Do Your Parcels Arrive?

[Murgatroyd]

I live in Bang Bo, not far out of Bangkok, just off the Bang Na - Trat highway. I have lived in Thailand for two years, and have a Thai wife and daughter.

As a Hobby, I collect miniature metal figures which I have been buying on e-bay. For most of last year my parcels arrived without any problems. Then , around September, parcels started to go missing... In fact, from that time onwards just about every parcel that was sent to me from the USA, or from the UK failed to arrive unless it had been sent on a "Sign for on delivery" basis. When I buy something on e-bay that costs about $25, or £15 the cost of "Sign for on delivery" postage can cost more than double the cost of the item itself, rendering the purchase unviable...

I'm interested to know if other forum members have encountered similar problems with their mail. Do you have problems with non delivery of parcels?

Since last September, about 10 parcels have failed to arrive, some were Christmas presents for myself, my wife and our daughter, and other gifts of chocolates, food items etc, as well as the miniature figures that I've ordered from e-bay. Whilst I can readily understand the Choccies going missing, I'm somewhat bemused by the continuing thefts of the metal figures... (These are old Dungeons and Dragons style figures, of minimal worth to anyone unless they are a keen collector of vintage Ral Partha and Grenadier figures. I have already checked with the only two shops in Bangkok that sell such figures, and neither have been approched by anyone trying to sell them such items.)

Occams razor tends to suggest that our local postman may be responsible. The postman who delivered our mail all last year up until last September was replaced by a new postman... that's when the problems started. However I've no proof, and could not level any sort of accusation on circumstantial evidence. My wife and I have been to the local post office and made enquiries, but of course unless a parcel is sent by a trackable form of postage, or unless the worth of the contents of the parcel is such that customs have levied duty paperwork on it, the local post office have no paperwork that would enable them to track such a parcel. They were very helpful, but weren't able to shed any light on the matter... (Of course they wouldn't admit that such a problem could exist in Thailand, for to do so would be to lose face). They suggested that the parcels could not have been sent, and that I must make enquiries with the people who had despatched the goods.

As I see it, there are only three likely possibilities.

The parcels arrive in Thailand by airmail. In theory, all parcels are first sent to Thai customs for clearance. Then they are sent on to a main Bangkok sorting office, who in turn send them to our local post office. I'm fairly convinced that our local post office are not responsible, (At least on any institutional basis, as they were so cooperative in showing my wife and I all their paperwork, and giving us a tour of the local sorting office). Therefore the thefts must occur at either:

1/ Thai Customs

2/ The main Bangkok sorting office

or 3/ By our postman himself

Obviously I cannot make any accusations against our postman, for to do so would only involve me in acrimonious and ongoing difficulties with the postal authorities and perhaps the police and immigration officials. I think that it's also likely that I would never receive another item of mail. Even if the local postmaster thought that it was possible that our postman was stealing parcels, he would never admit it to a Farang, nor would any of the other officials that would have to respond to an official complaint... so I see little or no point in making such a complaint. However it's very frustrating to be cut off from any affordable form of parcel post from home.

I'd value the opinion of other Ex-pats on this matter.

Edited January 8, 2010 by Murgatroyd

[JimmyTheMook]

I was having pretty good success receiving overseas packages myself up to a few months back , as of now a few have gone missing there were sent in early Dec. 2009 - they could still show up , I hope.

Nothing of substantial value and many parcels sent to me have been opened and re taped by Thai Customs.

[Tenchu]

My birthday was early December. Both my birthday present and Xmas present from my mother are still to arrive. I fear they're gone for good. Annoying.

We've been to the post office to search, they say they don't get much foreign mail in Thung Song and had only had a package from Japan, none from Australia. They said to come back in a couple more weeks, so maybe...

[sbk]

My sister sent a package from the US shortly before Christmas, it arrived just after New Year. Unopened, no duty.

[tonititan]

That sucks. I would be so annoyed if my mail all started disappearing. I haven't had any problems, but I was warned when I first moved here. My job advises that I have all packages sent to me there. So far, everything has made it and nothing has been opened. Do you happen to have anywhere more "official" that you could have your mail sent (as opposed to your house)?

[mogoso]

We have given up on shipping items to Thailand to our family. It's not the local carrier, as he's known very well and related by a marriage to boot. It's somewhere before him.

[MrHammer]

I get all my mail from overseas so far.

