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Package Does Not Pass: The Chaos in the Israel Post Israel today

2021-03-20T11:13:47.557Z


| You sat down Avi Peretz waited for his wife's medical documents, which were sent by registered mail - but they were lost • Olga Nabrotsky found empty mailbags in the lot in Haifa, the contents of which were stolen • And if you try to get customer service, chances are you will not succeed Israel • Research The main sorting center of the post office in Modi'in. Dozens and hundreds of mail items disappear every


Avi Peretz waited for his wife's medical documents, which were sent by registered mail - but they were lost • Olga Nabrotsky found empty mailbags in the lot in Haifa, the contents of which were stolen • And if you try to get customer service, chances are you will not succeed Israel • Research

  • The main sorting center of the post office in Modi'in.

    Dozens and hundreds of mail items disappear every day in the country

    Photo: 

    Danny Maron

Movement problems in math

are based on a simple equation: double time and equal speed through.

In the math exam, a truck leaving Eilat for Dimona has to travel 200 km. If it travels at a speed of 80 km / h, it will arrive after two and a half hours.

If there is a traffic jam on the way, which is unknown, it will be delayed accordingly.



Traffic problems at the Israel Post consist of an infinite number of disappearances.

Dozens and hundreds of mail items disappear daily at sorting centers across the country.

When a package makes its way from China to Israel in four days, and then disappears in the sorting center for a few months without leaving a mark - this problem is far from a solution. 



Ask, for example, Avi Peretz (59) from Be'er Sheva.

He waited for his wife's medical documents, which were sent from his lawyer by registered mail in December 2019. Waited, and waited, and waited.

For half a year he waited, trying to contact all the possible postal service centers - by email, phone, chat - to understand where the documents were.

But in vain.

In desperation, Peretz reached out to the personal assistant of Minister David Amsalem, who served as communications minister in the transitional government.



"The assistant made an inquiry and came back to me, saying there was nothing to do, that the documents were lost. I decided to go to the Small Claims Court in Be'er Sheva, I paid a NIS 50 fee, and filed a NIS 1,000 lawsuit against Israel Post, for the cost of restoring the documents. The mental anguish, or quantify the loss of privacy if the sensitive medical information reaches foreign hands.



"A month after I filed the lawsuit, a representative from the Post Office's legal bureau called me.

She offered me a payment of NIS 800 instead of the 1,000 I asked for, if I closed the lawsuit.

I told her: 'After I see the money in the account, I will close the case.'

After two weeks, they transferred the money, and I withdrew the lawsuit. "



It turns out that a lawsuit is an excellent catalyst for finding lost packages. David Sakal (43) from Elad ordered online at Galma, an authentic musical instrument, a Turkish coach. His package arrived in Israel on October 21, 2020. , But according to the postal website, was accidentally routed to her room.



"I called Star 171, the postal customer service.

I waited about an hour until a service representative answered me.

I explained the problem to her, and she said she was opening up.

After a few days I got a reply: 'Sorry, your item was lost.

Please contact the seller. '



"I did not agree to give up so easily. This tool costs NIS 3,000. The seller sent, it arrived in Israel. Last January I filed a lawsuit in the Petah Tikva Small Claims Court, a hearing was scheduled for May. "I took you personally and located your package. If you have any more items, tell me." She was able to locate another package that was meant for me, it was dumped in some warehouse and not scanned. I canceled the claim. "



In what condition did you receive the instrument?



"The package arrived open, wet, and the vessel was broken. I went to a repair specialist. My friend also broke the same vessel in the shipment, even though it was carefully packed."

Israel Post

is a government company Ltd., operating since March 2006 under a license it received from the Ministry of Communications, under the Postal Law. The license requires the company to provide service throughout the country at a uniform price. The company distributes an average of 125 million regular mail a year, for which it pockets 276 million. in addition, it puts another $ 35 million mail items listed, for another 200 million. even more mail products it holds a monopoly. revenues of postal stood in 2019 at 1.82 billion, and it can be assumed that they only took last year.



in In 2018, the government decided to sell 20 percent of Israel Post to one franchisee, in order to streamline it and improve the service. The control was still supposed to remain in the hands of the government - that is, in the public hands. In the next phase, another 20 percent is expected to be sold, probably to the public. and how.



