A couple of months ago, a reader called Mary bought a small piece of jewellery from a company called Pangama that she planned to give to her niece as a graduation present. However, it did not go exactly to plan.
“I regularly tracked the item and on Friday, June 5th, I received a text and email from An Post to say it had arrived at their location and would be delivered the next working day,” she writes.
That would have been Monday or Tuesday, June 8th/9th.
“I was delighted,” she says.
RM Block
The delight did not last. Six days after receiving that initial text message and three days after she expected the item to arrive at her home in the west of Ireland, Mary was still waiting. So she logged back into the An Post website to find out what the story was.
“I tracked it again and it hadn’t moved,“ said Mary. ”I contacted the robot support and then the ‘clever (robot!) person’ as advised by robot A. I was advised that my package was most likely stuck in processing as there was a high volume of post and that I should keep an eye out for it and keep tracking.”
Mary did as she was told by our robot overlords and she also kept in touch with her ”local wonderful postwoman, Linda".
By June 16th, there was still no sign of her parcel.
“My local postal service had followed up and been told that it was indeed stuck in Portlaoise but there was no way to find it there, as it hadn’t been scanned any further time since the 5th,” she writes.
“My local post office asked if perhaps it got lost in the shuttle, as it was a smaller package, and they were assured this could not happen. However, they also assured them there was nothing they could do to find it or get it moving.
“In the meantime, I got back on to the Clever Human Bot (after an hour) and was told that my only course of action was to contact the seller and ask them to make an enquiry to An Post as to why my package was not delivered! They would not accept my enquiry; it must come from the seller.”
Mary emailed Pangama and was told they were getting the same response as her. That is to say it was delivered to An Post and was awaiting delivery to the customer.
“This is all very frustrating and wrong,” Mary says. “How can An Post be so cavalier with someone’s property and so arrogantly dismissive? This can not be considered a service by any stretch.”
Understandably upset, she asked for a contact to Portlaoise “and was told there was no contact”. She added: “The only option was to get back on to the supplier company (for a refund). I assume they would then expect Pangama to look for reimbursement from them.
“The gift was €50 which is not necessarily a large amount to some, but I am more annoyed about their disregard and deplorable attitude. After a long-winded enquiry, is there any other option I could pursue (if only on principle at this stage)?”
Pricewatch likes to consider itself that other option.
We contacted An Post.
Mary’s parcel was then found and An Post emailed her directly to apologise for the manner in which they handled the incident. “It was apparently surely lost, and they had to go looking for it specifically. However, all’s well that ends well and I sent them a polite reply in appreciation for their attention, if even after a bit of pushing.”
We also heard from An Post: “We found the item and it is on its way and due to land this morning.”
An Post acknowledged it was a very frustrating experience for Mary and she had not been given sufficiently clear information about “this very important piece of mail”. It added: “We cannot apologise enough for the delay and for our failure to provide any comforting information along the way.”
