International mail requires a return address.  

It is not always enforced but nonetheless it is a requirement.

 

1 hour ago, greenmonkey said:

is it standard practice these days for the Thai Post Office to ask what the letter is about? Nothing would surprise me these days but surely that cannot be standard procedure can it? Can someone confirm?

I think the confusion is about declaring broadly what the contents are rather than what the specifics of any letter are. In a similar way to a declaration on a FedEx or DHL from overseas to Thailand. It asks for contents and for mail being forwarded, I call it 'correspondence'. I am sure if you say จดหมาย or จดหมายส่วนตัว or maybe จดหมายโต้ตอบทางธุรกิจ that will be enough.

 

PS: Note the more savvy members get their Thai partners to do the needful.

Casual letters are seldom sent by post anymore - mostly just legal documents for which proof of mailing is required. So maybe the post office is raising rates and red tape for letters - treating them more like packages.

 

I was recently charged 1200 Baht for a single page EMS letter to the U.S., which is the same as they charge for the smallest size package. I checked with DHL and found (no surprise) that they had raised their rates for letters in lockstep with EMS.

14 hours ago, NanLaew said:

YMMV (but you knew this already)

Wos YMMV...?  ????

16 hours ago, KannikaP said:

No, Transam was correct. It has never been standard practice in UK.

There is no reasoned response to something which simply is not true, and does not need any thinking out.

Both you and transam are incorrect it has been standard procedure for letters in the U.K., to my personal knowledge, for the last 70 years. You may not have done it but that doesn’t change the practice.

1 minute ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Both you and transam are incorrect it has been standard procedure for letters in the U.K., to my personal knowledge, for the last 70 years. You may not have done it but that doesn’t change the practice.

Are you from the UK...?   ????...................

 

https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/495/~/do-i-have-to-include-a-return-address-on-the-items-i-send%3F#:~:text=You're not obliged to,send it back to you.

Just remembered posting some masks back home last year from the same PO, no ID asked for no address on the back and no form to fill in. Inconsistency is consistent here. Don't recall ever putting return address on items in the UK, certainly never for personal mail. 

This stuff just wouldn’t happen if they’d have been colonised. ????????

2 minutes ago, daveAustin said:

This stuff just wouldn’t happen if they’d have been colonised. ????????

They would have decent bread in the shops as well!

I recently posted  a Registered letter  containing  my  soon to expire UK Driving Licence, an A4  piece of paper,  & a folded envelope,  cost was  exactly 300b.. or 95b if unregistered the girl said... Thai address on the back, plus a phone number was needed  !!..this was  done at one of these small sub post offices, i not sure if its cheaper going to the main post office

 

I tracked it, within  2 days it was at the Airport,      15 days later still at  Bangkok Airport, i got in touch with" contact us"  Thai Postal Services, and within 48 hours it had arrived in the uk,

Edited August 24, 20223 yr by actonion

17 hours ago, JayClay said:

It must be more than a couple of years since you sent a letter, as putting a return address has been standard form pretty much everywhere, forever.

I sell online and post letters every day. Never put name and address on envelopes.

 

The only time this might be required ( of me ) is if I send something registered. In this case a small green customs declaration slip is filled in and stuck to the letter and I am given a tracking number. Obviously , items with a tracking number cost more to post.

I will reiterate:

 International mail requires a return address

 Internal mail does not - though it is in your own interest to include one.

 

The mail you post may fail to reach its intended destination for a variety of reasons. Incorrectly addressed. Poorly addressed, "Gone away". Declined. These are all commonplace.  

 

It can only be returned to you, the sender, if you have included a return address.

 

Royal Mail operates a Return Letter Branch from Belfast and it is here that all returns are sent from around the UK.

It handles around 20 million items a year

 

 

  

Went to my local  post  office  tuther  day to post some seed  to a bloke  in Thailand, girl  at P.O speaks  English, takes the 7-11 bag full of seeds, makes up a  box for it  , writes  down the address for me, tapes it  up for me and disgracefully  charges me 30  baht to send it......boy I was  fuming........I went back  20  minutes  later to vent my anger with a  box  full of doughnuts for em ............she almost fainted, bluddy well showed her and her  colleagues.......maybe the joy  of  being in a rural province?

Told her she was a  supermodel an left.

9 hours ago, transam said:

Are you from the UK...?

SW6, IP31, WD25 & WD17