In February 2019 the state Comptroller published a scathing report, which revealed that 64 percent of the public are not satisfied with the service packages from abroad, and that many mailings are lost. Israel Post argued in response to the data relate to past years, and most of the deficiencies have been corrected. but the investigation "I sat "A completely different reality emerges. Hundreds of testimonies that have reached us

It is clear that precisely in the year of the Corona, in which Israelis needed postal services more than ever because of the closures and restrictions on gatherings, the post office collapsed.

While private shipping companies are making a dent, and every grocery store or explosion becomes an impromptu postal agency, the post office has insisted on sticking to its failures.

"There are already suppliers abroad who refuse to send packages to Israel, because of the damage caused to them.



On October 21, the then Minister of Communications, Yoaz Handel, received the recommendations of the Rosen Committee set up two years earlier by the minister before him, Ayoub Kara." Former Ministry of Communications Daniel Rosen and her friends included Oren Lavian, Director of the Postal Administration, Dr. Ofer Raz Dror, Senior Vice President of Administration and Economics, Adv. Bruria Mendelson, Deputy Attorney General, and Inbal Maayan, Senior Advisor to the CEO.

The committee determined that the postal services in Israel suffer from poor quality and do not meet the accepted standards in the Western world.



"It's no secret that postal services require root canal treatment," Handel said at the time.

"This is another issue that I found under the rug in the Ministry of Communications. Every citizen deserves quality and efficient postal services."

The Minister of Finance, Israel Katz, who also acknowledged the postal problems, promoted postal reform under the Arrangements Law. However, the law was not brought to the Knesset, and so the reform was shelved. Despite this, Handel approved the report and demanded that the Israel Post present a plan within 40 days. Arranged to improve service to citizens, which will include meeting delivery targets, advancing to the digital age, shortening times of arrival of letters and packages, shortening waiting times at branches and customer service, and increased enforcement of violations.

In mid-December, Handel received the optimization plan.

It offered, among other things, a commitment to shorten the distribution times of letters and parcels to a maximum of seven days, shorten waiting times in postal units and improve response in customer service.

The plan was to be implemented by the third quarter of 2021, at a total cost of NIS 40 million.



But then Joaz Handel was fired from his position as communications minister, and the plan rolled to the table of the incoming minister, Bnei Gantz.

She is still lying there, even after Gantz's appointment ended this week and Israel does not have a communications minister, and postal services continue to deteriorate on a slippery slope.

Packages arrive late, sometimes when they are open or corrupt, and others do not arrive at all;

Mail sent by courier, which is supposed to be fast, does not arrive;

Customs does not communicate with the post office;

Postal Bank fails;

Post offices close and leave citizens without service;

And public inquiry centers are not available.

And there are also cases of mail being robbed in broad daylight.

The stories we bring here are a small sample, from more than a hundred people we spoke to during the research.

The books of

Liat Rotner (33) are sold in bookstores, but occasionally comes to special requests tell a personal dedication, then she signs a book and going to the post office to send it to herself.

"I often stood in line for a long time, and when I got to the counter I found that there were no envelopes or packages for delivery," she says.

"I left the queue, went to a stationery store to buy an envelope, and went back to standing in line again. I got used to it." 



Last November she received a request from the mother of a sick girl, who asked to receive a book with a dedication.

She signed the book and went to send it to the local post office in Tel Aviv.

On that occasion she sent another book to another recipient, and also asked to send a letter with a check in which the rent was paid to her landlady, with whom she was unable to meet due to the corona limitations.



"The clerk recommended me 24 mail, a more expensive premium service than regular delivery, which should ensure the mail arrives within 24 to 48 hours. I added the requested amount and went home satisfied.

"After three weeks, I received a phone call from the landlady asking why the money did not arrive. So I found out, by chance, that the three mail I sent did not reach their destination. I went to the mail site and tried to contact customer service by email and messenger. I got no answer. I tried to call the branch. , But there was no answer.



"I called the Israel Post number, but it was disconnected most of the time.

When it was already running, I got an auto-reply that said that if I do not have a package number, I have nothing to wait for.

It turned out that Mail 24 does not have a tracking number, unlike registered mail.

No one told me that. "



Rotner had to go to the post office again. But there, just like in the immortal sketch of" Great Country, "no clerk agreed to check what happened to the packages." I asked them to check if my packages fell aside or were forgotten. On some shelf, but they were not even willing to move their heads a little to the right, to the nearby counter which was laden with packages and completely messy.

