Post Office Theft?

[Dah fahrang]

I know 'brown' envelopes, and often items in Air Mail envelopes mysteriously never arrive at out address in Ratchaburi. I'm convinced the postal workers, either at Bangkok sorting office, or the local 'postie' can't resist taking a peek, looking for people daft enough to put cash into envelopes, then chucking the envelope and contents away.

The problem is that we're keeping our UK bank account open when moving permanently next month, (to continue internet banking) and want the UK bank to continue to renew UK ATM cards so we can draw money in Baht, from our account in UK. We also have an account with a Thai bank (12 years) but don't want to bring in more funds than necessary for supporting Thai spouse.

Does anyone else have experience of getting ATM cards (and other items of importance (but useless to the posties) safely into their own hands?

Is getting UK bank to send to Thai bank an option?

Ideas? Solutions?

[Axel]

American Express back in Switzerland used to instruct Amexco Thailand to issue my new card(s) and handdeliver in BKK.

Diners Club in HKG send the card by mail. Usually, does arrive. This card than must be activated by calling a toll free number and following with all your details, like passport number, id-card number, birthday etc. Only than, the card can be used.

HSBC usually mails me, to pick up HKG-ATM cards at a specific branch in HKG or to contact the bank for alternatives. When I have no time to pass by in HKG, I ask them to deliver through their BKK-branch, who in turn asks me to show up in person with p/port.

[12call]

Ask the bank to send the cartds my courier !!!!!!!

[naka]

My bank once refused to send my new visa card to my Thai address for security reasons, they said Thailand and India were 'Blacklisted'.

They said they would however deliver it by FedEx courier for a cost of $40, to which I agreed.

When the card arrived I discovered Fedex Thailand had placed a thai stamp on an envelope ( new brown one with official Fedex plastic one inside ) and this was delivered to my house by Thai Post !!!! ... Unbelievable ... Believe me.

Naka.

[Maverick]

Currently I use a locked bag address in Australia who then post once a month or more often as requested (this then allows me to redirect anywhere in the world). This seems to work well as I get one large packet which has arrived 100% so far. However this year I will travel less and I am going to rent a private PO Box in Bangkok which i realise does still come via thai post but i feel is safer as a) it cuts out the last walking postman and avoids lying in my condo pigeon hole/loss by security.

[issan2]

I get all my mail delivered by registered post now .. havent lost any. Before that I was losing all the UK incoming mail and about 18% of the out going mail. When I asked at the post office they said they couldnt help because they had nothing to trace. (And I have thai friends working in the post office so they wanted to help.)

If its traceable its less likely to be stolen as you can determine where it was stolen and the theif will takes a greater risk (?).

Its 25B extra for sending items registered, you get a code like R0456. If the item is slow you take the name/ address / code to the post office and they run a search. Its a little slow though.

cheers

[huski]

They said they would however deliver it by FedEx courier for a cost of $40, to which I agreed.

When the card arrived I discovered Fedex Thailand had placed a thai stamp on an envelope ( new brown one with official Fedex plastic one inside ) and this was delivered to my house by Thai Post !!!! ... Unbelievable ... Believe me.

unbelievable, to send just a card, for 40 dollars you should have been given a free foot massage

I get all my mail delivered by registered post now .. havent lost any. Before that I was losing all the UK incoming mail and about 18% of the out going mail.

NEVER NEVER have mail incoming or outgoing from Thailand without it being registered. I have seen postal workers from the back room that empty the outgoing trays up at the counters, laughing their asses off when they see unregistered mail. i feel sorry for the farangs that lose the whole box that are too kee nok to register it.

[alanw]

Further to an earlier post, courier services are not always as 'safe' or fast as they would hope you imagine.

Recently a friend rurgently needed a document to support an application to a government dept.

The document arrived in Bangkok from London within 24 hours, then took 5 working days to be delivered from Bangkok to Pattaya.

It was delivered to the addressee house by a young man with no identification, and no identification on the vehicle.

