Postcards To Europe Never Arrived

[Trevor25222]

4 picture postcards, correctly stamped with Baht 15 & air stickers, dropped into street boxes mid-November 2010, still haven't arrived in England 2 months later.

Even the undeveloped Indonesians manage to send postcards through within a month. What's happening in Pattaya?

Edited January 14, 2011 by Trevor25222

[Carib]

Must be the British postal service..

[timekeeper]

i sent xmas cards to UK in early december, some arrived before xmas, others have just arrived.

i think a combination of extreme bad weather in Uk, stockpiling of mail, backlogs and delivery priority, make your postcards and my xmas cards low on a scale of importance

i never have problems with Thai mail delivery only with UK delivery

i have some diabetic items sent over from UK to here

there are no problems and usually delivered here with 5-7 days by international to be signed for service

of even more importance, Coronation Street on DVD is delivered every month without fail......

[thaimate]

Sent a package in mid november, tracked it to the plane at suvanahbum but never arrived in the uk . the post service is now a joke in Britain ,full of part time immegrant "cheap postmen" who dont know their arse from their elbow.

[timekeeper]

have you been back and looked in the street box?

they are probably still in there..........

[Trevor25222]

i sent xmas cards to UK in early december, some arrived before xmas, others have just arrived.

i think a combination of extreme bad weather in Uk, stockpiling of mail, backlogs and delivery priority, make your postcards and my xmas cards low on a scale of importance

Mid-November postcards should have gotten through before the cold weather & Christmas rush.

A postcard from New Zealand posted just before Christmas was delivered in a week.

They could have gotten thrown in the surface-mail bag by mistake.

The cynic in me sees the postal employees steaming-off the stamps for re-use & handing the cards to their kids to play with.

Edited January 14, 2011 by Trevor25222

[chiang mai]

My experience of the Thai postal service over the years is that it is excellent and very very reliable, much more so than the UK service currently.

[Beardog]

I had a similar problem in 2004 sending out postcards. All mail in an envelope made it & packages sent back as well. Post cards not a one made it. I guess it is the lowest on their priority list to take care of.

[jeanpierre]

i send every two monht postcards to my grand children in belguim

they arive always after min 10 days no complaints

[FarangBuddha]

4 picture postcards, correctly stamped with Baht 15 & air stickers, dropped into street boxes mid-November 2010, still haven't arrived in England 2 months later.

Even the undeveloped Indonesians manage to send postcards through within a month. What's happening in Pattaya?

Actually delivering mail is such a pain in the arse; much easier to just collect the money and throw the mail in the trash.

[chiang mai]

4 picture postcards, correctly stamped with Baht 15 & air stickers, dropped into street boxes mid-November 2010, still haven't arrived in England 2 months later.

Even the undeveloped Indonesians manage to send postcards through within a month. What's happening in Pattaya?

Actually delivering mail is such a pain in the arse; much easier to just collect the money and throw the mail in the trash.

Spoken like a true UK postman.

[neverdie]

Must be the British postal service..

You shouldnt joke in jest. A few years ago a heap of my mail wasnt arriving. We went down to the local PO and spoke with a manager down there who looked me straight in the eye & without battering an eyelid said, "Australia Post, no good."

The next day we placed 4 envelopes of different types and styles @ that post office, mailed to our place down the road & only one of them turned up & that was 2 weeks later. Two of them were addressed in thai and 2 in english, it was one of the english ones that arrived, so go figure.

[sunshinegirl]

My xmas cards posted beg December have just arrived this week

[m3dave]

sent xmas cards and a box of bits for my mums xmas prezzie on 12th Dec all arrived within a week, always take to main soi post office, any others they either dont get there or 2 months later, anything sent from uk register it or it wont get here, suspect postman thinks theres money in it, send from uk to korat never a problem..

[billaaa777]

My Christmas packages sent December 9th to the US still have not been delivered, it certainly looks like they are lost. This is the first time in all of my years of mailing stuff back home that it did not get delivered. Not Good!

[NALAK]

i send about 10 parcels a week to the states, some to Australia and parts of europe, all up to now get through

[jori]

Probably is the fact that they take the stamps off them,then rip the cards up.

Better to post at main Soi post offices ,also pick up from there as well if possible,saves too much temptation

[fredob43]

Must be the British postal service..

You shouldnt joke in jest. A few years ago a heap of my mail wasnt arriving. We went down to the local PO and spoke with a manager down there who looked me straight in the eye & without battering an eyelid said, "Australia Post, no good."

The next day we placed 4 envelopes of different types and styles @ that post office, mailed to our place down the road & only one of them turned up & that was 2 weeks later. Two of them were addressed in thai and 2 in english, it was one of the english ones that arrived, so go figure.

Some year's ago when I lived in Pattaya I sent an airmail letter every month for over a year to England 15+ in all. Only TWO arrived. Stopped doing it after that. Then moved to mid Thailand. And I thought Id give it another a try, and would you belive for the last 5+ years not one has gone missing. Strange A. Well done Pattaya. Sorry Thailand Post.

[Trevor25222]

Some year's ago when I lived in Pattaya I sent an airmail letter every month for over a year to England 15+ in all. Only TWO arrived. Stopped doing it after that. Then moved to mid Thailand. And I thought Id give it another a try, and would you belive for the last 5+ years not one has gone missing. Strange A. Well done Pattaya. Sorry Thailand Post.

You have something there. When I lived in Thon Buri (Soi Ekachai) in 1993 my mail to and from the UK was great. Even postcards from remote places in southern Thailand got through. Only Pattaya has given me grief!

No one has mentioned this but the police are not allowed to investigate the Thai post office which gives their workers carte blanche to steal and pillage. The degree of damage reflects the relative honesty and disclipline of local managers.