I had no way to locate my packages without a tracking number. "



She returned home in despair and posted an angry post on Facebook, in which she described the chain of events, said she could not get an answer from any customer service center, and recommended to her friends:" If you send a package without a number Follow-up, it's practical to put the envelope on a paper boat and push it into the open ocean.



"" A friend of mine saw the post and forwarded the call to the director of the post office's office. She called me the next day and agreed to help me. After a few days she informed me she had found the book "Intended for the sick girl from the south of the country, he was dropped off at a branch in Binyamina. After two more weeks, and lots of exhausting conversations and emails, the second package and the letter with the checks were also found."

Olga Navrutsky (40)

is a volunteer in the "Clean City" project on behalf of the "Dor Moriah" organization in Haifa.

As part of the project, the volunteers receive inquiries from citizens who report dirt in public places, and go out to clean it.

On the morning of Friday, December 25, 2020, Olga arrived with seven other volunteers to clean construction waste and plastic in an open area in the Hadar neighborhood of Haifa.



"Suddenly, in the garbage, we found six empty bags of Israel Post, scattered around with torn envelopes and mailboxes. We counted more than 200 empty packages and envelopes. Someone took what was inside.



" We called the police.

A policeman came, did not even look, said we can not file a complaint, because we are not the injured party.

He said he would forward the request to the post office, and asked that we leave the bags there until the post office arrives on Sunday.



Olga returned home, but could not relax.

She published a post in which she told what she found, including names she could barely read from the torn envelopes.



"I received hundreds of responses. People asked me to try to get more names out of the envelopes, maybe by chance their name would also appear, and they would know what happened to their lost package. On Saturday morning I returned to the lot in the Hadar neighborhood. I was able to identify a few more names from the packages.

One of the empty envelopes belonged to Alexandra Martinov, and she wrote to Olga immediately.



"In August, I ordered coins from a Latvian seller as a gift for my mother's birthday, who is a coin collector," says Alexandra, 36.

"The seller sent the coins in five separate packages. Four arrived. Regarding the fifth package, I followed it on the post office's website by tracking number, and saw that it landed in Israel on August 26, 2020. But it did not reach me.



" I contacted the mail by phone and email.

Write to me: 'Can not find, please contact the sender and receive a credit'.

The seller did not want to return the money to me, for him the package arrived in the country.

He wrote to me: 'You should not be angry with me, get angry at your mail'.

I contacted PayPal, through whom I paid him, and received the refund through their insurance.

The seller is left without the product and without the money.

He wrote to me that he would not send any more packages to Israel. "



On Sunday morning, a postal security officer arrived at a field in the Hadar neighborhood of Haifa. Olga was waiting for him there, but the CBT refused to talk to her, claiming that the packages were not hers.

Olga called Alexandra, and asked her to talk to the CBT.



"With me he agreed to talk, because I am the victim," says Alexandra. "He gave me his name and promised that they would clear the packages, do an investigation, catch those responsible and see to it that they were punished.

I sent him in WhatsApp and email all the details about the contents of the package.

Since then, even though I have contacted him repeatedly, I have not received any answer. "



Olga:" I do not understand how a person comes and takes six bags of mail with hundreds of packages and letters to an abandoned place, opens the packages and takes all their contents. " 



Alexandra:" It's a disgusting feeling, Like stealing from your home.

There are not only valuable things there, but also private things.

That the mail will take responsibility, that they will say what they are doing to prevent.

No one apologized to me, no one did anything to correct.

Just ignore it. "

Sergei Messerman (37) from Lod also experienced a case of theft from a package.

In early December, Messerman bought musical equipment worth 600 euros from a company in Germany.

The package included a large multi-effect guitar instrument and some small items.



"When I buy at such amounts, I keep a close eye on the shipping status," he says.

"The package left Germany after four days, but there was no update on the Israel Post website. I waited, and waited, and waited, until I decided to go to a store in Germany and open an application according to their procedure.



" After two months, I got the money back from them.

A week later I received a message from the post office coming to pay VAT. I realized that the package had arrived, and I said to myself, I will go and pick it up and return the money to the store.



"The clerk at the post office showed me the package, and it was light.

Too easy.

On the note that was pasted on it was written the contents of the package and the weight - 10 kg. I asked the clerk to weigh her on the scales, and she weighed 4.5 kilos. I turned the cardboard, and saw that it was cut along its entire length. I put my hand inside and felt Only the small items remained.



