Frequency of daily mail delivery from Ao Nang post office?

[buddhaland]

I recently retired here in Ao Nang from Seattle (Go Seahawks!!), to start a ESL teaching job in the Spring

An ATM here swallowed the USDirect debit Mastercard on which the U.S. government loads my Social Security payment every month. And against any logic I can figure, when I visited the bank the next day to retrieve it, I was told it was destroyed. Social Security mailed me a replacement card on the 18th of January - you probably won't be surprised to hear I have not yet received it, after 18 days. Even though my February payment loaded on this card two days ago, I have absolutely no access to that money until the card arrives - if ever. I am getting increasingly panicky - I have no family who can make me a temporary loan, I have an annuity that is frozen at the moment due to a clerical error - and though one incredible neighbor of mine did already make me two small loans, I can't keep asking - so I figure I will be destitute if the card doesn't arrive by Friday. The one other time I did receive mail at my house here, it was a Christmas package that arrived after 15 days, and was delivered late morning. I have gone into Ao Nang P.O. several times each week, given them my written address and watched as they disappeared into the back room, only to return empty-handed. Whenever I ask if there is more than one delivery a day here, if deliveries always leave the P.O. at roughly the same time, or if it's based on volume of mail accumulating or - dare I say it - whenever they feel like it - I just get the usual shrugs and blank stares. So you can probably see I'm grasping at straws here. I stay home all day long, most days, trying to decide at what point to go from hopeful back to desperately hopeless. I honestly don't have an alternate plan for if the card comes a long time from now, or never. I can have Social Security cancel the missing card and mail yet another one but that is potentially a big step backwards rather than forward. They, by the way, absolutely refuse to send my card by another method - certified mail, registered mail, express mail - any type that might actually improve the odds of my tracking and eventually getting it. They have told me on no uncertain terms that they use only regular first class mail in a thin (i.e., you can feel that there is a card in it) envelope. I have made numerous calls to USDirect Express, the contractor that actually issues these cards - more times than I can remember. All the U.S. Embassy in Bankok offered to do is fly me home, cost to be repaid my me, later. They did suggest that Social Security's International Help Desk might be able to provide some small temporary advance against next month's deposit - but this was only suggested to me as an option last night. First I'd heard of it after three months here. I called them several times during their stated normal business hours on the East Coast - but got a "leave a message and we will call you back" voice message every time! So I stayed up all night here in Ao Nang so I wouldn't miss the return call I was sure would come sometime between 7PM and 7AM local time here, which corresponds to their business hours in D.C.. Nothing. And I was very clear in my message that this is an emergency. I will try to call them again after 7PM here - but can't say I have very high expectations. So today, I placed local classified ads for my Nikon D80 camera with scads of accessories (my pride and joy) - and my laptop. I guess having to use internet cafes and disposable cameras will be better than being evicted for non-payment of rent, eating a steady diet of rice, etc. Who knows? the card could come tomorrow - no doubt, right after I part with one or more of my valued possessions.

So back to the original question: I know that my junkets to the post office accomplish absoluteley nothing - except helping me to feel like I am doing SOMETHING to advance my cause. But without an even sort-of straight answer as to how often the mailmen go out on their motorbikes, I never know when I can comfortably give up for the day andleave to go to the market or whatever (too many stories of mail theft on

thaivisa!)

So if you had the interest and motivation to read this far, Bless you!

A truly simple question turned into a ramble - but I hope it will serve to demonstrate the depth of my panic and feeling of helplessness. I will be most unspeakably grateful if someone can enlighten me about the method to the Post Office's madness - are there - or can there be - one or mre deliveries a day. Or something more creative and completely unhelpful........

P. S. I deliberately left out the possible complications resulting from the current political turmoil in Bankok.I try to wrap my mound around that kink, and I truly cross the line that demarks sanity!

Thanks again -

What's left of the Mind of Michael Gamble

66 095 078 0725

Edited February 5, 2014 by LivinginKata
classifieds advert removed and email removed - as per forum rules

[IMA_FARANG]

Here's my true story about my experience with my Thai mailing address and the Social Security administration.

I had a similar experience when I came to Thailand in 2010. It took me two years and two trips back to the U.S. (at my expense) in order to finally get Social Security to get my Thai mailing address correct.

The problem turned out to be in the Social Security office where I filed my mailing address.

My Thai address began like this 74/2 (street name) in Bangkok.

The Social Security address print format read the / as a 1.

So they kept printing my Thai mailing address as 7412 instead of 74/2.

There is no 7412 (that street) in Bangkok, so they did not know where to deliver my mail.

The international deliveries are different from the regular Thai post (domestic) deliveries and at least here in Bangkok are delivered separately.

The explanation I finally got from the Social Security office was this:

"Our printer software did not recognize the character / in the street address, because the software only recognized numerical characters in that address format space.

We have now changed the format to recognize the character of a / in the new format."

It took them 2 years to find that out .... and made me take 2 trips back to the U.S. from Thailand (at my expense) to get them to take the trouble to look at their address format before I began to get my mail from the Social Security.

So first thing I would say is make sure that they do have your address correctly as you told them to enter it.

In that two year period, they mailed me no less than 3 Social Security cards and two Medicare cards which I did nor receive.

[likewise]

How much is the camera worth ?

[mancub]

Have you tried visiting the main office in Krabi town ? They have been known to keep mail there until deeming it sufficient to pass on to Ao Nang. Worth a shot ,although they'll most likely tell you that it is delivered daily , they did once allow me back-stage to check ( and actually retrieve) something that I had been waiting on .

[mancub]

As an afterthought, you may be able to pawn your goods, rather than sell. Sorry I can't give you anything concrete, but there would likely be an outlet for this . Maybe another member would know ?