Edited January 16, 2011 by Rimmer
Defamation

[fredob43]

Some year's ago when I lived in Pattaya I sent an airmail letter every month for over a year to England 15+ in all. Only TWO arrived. Stopped doing it after that. Then moved to mid Thailand. And I thought Id give it another a try, and would you belive for the last 5+ years not one has gone missing. Strange A. Well done Pattaya. Sorry Thailand Post.

You have something there. When I lived in Thon Buri (Soi Ekachai) in 1993 my mail to and from the UK was great. Even postcards from remote places in southern Thailand got through.

No one has mentioned this but the police are not allowed to investigate the Thai post office which gives their workers carte blanche to steal and pillage. The degree of damage reflects the relative honesty and disclipline of local managers.

I did note one time I was in there (In soi post office 23 I think) I looked at what they were doing with mail. Peep's Farang went to the desk with letter, they put it on the scale's quoted a price, Farang paid left mail and then went off. The mail was put in a pile with other's that had not been stamped, What happened to them Buddha only know's. Up I went same thing, but I asked for the stamp and stuck in on myself and put it in a post box up the road. Now here's a thing that was one of the two that arrived. Dont know if this still go's on at the new one, but as it's a licence to print money more than likely. The other thing you can do is register it. Even in Pattaya that will get through. I know it cost's but it's still better than it going on the missing list.

[ableguy]

Must be the British postal service..

I have given up sending post cards from any where in Aisia as they are often stolen for the stamp, how many would complain to the post office if they never arrive, and who would give a dam_n here anyway.

[gk10002000]

Over the last 5 years, I would say the post cards I sent from the Pattaya post office to the USA got through about 80% of the time. One year, none of the ones I mailed got through. My last two trips I bought my postcards and stamps at one of the magazine stores at Big C. Girl offered to mail them for me so I said sure and gave her a tip. I figured the store worker and a local would do things correctly and that mail got through. I don't think I would trust a mail box drop off. In country, versus out of country versus regular post versus air mail post just seems like more chances for the mail to get messed up.

[AbeSurd]

I don't send much mail to the UK, but when I do I always use the post office on Soi Post Office and send it registered air mail. In over four years, every letter or packet has arrived safely. Usually taking about a week to get to the UK - except around Xmas.

Similarly, registered air mail from the UK always gets safely to me here in Thailand too, the few times that's happened.

Non-registered mail is another matter. Letters from the UK sent to me ordinary air mail frequently arrived opened with a message from the Thai post office 'arrived in this condition' or some such nonsense.

[Trevor25222]

Non-registered mail is another matter. Letters from the UK sent to me ordinary air mail frequently arrived opened with a message from the Thai post office 'arrived in this condition' or some such nonsense.

Translation : no cash found; you got lucky this time and can keep the letter.

Who would want to visit or live in a place where such a level of institutional crime is endemic?

Learned my lesson : the postcards were just a warning!

Edited January 20, 2011 by Trevor25222

[AbeSurd]

Who would want to visit or live in a place where such a level of institutional crime is endemic?

Oh, I love living here

As I say, I send and receive very few letters/packages to/from the UK. Always having to use registered air mail is a small price to pay.

[gk10002000]

I don't send much mail to the UK, but when I do I always use the post office on Soi Post Office and send it registered air mail. In over four years, every letter or packet has arrived safely. Usually taking about a week to get to the UK - except around Xmas.

Similarly, registered air mail from the UK always gets safely to me here in Thailand too, the few times that's happened.

Non-registered mail is another matter. Letters from the UK sent to me ordinary air mail frequently arrived opened with a message from the Thai post office 'arrived in this condition' or some such nonsense.

Please explain exactly how you did this and what you did. I should be in the LOS in a few months and during that time I will have a letter sized item that I need to mail back to the USA every two weeks that is very important. I looked at DHL and the other registered types of services and just don't like the prices.

Thanks

[VTSVIEW]

what's new? Thai post sucks big time, I was in India last May 2010, mailed 8 postcards, 2 to US, 2 to Australia, 2 to Korea and 2 to Thailand, 6 reached to the destinations within a week or so, but 2 to Thailand never delivered.

[LennyW]

I just recieved a letter today - 20th of Jan, that was posted in Scotland on 10th of December, However, on the back there is a stamp that says it was recieved in the Banglamung post office on the 7th of January ????? 13 days to get from one end of Pattaya to the other !!

[brianw]

A few years ago there was a scam at a very well known hotel in Pattaya which catered for tourist groups. You would buy your postcards in the hotel and ask reception to post them on so they would sell you your stamps and say they would stamp them and post them (which never happened) when you got home and found out no postcards had arrived it was to late to do anything about it. (Iwish i was involved nice little earner)

[Trevor25222]

what's new? Thai post sucks big time, I was in India last May 2010, mailed 8 postcards, 2 to US, 2 to Australia, 2 to Korea and 2 to Thailand, 6 reached to the destinations within a week or so, but 2 to Thailand never delivered.

I've been to some pretty dodgy places in my time but picture postcards always seemed to get home to loved ones. Pattaya is a well-developed and efficient place, so it's only Thai corruption and local contempt for tourists which allows this petty thievery to go on. For general mailings use envelopes and send in a post office. This will cut out the dolts emptying street mail boxes. Registering letters will impose a degree of international scrutiny on their childish minds and assist safe delivery; the procedure itself can delay processing at the Thai end though, sometimes by weeks!

I won't be back to Pattaya in a hurry. Plenty more workers-with-a-conscience elsewhere, especially in poorer places.

Edited January 20, 2011 by Trevor25222