Thai Post Office

[feolindo]

I'm coming to Bangkok for an extended stay (up to a year) in June. I'm going to need to have at least some of my mail forwarded to me in Thailand. Here (US) when I'm traveling, I can have stuff forwarded to whatever local Post Office I wish care of "general delivery" and pick it up no problem. I've done this in Europe too. Can I do the same thing there? Do they allow this? and if so, is there a good chance it'll be there when I go to collect it?

Thanks for any help.

[ProThaiExpat]

I haven't done it but would be very surprised if it can't be done as the Thai Postal Service is equal to or better than the one in the U.S.

I get my U.S. originated mail in a week or less and about ten days going the other way.

U.S. Global Priorty Mail makes it in seven days. FedEx takes five.

If you know what hotel you are staying at, send the mail there.

I would suggest using a private post office box facility with mail forwarding so you could direct your mail to wherever you are in Thailand by a simple phone call to your mail accumulater.

That way, you would have all your accumulated mail within seven days with Global Priority Mail.

I live in Chiang Mai, so you may be able to save a day or more from those times if your going to be in Bangkok.

Edited May 31, 2005 by ProThaiExpat

[Ajarn]

I haven't done it but would be very surprised if it can't be done as the Thai Postal Service is equal to or better than the one in the U.S

PTE, I've always found you most reasonable, but I think you're nuts on this one

Edited May 31, 2005 by Ajarn

[daxbr]

I'm coming to Bangkok for an extended stay (up to a year) in June. I'm going to need to have at least some of my mail forwarded to me in Thailand. Here (US) when I'm traveling, I can have stuff forwarded to whatever local Post Office I wish care of "general delivery" and pick it up no problem. I've done this in Europe too. Can I do the same thing there? Do they allow this? and if so, is there a good chance it'll be there when I go to collect it?

Thanks for any help.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You will be much better off getting P.O. Box. Can't beat this deal at B150 a year.

[Tornado]

After reading the heading, I thought I might of been in the jokes section..

[Gallowspole]

I'm coming to Bangkok for an extended stay (up to a year) in June. I'm going to need to have at least some of my mail forwarded to me in Thailand. Here (US) when I'm traveling, I can have stuff forwarded to whatever local Post Office I wish care of "general delivery" and pick it up no problem. I've done this in Europe too. Can I do the same thing there? Do they allow this? and if so, is there a good chance it'll be there when I go to collect it?

Thanks for any help.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You will be much better off getting P.O. Box. Can't beat this deal at B150 a year.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Based on my experience of sending things to Phuket from abroad and living in upcountry provincial capitals for the last 7 years, they are as reliable as a chocolate fireguard. The only things that get through are my bills.

If they don't steal from it they won't deliver it. Possibly to do with it being written in English. One way is to get your address written in Thai, put on stickers, and then sent to the people who'll be sending you the mail.

As said, a PO box at your local post office would be the best bet. Way back in my backpacking days I used to use the Post Restante system, which sounds the same as your 'General Delivery'. For example, if I was staying in Lamai Beach on Koh Samui, my mail would be sent to to Mr Gallowspole, Post Restante, Nathan Post Office(the nearest post office at the time), Koh Samui, Surat,... There, this method is/was not very secure as your mail was just grouped together with everybody else's and any Tom, Dick or Harry could just walk off with your mail. However, at the main Post Office in Bangkok you had to queue, give your name, then pay a baht or 2 for each piece, so generally a lot more secure. Have a look in a Lonely Planet Guide for more up-to-date info.

[Richard Hall]

Depends on the post office. Living on Rama 3 the one in Yannawa (Thanon Chan) takes care of us and nothing has ever got lost. Know those guys there in person and also our postmen (regular mail and EMS) that we occasionally pass an energy drink when they deliver and it is a very hot day. Call ourselves really happy to be blessed with a good, helpful and reliable post office.

Admittedly there are others. Once I sent something to Pattaya and... no surprise it never arrived.

Conclusion: If you are after a reliable postal service befriend the person(s) in charge and/or alternatively avoid living in a shithole area.

Cheers,

Richard

Edited May 31, 2005 by Richard Hall

[RDN]

After reading the heading, I thought I might of been in the jokes section..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So far I've not received: International Driving Permit (mildly important), letter from financial institution (quite important), Mum's Christmas card (very important).

I now tell people to email me when they send anything so I know it is coming, and keep a duplicate in case they need to re-send it.

[Highwayman]

In two years, the only thing that didn't make it through the mail to me here was a large parcel of video cassettes. I sometimes wonder what they made of all those tapes of Aussie Rules games.