"I was shocked.

I said to the clerk, 'Look, it's cut here.

Look.

She did not want to.

"I did not pay the VAT, and I did not agree to take the package. The clerk told me it would be returned to the sender, and I told her I did not care."



Do you order a lot from abroad?



”All the time, especially from China.

From now on I will not order big things by mail. "



Tomer Savori (36) from Rishon Lezion ordered two expensive canvas paintings from Germany two and a half months ago." The paintings arrived after six weeks.

That's a lot, but not terrible.

What was terrible was the condition of the package.

The defective package was wrapped in nylon on behalf of the post office, on which a note was attached: 'The mail item attached to the bag was damaged while being handled during its transfer.

Please accept our apology. '



"When I got home I opened the plastic, and found that the packaging, which was made of cardboard and plastic, was torn, and all the contents were soaked in water."

Tomer introduces me to the "redesign" that the paintings he commissioned won.



"I wrote a letter to the post office, and was told that I should open a complaint to the branch. I went back to the branch, but they are not willing to accept a complaint from me, because they claim I can only file a complaint while receiving the package. No one told me that."

The various postal items

arrive at the main sorting center of the post office in Modiin in large containers.

According to Momi (Shlomo) Haimovich (61) from Kiryat Bialik, who worked for 39 years as a mail truck driver until he retired two months ago, "when there is a load, containers with the mail sometimes stay in the parking lot outside, even in the rain."



The containers are taken care of by the sorters, who divide them into bags according to distribution areas.

The sacks then move to large wheeled carts, which are loaded onto the trucks.

Each city, or area in the city, has a separate cart.

Drivers transport the carts to regional sorting centers around the country.



"For years I worked in a moving post office, until conditions worsened, and I started working as a driver at night on the Kiryat Shmona-Modi'in line," says Haimovich.

"On the line you see more things. The drivers at night work very hard and get paid low. They have no motivation. The drivers throw the mailbags in containers, and do not check where the bags fell. If they fell in the right container, fine. If not, they will come to another city. For the salary That they get, no one wants to strain.



"When the containers are loaded with packages, they are very heavy.

Their wheels are broken, and it is difficult to carry them into the trucks, or out of the trucks, to the regional distribution centers.

Sometimes, when I see people grumbling that the package arrived after a month, I say to myself in my heart: 'Say thank you that it even arrived'.



"I myself did not reach a package sent to me from Eilat express mail. According to several follow-up found that it was sent sorting center in Herzliya. I went to the CEO, then found a package sorting center in Haifa".



J., who worked in intelligence to the emergency center, said: "I saw the mail Standing in the sun or rain.

The tanks that came to us were dirty, some of them came from the port of Ashdod after a long time standing there, because they fired the forklift workers and there was no one to move them.

More than once I have seen a tank come full of water.

It was unbelievable.

It was disgusting to get dirty mail and then sort it out.



"At work we were treated like slaves. A year ago I was fired because they replaced all the older workers with experience with young workers through a staffing company. They employ young women aged 17-20, some new immigrants or those who can barely speak Hebrew or read Hebrew. I spoke "With one of them, my 17-year-old neighbor, who worked there for a month. They pay the minimum wage, and change people all the time. That's how it is clear that packages are lost."



The "Reinforcement" and "Flight" companies won the tender of the Israel Post.

We called the reinforcement branch in Petah Tikva this week, and talked to the placement coordinator.



"Hello, I want to work in the mail."



"Hello from whom, in sorting or scanning?"



"What is the difference?"



"I'll arrange for you to work on the scan, it's best, that's how you can sit, and there are bonuses, too."



What are the bonuses for?



"If you scan fast and a lot. They will explain to you."



What is the salary?



"NIS 30 per hour."



Is it the same pay for sorting or scanning work?



"Yes. Want to start tomorrow? On what shift, morning or noon?"



What do I need to know?



"Nothing. Just come to us tomorrow, and I'll take you for a ride. There's no agreement between us. You do not owe me anything, and I do not owe you anything. You work my hours. As much as you want. Do not want? You go."



I'm not a postal worker?



"No, you are an employee of 'Reinforcement'. The shuttle leaves Petah Tikva at 14:00."



I do not have to inform you in advance?



"No, just come."

