Missing in the post!

Anyone had a similar experience?


We ordered some items from Amazon.com about a month ago for Christmas. Amazon dispatches your order in bits and pieces. Most of the dispatched packages made it to us but unfortunately two did not. With Amazon you can track your packages until they clear customs in Hong Kong. Both of our missing packages cleared Hong Kong customs by the 8th of December.

Hong Kong post say that they are unable to help as they need a specific tracking number that is put on your package once when it first reacher them and is sorted (therefore nothing to do with customs let alone Amazon). I contacted Customs and as I unfortunately don't speak Cantonese I was unable to explain myself. I jumped online and sent them an email but apart from an automated response I have heard nothing.


Does anyone have any advice as to where to go from here?

I don't have a definitive answer for you, but I'd like to share my household's experience because it seems as though it might be relevant, though not exactly identical.


My wife and I had problems with Amazon boxes arriving with holes punched and torn in them and with tape having been obviously cut and the box flexed so that someone could see inside ... but without the stickers that would have indicated that HK Customs had been responsible. We also had some boxes completely fail to arrive. Those were mostly items purchased from private sellers through Amazon Marketplace.


We noticed that we only seemed to have problems when items were handled by one of the two different postal facilities that served our area. It took some investigation, but the first hint was that pkgs our normal mail carrier (whom we recognize) delivered arrived on time (approx one week after the order had shipped) and without incident but that ones delivered by unfamiliar postal workers, who invariably turned out to be coming from the "other" facility, were the ones that sometimes showed signs of tampering.


When that became a problem, we gave up on ordering from Amazon Marketplace sellers, bought solely from Amazon proper, and chose the more expensive "Priority Intl Courier" shipping option. Everything then went through DHL or UPS and nothing ever failed to show up. It also came a lot quicker. That went on for years.


More recently, we tried ordering some stuff from Amazon Marketplace again (DHL, UPS, etc. not an option) again and one item failed to turn up. When it was a couple of weeks overdue, we called around (politely) but didn't take no for an answer and eventually found a (very nice) lady who was in the management hierarchy at the "other" postal facility. My wife and I spoke with her on the phone and sent her photos of some of the obviously tampered-with pkgs from earlier years (I'd taken photos of them).


We (very nicely) told her that, if the missing pkg showed up, we would take no action and that if anything else came in boxes that had been fiddled with or failed to arrive roughly on schedule, we would involve the police.


That was just a month or so ago. The missing item showed up a couple of weeks later. So far, so good -- and we're keeping our fingers crossed.


Whenever a package that's passed through the hands of Hongkong Post arrives at our home now, or we take possession of it from one of our building's guards, we look it over very carefully indeed before accepting it.


My advice would be to very patiently call around Hongkong Post, making audio recordings of all calls, until you can find out which facilities in HK handle packages that are ultimately delivered to your area. Call each of those places and ask to speak with someone in charge. Tell them your problem. At every point, get the name of the person with whom you speak. You may get lucky and end up talking with someone in a position of authority who speaks and understands English well. Otherwise, perhaps you have a colleague or local friend who can act as translator.


If you ever receive a tampered-with package, be sure to photograph it and then use that evidence to back up your requests for assistance.

Thanks for your reply lucas.ogara. Looks like we have a long road ahead of us but I am not going to give up. The main difference between our stories is that everything in our packages was ordered from Amazon proper and the ones that did arrive had not been tampered with. I did choose the cheaper option of delivery though, as we had plenty of time before Christmas for everything to arrive.


Thanks again. You have given me a place to start.

Hello,


I've just acquired another tidbit of information about the way that parcels are segregated for delivery in my area that might be of interest to you or anyone else experiencing delivery issues.


Parcels over 2kg in weight are delivered by postmen working out of a different postal facility than those that weigh less than 2kg (which are, in my case, delivered by my regular mail carrier).

By the way, have you been able to get your hands on any of the missing items that you ordered from Amazon?