The postmaster was very helpful in trying to track down what happened to it. We were even allowed to go through the registers that listed all the incoming parcels for the past few months, to see if we could locate any reference to it having been received there. No luck, so maybe it never made it that far.

They're actually pretty good at our local post office. I like to use different stamps when l send mail home as l have friends who collect stamps. At Future Park you can only ever seem to get the same basic stamps every time but when l need to buy a new supply the local staff let me go behind the counter to see this guy who opens up a safe where he has albums which must have just about all the stamp issues from the last 5 years. He sits there while l make my selection. The local Tesco also had a stamp counter a while back and the guy there was also very helpful in letting me select whatever l wanted from all these albums that had stamps that weren't otherwise on display.

[greg67]

I'm having my mail forwarded once a month from the US to small village in Isan. This is going on for over four years and I never had any problems. My mail arrives in about 10 days and it is usuaally a large envelope (with several pieces of mail inside) or a small package. This works very well for me...

[Tarragona]

I too have only good things to say about the Thai postal service. If anything of mine was damaged or went missing I'd first of all suspect the UK end of things (that's after having some good mates working for the Post Officve over there).

[grahamb]

The only things that get through are my bills.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We almost had our internet connection cut off because they didn't even deliver the TRUE bill!

Admittedly the service has not been as bad for the last few months but I'm in the 'don't trust them' camp. For those of you lucky enough to have good postmen/post offices, cherish them!

[lingling]

I'm coming to Bangkok for an extended stay (up to a year) in June. I'm going to need to have at least some of my mail forwarded to me in Thailand. Here (US) when I'm traveling, I can have stuff forwarded to whatever local Post Office I wish care of "general delivery" and pick it up no problem. I've done this in Europe too. Can I do the same thing there? Do they allow this? and if so, is there a good chance it'll be there when I go to collect it?

Thanks for any help.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Check out this service:

http://www.usglobalmail.com/

It is basically a mailbox service but with a street address instead of box no. (good if you order stuff online as many online merchants won't ship to po boxes)

For $15 per month you get an online interface where you can see what is in your inbox. Whenever you want, you can select the items you want them to ship, select shipping method and they will repackage and send to you. For important stuff you can use USPS global express, UPS or FedEx, for less important stuff just normal airmail.

[bambob]

LOUD MIRTH !hahahaha

so long as the envelope contains just a sheet of paper maybe ok .

but DO NOT include anything of remote saleable value .

[The Gentleman Scamp]

No.

I sent a letter to an elderly relative from Bangkok to the Isle Of Wight three weeks ago and it still hasn't arrived.

Third time in two years this has happened.

I also once sent a flag to Ko Samui from England and it never arrived.

I even once sent a Cd from Bangkok to Ko Samui and it didn't ever show up...

I wrote the address on it and everything.

[Tarragona]

We almost had our internet connection cut off because they didn't even deliver the TRUE bill!   

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I doubt that's a problem with the Post Office. I regularly have to pay two-month True bills, both phone and Internet. One time, True put a letter in apologising that they hadn't sent a bill out the previous month but it's almost becoming the norm now.

[ProThaiExpat]

I suppose there is no way to reconcile the divergence of opinion regarding the Thai postal service.

In the three years I have lived in Chiang Mai, my service as been very good and only a few bills have gone astray. In Songran, I didn't get a single bill, had them re-sent, not received, then some dribbled in, don't know if they were the originals or not.

All packages and documents from overseas have been received. Registry is often employed by Thais, whether that improves service I don't know.

I did get a monthly bill, six months late, from overseas but since I have online access, no problem.

My postman is quit rude or very business like if you will. No smile, no greeting, no acknowledgement of thanks, etc. Rings door bell repeatedly, even though it is loud enough to be heard at the bell. Notwithstanding the foregoing, its as good as any mail service I have used anywhere.

I did check out the webpage for the global mail service in the U.S. and it seemed very good, but the costs have got to build up. A lot of data entry required on their end if you get a lot of mail.

I would be very interested in anyone who registers for the service telling us as to the form of the "private" address they assign. They imply that you will indeed get a "proper" address, not a P.O. Box, however, the U.S. Postal Service is quite adamant about allowing private "mail drops" to use an address that is not clearly identifyiable as a "mail drop". They periodically enforce the regulation that states that the mail box must be identified, the best I have seen is PMB and then the number at an address. Calling it a suite is not permitted.

There are some "mail drops" that have you use their main street address and then refer to your box as a "suite" for internal mail routing, but the Post Office gets on it quite often.

