Thailand's postal service - what do they do with my mail?

[facthailand]

30 years ago I got a PO box close to home. Have an established relationship with the PO workers.

Hardly any POs use stamps anymore unless you request them. No value in a sticker already debited by machine.

Lots of int'l mail. Never had anything go missing, big or small, to and from, mostly by regular airmail.

[gk10002000]

. I wonder, does the sorting office lose them, or can the delivery man choose what to deliver and what to scrap or keep?

I wonder, too; 4 years ago there were important letters I never receive from Europe, and may be the postman was too lazy to deliver them in my little street

now I have a PO box and I get everything, I go and fetch the mail myself: in my experience, every thing registered or EMS to Thailand or from Europe arrives well ; when you pay more, everything is ok

Yeah. I think the PO Box is the only way to go. First, there is almost no issue about exactly where the darn stuff should go. Second, Thai addresses are a bit hard to explain to people outside of Thailand and it is easy for them to not label it correctly or whoever is sending you stuff has a data entry database that struggles with what to put where in what address field. Unfortunately, some official mailings from the USA will NOT send to PO boxes, since they want official residence addresses. But that varies depending on the institution, and what is being mailed

[soc]

. I wonder, does the sorting office lose them, or can the delivery man choose what to deliver and what to scrap or keep?

I wonder, too; 4 years ago there were important letters I never receive from Europe, and may be the postman was too lazy to deliver them in my little street

now I have a PO box and I get everything, I go and fetch the mail myself: in my experience, every thing registered or EMS to Thailand or from Europe arrives well ; when you pay more, everything is ok

Yeah. I think the PO Box is the only way to go. First, there is almost no issue about exactly where the darn stuff should go. Second, Thai addresses are a bit hard to explain to people outside of Thailand and it is easy for them to not label it correctly or whoever is sending you stuff has a data entry database that struggles with what to put where in what address field. Unfortunately, some official mailings from the USA will NOT send to PO boxes, since they want official residence addresses. But that varies depending on the institution, and what is being mailed

When in Australia, l had that problem too.

l used to buy goods online & some companies in both Australia & the US would not accept a PO Box as you have said.

Extremely frustrating as l did not get mail delivered to my residential address.

Eventually l would put both residential AND p.o box number down as my address & then everything was successfully delivered.

l put the PO Box in first & in larger letters.

Might confuse them here though!

[watcharacters]

I don't care to receive mail any longer as I prefer things online but I do hold mail in high regards.

Getting convicted for abusing the mail in the USA comes with some fairly hefty penalties and I'm OK with that. Many times in my life I've walked a few houses down the block to give wrongly delivered mail to the proper addressee. Theft of mail is a serious thing in my eyes.

"Whoever steals, takes, or abstracts, or by fraud or deception obtains, or attempts so to obtain, from or out of any mail, post office, or station thereof, letter box, mail receptacle, or any mail route or other authorized depository for mail matter, or from a letter or mail carrier, any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or abstracts or removes from any such letter, package, bag, or mail, any article or thing contained therein, or secretes, embezzles, or destroys any such letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein; or

Whoever steals, takes, or abstracts, or by fraud or deception obtains any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein which has been left for collection upon or adjacent to a collection box or other authorized depository of mail matter; or

Whoever buys, receives, or conceals, or unlawfully has in his possession, any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein, which has been so stolen, taken, embezzled, or abstracted, as herein described, knowing the same to have been stolen, taken, embezzled, or abstracted—

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 779; May 24, 1949, ch. 139, § 39, 63 Stat. 95; July 1, 1952, ch. 535, 66 Stat. 314; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(I), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)"

Edited March 11, 2016 by watcharacters

[CNXBKKMAN]

About two weeks ago a posted a pair of gloves in a Thai post padded envelope at Chiang Mai airport post office. Air mail to the UK. I declined EMS just normal airmail "tamadar" (Thai for normal or standard). I made no customs declaration. I watched the staff stamp "air mail" on it a couple of times. They guy said it will take two weeks but amazingly it was delivered in one week. I was shocked actually.

However post from the UK like Christmas cards and the like sent to me in Chiang Mai, more often than not does not arrive. So much so that I tell people don't bother posting stuff to me.

[i claudius]

A card i posted arrived safly the other day , but as said previously , many do not arrive here from Britain .

[robblok]

A card i posted arrived safly the other day , but as said previously , many do not arrive here from Britain .

