Thai Post

[roger101]

I had 4 letters today. One, the most important was from Bangkok Bank responding to a query I had on my account. The trouble was it was dated the 20th of November last year,

The other three were my statements from TOT. They were for the months of October, November and December.

Against this I had a letter (Track and Trace) that arrived from the UK in six days. How can they be so efficient in one thing and absolutely useless in another.

[Oldie]

Normally they do a great job. Have been here almost 30 years and never had any reason to complain. At least here in Pattaya. What gets on my nerves is that here in Pattaya you have to show them the passport even if you send only a letter. There is no trust anymore in this world... Did they remove all mailboxes? 

[BigStar]

I received a final bill and legal threat from TOT 6 years after I cancelled my landline. When I went to pay, even the office ladies had to laugh.

 

Thai Post's always been good to me. No complaints here.

[Guderian]

6 hours ago, roger101 said:

The other three were my statements from TOT. They were for the months of October, November and December.

 

There's a thread on here about problems with receiving TOT bills late last year, and it seems to have been down to their merger with CAT, not the fault of Thai Post.

I get a parcel sent to me from the UK every two weeks, and as you say at the moment it takes a week at most to arrive. The latest one arrived in Bangkok on Wednesday and will be delivered to my house tomorrow morning by, of course, Thai Post. If they are as lousy as you claim, then our parcels and letters from overseas would take months to get from Bangkok to our homes, not three days.

[jacko45k]

19 hours ago, BigStar said:

I received a final bill and legal threat from TOT 6 years after I cancelled my landline. When I went to pay, even the office ladies had to laugh.

 

Thai Post's always been good to me. No complaints here.

Mine must be in the post then.

[BigStar]

2 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Mine must be in the post then.

Check your box daily. Sometimes the postman's late, so that may be twice a day.

[foreverlomsak]

My True invoice for my Internet connection was always dated 18th of the month, to be paid by the 12th of next, not received until 25th or so after the subsequent invoice was created, and often after having receiving an online reminder. Sometimes they arrived 3 invoices at a time.

I used to do my 90 day reports by mail to save a 5/6 hour round trip, 1 day to get TM47 etc., to Immigration (EMS of course) and anywhere between 5 and 15 to come back (regular post) based on the franking of the envelope, odd ones just never arrived.

Difficult to believe it's not the Thai Post.

Just one of the things you need to accept to live here.

[Guderian]

Well, after all my good words about them, Thai Post let me down today, and my parcel from the UK is still in Banglamung. For some odd reason, it got to Sri Racha and was then sent back up to Chonburi, and from there it went down to Banglamung. That's a pretty roundabout way to get from Sri Racha to Banglamung, lol, but it meant it was delayed by at least half-a-day, and hopefully it'll be delivered here tomorrow morning.

[Kerryd]

I haven't had many problems with Thai Post, especially when using the EMS (Registered) mail system. Most of my bills are electronic now and most of my statements (i.e. credit card) are outdated when they are mailed anyways (and I check those online as well).

And this is Thailand ! You need your passport (and signed photocopies of it) to do almost anything, even at the places where they keep your passport details on file and can look at them anytime (like at Immigration) ! Every time I step out of the house I think about where I'm going, what I'm doing and whether or not I'll need my passport. My bank probably has a special room set aside just for all the photocopies they have of my passport over the years.

One has to remember that "This is Thailand" (yeah I know I just said that). And in Thailand, if a clerk screws up, it comes out of his/her wages ! So they want to make real sure you are who you say you are, even if it's just a matter of you giving them money to pay a bill that has your name and address on it. 

And always remember - It could be worse !
You could have the same people running Thai Post as those that run Canada Post, and the same lazy, inefficient "the union comes first above all others" workers who will refuse to do their routes if a bird squawks at them on the way. (True story actually.)

When I was in Germany I had a letter from my dad take nearly 6 weeks to arrive. Meanwhile, a letter from the US arrived in 10 days. Canada post would truck the mail cross country, then put it on the slowest (cheapest) ship to sail it to Germany where it would eventually be collected and taken to the base.

When I was in Vancouver, my dad sent me a letter from his home about 350 kms away. It took nearly 2 weeks to arrive. 

When I was in Afghanistan, I had mail from California sent through the US Post and was in Kandahar in 8 days. I had mail sent from BC (West Coast) that took 3 weeks just to get to Ontario and then another week for it to be flown to Dubai, then to Kandahar.

