Problems with the Thailand Postal Service?

[Guest fountainhall]

I was rather shocked this morning when a friend from outside Pattaya called to thank me for my Christmas card. It turned out it had just arrived this morning - even though the address had been typed and it was posted on Tuesday 13th!

 

For business reasons, I send out quite a lot of cards each year as well as those I send to family and friends. Now I am wondering how many cards failed to reach Europe and North America in time for Christmas (even though those were mailed well before the 13th).

 

I had got an indication that something is not right at the Thailand Post Office because by the 24th I'd received less than a third of the cards I'd normally receive. I'm sure I've been bumped off some former clients' lists, but that still does not explain such a reduced number. Now I am beginning to wonder if the floods are still affecting the Post Office operations here. Could it be that there is such a backlog from the floods that all mail - local and international - is being delayed for well over a week? Has anyone else experienced this?

[TotallyOz]

I was rather shocked this morning when a friend from outside Pattaya called to thank me for my Christmas card. It turned out it had just arrived this morning - even though the address had been typed and it was posted on Tuesday 13th!

 

For business reasons, I send out quite a lot of cards each year as well as those I send to family and friends. Now I am wondering how many cards failed to reach Europe and North America in time for Christmas (even though those were mailed well before the 13th).

 

I had got an indication that something is not right at the Thailand Post Office because by the 24th I'd received less than a third of the cards I'd normally receive. I'm sure I've been bumped off some former clients' lists, but that still does not explain such a reduced number. Now I am beginning to wonder if the floods are still affecting the Post Office operations here. Could it be that there is such a backlog from the floods that all mail - local and international - is being delayed for well over a week? Has anyone else experienced this?

 

I had sent my boyfriend a package early in December and it was done from the Postal Service in USA. To date, he still has not gotten it. It never took that long before. All the packages I sent are normally there in a week or two at max. I think it is lost and I wondered if there was either a backlog or if the package was stolen.

[Guest fountainhall]

I have on a couple of occasions had packages sent locally 'disappear' - i.e. stolen, and so now always use the more expensive ems service here. But your post bears out my concern that there are probably major backlogs with the Thailand Postal Service that have not been publicly announced (at least, I have seen nothing).

[Guest thaiworthy]

I have read umpteen threads about missing Thai postal mail, especially Christmas cards. As for packages, I would use FedEx, although expensive it all depends on whether you can afford to lose it. If it can be tracked, I wouldn't worry too much, especially if the origin is in the USA. However, when I do go the expensive route, I usually pay a hefty duty for items I just had to have-- bought impulsively online.

[Guest]

One guy in my hotel has been waiting for a letter from Germany for about three weeks.

[mahjongguy]

I rarely have any problems with the post here but the floods definitely caused havoc.

 

I have a small appliance that I need to send in for service. The repair shop is somewhere in Bangkok and it's on a list of postal codes that are temporarily unavailable. That was 10 days ago. Tomorrow I'll go to the post office and try again.

[Bob]

I too have experienced long delays in the last month+ in sending letters/cards to the US and some that were sent here weeks ago still haven't surfaced. While the floods probably caused some transportation issues, I chalk most of it down to a fairly lousy postal service.

[Guest fountainhall]

I spoke to a postal service lady today about the delay in deliveries. She told me that deliveries of all mail in Thailand are subject to major delays due to the need for the Post Office to clear the huge backlog from the floods. She assured me, however, that international mail sent from Thailand is not affected. This seems to be true, as I have heard from friends in Canada and the UK that mail posted on 9 December reached them before Christmas.

 

Anyone wanting a guaranteed delivery within Thailand should consider using the EMS service. It's not as expensive as the regular couriers and I have always found it 100% reliable.