No inquiry as to whether the name on the envelope was that of the person who took the envelope, etc., and the delivery person didn't ask for a signature, in fact didn't show any form of delivery documentation.

Different case - I recently had a call from a potential client, who asked for a large amount of materials to be sent to Singapore, enough materials to require a small box.

My secretary rang the courier company to ask for pick-up and was told that we had to give three days notice for a small courier box to be delivered to our premises, which is about 400 metres from a sub depot operated by the courier company.

I took over the phone call, got no cooperation whatever and asked to speak to the customer service representative CSR. First answer "she's on break and I cannot disturb her, would you please ring back in 30 minutes". I said "NO, I'll wait".

Whilst waiting for the CSR to come on the line (about 15 minutes) I could hear repeated comments about the stupid and rude farang. The CSR repeated and repeated "but that's our procedure", and then told me that she had personally started the three days in advance procedure.

I finally said "if you want our (sizable) business to continue, you will deliver the box within 30 minutes otherwise we go permanently to another courier company, and you can explain to your manager why you have lost a regular (sizable) client", and I quoted the rates of one of the competition (in fact a little cheaper). The box was delivered within 5 minutes.

About two weeks later, purely by accident, I met the regional manager of the courier company at a presentation in Singapore. He was horrified at the 3 days notice 'procedure'. He claimed solidly that it was not policy, and that such a policy would send them out of Business quickly.

We now get regular calls from the Singapore regional office to check on the service level.

Another perspective of this - the young man who comes to pick up the courier bags / boxes has always been very thorough, checks every detail on the labels, always very polite, speaks quite good English, and for several years has hand delivered his personal New Year card to me (in the office).

After the incident above, and after I had spoken to the regional manager, the young delivery man came to my office and apologized for 'doing something wrong'. I learned later that the Spore based regional manager had instructed the CSR lady to call me and apologize. Instead she scolded the delivery boy and told him he had to apologize.

I reported all of this to the Spore man - the CSR was fired.

Regards

[syd barrett]

My bank charged me $50 to send my new ATM/Debit card to Pattaya. So far so good, until I discovered the package was left at the internet cafe next door and was on the table for anyone to take.

This was DHL Express document.

1. The courier did not call me on cellphone (they had my number)

2. The signature was the girl in the internet shop.

3. No I.D. was asked for.

Conclusion: The card came in 48 hours and was left with a total stranger who just signed a bit of paper. I was lucky.....however I checked the small print on the DHL website and unbelievable.... They only have to deliver at the address and get anyones signature. So really DHL is no better than post except a) faster delivered to your address or 'friendly' neighbour.

Thank God my card is valid for two years!!!

[huski]

i highly recommend getting a PO box at your local post office. it costs peanuts and i ended up with post office box # 1 at one within walking distance of where i live in bangkok. if something registered comes in, they sign for it and a white slip is in my PO box.

either i am lucky or this is part of the post office box deal but i have had alot of things sent from all over the world for 3 years and have NEVER PAID CUSTOMS TAXES or had anything lost.

[tchk]

I've had my mail forwarded by the Swiss Postal Service to my address in Bangkok for five months now. I get everything with a yellow address sticker on it in my condo mailbox, including junk mail and voting material, and I never had a sign of anything missing. Got all the bills to pay, anyway.

One thing though. All envelopes were white. I recommend using white envelopes.

[frogmo1]

I have rented a post office box at the NaNa Post Office for the past three years, where I receive mail from around the world as part of business I conduct on the Internet. The service can be good or bad, depending on who happens to be handling the incoming mail.

On several occasions, my registered mail was simply placed in my box without a notice being prepared or a signature being required. Likewise, when I have received mail requiring the recipient to sign a return receipt, the clerks rarely ask me to do so, just leaving the return receipt affixed to the item. In one rare case where I actually was asked to sign the receipt, it nicely appeared in MY post office box a couple days later.

