P. A. Langi, Tonga Posts needs facts [1]
Saturday, September 25, 2010 - 05:38. Updated on Monday, January 6, 2014 - 15:30.
Editor,
I write in response to the letter from a P. A. Langi dated 19 September 2010. I assume that P. A. Langi is a "nom de plume" and is not the correspondent's real name. That limits my ability to respond factually to the matters raised in the letter.
First let me make it clear that Tonga Post Limited has not been privatised. It is still owned by the Government of the Kingdom of Tonga. Tonga Post has been corporatized and established as a Public Enterprise. As such the new board of directors are working with the management of the company to progressively improve the service the company provides to its customers.
The company therefore takes seriously the matters raised in P. A. Langi's letter and regrets the fact that the customer does not seem to have raised these matters with the management of Tonga Post before writing to Matangi Tonga Online. We have checked through our records and can identify a complaint with a similar set of facts, but raised by a Ha'apai customer with a different name. In that case the reason why the letter was delayed in the first instance was because it was addressed to a Nuku'alofa Post Box, not to an address in Ha'apai.
It is very difficult for the Post Office to respond to complaints and concerns when they have not been raised directly with the company. However, we are very keen to hear from our customers, both when we provide good service and also when we provide service that may not be up to the standard expected by our customers. We seek to be responsive and to provide a good level of service and we recognize that we can always improve.
In relation to the Ha'apai service I can confirm that there is the potential to provide airmail services to Ha'apai twice a week on every Wednesday and Friday, provided there are mail items to send. The Wednesday and Friday flights have sufficient weight capacity to carry the mailbags and this service also takes mail to Vava'u. When mail volumes justify, such as in August this year, Tonga Post sent eight dispatches of mail to Ha'apai, but on average there is a delivery four times a month.
I would encourage P. A. Langi to contact me directly to provide me with all of the facts so that I can look into this matter. Certainly if the claims made in the letter are accurate, that would not represent an adequate level of service, but it is not possible for the company to properly respond or to take remedial action if we are not made aware of all of the facts.
Yours sincerely,
Lusaene 'Aho
Chief Executive Officer
Tonga Post Limited