It’s tough to find a state-owned enterprise (SOE) that delivers adequate service right now, and that’s especially true if the service is delivery.

The South African Post Office (SAPO) has been the butt of jokes for many years, but the wheels have really come off of late. They’re just one of the four SOEs that are due to benefit from another massive government bailout, estimated to be around R59 billion.

Will it make a difference? To be honest, things can’t get much worse. Just ask MyBroadband, who put them to the test, and described their results as “pathetic”.

Here’s a quick look at the methods:

For the test, MyBroadband members sent letters from across South Africa to the Lyttelton Post Office – and we tracked how long these letters took to arrive.

The members who sent the letters also provided feedback on their experience at their Post Office branches.

Remember that these were locally posted letters, and not something even more tedious like dealing with an overseas package that must pass through customs.

Just be an informed adult and avoid the entire customs mess – you’ll thank yourself later.

Keen to see the results of the letter tracking? As you may have guessed, they weren’t too pleased with the results:

Yup – only one out of 10 letters delivered, and that was sent via Fastmail.

MyBroadband also contacted the South African Post Office regarding the letter delivery test, but the company did not provide feedback.

Did they contact them via letter? If so, they might be waiting some time.

The comments section is full of disgruntled South Africans sharing their stories of Post Office woe, and this seems to be a familiar folly:

Call me an impatient Millennial, but I’m pretty over waiting a week for anything, from anywhere in the world, to be delivered.

Anyone ever heard of Postbox Courier? To put it simply, you can order anything from just about anywhere in the world, and have it delivered to your door within three to five days.

They offer a superb service that gives you a shipping address in the US, UK, Australia and Hong Kong. So, if you’re buying products that don’t ship to SA, then just give your new US / UK / AUS / HK address, which Postbox Courier give you.

As soon as it is delivered there, which is usually the same day, then Postbox Courier will grab it and deliver it to your door in SA.

They handle your parcel every step of the way – meaning it doesn’t get “stuck” at Customs here in SA, and they also make sure you don’t get stung with some absurd customs duty payment that you can’t query.

Setting up an account with Postbox Courier is free, and there are no subscription fees, because it’s a simple Pay As You Go service.

They won’t be able to help you with the letter you’re posting to your Ouma out there in the sticks, but they will help you avoid the mess that is trying to get something shipped from overseas.

If we get an update on the status of those other nine letters, we’ll let you know, but please don’t wait up.

[source:mybroadband]