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Cape Town – The SA Post Office (Sapo) suspended its econoparcel option on Wednesday and now customers will have to pay almost double the price for certain parcels.
An econoparcel is a parcel that is not bigger than 458 x 324 x 100mm and does not weigh more than 1kg. Before April 1, Sapo gave customers a special price on this size and weight restriction.
The new price for a parcel that fits this category has now almost doubled from R22.80 to R40.90.
The new 2015/2016 rates have been uploaded to the Sapo website, but no press release or announcements have been made. There is no mention of the econoparcel option on the rate card.
Download: Sapo rates
Fin24 user Paul Knight alleged that Sapo had not even informed its staff, but Sapo told Fin24 that Post Office staff did receive a message on the point-of-sale system before the service was suspended.
Knight said when he went into the Post Office he was caught off-guard by the increase.
“I went in yesterday [Wednesday] to post 10 parcels using this service and was informed by the teller that when they logged on yesterday the econoparcel option had been removed,” he said.
“The manager had not even been informed that this would be happening.
“So from paying R22.80 for the entry level parcel service on March 31, I had to pay R40.90 the next day for the entry level service.”
The Sapo is currently under administration and is battling to find its feet after a prolonged strike affected its business operations.
“With the committed support from our government, the SA Post Office is racing against time to turn the business around so as it becomes the service provider, which is attractive to the customers,” acting Sapo CEO Mlu Mathonsi said on Thursday.
“It is an irrefutable fact that we are facing an objectively negative financial position, but are making progress in turning the situation around for the benefit of all our stakeholders especially those on whom we are dependent to be in business,” said Mathonsi.
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