Mail fail: Postcard left untouched in post box for 2 months

[webfact]

Mail fail: Postcard left untouched in post box for 2 months
By Coconuts Bangkok


Photo: Ninenot Tanate

BANGKOK: -- If you've ever sent someone a postcard from Thailand but it never arrived at its destination, this is probably why.

A Nakhon Sri Thammarat man has just found out that a postcard he dropped in a local post box in February is still there, with some other letters and pieces of garbage.

Ninenot Tanate, a postcard enthusiast and an amateur postcard artist, posted on Facebook, saying he took a photo of the inside of the post box out of curiosity to see if the postman ever opened it.

Full story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2016/04/20/mail-fail-postcard-left-untouched-post-box-2-months


-- Coconuts Bangkok 2016-04-21

[tagalong]

Well! What do you expect? This is Thailand...

[selftaopath]

If any mail "gets through" in our village it's a monumentous occasion. It's not only that much of our mail isn't delivered but other Thai residents have not received - some very important - mail either. Complaints have been made but.... in Lack of Sanctions (LOS) nothing credible happens insuring the taking of job/personal responsibility. Seems like it's all one big game.

[FourAces]

It appears that it was more likely that more MaMa packets were delivered than actual mail.

[Ricardo]

What do you expect for a B3-stamp ?

[TerminalVelosity]

Thais cant seem to be able to throw their litter in a bin, but have no problem throwing it in a mail box. Amazing Thailand.

[Rooo]

Junk mail.

[ezzra]

Yet, all my monthly bills never fail to arrive on time, month after month without fail.....

[jamesbrock]

If any mail "gets through" in our village it's a monumentous occasion. It's not only that much of our mail isn't delivered but other Thai residents have not received - some very important - mail either. Complaints have been made but.... in Lack of Sanctions (LOS) nothing credible happens insuring the taking of job/personal responsibility. Seems like it's all one big game.

Same, but with the addressing conventions in Thailand it's a miracle any mail makes it around rural Thailand at all!

Getting it sorted down to the Tambon level would be easy enough, even Muban level, but after that the poor mailman is pretty much on his own.

In a regular country, the mailman (or anyone, for that matter) would get to the village, find the street and travel down that street following the logical numerical sequence of houses - knowing that number 16 is going to be between 14 & 18 and pretty much across the road from 15.

In rural Thailand, street names are not used, and there is no logical nor numerical sequence to the houses. Each village is divided into numbered plots - numbered in the order they were originally registered at the Amphur; each of these numbered plots may (or may not) contain multiple houses - with each house, again, numbered in the order they were originally registered at the Amphur. My wife's house in her village is numbered 7/13 Moo3, whereas the house next door is numbered 121/2 Moo3.

I'm sure a regular mailman would soon get to know his run, and for new mailmen Thailand Post has maps available showing the location of each house on each plot in each village - but with the failure rate of Thai mail it would seem they're only used some of the time.

[bluesofa]

If any mail "gets through" in our village it's a monumentous occasion. It's not only that much of our mail isn't delivered but other Thai residents have not received - some very important - mail either. Complaints have been made but.... in Lack of Sanctions (LOS) nothing credible happens insuring the taking of job/personal responsibility. Seems like it's all one big game.

Thailand Post has maps available showing the location of each house on each plot in each village - but with the failure rate of Thai mail it would seem they're only used some of the time.

I'm interested, I wonder if the map is available to use/view?

I read a couple of years back that in some areas in Bangkok the BMA(?)/Post Office were experimenting with using the house numbering we know elsewhere - 1,3,5,7 & 2,4,6,8, etc

Perhaps some TV members have some knowledge about this?

[jamesbrock]

If any mail "gets through" in our village it's a monumentous occasion. It's not only that much of our mail isn't delivered but other Thai residents have not received - some very important - mail either. Complaints have been made but.... in Lack of Sanctions (LOS) nothing credible happens insuring the taking of job/personal responsibility. Seems like it's all one big game.

Thailand Post has maps available showing the location of each house on each plot in each village - but with the failure rate of Thai mail it would seem they're only used some of the time.

I'm interested, I wonder if the map is available to use/view?

I read a couple of years back that in some areas in Bangkok the BMA(?)/Post Office were experimenting with using the house numbering we know elsewhere - 1,3,5,7 & 2,4,6,8, etc

Perhaps some TV members have some knowledge about this?

Yeah, I was more expressing hope than certainty regarding the village plot maps. If they do exist, I certainly haven't seen them.

[DrTuner]

Usual for non-registered mail. I just got a bunch of stuff that had been lying around somewhere in the system for over a month. Personal record for postal delay is eight months.

[alanrchase]

Two letters from my foreign bank posted a month apart both took 5 months to arrive. Two birthday cards posted a couple of days apart took 7 days each.

[mesterm]

What do you expect for a B3-stamp ?

What it's meant to do?

[mesterm]

Yet, all my monthly bills never fail to arrive on time, month after month without fail.....

[rkidlad]

Yet, all my monthly bills never fail to arrive on time, month after month without fail.....

Ergo, this story isn't true? Or they're not incompetent?

