Sun 8 Mar 2015, 7:57 am

Hi ForumMates!

This is about a problem in Khon Kaen, but I wonder if it extends beyond Isaan. Even if you do not live in Isaan, tell us where you are and how your mail services has been the past few months>

First of all, I have to say that I have had exceptionally good service from the P.O. for the 10+ years I have been in KKC, and in Thailand generally. I am aware of the many "horror stories," but I have been lucky to avoid them, until now.

Please someone correct this if they have better information, I am passing this along 3rd hand from Fron. It seems the P.O. has been / is being reorganized and is now something like a "franchise" operation, perhaps similar to the way it has been in the U.S. for a long time. In any event, whatever they are dong, it has been a disaster. Fon waited over a month for a letter mailed locallly from KKC-to-KKC! I have had some unusually long delays receiving mail and packages from the U.S., but the worst is a costly item shipped from Canada seems to have disappeared into a black hole. Canada Post tracking shows it left Canada on 29 January, more than 5 weeks ago. It shows in the Canada Post tracking, but isn't even in the Thailand Post tracking system.

Although FedEx is a really bad choice for merchandise (I have ranted about this at length elsewhere), but is fine for documents, or for merchandise of low and limited value that FedEx is unlikely to question. Until the KKC P.O. situation is sorted out, it might be a good idea to use FedEx if you must get something from overseas.

Anyone else experience unusual delays or other problems?

I don't know if it extends past Khon Kaen, but mail from Australia is now taking a lot longer than it used to say 1 year ago.

Items from the News indicate that Thailand Post has been used to import undesirable items or items missing out on Customs duties.

I read in the News that the Thailand PO was going to scrutinise the mail more closely last year

That seems to have ended up with long delays in receiving mail.

I am getting really p188ed off with the post office. My weekly Telegraph which should arrive on a Monday, and always used to, now arrives anywhere between Tuesday and Friday. Some weeks two editions arrive in the same post!!

In Hang Dong area, we've had good service from the Postal Service for many years BUT.... recently, a Christmas Card from people in Australia, who have sent us a lot of mail over the years, has just Not Shown Up.

Worse, a letter from another friend in Australia who forwards important mail to me, has "gone missing." It had my Australian MDL Renewal papers which are "time sensitive."

As I said, never had a problem till recently, so don't know what has gone wrong with the system.

A couple of years ago I had a lot of mail go missing, sometimes arriving months late with water marks throughout it. Turns out the local postman was getting drunk everyday and hat ditching the mail, literally throwing it in the ditch. People would find it months later and it would get delivered. He was fired and the mail seems to be pretty good now.

Exactly the same for me in Nakhon Phanom. In 2000 I lost loads of stuff going into Banglamung Sorting Office, Chonburi; but for almost 13 years in Isaan my mail has been faultless --- until now!.

I also used the Thai tracking system for a package sent to Ireland. The system confirmed when my package was posted, left here, arrived Swampy and when it went into a container which was all within 36 hours. Then it totally disappeared off the radar arriving 6 weeks later in Ireland.

Same for other stuff posted from Ireland which took 6 weeks to arrive. A letter sent from Australia 6 weeks ago -- just hasn't arrived.

Thanks to the OP for highlighting this problem, but I doubt that it will change the situation.

Many items not arriving. Three packages posted from the USA in december and January havent arrived.

My problem is our postman has two jobs , the post office appears to be his second , our mail tends to be delivered on a Sunday , I have just had a bank letter arrive from the UK dated 31 Jan.

My CTH bill arrived two days ago , it should have been paid on the 1st of March .

I have had packages that I have tracked from the UK that land at my nearest Post Office , and found out that he keeps everything in his house till Sunday , cos he hasn't got time to deliver in the week.

Just got my 3BB internet bill yesterday which is 2 days after it was due. No problem since I was able to get the the bill online. Already have gotten this months bill by email. End of problem.

Set up True Visions bill by email a long time ago after bill failed to show up in time to pay it. Now get the receipts for online banking payments by mail that are normally over a month after I paid it.

I wonder how long it would take to get the receipts from Phibun it I did my 90 day reports by mail to them.

Normal letters get here okay, cards or stuff with bank markings never arrive.

You need to see the shoddy unprofessional way Thaipost deliver in Bkk. Guy on a motorbike piled up on the back of, letters and small parcels loosely and periously attached ,often falling off.

Just as a follow up to my earlier post.

I have been waiting for a small package to arrive from the UK , Two weeks passed , nothing .

We went to the postmans house yesterday , he was out in a small tractor spraying the land with something.

We waited for him to come back to the end of the field near his house , the wife called him over and asked if he had anything for us.

Yes a small package , I will go and get it. When he returned the wife asked him why he hadn't delivered it , he said he was to busy .

He has his first job at the Thessabahn ? , and his bit of land and crops need to be taken care of .

He is actually looking for someone to take over the postmans job as he hasn't the time.

Credit where credit is due , he is not afraid of work , there just aren't enough hours in the day for him.

I have recieved about 5 things in the post here at Chaiyaphum. 3 of them broken and 2 of them were things that would have taken some effort to break. As far as speed it is ridiculous. I normally have tracking and 2 days from Singapore or Australia to Thailand (Bangkok centre) then maybe 5 or 6 days here. Tracking site may say its delivered...which means it could be at my local post or the main Amphur one which usually results in a back and forwards run around looking for my item. It is ridiculous.

Here is another one .

I have ordered a book , nothing special , it landed in Thailand Friday Morning 10:30 am.

Nothing happened Friday , Saturday , Sunday or Monday .

