"What problems did you encounter? You can't cooperate? You can tell me, and I'll report it to the Secretary-General. Our Goldman Sachs Group will mediate and resolve your issues!" said the Goldman Sachs representative.
"It's no use!" the Google representative shook his head. "Actually, our cooperation with Wanbaoge has been very good. Wanbaoge has also fully cooperated with us and granted us many special permissions, but we still couldn't complete the cooperation."
"What exactly is the problem? You can't cooperate even with this!" the Goldman Sachs representative was even more surprised.
"It's a delivery problem!" the Google representative sighed. "In fact, the initial cooperation went very smoothly. We even built the Google flagship store on Wanbaoge and started a trial run a month ago."
"We thought the trial run would be very smooth, but we never expected it to be the beginning of a disaster and a nightmare! During the entire trial run, we released a total of 100 phones to the market in 4 batches, allowing all our fans to snap them up directly on the website. This was to test whether our flagship store could operate safely and stably!"
"This test was originally intended to test the stability of the flagship store itself, and this aspect was perfect. Although there were brief network crashes during the抢购 (qiǎng gòu - snap up) period for all four batches, there were no other issues, and we successfully delivered the goods."
"But we never expected that the nightmare would begin after delivery."
"We shipped to the first 100 customers who successfully snapped up the phones on June 2nd, but the first customer to receive the phone did so on June 5th. The shortest delivery time was three days."
"If it took an average of three days to deliver all of them, that would have been great! We could even accept delivery within a week!"
"But you probably won't believe this, but three people from the first batch still haven't received their phones. We've inquired with the delivery company countless times, but the answer is always the same: it's in transit. They ask us and the customers to wait patiently."
"And this is just the first batch. The second batch was available for抢购 (qiǎng gòu) on June 8th, and nine customers still haven't received their phones. The third batch was available for抢购 (qiǎng gòu) on June 14th, and currently, 23 customers haven't received their phones. The fourth batch was on June 20th, and as of now, a staggering 52 customers have yet to receive their phones!" the Google specialist said with a wry smile.
"Cough, cough, traditional express delivery is like this. I once had something delivered by express, and it took 6 months to reach the recipient, so not receiving your goods within a month isn't too outrageous. You just need to wait patiently!"
"Look at the first batch of customers; 97 of them received their orders. The remaining three will definitely receive them in the future. If a few people absolutely cannot be found, we can refund them and have the delivery returned!" the Goldman Sachs specialist quickly said.
"Alas, respected sir, if only 3% of customers didn't receive their orders, we would accept it. For the sake of market share, we wouldn't care even if we lost these 3% of the products."
"But 3% is only part of it."
"In our follow-up survey of the first batch of users, we found that a total of 12 users received phones that were severely damaged. It's likely they were handled roughly during transit, causing the phone screens to shatter. These phones can now only be repaired by returning them to the factory via express delivery."
"But the problem is that we don't have any assembly plants in the country, so repairs must be sent back to mainland China. The express shipping costs alone for a round trip would cost hundreds of dollars, not to mention the repair costs and the time spent in transit. The cost of repairing one product has reached about $200, which is less than replacing it with a new one."
"Cough, cough, rough handling of deliveries is also very common. I often receive deliveries that are smashed to pieces. I wonder if we could develop a sturdier packaging method, protect the packages well, and ensure that no matter how the delivery person throws them, they can't be broken?" The Goldman Sachs representative's words left the Google representative speechless.
After a while, he said, "Rough handling is only one problem. What's worse is that we've encountered delivery theft!"
"The remaining 85 deliveries were not all delivered to the customers. Ten of them were left by the delivery person at the customer's doorstep. But when the customer opened the door or returned home to retrieve their delivery, the package had vanished without a trace."
"Later, by reviewing surveillance footage from nearby, we discovered that the packages were stolen by 'kudai dang' (裤袋党 - pant pocket party)."
