EMS - round the houses.

[thonglorjimmy]

I'm at a loss to understand how this EMS thing works.

 

I posted an urgent letter to London yesterday from the Post Office on the New Phetchaburi Road, I needed it to get there fairly quickly so I posted it at 08.30 yesterday and paid 850 Baht for EMS.

 

Checking their tracker it was dispatched at 11.50 and arrived at Suvarnabhumi Mail Centre 17.17, they must have gone the long way round, but at least it's on it's way.

 

On checking this morning, hoping to see that it had left Thailand I see it had then gone to the EMS Centre, wherever that is, and a couple of hours later it left there.

 

Three hours after that it arrived at Lat Phrao.

 

I'm sure it will eventually leave Thailand, but I do wonder why it goes on such a circuitous route first. 

[CharlieH]

Usual form is local office---- Regional Center ---- Airport --- "outward" Survanabhum - Accept UK - dispatch 

 

You should be able to track on the Royal mail site too.https://www.royalmail.com/track-your-item

[Gulfsailor]

EMS uses the normal postal service infrastructure and routes, just at minimal delay. If you want a quicker and more direct route you can use services like DHL, Fedex or UPS, at around double the price or more. Or for a truly direct route the only option is a private courier, who picks it up from you, drives straight to the airport, gets on the first available flight, gets into a car at the destination, and hand delivers it. Don't ask the cost...

[OJAS]

Happens from time to time, I'm afraid.

 

My last application to the British Embassy for an income confirmation letter in support of my latest retirement extension went on a magical mystery tour of Bangkok post offices before finally ending up at the one responsible for delivering mail to the Embassy.

[thonglorjimmy]

It just seems a long way round, it's been at the airport once and now at its second location since, I'm sure there's a valid reason.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[dabhand]

I use DHL via their online website and collection from home in Pattaya. Cost of couriers to London is comparable to EMS at approx. Bt860 with usual courier delivery time of 2-3 days with online tracking. Sending via their office locations is more expensive but their home collection service works for me but may not be available in all locations. Might be worth a try.

[thonglorjimmy]

Now showing as back at Phetchaburi Tat Mai, and out for delivery and then delivery status "others", you really couldn't make it up.

[fruitman]

trackingsystems don't work well in thailand...but it will arrive don't worry.

[thonglorjimmy]

I've now got my package back.

It seems that the guys at the Survanabhum mail centre decided that you cannot send EMS to London and sent the package to the EMS Mail Centre who then sent it to Lat Phrao who in turn sent it back to my local post office.

The guy in the post office says they're wrong, and indeed I've sent EMS to the UK before, and advised that he will send it out again on Monday, but I took it back and I've taken dabhands suggestion, it should be collected later today by a DHL operative with an estimated delivery time of Monday or Tuesday.

[KhunBENQ]

17 hours ago, fruitman said:

trackingsystems don't work well in thailand...but it will arrive don't worry.

They always worked fine for me.

The tracking system is better than Deutsche Post's (Germany) which neither shows a track history nor an exact time stamp.

See my last post in a similar thread:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/968203-thai-post/?do=findComment&comment=11629134

 

To the OP it's clearly a "return to sender".

Why it made it's way to Suvarnabhumi first and was then considered "adress unclear" or the like is a mystery to me too.

 

And the envelope clearly showed "UK" or "UNITED KINGDOM" in the last line of the address?

 

[thonglorjimmy]

17 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

To the OP it's clearly a "return to sender".

Why it made it's way to Suvarnabhumi first and was then considered "adress unclear" or the like is a mystery to me too.

 

And the envelope clearly showed "UK" or "UNITED KINGDOM" in the last line of the address?

 

Why it was returned baffled the guy in the post office as well as my wife and I, it was correctly addressed, UK was written as always. As I mentioned earlier the guy in the post office was adamant that it was a mistake by the staff at Suvarnabhumi, he actually spoke to them on the phone whilst we were there, they'd agreed that it would be resubmitted on Monday.
As I've mentioned before, it's now in the hands of DHL and it seems that it left Thailand last night and is well on its way to London, not bad as the DHL guy only picked it up yesterday morning.
One last thing, the guy in the post office refunded my 850 Baht. 

[abab]

1 day only EMS from HK to USA.

 

Thailand Ems is ridiculous just like any other thing in this country.