Haha... on the subject of doing things I never thought I'd do.. I sent a ranting complainy letter to the ST Forum yesterday about the lousy service that vPost has given me :D here it is in all its glory ;) who needs lobby groups when you have singaporean? haha

"Dear Editors

I would like to bring to light my experiences with vPost, a freight forwarding service from the USA run by SingPost. On 8th Nov, vPost received my package and sent me a bill which gave me a rude shock - their shipping charges seemed to have increased drastically. I queried vPost regarding this, and they told me the new charges took effect from the 1 Nov. They also said that they had sent a e-newsletter just 3 weeks before informing customers of the changes.

The reason cited for the price increase was increased fuel costs, an oft cited reason by many transportation companies these days. This helps explain the per-kg price increase from $7 to $9 (a 30% increase), but it certainly does not explain the 30% increase in one-time handling charge (from $10 to $13), nor the whopping 1000% increase in holding charge ($1 per item per week to $10) as these are not affected by fuel prices at all. Furthermore, being an operation basesd primarily in the USA, most of its costs ought to be in USD, which has dropped 10% against the Singapore dollar since a year ago. This should have made their costs in the USA cheaper with regards to the Singapore dollars yet these savings have not been passed on at all. Perhaps it is time for transport companies to stop hiding behind fuel prices to justify every price hike.

In a separate incident, vPost is running a "Christmas Surprise" lucky draw for its customers. I participated in this game on 9 Nov, winning a $20 Delifrance voucher. I received this voucher on 1 Dec, almost full month later although they promised that it would be delivered in 14 working days. The letter congratulating me was dated 28 Nov and the voucher had a 6 month validity from the date of issue. A pity then that the date of issue of the voucher was 1 Jul, a full 5 months before the letter was sent, leaving me with just 1 month out of the intended 6 to utilise it.

Thank goodness for competition and the Internet. A quick search and I found a couple of alternative forwarding services. I guess I will be using vPost less now. Blame it on the high fuel prices. "