On another occasion, an item of registered mail was received at the NaNa Post Office, but the clerks "forgot" to put a notice of its arrival in my box. After waiting several months for the letter, I demanded to review the bundles of unclaimed registered mail. The clerks did everything they could to avoid letting me do so, inisisting that I needed to know the number of the item I was searching for. Finally, they relented when a supervisor saw me making a lot of noise at the counter. Indeed, they found the item of registered mail I was looking for and that they had held for three months but for which they had never given me notice. They were embarrassed and insisted on then systematically going through all the unclaimed mail with me, even though I explained that this was the only item that I had not received.

I've also received non-registered mail for various other parties in my box, which I mark as "mis-sent to Box XXX" and hand in again at the counter. My girlfriend has her mail sent to my box occasionally and it is dutifully deposited into my box with no questions asked.

On the positive side, one clerk (since transferred out of Bangkok) noticed non-registered mail sent to me with an incorrect box number and nicely corrected the error, putting it in my box.

Although there is a sign that says you must present identification to sign for and pick up registered mail, I've never been asked for identification and friends of mine, unknown to the post office clerks, also have picked up registered mail for me without being asked for identification.

Mail that has arrived at Laksi from abroad sometimes takes several days (in one case ten days) to make the journey to the NaNa Post Office (as evidenced by the Laksi and Nana backstamps).

The Post Office has been wholly unhelpful in locating outgoing registered mail that is lost (usually no response is even made) and has never paid a request for the token indemnity provided for such mail. Fortunately, most Thai international registered mail does get to the recipient, making the extra 25 baht well worth paying (in the USA we pay $7-$9 for the same service, but with much more accountability -- nonetheless, USA registered mail also sometimes goes astray--in one case due to a dishonest private courier who transported such mail from the San Francisco Airport to the San Francisco Mail Center).

When you close a Thai post office box, no internationally forwarding is provided.

The clerks disliked the fact that I used to arrive a few minutes before the pickup window closed at 5:30 p.m., when they often were about to depart for the day. (That was the earliest I could get there because I work a 7:30 to 4:30 day across town.) Recently, they solved the problem. A few months ago, the pickup window hours were shortened to 4:30 p.m., although all other windows remain open until 5:30 p.m. TIT. The window is also open on Saturday mornings, although if the clerk arrives late, usually nobody else knows where the key is for the cabinet in which the registered mail is stored. Fortunately, Coffee World is next door!

[meadish_sweetball]

My GF just booked a ticket Japan - CM - Japan for a friend who si studying in Japane. She got the ticket here in Thailand, since apparently the price here was much cheaper than what was available in Japan (I don't know if it actually is, but this according to what her friend could find out).

We flew together down to BKK over the weekend, and decided to send off the ticket by registered mail from the Don Muang post office (second floor, domestic terminal). (We were not sure how else to best go about it - neither of us felt comfortable sending a ticket like that by mail, despite it being registered - maybe someone here has a better suggestion?)

The clerk at the office collected the fee for a registered letter (a lot cheaper than I had expected, only 59 baht) after having weighed the envelope.

We ask him "What about the receipt", and he says "Mai pen rai". I say "What if it gets lost, how can we prove we sent it?", so he finally agrees to give us a receipt.

He says it will take a minimum of five days for the ticket to reach Japan. Today is day 4, and we haven't checked with her friend if Japan if the ticket has arrived yet, but if anyone have any thoughts/advice/reflections on this - I would appreciate your input.

[frogmo1]

Normally you would fill out a small white Thai postal form as part of registering the letter. The clerk puts the registry number on this form and postmarks the form. The postmark (often illegible unfortunately) shows the date of posting and the post office code. Be sure that the clerk legibly fills in the entire registry number. That's your only hope to have the item traced if it goes astray. I've never had a clerk decline to give me this registry receipt (although sometimes they need to be reminded).

[12call]

meadish_sweetball.You should have sent it by EMS for approx 800 BAHT.Delivery in 2 days.