The Singapore Forum

Well it's a long story and I haven't got the patience to explain it all, but basically I just placed an order from Amazon, taking advantage of the new free shipping to Singapore.

Before finialising it, I checked with their Support people through a handy web chat facility that it would arrive before I left for hols, which was the point of the order; the Support person confirmed it so I completed the order then got a confirmation email confirming that date. Two days later I got another email saying the order would arrive 11 days later than originally stated!

Contacted Support and after a rather long chat session, with the first agent fairly useless telling me there was nothing that could be done and I couldn't cancel as it already shipped, which I wasn't having any of that, then the supervisor I requested, said the only way was to send another order, which he guaranteed would arrive on time, and that he would stop the original order when it arrived in Singapore and have it returned. That was great, and I had him remove one item from the order.

Next I get confirmations that the order is in transit. The order arrived. The original order. The one that was to arrive 2 weeks later. The one with the now extra item.

What to do with the other order, due to arrive? Tell the delivery person we are refusing it, per the advice from Support. Seems a bit crude.

International logistics is complicated, this is a sort of new service for them. I think it will get smoother over the coming months. On the plus side, their customer service chat things sounds useful.

Watch out, watch out! The Singapore side of the Logistics is handled by UPS, and they are on a "Deliver Once" contract. If you are not there to accept, they will drop it off at somewhere random (they will tell you where) and then, after 7 days, take it back to Changi, where you can go pick it up.

To get them to redeliver, you will have to contact Amazon rather than UPS. I suggest you use the chat function again and send a copy to yourself. You will also receive emails to tell you they are instructing UPS to redeliver. However, now is the time to contact UPS Singapore (use the internet to find their phone number) and pester them like mad until they do, sending in the email (even though they don't read it and ask you to send it in again).

It's a nightmare.

However, the last couple of shipments with Bordlerinx have been shit too.

Amazon is brilliant when it comes to solving shipping problems: we had a dvd in a batch of stuff arrive broken, and not only did Amazon replace the dvd, they gave us 20% discounts on 4 Blurays we bought at the same time 'as a gesture', according to the live chat person.

Update on this - the delivery that arrived was via UPS, the next one is by Iparcel. So will see how that goes tomorrow.