*With an update at the bottom
1. On 28 October 2010, after watching the "See how it works" animation on the Vpost website, I signed up for the service, but found that I could not log on with the password I was sent by e-mail. I copied and pasted the password from the e-mail and tried repeatedly, but it wouldn't work.
2. I wrote to Vpost and got a reply asking for a copy of my NRIC.
3. But before I saw the reply, on 29 October, I tried to log in again, and this time, the password worked.
4. I then bought an item (a small camping flashlight-cum-lantern) from Amazon and asked for it to be shipped to the Vpost address in Portland, Oregon.
5. I forwarded the e-mail I got from Amazon to Vpost and got a reply the same day (29 October) saying: "Thank you for submitting your invoice(s) to vPOST. We will upload your invoice(s) within 1-2 business days.When your package arrives at our vPOST Shipping Centre, we will process it accordingly."
6. On 30 October, I wrote to Vpost saying thank you, I could now log in with the password, and had made a purchase from Amazon which was due to be delivered at the Portland address on 3 November.
7. To this, I got a reply saying: "If you are responding on an existing case, please provide us with the Case Reference Number in the email subject field to enable us to better serve you." But I had already done this. My case reference number was in the subject field of the e-mail I sent.
8. On the same day (30 October), I got an e-mail from Amazon saying that my item had been shipped and my order could no longer be changed.
9. Two days later, on 1 November, I got an e-mail from Vpost saying: "We regret to inform you that your order consists of one or more of the following: wine or alcoholic beverages/battery/perfume/paints/spray/lithium battery which is categorized under prohibited items. We regret we are unable to process this invoice." This was the first I was hearing of any prohibited items. They were not mentioned in the "how it works" animation and as far as I could see there was no warning or alert about them on the main page of the Vpost website. My options now were to pay S$10, arrange (and of course pay more for) another courier to pick up the item and ship it to me or have it "disposed off" by Vpost.
10. On 3 November, I wrote back, asking if Vpost could open the package and remove the four AAA battery cells packaged with the item and ship the lantern alone.
11. On the same day, I got this again: "Thank you for submitting your invoice(s) to vPOST. We will upload your invoice(s) within 1-2 business days..."
12. On 4 November, I got this from Vpost: "Kindly confirm whether the battery attached to the device or not? Please provide us the tracking number of the package for our necessary action."
13. On 5 November, I wrote back giving the tracking number again and attaching a photo of the item that I got from the manufacturer's website. It shows that the 4 AAA cells are in a separate bubble in the same trasparent packing and not inside or connected to the lantern.
14. On 8 November, I got this yet again: "Thank you for submitting your invoice(s) to vPOST. We will upload your invoice(s)..."
15. This was followed, on the same day, by another e-mail that said Vpost had received my package. It gave a box number and a tracking number and asked me to log in to my vPOST account "to match your Packages to the respective invoices".
16. When I logged in, what I saw was this alert: "1 packages arrived at your USA address with no invoices. Please email your invoice to invusa@vpost.com.sg".
17. On 9 November, I wrote to Vpost asking what was going on. I also gave both my box number and my invoice number.
18. To this, I got, for the fourth time: "Thank you for submitting your invoice(s) to vPOST..."
19. On 11 November, I called Vpost and spoke to an officer, who had my box number and said the invoice would be uploaded within the day, and all I had to do was wait.
20. On 12 November, I got this again: "We regret to inform you that your order consists of... We regret we are unable to process this invoice." It was the same mail that I had got on 1 November. I gave up.
There you have it: 20 steps, two weeks of aggravation, US$12 paid to Amazon, no lantern.
************************************************************************************************
Update
On 14 November, I sent Vpost the link to this blog, along with a suggestion that they mention the prohibited items more prominently, perhaps with a pop-up alert when a user signs on.
The next day an officer called and SMSed me, apologised and said they would ship the lantern after removing the AAA battery cells. He also said he had forwarded my suggestion about a pop-up alert to the relevant person.
When I checked my e-mail, I found this from Vpost: "We have entered the following invoice(s) into our system...We will process your package(s) when it arrives at our vPOST shipping address and match it against your invoice(s)."
Of course, they had e-mailed me a week before this about having received the package and the officer I spoke to when I called Vpost had given me the impression that the matching had already been done. But by now I was quite used to one part of Vpost not knowing what another part is doing and ignored the mail.
And yes, I was then informed by e-mail that the item had been processed and the AAA cells removed. I made payment (total cost of lantern, without battery: about S$35) and finally got the package on 20 November.
The officer who had called me after I told Vpost about this blog SMSed me again to make sure I had got it and I thanked him. But as far as I can see, there is still no prominent alert about the prohibited items on the Vpost website.