Retired Chief of Staff

Avi Weiss is the owner of the Telecom News website, which researches processes in the media. He has published 455 articles on the Israel Post in the past eight years. He says, "There are two processes that are happening now simultaneously, strangely: the Rosen Commission - and privatization.

One contradicts the other, because the implementation of the recommendations of the Rosen Commission will actually change the face of the post office, in contrast to the conditions with which they went out to the privatization tender.

When I looked at what was going on behind the scenes of privatization, I did not believe it.

Where I did not put my finger, I found problems.



"In the United States and in most countries of the world, mail has not been privatized because it is considered a basic product.

There are private competitors who are no less big than the US Post, like Amazon, and yet the post there is alive and kicking.

No one intends to privatize it. "



About ten companies approached the postal tender. The main criteria they were asked to meet were assets worth NIS 625 million, equity of NIS 250 million and a leverage level of 70 percent at most. The franchisee's selection should be based on a weighting of The amount of the offer (60 percent of the total score) and quality indices in the field of packages and customer service (40 percent).



Yaniv Edri, coordinator of defense industries and communications at the Government Companies Authority, who leads the privatization, believes it will benefit consumers. Where else to get better, "he says." One of the clauses in privatization is the proven ability of the bidder to improve the citizen service experience.

We require the bidder to bring from his experience to improve and accelerate existing processes.

We are looking for an investor would never become the content of the mail and improve service to citizens, while developing field of online trade. "



What mode of privatization now?



" We plan to meet the timetable on which we declared - selecting a winner by the end of the second quarter of this year, the end of June 2021 ".



It is not Is the Minister of Communications currently delaying the tender?



"There is no political connection.

It is a professional procedure, and it will be examined accordingly. " 

"Where is the Israel Post company

implied in the Book of Esther? It is said: 'And Esther sent clothes to clothe Mordecai - and he did not receive.'" 



(Bnei Kobi, a group of victims of the Israel



Post

) The

Post Office ostensibly uses a variety of means to communicate with the public.

The emphasis is on the apparent word.

In customer service, Star 171, a long wait is required.

In 20 random calls we made to the service, at different times of the day, we waited an average of 28 minutes.

Rosen's report, as I recall, talked about seven minutes of waiting, which should be shortened to six. 12 of the calls were disconnected after a long wait. The



system is programmed to link a phone number to a tracking number, and if not, it informs the caller that he has no package on the way. In one of the calls we made, even though we called from a phone number to which a package was associated, the system informed us that there was no package.



After 32 minutes of waiting, a representative named Ronit answered, located the package we were looking for and claimed that she would soon have a shelf number. And advised us to hang up, Ronit replied: "I do not know, many ask me.

Pay no attention to it. "



The system also offers a telephone call returns. As part of the asked for a return call, but no one got back to us. Link sent text message to allow passage to chat with a representative was not working. 



Service Live Chat mail from site 8 am to 6 pm sends a regular message: "HaMoked handles previous inquiries, please contact us in a few minutes and we will be happy to be at your service." The automatic bot service on the official Facebook page of the post office does not solve problems: it asks the caller to register the tracking number, regardless For the problem he contacted, then, in most cases, the treatment was stopped. In



the Israel Post's public inquiries email, a complaint can be filed. You will not always receive an answer, and even if you do - it may be partial or not solve the problem. Contact the Israel Complaints Ombudsman at the Israel Postal Service, who is in charge of the company's customer service control (see box).



Every few days, the Israel Post uploads an animated video of its expensive production on its official Facebook page, advertising one or another postal service. Faults Some of the applicants are so angry about the opacity that quite a few curses can be found among the responses.

The book of monthly complaints on the official page reaches several thousand, and exceeds the number of complaints received by the various authorities that supervise the post office for several years. 



At least three large public groups of mail victims operate on Facebook.

Each deals with thousands of complaints, and also offers individual assistance efforts from good people who care.

You can find people there who have received packages that are not theirs, and volunteer to deliver them themselves to their owners, also in another city, others encourage not to lose hope, and there are also those who publish the private email addresses of senior executives and call to direct complaints.



Elisaf Movshowitz (57) from Beitar Illit opened the "Victims of Israel" group seven years ago, which already has close to 3,000,000 members.

The group also recently operates on the new social network, WEME.



"I decided to open the group on Facebook, so that people could reunite. Granted it takes a long time for things to get going, but regularly, packages get to the wrong places, and many of them are badly damaged."



Has there been an increase in the group's activity in the last year?



