvenience of having them resolved over and over and over again, and that’s more of an empty promise than an assertion of quality service.Still Unhappy Via e-mail Note: This letter has been shortened.- EdUpon checking my e-mail records I found that I sent a message to patrick@nampost.com.na After some manoeuvring through Google I found the correct address to be patrickga@nampost.com.na.My sincere apologies.Aside from my little faux pas, I’m still quite astonished by NamPost’s incessant hubris.In their advert they mention a ‘stream of letters’ written to the print media making general complaints about their services, and since The Namibian won’t violate its journalistic integrity and release the details of their letter writers, their operational plan is to remain unsure as to whether those complaints are legitimate or from an ex-employee with some sort of retributive motive.This seems to me a bit presumptuous.I’ve never been a NamPost employee, nor do I have an axe to grind.I’m simply frustrated that I’ve come to expect my post to arrive violated or not at all.I suppose I could utilise the proper channels that NamPost has made reference to, but at last count I’ve had four parcels tampered with and two that never made it to my box, not to mention a conservative estimate that 20% of my post – domestic or international, incoming or outgoing – vanished somewhere between the posting box and its intended destination.The CEO of NamPost, Mr Sakaria Nghikembua, is familiar enough with Telecom, and consequently MTC, that he should understand the astronomical costs of phoning around to have our individual issues resolved, especially when they’re likely to resurface when the next parcel arrives just as molested as the one before.I’m also of the assumption that if you had the ability to track down missing parcels, letters, items that were in those parcels, etc.then you would have delivered them intact to begin with.That said, I’m duly impressed that NamPost handles over 90 million parcels and letters a year; that it grew its postal revenue by 20% in a monopolistic environment; and that it provides maverick financial services by simply charging less than the arm and leg required to deposit money into FNB.Actually, I don’t care.It makes little difference to me if their 380 employees are sorting mail into their 100 000 post office boxes if my post isn’t getting sorted into my box.I hate to come across so solipsistic, but that’s the nature of service provision, n’est-ce pas? I invite the NamPost management team to scuttle north and conduct focus sessions with the large international development community that resides there.They’ll find my complaints are shared quite extensively among them.The reason for the letters I’ve written about NamPost hasn’t been to inveigh unnecessarily; it’s been to point out legitimate frustrations stemming from persistent problems.I’m not making things up when I say many of my parcels arrive lighter than they were posted; or when I point out a learner lost out on a holiday in Sweden because it took an egregiously long time for his letter to be delivered from Tsumeb to Windhoek; or even when I mention the desk clerks who treat me contemptuously because I have the temerity to smile and inquire about purchasing a stamp.What I am asking is that NamPost find a way to turn problems like these into isolated rather than general incidents, to make it the exception rather than the rule.That way, in light of their invitation for specific enquiries, they can set about resolving specific cases rather than asking their patrons to endure recurrent patterns of malfeasance.Otherwise, they’re simply relying on customers to measure their postal issues against the inconvenience of having them resolved over and over and over again, and that’s more of an empty promise than an assertion of quality service.Still Unhappy Via e-mail Note: This letter has been shortened.- Ed