Post Office Horror Stories

Note to self (and a word to the wise): Never ever have an international package delivered to a Makati City address!

I ordered a Beauty Blender a month ago to take advantage of free shipping from a US cosmetics company and a Paypal rebate. I normally use my address in Paranaque as the shipping address for all my online orders, but I decided to switch to Makati for a change because the Paranaque PO is out of the way from my normal route to the office and they allow you to claim packages on Tuesdays and Thursdays only. Since the Makati PO is just a 10-minute taxi ride from the office, I figured it would be more convenient since I can just drop by the PO on my lunch break, take my package, and go.

I dropped by the Makati PO at lunchtime to claim my long-awaited package. I didn’t mind that it took about 30 minutes before I was finally able to get ahold of it (it only takes me 10 minutes max in the Paranaque PO, but I guess Makati being the center of business and all, I should have known the place would be busier). I also didn’t mind that I only received the postal notification today, even though the package arrived at the Makati PO on September 15 (a whopping 14-day lag time). I was willing to forgive the red tape as long as I received the Beauty Blender safe and sound. To my horror though, I opened the package and discovered that the Beauty Blender’s plastic container was crushed beyond repair, as if somebody (with really large feet) had stepped on it. I immediately tried to restore the case to its original shape, and this is the best I could come up with:

You can still see the dents. I thought, okay lang, it’s just the case, I’ll throw that away anyway, what matters is that the Beauty Blender is not ruined. But Mr. Postal Office Big Foot didn’t even spare my cute little pink egg:

There’s a huge dent on one side which is irreparable. Honestly, I don’t think the Beauty Blender’s function would be significantly diminished by this dent, but that’s not the point. I paid $$ for this, I expect to receive something in tiptop shape. And I don’t blame the online seller because it was packaged really well, with sufficient bubble wrap to protect it from reckless handling by the local PO. In all my years of receiving packages from Paranaque PO, I have never received any package with its contents in less than perfect condition, and trust me, I’ve ordered or bought stuff even more delicate than a pink sponge egg. Makati PO, which probably receives more packages than any other city in the Philippines, can’t even handle packages properly. No wonder the top online stores like Amazon don’t ship to the Philippines, they’ve probably heard how unreliable the system is. My experience isn’t even the worst case...I’ve had friends who waited and waited for a package that never came. Once, a friend sent my sister a gift of 6 Nike baller Ids (nung uso pa dati), and she got only five. And it was clearly indicated on the outside label that the package contained six bracelets ha...garapalan talaga. Sabi ko sa kanya, punta ka sa PO, tingnan mo kung sino may suot-suot na Livestrong bracelet doon, tapos i-confront mo! LOL

After this, I'd rather be inconvenienced and make a side trip to the Paranaque PO than having to go through this Makati PO shit again. Hmph.