"Kudai dang? What is that?" the Goldman Sachs representative asked, hearing the term for the first time with confusion. The Google representative patiently explained, "Kudai dang is a term specifically used to refer to a group of thieves who steal deliveries!"
"These thieves usually loiter in high-end communities with some security. They wear clothes that look very ordinary but have very large pockets. They trick the community guards into lowering their vigilance, allowing them to sneak into the community."
"Once they enter the community, they specifically look around the entrances. These high-end communities are relatively safe, and the residents are often not at home. Therefore, these residents usually ask the delivery person to leave the packages directly at their doorstep, as they believe the people in the vicinity are of a certain status and would not steal packages."
"As a result, these customers are targeted by the kudai dang. These thieves specifically target smaller packages. As soon as they spot one, they immediately stuff it into their pockets, or even their pant pockets or crotches. Once all their pockets are full, they leave the community as if nothing happened, making it difficult to detect any issues."
"Generally, one kudai dang can steal 7-8 packages from residents' doorsteps in a community. This is almost the total number of packages for the entire community in a day, meaning all residents in the community will lose their deliveries."
"And there is a high probability that goods purchased through express delivery in high-end communities contain valuable items. As long as one of the seven or eight packages contains a valuable item, such as our Google phone, it can be immediately sold on a second-hand trading website for thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars in profit!"
"The high profits drive these thieves crazy. Even though many communities have since increased their security to specifically watch out for the kudai dang, many communities are still unable to prevent them, and their packages left at the doorstep are stolen by the kudai dang!"
"For example, in our case, 10 packages were stolen by the kudai dang!" the Google representative said helplessly. [This is a true story, not a fictional American situation.]
"Then the remaining 75 should be safe, right? They should be able to reach their owners!" the Goldman Sachs representative said with some lack of confidence.
"No, only 62 deliveries were ultimately delivered safely. The remaining 13 deliveries were opened by their owners, and inside, they either found a brick, a piece of metal, or simply nothing at all – just an empty box!"
"No one knows what happened to these packages. Did the recipient take the contents and then pretend they received nothing to force a refund?"
"Or were the contents stolen by someone during transit and replaced with trash? No one knows the truth. We tried to send staff to investigate."
"However, these delivery companies firmly refused our investigation and wouldn't even allow our investigators to view some of their surveillance footage. They told us it was a tradition of the delivery companies; no delivery company would allow customers to investigate them, otherwise, the entire company would fall into chaos and be unable to operate!"
"We've been struggling with the delivery companies until now with no results. Instead, these delivery companies have warned us that if we continue without restraint, they will refuse to handle our deliveries, and the entire delivery alliance will refuse to cooperate with us! What else can we do?"
"These situations only occurred with the first batch of users. The final results for the subsequent three batches are still unknown, but based on the current feedback data, the results may be even worse than the first batch!"
"According to information from an employee whose friend works at a delivery company, the employees within the delivery companies already know our company's shipping address and know that we are shipping Google phones that sell for up to $3,000 each on the black market. Therefore, these delivery personnel are prepared to swap the products immediately once they find our company's deliveries, as the delivery companies will not hold them accountable, and they will make a pure profit of $3,000."
"This news forced us to change all our shipping addresses for the fourth batch, change the company name to another one, and change the product content from phones to cosmetics. Based on the current data, the success rate of the fourth batch has exceeded that of the third batch!"
"But we cannot continue to use such underhanded methods to ship. Therefore, dear sir, our company can no longer cooperate with Wanbaoge unless Wanbaoge cooperates with more trustworthy delivery companies to handle our product transportation. Otherwise, we cannot accept such delivery losses!"
"..." The Goldman Sachs representative opened his mouth, finding himself at a loss for words. He could only follow up by asking, "Do you know of any trustworthy delivery companies?"
"Of course, based on current market evaluations, Oriental Express is the most trustworthy high-quality delivery company. However, for some reason, Wanbaoge has always been unwilling to cooperate with this delivery company!" the Google representative said with a grin.