[hansnl]

The maps, mentioned above, exist.

And are used by Thailand mail,TOT,Amphur to name a few.

All in the computer.

[SOTIRIOS]

...did you read the pathetic excuse.....'...had lost the key to the box'......

...sorry but really....this rationale is scary.....

...able to excuse away anything...

[roiethome]

I would never dream of using a postbox, many are not collected on a regular basis. Much better to take to a post office and know it is on it's way.

[Bangkok Barry]

If any mail "gets through" in our village it's a monumentous occasion. It's not only that much of our mail isn't delivered but other Thai residents have not received - some very important - mail either. Complaints have been made but.... in Lack of Sanctions (LOS) nothing credible happens insuring the taking of job/personal responsibility. Seems like it's all one big game.

Same, but with the addressing conventions in Thailand it's a miracle any mail makes it around rural Thailand at all!

Getting it sorted down to the Tambon level would be easy enough, even Muban level, but after that the poor mailman is pretty much on his own.

In a regular country, the mailman (or anyone, for that matter) would get to the village, find the street and travel down that street following the logical numerical sequence of houses - knowing that number 16 is going to be between 14 & 18 and pretty much across the road from 15.

In rural Thailand, street names are not used, and there is no logical nor numerical sequence to the houses. Each village is divided into numbered plots - numbered in the order they were originally registered at the Amphur; each of these numbered plots may (or may not) contain multiple houses - with each house, again, numbered in the order they were originally registered at the Amphur. My wife's house in her village is numbered 7/13 Moo3, whereas the house next door is numbered 121/2 Moo3.

I'm sure a regular mailman would soon get to know his run, and for new mailmen Thailand Post has maps available showing the location of each house on each plot in each village - but with the failure rate of Thai mail it would seem they're only used some of the time.

Several years ago the government said that it was going to change this system to the more conventional one you mentioned. But well, you know......

I believe that Japan has a similarly unfathomable system.

[Bangkok Barry]

So the postal worker lost the key to the box. And, instead of facing up to the problem and dealing with it he, in typical Thai style, buried his head in the sand and pretended there wasn't a problem. You know, like a five year old would do. Pathetic.

[fakename]

Give the guy a break, maybe the road was slippery or the breaks failed, or a bike cut him off. Lots of rational explanations!

[SoFarAndNear]

Well! What do you expect? This is Thailand...

I live here for 5 years and sent at least 100x of letters and parcels. Never had any problems.

[ddavidovsky]

Only 7 items in the postbox over all that time... daily collection is hardly appropriate. The postman probably got fed up of checking and finding the box empty. They should have removed it. Lax management issue.

[SuwadeeS]

That is what I expected. To lazy to walk two blood meters to a a trash can, but through it in a letter box. The need some lesson of basic behavior and how to do their jobs professional.

Further, 3 out of 10 post sending I did never receive.

Edited April 21, 2016 by SuwadeeS

[Peterphuket]

"Responsebility" is a difficult word for Thai

[Scouse Twoccer]

Same, but with the addressing conventions in Thailand it's a miracle any mail makes it around rural Thailand at all!

Getting it sorted down to the Tambon level would be easy enough, even Muban level, but after that the poor mailman is pretty much on his own.

In a regular country, the mailman (or anyone, for that matter) would get to the village, find the street and travel down that street following the logical numerical sequence of houses - knowing that number 16 is going to be between 14 & 18 and pretty much across the road from 15.

In rural Thailand, street names are not used, and there is no logical nor numerical sequence to the houses. Each village is divided into numbered plots - numbered in the order they were originally registered at the Amphur; each of these numbered plots may (or may not) contain multiple houses - with each house, again, numbered in the order they were originally registered at the Amphur. My wife's house in her village is numbered 7/13 Moo3, whereas the house next door is numbered 121/2 Moo3.

I'm sure a regular mailman would soon get to know his run, and for new mailmen Thailand Post has maps available showing the location of each house on each plot in each village - but with the failure rate of Thai mail it would seem they're only used some of the time.

"...but with the failure rate of Thai mail..."

What "failure rate"? The one that you invented?

[nickcar]

In my village, normal mail (including bills) is rarely if ever delivered, ems etc is aways delivered in a timely manner. My only bills here are TOT and i have to ring the office every month to get them to send email copies of the bills. Normal mail i always direct to my BKK address and collect every 2 pr 3 weeks. Post office explanation is that they can rarely hire someone who is willing to do the job. Ems is delivered by senior staff.

[Scouse Twoccer]

That's a very odd photo.

The post box is obviously used, judging by the other items in there, but his postcards that have allegedly been in there for 2 months are so immaculate compared to the other dirty letters that they could have been put there yesterday.

His cards have magically landed in the perfect position for a photo on top of the others, the right way around. And in 2 months nothing else has been posted in the box since his?

How did he get his hand and phone into the box in order to take the pictures, post box slots are designed to stop people from accessing them and nicking stuff.

[Scouse Twoccer]

Thais cant seem to be able to throw their litter in a bin, but have no problem throwing it in a mail box. Amazing Thailand.

It must have been Thais, yes? There are no other nationalities in the country?