An Auckland man waited months for a rare panda robot to be delivered, only to find out it had been lost in the post.
Brendan White has spent the last couple of years, and around $8000, collecting close to 200 robots of all shapes and sizes and from all over the world.
He keeps watch on Trade Me and eBay looking for rare or discontinued robots at a cheap price. Brendan came across a 2007 Wowwee Robopanda on eBay from an American seller, which he bought in February this year.
“It’s become a bit of a rare item and it’s got a lot of sensors," he told Fair Go.
“We never got them in New Zealand.”
A package from the United States would normally take about four weeks to arrive, but Brendan’s been waiting five months.
Brendan arranged for the robot to be sent to a YouShop address with New Zealand Post. YouShop gives you a delivery address in the United Kingdom and the United States if the company you’re buying from doesn’t ship directly to New Zealand.
The robot arrived at the YouShop address on February 15, and then arrived in Aotearoa on March 3.
But according to New Zealand Post, the package was sent to their damage assessment team the following day, and as far as Brendan’s concerned that’s where it’s been ever since.
“I can only guess like everybody else that someone had noticed that the box that it was shipped in had been damaged," Brendan said.
“In the end I just got fed up and that's why I came to you guys."
Fair Go contacted New Zealand Post and according to its chief customer officer Bryan Dobson, Brendan’s robot went walkabout.
“When it arrived at our processing centre in Auckland it was identified that it was damaged at that stage, we set it aside to assess the damage and at that point it's gone missing,” Bryan said.
“We deliver nearly 90 million parcels a year; about less than .01% of those will result in a claim and most of those will be resolved in a small number of days."
NZ Post has apologised to Brendan in person for the experience he had. It has since organised for a replacement robot to be sent, and in the meantime gave Brendan a smaller version of the Robopanda while he waits.
It also gave Brendan a full refund of the shipping costs and the cost of the robot.
“I don't feel like the little man anymore so that's a good thing,” Brendan said.
“I’m totally surprised and wouldn't have thought they would go to that length so that was great outcome for me."
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