One of our guys hit the jackpot though using the US Postal system
He ordered a something online on (I think it was 17 Sept). It arrived in Kandahar the next day ! (Seriously, we checked the order dates and postmarks. Ordered/shipped on the 17th, arrived on the 18th and no International Date Line gimmickry involved. It must have been processed and dropped off at the same postal outlet that handles the military mail being flown overseas and somehow made it on the next flight out.) 

Sometime ago our (Canadian) Revenue agency claimed they'd sent me a notice. I never saw it. About 3 months later it showed up. Canada Post had sent it to Taiwan instead of Thailand and it sat in a dead letter file for months until some clerk realized the error and forwarded it to Thailand. 
Sure glad they are getting paid union scale for their complete lack of effort and dedication. Imagine if they were getting paid what they are really worth !

 

[BigStar]

21 hours ago, Guderian said:

Well, after all my good words about them, Thai Post let me down today, and my parcel from the UK is still in Banglamung. For some odd reason, it got to Sri Racha and was then sent back up to Chonburi, and from there it went down to Banglamung. That's a pretty roundabout way to get from Sri Racha to Banglamung, lol, but it meant it was delayed by at least half-a-day, and hopefully it'll be delivered here tomorrow morning.

Not always possible but it can be helpful if the address of a letter/parcel/package is least partly written in Thai. For example, all the Lazada delivery confusion cleared up as soon as I put in the Thai name of my building.  

[Guderian]

4 hours ago, BigStar said:

Not always possible but it can be helpful if the address of a letter/parcel/package is least partly written in Thai. For example, all the Lazada delivery confusion cleared up as soon as I put in the Thai name of my building.  

 

Sometimes my older relatives in the UK send me birthday or Christmas cards out here and, as is the way with the older generation, they insist on writing the address in cursive. How the poor Thai postman ever deciphers that into an address here I'll never know, lol.

[BritManToo]

2 minutes ago, Guderian said:

Sometimes my older relatives in the UK send me birthday or Christmas cards out here and, as is the way with the older generation, they insist on writing the address in cursive. How the poor Thai postman ever deciphers that into an address here I'll never know, lol.

House number and post code is all the postie needs to deliver.

Edited February 27, 2021 by BritManToo

[BritManToo]

On 2/26/2021 at 5:02 PM, Kerryd said:

And this is Thailand ! You need your passport (and signed photocopies of it) to do almost anything, even at the places where they keep your passport details on file and can look at them anytime (like at Immigration) ! Every time I step out of the house I think about where I'm going, what I'm doing and whether or not I'll need my passport. My bank probably has a special room set aside just for all the photocopies they have of my passport over the years.

Odd that I hardly ever need my passport then, just immigration and international flights.

Banking all on phone app, apart from mortgage repayments and they've never asked to see my passport.

Edited February 27, 2021 by BritManToo

[Kerryd]

I've gone to the post office to pick up a package, they wanted my passport to prove who I was. (Bang Lamung preferred the passport, the Chaiyapruek office would accept a Thai drivers license.

I've gone to TrueVision about my account(s) and they wanted to see my passport. 

My local bank branch knows me quite well but if I do anything on any of my Fixed Term accounts, I have to have my passport.

Larger ("more professional") hotels want my passport (photocopy). At one of the ones I stayed at last week, the clerk couldn't figure out which stamp was my "visa" as she needed a photocopy of that as well (it was one the same page as my current Extension of Stay stamp and when I pointed that out to her with the valid date, she was happy).

When I do my annual Road Tax/Registration inspection and Insurance, I usually have to show my passport.

So yeah, it happens quite often.

What amazes me with the Postal System though is that literally, all you need for an address is the house/street number, the moo and the postal code.

You could get a letter delivered using
17/146
Moo 5
20150

Although it would be faster if you included the district after the "moo".

I had a letter delivered once just like that.
Had the apartment/building/street number, the "moo" and "Pattaya" and the postal code.
(i.e)
#404
23/146
Moo 5, Pattaya
20150

I do wonder sometimes though how much of my mail has ended up in someone else's box and they never tried to give it back to me.

[jacko45k]

12 hours ago, BritManToo said:

House number and post code is all the postie needs to deliver.

No, I think the Moo number will be required and maybe even the Tambon. The postcode seems to cover an  extremely large area, maybe all of Banglamung. 

[Rimmer]

A post with a messed up quote has been removed