UBON RATCHATHANI: An online jeweller has filed a complaint against Thailand Post for losing his parcel containing three diamond rings worth 61,000 baht sent to a customer in Samut Prakan province.
Pongsathorn Phanomtha, 33, filed the complaint at the Muang Ubon Ratchathani police station in the northeastern province. He said his family sold jewellery via online auctions and always sent products via the express mail service (EMS) of state-owned Thailand Post.
The loss was the first he experienced in the seven years he has used the service to send jewellery products, he said, adding he did not worry much about occasional delays or wrong deliveries by Thailand Post.
Mr Pongsathorn said he had selected EMS instead of insured delivery services for his jewellery products because he did not think EMS parcels would attract the attention of thieves. For the loss, he demanded compensation from Thailand Post.
The lost parcel was among five packages he sent at the Ubon Ratchathani branch of Thailand Post on Sept 23. Two of them were destined to Phra Pradaeng district of Samut Prakan.
Three days later a customer in Phra Pradaeng informed him he had yet to receive the package. He notified the post office but did not get an answer after 12 days.
Later, he met an assistant provincial chief of Thailand Post and learned that the diamond ring parcel left the Ubon Ratchathani post office. Surveillance camera footage confirmed the departure.
A representative of the post office later told local police that the parcel was lost in the process of delivery to its destination and Thailand Post was considering the compensation.
Jaran Janphuang, assistant chief of Ubon Ratchathani post office, said surveillance cameras covered all stages of delivery at the office until parcels left it for the Laksi post office in Bangkok. Footage showed Mr Phongsathorn's parcels left the Ubon Ratchathani post office, he said.
Pol Lt Col Pramote Chuenta, deputy interrogative chief of Muang Ubon Ratchathani police station, said that normally parcels from other provinces had to pass the Laksi post office, which scanned all of them.
The two parcels that Mr Pongsathorn sent to Phra Pradaeng had not been scanned at the Laksi office but one of them reached its recipient, he said.
According to the Thailand Post website, compensation can be claimed for losses or damage at real costs but not more than 2,000 baht per parcel. Users can buy additional coverage for up to 50,000 baht apiece.