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Popular online marketplace Taobao is likely the answer to almost all shopping needs for many Singaporeans.

While merchants offer direct shipping to the doorstep, local freight forwarding companies are often the preferred shipping option due to their lower costs, and risk-free delivery.

However, local freight forwarder, Oops Singapore, recently encountered an issue with the Chinese customs, resulting in the delayed delivery of a batch of goods to Singapore.

Guangzhou customs spot check

On Feb. 9, Oops Singapore posted on its Facebook page notifying customers about a spot check conducted by customs in China.

According to the post, a batch of packages dispatched on Jan. 27 via air freight from Guangzhou destined for Singapore was selected for random inspection.

While the items have cleared customs as of the morning of Feb. 9, most of the packages were not resealed, leaving them in a state of disarray.

Due to this issue, this specific batch of goods will only arrive in Singapore after Feb. 20.

Refunds to be given

Oops Singapore wrote that it will refund all shipping fees to the affected customers via internet banking, Paylah, or Paynow.

The freight forwarding company has also sent the packing list to their customs declaring agent (DA) that will be used to seek compensation for any damaged and missing goods according to their declared value, upon receiving customers' reports.

Oops Singapore has also included a list of 50 shipment numbers that were affected

Affected Shipments:

Oops Singapore also attached images of the unsealed packages they had received after the inspection.

Online reactions

One of the comments left on the post commended Oops Singapore on their transparency.

"Like ur transparency of the way u handling and reporting of the issue. Other might just keep quiet and repack to cover up."

Another questioned the intention of the custom officers who did the inspection:

"Custom officers doin cny 'shopping' for their household???"

A third commenter identified as one of the affected customers and wondered if they will only know the impact of this issue on Feb. 20:

"I’m one of the affected case so only 20 Feb than will know what is left?"

According to a comment by Oops Singapore, this is not the first time this issue has happened.

Oops Singapore said goods delivered via sea freight were not affected this time round, but it happened previously for a Dec. 12 sea freight shipment, but it was not that "jialat" (bad) at that time.

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Top images by Oops Singapore.