What type of home do you live in? House, condo, apartment? I am just asking cause it doesn't have to be the mailman to blame. It could just as well be the apartment staff.

[fantuzi]

I am sending quite a lot of parcels to LOS,many years.Only one - was not found,but in fact it was collected by another family member and was consumed.So,Thai Post delivered all of them - 100%.This is my experience.They were always addressed to Thai person,never to me.

I used registered mail packets,air mail parcel,surface mail parcel and courier.Sometimes - there was duty,not more then 1500B for electronic items.Usually - boxes arrived not opened by anybody.

By rules - sender can trace parcel,not addressee;and today,in internet age it can be done very easy.

I have a lot of problems,when I send to my own country,thats a shame!

My advice to OP - setup a trap for your postman,trick him and catch him,you can do it easy.Analise what sort of items were lost,

when I send - they do not charge me for receiver's confirmation,its automatic,if I enquire from my side(sender) - they tell me,exactly

what is my item position,and when it had been delivered or collected;if not - they know that:for example it is in customs,which is trying to call

addressee without success(addressee on holiday) etc.all by email.

Send something,using friends/family as sender,so the item can be traced by them - you will know the vanishing point and quickly you will

know who is kamoying you.You may expect surprise(?).

[H2oDunc]

What I did when I moved into my new house was fist order something of no real value. When the postman arrived I made sure he got a good tip. From that day I got everything I ordered from ebay etc. If I was ever out he would even come back in the evening in is own time rather than just leave a card saying to collect it at the PO.

[DegenFarang]

I didn't read your whole post or any responses but I recently had five separate packages shipped from the Netherlands - one computer and four monitors. The computer and two monitors arrived but two of the monitors did not - it has been over a month since the last package arrived and the sending party said they were not returned so I can only assume they were stolen by the Thai's. Can't imagine how such a large package could be lost. Twice.

[Murgatroyd]

Thanks for all the good advice. I live in a small town house, so there's no staff to consider in the chain... I am considering making our postman a face saving offer... something along these lines :

" I have been having a problem with parcels not arriving... all parcels that have to be signed for arrive, and I think all my letters... but many parcels that have no customs duty, and do not need to be signed for have not arrived. I think that it is possible that some parcels have been delivered to the wrong address... they may even have been opened. I'd be very grateful if you could check on this for me. If you are able to find any of the missing parcels, I will happily give you 100 Baht per missing parcel, to compensate you for your time and trouble. I will also give you 100 Baht for each parcel addressed to me that you deliver to me from now on that does not need to be signed for and does not have customs duty to be paid."

I'll get my wife to translate this into Thai and tell him...

I have a feeling that a carrot is liable to work better than a stick in this case... Do you think this might work? It gives him a ready made, face saving excuse in case he still has any of the missing parcels... all he has to say is that they were wrongly delivered and opened, and the people have only just returned them.

Edited January 11, 2010 by Murgatroyd

[onnut]

The thai postal service are thieving scumbags. My sister sent me a pair of my own shoes I left in the UK, and these guys charged me nearly 4000 baht. How did they work that out? Since then I will never allow anyone to send me anything.

[skybluestu]

Had about four parcels delivered from the UK over the last year without problem but the most recent one hasn't arrived yet and its been nearly six weeks now, usually only takes two weeks maximum. Not blaming the Thais though, I worked for Parcelforce in the UK when I was a student and loads of the employees would steal things, especially over the xmas period.

[GMoney]

Get some chocolate ex-lax and melt it into chocolate candy shapes...then replace the candies in a legit box. Send that through the mail and see how your postman likes it.

[Murgatroyd]

I will add the following bit to the above message for our postman :

"I am also worried that the toy figures that have been in most of the missing parcels might be given to children to play with. This would be very dangerous because the figures are made from lead. This metal is poisonous, and must not be given to children."

The figures that were in the missing parcels were made of a lead alloy, and shouldn't be given to kids as toys.

At the rate of a £2 bribe per parcel I would save money when compared with the extra postal charges involved in having everything sent by a trackable "Sign for on delivery" service.

I don't like the idea of bribing a theif to recieve my own property, but I like the idea of not recieving the goods that I have already paid for even less.

Besides that : If our postman magically produces any of the missing parcels, then I know that he's the kamoy and I have some evidence to that effect...

Edited January 11, 2010 by Murgatroyd