By now, Singaporeans are used to buying things online and having them delivered to their doorstep.
However, one man who ordered clothes from Taobao was told that they were left at his void deck by a logistics firm.
Source: Shin Min Daily News
Having paid S$600 in shipping fees, he reportedly expected and apparently requested doorstep delivery. Therefore, he was upset by the turn of events.
However, the logistics company said the freight costs were not paid to them, but to the forwarder in China, they told MS News.
The forwarder had also confirmed that they should place the bags at the void deck, emphasising that the customer had not been willing to talk to either the agent or the logistics company.
The man, Mr Zhang Yuanyu (name transliterated from Mandarin), runs an online store selling clothes, he told Shin Min Daily News.
The 34-year-old often purchases his products online, and this time he bought a total of 14 bags of clothes.
10 of the bags weighed at least 130kg, he said.
Thus, he paid S$600 in freight costs for the clothes to be shipped to Singapore.
However, on that day, Mr Zhang received a text message from the logistics company handling the delivery.
They allegedly asked him whether they could make the delivery on 30 Sep instead.
Mr Zhang also claimed that they informed him that he would have to pay a storage fee of S$75.60 if he couldn’t receive the goods by 30 Sep.
As he claimed he’d taken leave just to wait for the delivery, he refused, demanding that they send the clothes to him on 29 Sep.
Source: Shin Min Daily News
Eventually, the logistics firm agreed to deliver the clothes on 29 Sep.
However, another issue cropped up — Mr Zhang received another message from them saying that the goods couldn’t be moved upstairs.
In a screenshot he shared of the conversation, they said the goods were “too heavy” or couldn’t enter the lift.
Thus, they would only leave them at the void deck, adding that they’d “already informed China” about this.
Source: Shin Min Daily News
This displeased Mr Zhang, who claimed that his previous large orders were always delivered to his doorstep.
In the end, Mr Zhang and his wife had to bring the clothes home themselves, he said.
As one bag was too heavy for them to carry, they had to open the bags at the void deck and bring their contents up over several trips.
This took them almost three hours from 3pm to 6pm, he added.
He is now considering lodging a report with the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) about the company.
In response to Shin Min’s queries, Ocean Pearl said they had informed the customer beforehand that they wouldn’t be able to bring the bags upstairs.
Claiming that 10 of the bags in fact weighed at least 180kg each, a company spokesperson added that they were concerned their workers would get injured and even sprain their backs.
They were also afraid the lift couldn’t bear the weight.
Ocean Pearl also told MS News that their forwarder in China had told them to leave the bags on the ground.
“We did not leave the bags downstairs because he had a bad attitude,” the spokesperson said. “We left it downstairs because he refused to talk to his agent or anyone and the agent said to just leave it and move on to our other jobs.”
Also read: Shopee Deliverymen Filmed Throwing Parcels On The Ground, Company Calls Behaviour ‘Unacceptable’
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Featured image adapted from Shin Min Daily News.
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