Internet delivery orders being hijacked: SAPP

Kota Kinabalu, Jun 18, 2009: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) Vice President Datuk Wong Yit Ming said the image of the postal service has been tainted as evidenced by the reluctance of Internet mail delivery order service providers to send orders to Malaysia.

According to him, a group came to see him complaining about the poor General Post Office mail security here when they continued to miss mail after placing orders through the Internet.

One clear case that was reported to the police was the discovery of the content of missing mail being sold by a person to one of the shops in the city.

Wong said the complainant, a local philatelist, had won a bid for two well-preserved envelopes and North Borneo stamps in the popular e-Bay website.

However, the complainant never received the items despite having paid for them. As things turned out, a friend of the complainant who owns a shop in one of the complexes here was approached by someone trying to sell the items that went missing.

A report was then lodged and it is now under investigation, he said.

"This is only one of the many cases that had been experienced by the group who have purchased not only stamps but other items through the Internet but never received them through the mail," said Wong.

In order to counter the problem, many of them now have their orders mailed to Singapore first before re-sending them to Sabah via courier.

Wong said a further check showed that there was no security system or even a CCTV at the General Post Office mail sorting room here.

"This has resulted in the people losing confidence in our postal service," he said, adding that the post office management when asked about the complaints said they could not do anything because it was an ordinary and not registered mail.

According to the people who met Wong, sending an ordinary mail from the United Kingdom cost about four pounds Sterling but using the registered mail service would cost about 47 pounds Sterling.

"We want to make sure our postal service is reliable. Many people are using the service and it is only right for them to expect a better service," he said.

Worse still, if the country's postal service image continued to deteriorate, mail order delivery service providers would stop business transactions in Malaysia, he said.

Quoted from DE