Seems many Brits have this problem, though I a Dutch guy gets everything that is send from me from the Netherlands.

Maybe the UK postal system is bad, or you all live in places where the posties are lazy.

I do tip my postman once a year with a bottle of JW black label for his good services. I also receive all my parcels that i order on ebay.

[i claudius]

A card i posted arrived safly the other day , but as said previously , many do not arrive here from Britain .

Seems many Brits have this problem, though I a Dutch guy gets everything that is send from me from the Netherlands.

Maybe the UK postal system is bad, or you all live in places where the posties are lazy.

I do tip my postman once a year with a bottle of JW black label for his good services. I also receive all my parcels that i order on ebay.

No our postman is great ,been ours for years, always gets us to sign for our neighbours and them to sign for us. To save us going to the post office

[robblok]

A card i posted arrived safly the other day , but as said previously , many do not arrive here from Britain .

Seems many Brits have this problem, though I a Dutch guy gets everything that is send from me from the Netherlands.

Maybe the UK postal system is bad, or you all live in places where the posties are lazy.

I do tip my postman once a year with a bottle of JW black label for his good services. I also receive all my parcels that i order on ebay.

No our postman is great ,been ours for years, always gets us to sign for our neighbours and them to sign for us. To save us going to the post office

Mine is great too.. as I never miss anything value him a lot his predecessor was good too. So every time around new year the postman gets a bottle of JW. He even calls at times if he thinks I am not home.

I am quite happy, because I hear a lot of other people seem to have problems (on Thaivisa that is)

[soalbundy]

Our postman retired 6 months ago, they cant find a replacement so a motorbike posty comes from the market town post office and dumps all the letters at the local shop

[Bench499d]

Can someone explain to me why it takes so long? So for example, the poster above who sends the gloves from Chiang Mai airport to the UK.

In my simple mind, all the airmail post from the Chiang Mai area, including the airport, should be flown to BKK daily, which should then be sorted by country and put on the respective flight to go to its destination. At which point it is landed and delivered by the local postal service.

I can't see why this whole process takes more than say 3 or 4 days.

Chiang Mai to BKK 1 day

BKK to UK 1 day

UK to UK address 1 day

????

[soalbundy]

Can someone explain to me why it takes so long? So for example, the poster above who sends the gloves from Chiang Mai airport to the UK.

In my simple mind, all the airmail post from the Chiang Mai area, including the airport, should be flown to BKK daily, which should then be sorted by country and put on the respective flight to go to its destination. At which point it is landed and delivered by the local postal service.

I can't see why this whole process takes more than say 3 or 4 days.

Chiang Mai to BKK 1 day

BKK to UK 1 day

UK to UK address 1 day

????

It is just one of life's mysteries like ,why do pubs have parking lots,why does one sock always disappear in the washing machine.

[cooked]

Sorry, I just found this thread.

I just received voting material from Switzerland, which was the first time in four years. As you may know, Switzerland frequently has referendums, on top of that there are the local, cantonal and national elections. This means that at least 20 letters to me have disappeared. A replacement credit card, sent by registered mail did arrive.

I fly to Switzerland once a year to sell stuff from Thailand (as opposed to using Ebay) , as sending it by EMS makes them too expensive.

Our local recycler of waste paper otherwise known as the postman, has been seen holding envelopes up to the sun without any effort to hide. He has never been to our house, he leaves the little mail that does get through Indian territory with the neighbours. We paid him a polite visit a year ago, the next one, happening soon, won't be so friendly.

[CharlieH]

I think a lot of the Thai issues in delivering is down to the crazy addressing system. I wouldnt want to try to deliver things as there is no logical sequence.

As an example, in the UK, mostly, you have even numbers on one side, odd on the opposite, and they rise in sequence in the street.

Out here in the sticks, I would imagine it could take half a day to try and find the correct house. In my soi alone, there is no logical order, when we built our house we were told to look at a book and choose a number not yet taken ??? as an example #8 is next door to #35, and the same soi no. is used in 3 parts of the village. Deliveries have to telephone and are usually met on a motorcycle on the outskirts and guided in

When we lived in the city, we had to draw maps, or go meet deliveries at a local point and guide them in, postman had no chance as they are numbered totally randomly.

For that reason, I have always used a mailbox at the local Post Office, never ever miss anything or had anything go astray again. for 500 baht a year its a great comfort. I just have to go check the box myself which is no big deal.