"Once upon a time, someone would join us every few days. In the past year, 20 people join every day. Personally, I have less problems with the mail today, because I just try not to need his services. I prefer to add tens of shekels and get a courier to the house. This week I ordered something at "NIS 3,000 on Sunday at noon, and he came to me the next morning until the door opened. That's how it should work."

Maria Kras (37)

immigrated to Israel in 1996 from Russia with her father.

Her mother, Galina, stayed in Moscow for her job as a film producer.

Over the years they visited each other, but in the corona year, when the sky closed, the mother sent packages to the grandchildren - "books, chocolates, grandmother's surprises", Maria longingly describes the contents of the packages.



At the end of October 2020, the grandmother sent a large package, weighing 15 kg. Maria tracked the package online using the tracking number. "The shipment arrived in Israel in early November, but I did not receive a message to pick it up.

I called the post office, and each time they said, 'In treatment, in treatment, you will receive.' "



After almost a month and dozens of inquiries, they discovered in the mail that the package was delayed at customs, because its value exceeds $ 100. Maria, who did not receive customs notification, approached customs on her own initiative. NIS 78, and she waited. After two weeks, she turned to the post office again.



"I waited on the line for two hours, and at the end the representative told me that the customs had not yet been paid.

I told her I had paid, but she said she needed customs clearance.

I called customs again, saying I had already paid in early December.

The customs official said she forwarded the certificate to the post office and promised to send it again.

I did not trust them, and I mailed the confirmation that I had paid the customs.

But the package has not yet arrived.



"I contacted them in every way possible: by email, chat, call center. They did not find the package. After another month I received a letter by email, that they do not know where the delivery is, and that I should contact the sender. I did not understand why they want my mother to open in Russia, After all, the delivery is in Israel, and I even paid the customs for it.



"Having no choice, my mother opened an application in Russia.

Suddenly the status of the order changed.

It was written that because no one took the package, it was returned to the sender.

crazy.

I physically went to the post office, the clerk said the package was not received on the computer.

I contacted the main post office in Ashdod, and received an official message from them: 'Another investigation conducted in light of your request revealed that due to an operational error, they returned the package as' not required 'on 26.1.21, and we have not been able to trace it so far.'



"It's a job in the eyes. To go out by duty. What I do not understand is how the package disappeared. This is not a small letter, it's a 15 kg box."

Little Levy (32)

from the Harish community set up a business for baby textile products a year and a half ago, specializing in costumes for Purim.

Customers order the products online, and for an additional fee can receive them in fast delivery to their home.

For the purpose of express delivery, Levy purchased "Postal 10" vouchers, which are required to collect the package from her home by courier and deliver it to the recipient within 48 hours.



"I ordered the service on several different occasions. I waited at home, and the couriers just rushed. I had to win dozens of customers, or order a more expensive private delivery service so that the business' reputation would not be harmed. Customers were angry at me, and rightly so. I was angry instead.



" Purim this year I sent a package with a costume to one of my clients, and it just did not reach her.

I had to send her another costume with a private courier, at a cost of NIS 100, at my expense.

On the day the new shipment arrived, the first package also arrived through the 'Mail 10' service, broken and destroyed.



"During the Corona period they used an excuse of isolation to explain why the messengers did not come. I ordered a messenger to pick up five packages on Wednesday, promised he would arrive the next day. I waited for him at home. When he did not come, I called. I did not come. I called them, they transferred me from center to center, until finally someone answered who said all the emissaries were in isolation. She told me to bring the packages to the branch in Hadera, the branch closest to where I live, half an hour by car, and from there the courier could pick up the package. "Because I have three children at home, and I'm not mobile. At that moment, in the middle of the conversation, the messenger knocked on the door."



Why did you continue with this service, after all the glitches?



"When I signed up, the minimum deal was to buy 30 vouchers in advance, for over NIS 1,000. This month I finally finished them, and moved to a private courier company that costs me more, but gives quiet.



" In total, I lost more than NIS 1,000 - due to double shipping, Because of products I had to ship again because the first one was lost, and because of discounts and credits for future purchases to customers who had lost faith in me.

But money is the marginal damage.

"My mental anguish, my nerves and my reputation in the eyes of the customers - this is the great damage, which can not be quantified in the amount."

Noa Ayalon (30)

from Tel Aviv bought an expensive saw from abroad about a year ago. It arrived in Israel in May 2020, but not really in Tel Aviv.



