Amazon does still post to South Africa. Just not from Amazon.com – the American version of the store. The British Amazon.co.uk will still use normal post to deliver packages to South Africa, however (click on the image for proof of this).

So if mail theft at the South African Post Office is the real reason for the decision by Amazon, then why is it still offering postal services to the country from the UK? Eh?

Having spoken to two local online retailers who deal with Amazon on a daily basis, Simon from Have2Have and Justin from WantItAll on the latest episode of ZA Tech Show, I have realised that while the South African Post Office really is more reliable now than ever before it is still a dodgy system to use for the likes of sending iPods and high-end cameras. Those will be stolen, if they aren’t broken. Not that anyone with half a brain would consider posting an iPod in South Africa via conventional channels. Or anywhere in the world for that matter.

This is why god made priority post and couriers. I asked my friend Steve in the UK if he would send an iPod to Liverpool using the British postal system and his retort was, “What?!? Are you $#&%ing mental?”

Steve is a real Brit. Not some kid who moved over to the UK because he planned to make millions as a street sweeper and now refuses to come home.

While the SAPO (South African Post Office) is pretty reliable in general, it is not consistent in its delivery times. This was affirmed by both Simon and Justin, who both say that Amazon deliveries have probably suffered many delays, precipitating the sending out of follow-up packages. The perception was that mail was lost, when really it was just late.

Justin from WantItAll also has an interesting theory concerning fraud. He says that some people in South Africa probably receive their packages from Amazon and then lie about them being lost, abusing Amazon’s policy to replace lost items. While this theory sounds plausible I find it hard to believe that this would happen more in South Africa than anywhere else in the world. There is also no evidence to back it up.

I don’t doubt for a second that the South African Post Office is not the most reliable in the world. I just haven’t had any problems myself and can’t find anyone who has had the likes of books and DVDs go missing. I also have no reason to doubt the organisation’s claims of a 99 percent success rate at recovering stolen parcels thanks to its new camera system at depots.

I’ll say it again: the SAPO used to be useless, thieving and unreliable. It simply isn’t any more. And the only people who say otherwise are ex-pats, who I have problems seeing eye to eye with on the state of institutions in our country at the best of times. Many, not all, left because they were negative about the state of the country – and now use any excuse to throw poo at South African service providers in an attempt to justify to themselves and the world that leaving was the right decision.

Amazon.com has not been available for comment. But the fact that the British version of the store still posts to South Africa is an interesting angle because there are huge differences in mailing things to and from the USA as opposed to the UK, in my experience. Packages I receive from the UK take between four days and two weeks to arrive, for me. But packages from the USA take at least two weeks, sometimes longer.

So my take on this for the time being is as follows; Amazon.com has had trouble maintaining its usually high-level of service to South Africa for the same reasons most other international companies do – we are far away from the developed world. Getting things to and from South Africa from places as far afield as the USA is challenging and processes are unreliable. The reason this isn’t the case in the rest of Africa is simply because no other country on the continent offers anywhere near the amount of business to Amazon as South Africa does.

I think the real reason Amazon.com doesn’t want to ship to South Africa is because it would prefer to divert all business to the region via its UK presence. And yes, that has something to do with “lost” mail, but not everything.

South Africans are prone to negativity. It’s not our fault – we have had a rough ride over the last year and a history of atrocious service in the country. So it’s easy to convince an already pessimistic population that our service providers are shite. Telkom, our banks and most other organisations still have a long way to go in terms of delivery and offering a level of service anywhere near what can be expected from first-world companies. But the Post Office is different. I urge you to look at the facts before making up your mind – and stop pissing and moaning about South Africa unless you have proposed solutions. Nothing ever gets fixed by whiners.

Today I was surprised to hear the news that online retailer Amazon.com has announced that it will no longer ship to South Africa using ‘standard shipping’ through the postal system. It will only send items to the region using courier services, which cost considerably more than conventional postage, citing theft of parcels as its primary reason. Is the South African postal system really that bad? I don’t believe it is, and I am developing a theory about the real reason Amazon has halted its postal services to SA.

I personally do a lot of online shopping, and have been doing so for at least eight years now. I have never had anything go missing in the post. I also refuse to believe that I am just lucky in this regard. So today I made a point of asking almost everybody I came across if they had ever lost post in South Africa. No one had.

The South African Post Office does have a horrible legacy of unreliable service. But it has since changed. The management of the Post Office over the last few years has effectively turned things around in the spirit of the organisation’s slogan, “We deliver, whatever it takes.” The SAPO is a success story and an example of how a company can be transformed. I have witnessed this first hand with all the packages I send and receive internationally, from vinyl records sent by Ninja Tune in the USA and UK to books and works of art from Canada.

The South African Post Office now boasts a 99 percent success rate of recovering stolen mail, in the unlikely event of it actually being nicked. Of the hundreds of thousands of mail items sent through the SAPO over the last year less than 700 have gone missing. Almost all recovered. Either the post office and its auditors are lying about these stats, or Amazon’s management are smoking something serious – unless there is another reason for the decision.

The SAPO today responded with surprise to the Amazon announcement. It was dumbfounded at the decision, given the organisation’s improved efficiency and reliability. A spokesperson for the Post Office said that they would be approaching Amazon to discuss the matter.

I also refuse to believe that missing packages really cost Amazon that much to begin with. Firstly, post hardly ever goes missing any more according to the SAPO. Secondly, while Amazon’s policy is to reship “lost” orders, I am sure a company of Amazon’s size must be insured against this occurrence. And the reshipping policy effectively creates an impression of good service, not bad – so it’s hard to believe that the advent of stolen packages does the company’s brand any harm either. It’s merely an organisational inconvenience, which I doubt it deals with in shipping to South Africa much more than it does anywhere else in the world.

Recently a company launched in South Africa with a vested interest in Amazon’s local affairs. This company is WantItAll, a local front-end for Amazon that facilitates orders from Amazon and other American providers into South Africa. From WantItAll’s website:

…www.wantitall.co.za was therefore born from the needs of South Africans wanting to purchase items from abroad. We facilitate the process of purchasing items off the internet on behalf of customers and then shipping the requested items to the customer. www.wantitall.co.za therefore handles all the purchasing, shipping, and insurance of the items � therefore reducing the problems previously experienced with internet purchasing.

WantItAll gleefully disseminated a press release today notifying all and sundry of the Amazon announcement – which obviously greatly benefits its business, which has ties to Amazon. I have heard someone accusing WantItAll of playing an instrumental role in the decision by Amazon. However, I am not suggesting this, as I have not seen any evidence that leads me to believe it.

But something is up – and I suspect it has nothing to do with stolen mail. I will be pursuing this story with all relevant parties over the next week in an attempt to sniff out the real reason Amazon made its announcement, whether local pressure or misguided international policy. I don’t expect to come up with much. But I must ask.

On another note, I hope we’ll soon be seeing a full-fledged retail service offering from Amazon.co.za.

EDIT: I was wrong about WantItAll sending out a release. This was something I was told from fellow journalists, which turned out to be bollocks.