Go take a walk and look around you, see if you are lucky and the numbering system makes sense, I'd be surprised if it does.

[cooked]

I think a lot of the Thai issues in delivering is down to the crazy addressing system. I wouldnt want to try to deliver things as there is no logical sequence.

As an example, in the UK, mostly, you have even numbers on one side, odd on the opposite, and they rise in sequence in the street.

Out here in the sticks, I would imagine it could take half a day to try and find the correct house. In my soi alone, there is no logical order, when we built our house we were told to look at a book and choose a number not yet taken ??? as an example #8 is next door to #35, and the same soi no. is used in 3 parts of the village. Deliveries have to telephone and are usually met on a motorcycle on the outskirts and guided in

When we lived in the city, we had to draw maps, or go meet deliveries at a local point and guide them in, postman had no chance as they are numbered totally randomly.

For that reason, I have always used a mailbox at the local Post Office, never ever miss anything or had anything go astray again. for 500 baht a year its a great comfort. I just have to go check the box myself which is no big deal.

Go take a walk and look around you, see if you are lucky and the numbering system makes sense, I'd be surprised if it does.

My bank wont send stuff to my PO box because (theoretically) no one there can sign for it.

[NanLaew]

My problem is mail from home not arriving at my condo, and i need to get a replacement bank card sent here...

I have used UK registered International mail to a Thai street address and that was about 10 days. I have also used the equivalent US international priority and that took the best part of 3 weeks. The fastest, most secure and of course most expensive is international courier and where I stay in Pattaya, DHL and FedEx is well represented. Typically stuff from US and/or Europe is with me in 3 working days via either courier.

[arbtrader]

What's going on here? Have I been unlucky? Is the international mail service a waste of time? I understand I could and maybe should have paid for a tracking service for more important items but, for a simple birthday card...

[gandalf12]

l lived in lndonesia & many Christmas cards never made it to Australia, the UK etc.

l have been told that the postal workers didn't like handling anything to do with the Christian religion & tore them up.

lf they contained money, then that was a bonus for them.

Friend of mine worked on an oilrig off Pakistan & NONE of his letters reached the UK.

A Pakistani employee told him that the clerks in the Post Office would remove the stamps & resell them.

Keeping the money, off course, then destroying the letter.

His company then franked all their letters but they still didn't arrive.

Maybe the postal workers destroyed them out of spite because they couldn't steal?

l have found no problems, so far, with the Thai postal service.

Same in Saudi

[CharlieH]

I think a lot of the Thai issues in delivering is down to the crazy addressing system. I wouldnt want to try to deliver things as there is no logical sequence.

As an example, in the UK, mostly, you have even numbers on one side, odd on the opposite, and they rise in sequence in the street.

Out here in the sticks, I would imagine it could take half a day to try and find the correct house. In my soi alone, there is no logical order, when we built our house we were told to look at a book and choose a number not yet taken ??? as an example #8 is next door to #35, and the same soi no. is used in 3 parts of the village. Deliveries have to telephone and are usually met on a motorcycle on the outskirts and guided in

When we lived in the city, we had to draw maps, or go meet deliveries at a local point and guide them in, postman had no chance as they are numbered totally randomly.

For that reason, I have always used a mailbox at the local Post Office, never ever miss anything or had anything go astray again. for 500 baht a year its a great comfort. I just have to go check the box myself which is no big deal.

Go take a walk and look around you, see if you are lucky and the numbering system makes sense, I'd be surprised if it does.

My bank wont send stuff to my PO box because (theoretically) no one there can sign for it.

If you explain its an "in house post office" box and therefore manned by PO employess, not an "unmanned hole in the wall" that usually changes the situation.

[soalbundy]

My problem is mail from home not arriving at my condo, and i need to get a replacement bank card sent here...

I have used UK registered International mail to a Thai street address and that was about 10 days. I have also used the equivalent US international priority and that took the best part of 3 weeks. The fastest, most secure and of course most expensive is international courier and where I stay in Pattaya, DHL and FedEx is well represented. Typically stuff from US and/or Europe is with me in 3 working days via either courier.

unfortunately banks only send by normal post. Clifspad should get the bank card sent to his home address in farangland and get his relations to send it on registered post.

[soalbundy]

It's a conspiracy,all my unimportant mail arrives,all the important mail gets lost

[BV70]

The original post was about sending mail from Thailand, rather than deliveries to Thai addresses from abroad. Either way it appears that, unless you use the tracking service here, you may aswell not bother.