"There are 66 post offices and delivery centers in Tel Aviv, and I received a message that my saw came to Bat Hefer.

Why exactly there?

I have no idea.

Maybe the postman saw my name, Noa Ayalon, sounded like the name of a hedonistic Yafit, and he decided to punish me and send the package to Bat Hefer, 35 km from Tel Aviv.



Noa was able to locate the package department's phone at the Jerusalem Central Post Office, and waited about two hours for a human response.

"A human response. It was a girl who gives the same answers that the voicemail gives, only that the voicemail has more patience.



" At the end she agreed to talk to the branch in Bat Hefer, and then came back to me with an original answer: 'You and another person got the same tracking number '.

I explained to her that it was not possible - it's like two people getting the same ID.

She said it could very well be when it comes to a country like China.

It did not help that I explained to her that the shipment was from Russia at all.



"I doubt she called the branch, so I went there myself. They located the package, but it did not show my name, only my phone number. I saw that the package was sent from the same seller who sold it to me, but I could not convince the officials to give it to me. Now what Yitzhak from Bat Hefer, enjoys my saw.



"On the other hand, these days I received a package I ordered a year and two months ago from Ali Express, and I no longer believed I would ever receive it.

So maybe the saw will come someday, too. "

In the

past year, the

Israel Post has

switched to computerized appointment booking, and in 150 of the 600 branches, customers are no longer accepted without an appointment.



"Booking appointments in the app is problematic because it is not accessible to the entire population," says Avi Weiss.

"Most people who enter the mail do not have access to the applications, so it does not help them. In any case, it had to be given a long adjustment period. There were branches that decided from today to tomorrow to close the ability to reach the post office without an appointment, and citizens were harmed."



The dramatic change without adjustment time has created a variety of problems.

For example, people who make an appointment in advance and still have to wait, or those who arrive at the designated time and find that the branch is closed.

There are also customers who come to the branches and then find that there is no reception without an appointment in advance.

One of them, who arrived at the post office at 30 Herzl Street in Rishon Lezion, this week smashed the window of the branch in a rage and caused the branch to cease operations.



The Israel Postal Company also operates the Post Bank, which has about 600,000 accounts.

"It's a first-rate social bank," Weiss says.

"Whoever wants a fast account and no fees opens an account there. There are many elderly people and recipients of benefits who use the account to get the benefit through him. But he can not act like a bank, can not give loans, trade securities. He is supervised by the Ministry of Communications and not the Supervisor of Banks. Like the other banks in the country, which are under a magnifying glass and not just under the supervision of an official in the Ministry of Communications.



"The Postal Bank Act, enacted in 1951, requires the Post Office to prepare the documents for transfer to the Supervisor of Banks.

There are hundreds of sections that need to be met.

Just two months ago they received an eighth extension from the Economics Committee to postpone the implementation of the law for another two years.

If it is postponed for the eighth time, it will no longer happen.

It was also not addressed in the privatization tender.

Apparently there are a lot of people in the mail who are comfortable that this is not a bank.

Convenient for them MOC inspector, because it means that in practice there is no supervision. "



According to Yaniv Edri," We are looking privatization operator can develop the activities of the Postal Bank, in order to have a real bank, will receive a banking license from the Bank of Israel and will be able to do everything the Bank does. "



Lack of supervision The post office bank causes a chain of failures that harm the public, just as happens with the packages. Only this time it is the pocket of the most sensitive and vulnerable population. 



Neta Katz (50) from Eilat is one of the account holders at the post office bank. Open a regular bank account The account at the post office bank allows it to be managed only with the balance deposited: it does not allow you to enter a minus, and only gives a loaded credit card.

"There were five post offices in Eilat," she says.

"Slowly they closed due to cuts. A month and a half ago the post office in my neighborhood closed, and only the main branch remained, which on one clear day it was decided that it could only be reached with an appointment in the app. So if I have to withdraw money from my account, I have to make an appointment. "On the other side of town. Until I find a free queue in the app, I will not have money. Needless to say, the branch is kneeling under congestion. A week and a half ago, a branch was reopened in the industrial area, which is also far away."



If that's not enough, Katz says she has not received the mail at her home for three months.

"I no longer talk about packages, that I have to pray for them to come. I talk about current bills, like water, electricity. The mail just does not come, and I can not plan my budget. I will not know how much I have to pay for electricity, until it does not Will actually drop out of the account. "



Why are the residents of Eilat not organizing?



