Thursday, August 29, 2019

Pakistan Post - My Story


Last week I visited "Pakistan Post" after a long time. I used to go there 8-10 years back but only to submit utility bills. In my recent visit I went there to post a package from Karachi to Lahore. I was there for just 10 minutes and in that short time I become excited and concerned at the same time. My package is safely delivered to the destination location and I am happy for that but at the same time I feels a bit uneasy about the whole process.

-  Still old:
When I entered the "Pakistan Post" branch near Disco Bakery Gulshan-e-Iqbal, the whole setup refreshes the old memories and it's the same what I saw 10 years back. Old styled broken chairs and tables, not clean, some chairs are not broken but have "pan peek" on them etc. Anyway the good thing was that I didn't had to wait there as I was the only customer at that time.

+  The old guy:
The person who welcomes me is an old guy and through out the process he remains so polite. No artificial dialogs, straight forward and too the point.

-+ Clothed Bag:
The old guy starts putting my package items in a clothed bag. This is where I start thinking of why he is doing this. I thought he just want to weight the package by putting all the items in a clothed bag. But he started to adjust the items properly in the bag as this is how they will send the package. So I ask him about this and he said yes your package will be delivered in this bag. Since it was a clothed bag I got a bit worried as if the items will remain safe or not. The good thing about the clothed bag is the flexibility. The items that I want to deliver are not fitting in the basic carton box used by TCS. Even in a bigger TCS box they have to force fit the items, that's why I did not go with the TCS.

- Sewing:
The most interesting part of the whole process. The guy had to sew the clothed bag mouth with the needle and thread with his hands. There is no doubt that the old guy is so perfect in sewing but my concern is why he was doing it. Even if they have no other option than to sew the bag they can have a sewing machine to do it for them.

- Postal address:
They ask me to write a destination address and contact details on that clothed bag using a marker. I am not sure if they entered this address in there system or not but it was so weird for me.

+ Cost:
For the same package what was costing around 2000 PKR through TCS the Pakistan Post charged only 300 PKR. That's a serious difference.

+ Technology:
After the whole process is done they give me a payment receipt with a sticker on it having some serial number written on the sticker. The old guy told me that I can track my package from that serial number using there online portal and also using there mobile app. I was not expecting that but yes they have it and it was also showing the correct package details on there portal.

+ Promise:
They promise to deliver my parcel in 2 days and they fulfilled it. The package reached the destination safely in 2 days.

I really appreciate the services provided by Pakistan Post and will be using there services in the future. My suggestion to Pakistan post is to improve there premises and the process of initial customer interaction. I bet people will only use Pakistan Post if they feel comfortable going to there premises. Best of luck to them.

rizzz86