In Will The Sad State Of Logistics Hurt eCommerce?, I highlighted how DHL, FedEx and other multinational courier companies are 8-10X costlier than the local ones, and are, therefore, affordable only for high-value consignments.
I recently went through an experience which highlighted the risk of sending anything valuable via couriers.
I placed my credit card reward redemption order in the middle of September. As frequent credit card users know, such rewards can be quite valuable. Three weeks later, I still hadn’t received the ordered items. I called the bank. The CSR who came on the line was shocked to hear my complaint since the bank had apparently shipped the consignment the day after I’d ordered it. When I insisted that I still hadn’t received it, he promised to follow up with the courier company immediately.
I never heard back from him but, lo and behold, I got the package within the next two hours.
What didn’t happen in three weeks happened in two hours. Crazy!
I’m not privy what went on between the bank and the courier company but I suspect the following:
The courier company could easily make out from the external markings that the package contained valuable items. It sat on the delivery, hoping to pocket the reward if I hadn’t followed up. This is obviously easy if I’d ordered physical gifts but it’s possible even if I’d ordered gift vouchers because they’re send out as bearer instruments. Finders keepers, losers weepers.
It’s not just this one incident.
I’ve subscribed to FORTUNE magazine for over 10 years. Every year, I go through one or two times when I don’t receive a single issue for two months, a period in which four issues of the bimonthly magazine are published. My complaints to the domestic distributor of the magazine normally go nowhere.
I start getting heard only when I email the magazine’s Asia Pacific HQ in Hong Kong.
Finally, I have to escalate to FORTUNE’s Regional Vice President. I receive two or three of the missing four issues a day after I send a fax to this person. (I’ve never managed to find his / her email address, so the word “fax” in the last sentence is not a typo.)
While these thefts might be the isolated acts of a few employees of the courier company, I hold the bank and the courier company collectively guilty of omission, if not commission, in the attempts.
I know I might be jumping to conclusions. To that extent, I’m happy to be corrected.
If you can think of any alternative explanation for the aforementioned incidents, please let me know in the comments below.