"Eilat has a problem: they like to be slapped. There is no medicine, no education, no train, so this post is small, not terrible. They took us to the airport - we demonstrated a bit. I have lived here for 33 years, our situation is very difficult now. The post is The smallest trouble of the people here. "

Just before the issue closed,

Maria Cass went to the post office and discovered that the status of the package she had ordered had changed: "Waiting for return to sender". 



"I quickly ran to the branch and managed to pick up the package, before returning it to Russia," she told us excitedly.

"She came to me devastated, but she came."

Tips: How to reduce the damage

* Only send packages with tracking numbers, and follow the package through the Israel Post website.



* Write the name of the addressee and recipient in the clearest possible way, including zip code and telephone.



* Before purchasing, check if you are subject to customs.

Each package worth about $ 75 is subject to customs (shipping is exempt), but there are different rules that apply to different products, which will affect the viability of the entire purchase.

In cases of electronic equipment, laser, etc. it is advisable to consult a customs broker or a private courier company that knows how to release packages from customs.



* You ordered a package and it is delayed?

Contact the Customs Authority on your own initiative.

Often, the customs and postal authorities do not communicate with each other, and packages get stuck in customs due to a petty payment, and you will not be notified.



To contact us, please contact: tale@customs.mof.gov.il, or davids@customs.mof.gov.il Phone to inquire about the status of a package at customs: 03-6303383.



* Did you receive a package that looks damaged, wrapped in or without the mail bag?

Open it in the presence of the clerk and file a complaint form on the spot.

Do not collect a defective package if the clerk refuses to sign a defect report form.



* Get help from the Facebook groups that unite mail victims.

Upload the complaint on the Israel Post page as well - sometimes people will be able to help you locate the package.



* It is possible and desirable to also file complaints about the post office at the State Comptroller's Office, where all inquiries are handled.

Address for submitting complaints: https://www.mevaker.gov.il/he/Ombudsman/Pages/ComplaintForm.aspx



* The Special Committee on Public Complaints in the Knesset also handles every complaint.

When multiple inquiries accumulate on a particular issue, the committee holds a discussion with the person against whom the issues are raised.

The email address of the committee: vz@knesset.gov.il



* If an item is stolen from a package or its entire contents, or the tracking of the package shows that it was sent, entered the country and lost on the way - you can also file a complaint with the police.



* There is no obligation to use the postal services of 10 or the courier service of the Israel Post.

It is possible to order any of the private companies, which do an efficient job, even if they charge higher amounts. 

Comments:

Israel Post: "There may be spot faults"

The Israel Post stated: "This is a trending article, which includes a collection of consumer complaints over several years, which are unrelated, and some of which have even been checked and handled with customers. Israel Post is the only company that distributes mail and packages throughout the country, including Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip.

The company was selected after strict controls by the world's leading platforms to distribute and deliver the packages ordered from abroad to the public.



"In the past year alone, Israel Post has made about 45 million visits to 1,300 service points and distributed 300 million letters and 50 million packages.

As with any business that provides services of this magnitude, there may be spot faults that are learned and addressed.

It should be noted that the postal company invested hundreds of millions of shekels in improving customer service and even presented a plan to the Minister of Communications last December. "On



behalf of Yoaz Handel, it was stated:" Privatization of the post is another move that brought former Minister Handel to a decision after many years.

Due to irrelevant political considerations of Israel Katz and Netanyahu, the transfer of the reform was thwarted (Rosen report), although Katz publicly pledged to pass it. 



"The post is an essential infrastructure, so service to the citizen, competition and economic viability must be improved. .

In view of the increase in package orders and online commerce, privatization and bringing a private investor into the postal company are a critical move. "The



Ministry of Communications said:" The ministry is preparing to publish a draft amendment to the Postal Law, regulations, license and permits by law. " "And enforcement of the postal company's violations will be stepped up. The Ministry of Communications is determined to act on the matter to ensure that the committee's recommendations are implemented, through appropriate legislation."



A reinforcement company stated: "The company is part of the Israel Post's service providers. The process of sorting the employees is done according to a defined profile of the Post, and the training is the responsibility of the Israel Post. All employees employed by the Israel Post perform their work according to the Post Office's guidelines." 

shishabat@israelhayom.co.il

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2021-03-20

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