I sent UPS am e-mail asking them to find out why it had not moved , I must say they answered within 10 minutes.

The answer came back....... since Friday morning " My parcel is pending an individual arrival scan on the actual parcel itself before it can go into customs and then to the last mile carrier. "

God knows when I will get it.

I live in JoHo, a suburb of Korat, in the same house for 7 years now and only had a problem when some one on the other end did not write the correct address. Letters and packages always are delivered in a reasonable time.

Never had any problems getting anything delivered to a village in Ubon over the last few years, video games, baby clothes and toys, various things from eBay from all over the world, never been hit up for tax there either. It was expected that the mail would take 2 to 4 weeks to arrive from the UK.

In Bangkok I got stung for import tax because I sent a few of my personal items from the UK with FedEx, that was a 5,000 baht learning experience. The only piece of mail that has ever been lost in 6 years was a replacement debit card.

I just had a parcel sent last Wednesday from the UK containing video games, baby toys and books, and it arrived to our condo in Bangkok this morning so just 7 days.

My problem is not getting the items to Thailand , it is the length of time they stay dormant.

Like I say , I have one now that has been in Thailand since 10:30 Friday morning and it hasn't moved.

Other times it is in the postmans house cos he is to busy to deliver it.

My problem is not getting the items to Thailand , it is the length of time they stay dormant.

Like I say , I have one now that has been in Thailand since 10:30 Friday morning and it hasn't moved.

Other times it is in the postmans house cos he is to busy to deliver it.

Sounds like you are expecting 1st world service in the rural part of a 3rd world country. Be happy you even have a postman who does eventually deliver your mail to your house!

No problems at all, just received a package in our Amphur town, which was sent from New York just 1 week prior. Which seems pretty decent to me.

My problem is not getting the items to Thailand , it is the length of time they stay dormant.

Like I say , I have one now that has been in Thailand since 10:30 Friday morning and it hasn't moved.

Other times it is in the postmans house cos he is to busy to deliver it.

Sounds like you are expecting 1st world service in the rural part of a 3rd world country. Be happy you even have a postman who does eventually deliver your mail to your house!

Not really mate , just expecting a half decent service that has been paid for .

My problem is not getting the items to Thailand , it is the length of time they stay dormant.

Like I say , I have one now that has been in Thailand since 10:30 Friday morning and it hasn't moved.

Other times it is in the postmans house cos he is to busy to deliver it.

Sounds like you are expecting 1st world service in the rural part of a 3rd world country. Be happy you even have a postman who does eventually deliver your mail to your house!

Isn't this "soft racism": infantilizing Thais, treating them as too incompetent and backwards to be held to held to any sort of standards. Sometimes, "TIT" doesn't quite cut it, in my opinion. "1st World service"??? Really??? To act on the basis that if you pay for a service, you have a reasonable expectation of getting what you paid for? Come on!

My problem is not getting the items to Thailand , it is the length of time they stay dormant.

Like I say , I have one now that has been in Thailand since 10:30 Friday morning and it hasn't moved.

Other times it is in the postmans house cos he is to busy to deliver it.

Sounds like you are expecting 1st world service in the rural part of a 3rd world country. Be happy you even have a postman who does eventually deliver your mail to your house!

Isn't this "soft racism": infantilizing Thais, treating them as too incompetent and backwards to be held to held to any sort of standards. Sometimes, "TIT" doesn't quite cut it, in my opinion. "1st World service"??? Really??? To act on the basis that if you pay for a service, you have a reasonable expectation of getting what you paid for? Come on!

Seems to me you are exposing your own racist opinions of Thais there. I never said anything about Thais and here you are thinking they are all backwards and incompetent, tsk tsk.

I was just telling the guy not to sweat the small stuff, he gets his mail eventually, be happy with that, he expects it to be delayed so why get stressed if he understands the situation?

Living in Isaan is a life full of concessions. If small things like your mail taking a little bit longer to be posted to your house aggravates you so much then you're in for a stressful life there.

My problem is not getting the items to Thailand , it is the length of time they stay dormant.

Like I say , I have one now that has been in Thailand since 10:30 Friday morning and it hasn't moved.

Other times it is in the postmans house cos he is to busy to deliver it.

Sounds like you are expecting 1st world service in the rural part of a 3rd world country. Be happy you even have a postman who does eventually deliver your mail to your house!

Not really mate , just expecting a half decent service that has been paid for .

You get your mail delivered to your house as promised, that is more than half decent service. If it was always lost or interfered with you may have a point. You really aren't a "glass half full" kind of a guy, are you?

Not really , the topic of this post is about delays . losses , damages using the Post Office here in Thailand.

I have answered it with factual happenings .

If you do not have a problem with the Postal service , say so , then move on.

Thank You.

I buy loads of stuff off eBay from all over the world and the only problem I've had in 5 years was a parcel which was sent to Taiwan by mistake instead of Thailand even though the address on the parcel was correct. My local postal service is excellent....

Bit off topic but a chance to rant about non-delivery of electricity bill, despite every house being issued with a special plastic recipient box.

Not even once. Always ends up with a neighbour. Have had water bills in it though.

Back on topic, recently had PIN for new bank card delivered late, in a transparent plastic bag and looking like a dog had been at it.

Salvaged the number OK.

2 padded envelopes from Germany delivered in 9 days, 1 bog-standard letter from Belgium took 6 weeks.

Like the curate's egg: good in parts.

I tracked a parcel all the way from England and then today saw unsuccessful physical delivery.Item being held addressee being notified due to Item damage but I have received no card to go to the PO to collect it.I don't know what to do?..