KUALA LUMPUR: Of late, snail mail has been taking longer to reach its destination, and letters have been delivered to the wrong houses.
A good number of people in the Klang Valley, from residents to professionals, said they had encountered problems with the postal service.
“Most of our letters take about one week to reach destinations within the Klang Valley,” said SS15 Business Operators Association pro tem chairman Samson Maman in Petaling Jaya.
He said that slow delivery has affected business, especially when legal matters and billing were involved.
“It gets worse during festive seasons when people send greeting cards. That’s when letters take two weeks to be delivered,” he added.
Maman said that when bills reach businessmen later than the seven-day period to dispute the amount, “we have to go to the company that issued the bill to appeal our case.”
“There have also been many instances when business operators sent in their submissions or payments to government agencies and later had to pay penalties because the letters were delivered late,” he said.
On letters sent to the wrong address, Maman said some people were kind enough to redirect the mail.
“But we believe that there were letters simply thrown away when people find it a hassle to return the mail to the postman or redirect them,” he said.
“Whenever businessmen complain to the post office, the people there would cite lack of manpower.”
Lawyer Baljit Singh Sidhu, who operates a law firm in the city, said that on many occasions letters sent to his clients arrived late, while some said they did not receive anything.
“My firm sends out about 200 letters a week and receives about 50 letters a day so we need the postal service to be reliable,” he said.
He said he has also been putting up with letters being sent to the wrong addresses.
“These things have been going on for far too long. I think there is something wrong with the mail sorting,”
Shopping Facilities Suppliers Association pro tem committee chairman Awtar Singh said he had also received complaints from members in Puchong over the slow mail service.
“When I visited the Pos Malaysia office here (Puchong), the staff told me that because of short of personnel, there was nothing they could do to improve the service,” he said.
He said the staff told him that Pos Malaysia was facing difficulty employing competent postmen because few people were willing to take up the job.
Kajang resident Bulbir Singh said the postman had on several occasions left a “not at home” card in his mailbox when there were people at home.
“When I checked with the post office, no one could give me a credible answer,” said the 65-year-old retiree.
He said the cost of sending letters, too, did not make sense as normal letters required only a 30 sen stamp but letters sent in a brown envelope would cost 50 sen.
“Pos Malaysia should explain this because the counter staff failed to do so,” he said.
Khor Swee Kim, 82, said she mailed a cheque to renew the fire insurance on her house last Sept 26 but the cheque only reached the insurance company on Oct 6.
“In the meantime, my insurance had expired on Sept 31,” said the Bangsar Park resident. “What if a fire had broken out during that time?”