Really would like to see how this global mail service deals with the issue. The postal service is watchdogging the issue because of mail fraud that often involves these private mail boxes.

[RDN]

...I wrote the address on it and everything.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, that would definitely help.

Next time you send a CD to Samui, coat the CD with some deadly, fast-acting, non-communicable virus, and then watch the news to see which post office worker died in mysterious circumstances.

PS. Tell the person on Ko Samui to wash anything he gets from you, in case it arrives.

[Boon Mee]

I wrote the address on it and everything.

Which begs the obvious...did you put a stamp on it?

[Popeyethesailorman]

Just to add my two cents worth, I've always had good luck with the Thai post offices. My mail from the States has always got to me complete and unopened. Three years ago I had my wallet nicked and lost everything. I phoned my Mom and she rushed a new ATM card to me but the funny thing was she put the wrong zip code on the package. My package went to Lampang and I was in Chiang Mai. Of course I was panicked. I went to the local p.o. and explained what happened and they found my package and had it delivered to my doorstep at my condo two days later. To add to the story, all of my ID and other credit cards were found by an honest Thai bloke and were givin to the American Consulate in Chiang Mai where upon I was called to come down and retrieve it. Talk about good fortune. On the other hand, I sure was an idiot for carrying all that crap around in my wallet.

[Gary A]

I don't have much faith in the Thai postal system. I'd bet more things were lost or otherwise missing than got through either direction. I normally don't use the postal system much but when I do I use the EMS service. It IS expensive now at 600 baht per pop but nothing has ever been lost.

[spacebass]

LOUD MIRTH !hahahaha

so long as the envelope contains just a sheet of paper maybe ok .

but DO NOT include anything of remote saleable value .

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Out of the 75% of items posted to Thailand that did not arrive one was a DL envelope with a typed label and a single sheet of paper in it, so you can count that out too.

Though in fairness I wonder what happens in UK when a Thai scripted piece of mail shows up?

Edited June 1, 2005 by spacebass

[GoodHeart]

I don't have much faith in the Thai postal system. I'd bet more things were lost or otherwise missing than got through either direction. I normally don't use the postal system much but when I do I use the EMS service. It IS expensive now at 600 baht per pop but nothing has ever been lost.

At the risk of repeating myself:

I have a colleague [in Thailand] who will send me a letter [in the USA] this week. It needs to arrive and arrive in a week. Could someone suggest a good carrier. Or tell me how to contact EMS.

Sure, that'll seem like deja vu to some but, hey! at least I used the search engine, right?

[soundman]

The thai postal service is as reliable as a dinger with holes.

See my replies to other posts on this subject.

Cheers,

Soundman.

[donna]

i beg to differ blokes. my mum sent me a laptop computer from australia last friday and it arrived in one piece on the following wednesday. (yes, it was insured, thats the only reason it was sent like that - it could easily be replaced for far less than the insured value).

[soundman]

i beg to differ blokes. my mum sent me a laptop computer from australia last friday and it arrived in one piece on the following wednesday. (yes, it was insured, thats the only reason it was sent like that - it could easily be replaced for far less than the insured value).

One out of one is not bad donna.

I have had over 40 packages (not letters) sent to me in the last five years. Everything from books, medicines, product samples etc. Of that roughly 25% or 10 items have not arrived. Of the remainder, 50% had been tampered with.

BTW was insurance posting to Thailand more expensive than insurance posting to say America?

Cheers,

Soundman.

[ProThaiExpat]

I would expect packages to be "tampered with" as the contents are subject to customs inspection.

In five years, I have received 20 packages from U.S., Australia and U.K, and so far none went missing.

[qualtrough]

I don't have much faith in the Thai postal system. I'd bet more things were lost or otherwise missing than got through either direction. I normally don't use the postal system much but when I do I use the EMS service. It IS expensive now at 600 baht per pop but nothing has ever been lost.

At the risk of repeating myself:

I have a colleague [in Thailand] who will send me a letter [in the USA] this week. It needs to arrive and arrive in a week. Could someone suggest a good carrier. Or tell me how to contact EMS.

Sure, that'll seem like deja vu to some but, hey! at least I used the search engine, right?

EMS is a service offered by the Thai (and other) postal systems. I think the starting price is about 800 Baht, so that is about what it would cost to send a letter. Very reliable and trackable system.

Edited May 19, 2007 by qualtrough

[LinkPopularity]

long time ago I read in the Phukette Gazette about an English guy doing a test, he let his father send all kinds of stuff, just to test ... anything that indicated value was 'lost'

[GoodHeart]

Thank you! Appreciate your efforts.