Mail Delay in the Philippines

[kits_24_faith 0]

Just a little tip for everyone here. It is very sad to say as a Filipino that our country really is filled with people who do wrong or bad things. That's why our country never gets better. That's just the fact, but I still love my country. So, whatever you send to the Philippines you are more likely to take the risk of either delays or simply not getting it delivered because whoever works for the postal and noticed that the package came from the US or any other countries opens your package or letters and when found nothing they want or do find something.. they will throw it away afterwards. They get away with these kind of stuff too..ONLY IN THE PHILIPPINES..here if you get caught and work for the USPS.. it's a FEDERAL OFFENSE..

Basically, you're lucky if the employee in the post office who received and who is going to deliver the package is a GOOD person or someone who has a conscience. Hehehe.. oh well.. I have always used fedex and it gets there in no time with REAL TRACKING. Tells you where it is and when it has left a certain location and they call the recipient when they are about to deliver and when they can't find the place.

[Sha and Scott 0]

Hello everyone... I'll share something about our postal service that would make Filipino proud. My fiance had been sending me things, presents, and documents a number of times already and he always used the US Postal Service by priority mail. And i never had any problem receiving everything he sent me. I live in Cebu and working in an export processing zone in Lapu-lapu city and we would always use my office address as the delivery address. Everytime I'll have a package, one of the post office personnel will send a notice of receipt in our office and that would then be my claim slip when I'll get my package. Usually, my packages are big boxes which would contain legal documents, greeting cards, and presents. Last December, my package was delayed but because of the Christmas holidays. It took 21 days till I got it. Usually it would only take 13 or 14 days.

Actually, our postal offices are making good progress too. And another thing, based on experience and my officemates' experience, it is safe to send packages addressed to the office. In my case, the company I work with is known in the area, easy for post office personnel to contact.

[mikeandlani 0]

i'm waiting for financial docs from my hubby as well. dont worry too much about it, its just delayed because of the holidays. it will in all probability arrive next week as the regular work sked resumes. so far, we havent lost anything thru the philippine postal service, even my ebay purchases came through-- delayed yes, but never lost.

can't say the same for fedex though. last time my hubby sent me a package using fedex the ipod karaoke and the 2gb flash disk that came together with the documents were stolen and never recovered.

[simplygem 0]

i'm waiting for financial docs from my hubby as well. dont worry too much about it, its just delayed because of the holidays. it will in all probability arrive next week as the regular work sked resumes. so far, we havent lost anything thru the philippine postal service, even my ebay purchases came through-- delayed yes, but never lost.

can't say the same for fedex though. last time my hubby sent me a package using fedex the ipod karaoke and the 2gb flash disk that came together with the documents were stolen and never recovered.

Hello fellow vjers. I have been reading a lot of very useful posts here. Thought I should share mine regarding mail delays.

Anyway, I have the same bad experiences to both the local postal mail and special courier (Fedex). My fiance ordered a fox40 whistle on the internet as a birthday gift for my older brother. He ordered this 2 or 3 weeks before my brother's birthday. The site where he ordered the whistle gave my fiance a tracking number and estimated day of arrival here in the phils. But sad to say, the gift didnt arrive on time. After my fiance made several follow up emails to the store , the staff shipped out a replacement and finally got the delayed whistle gift .

My fiance always believes that Fedex handles packages, documents or any items with efficiency and care. But there was a theft on the last package he sent me through this courier! Before he shipped out the package he told me what were inside. So when i received it and looked inside the box there were items missing. I immediately sent my fiance a text to inform him of it. Then, i texted the area supervisor of Fedex in Cubao to inform him too (good thing, the supervisor sent me a text before) while my fiance called the fedex office at his place. The guy who delivered it was instructed by his supervisor to go to my house again at 11pm and took photos for evidences. My fiance and I made some follow ups on the case. And after few days, my fiance got a call from fedex office telling him that he had a check amounting to the cost of missing items and shipping amount My fiance was not even asked to fill out a form or was questioned! Fedex people made investigations from US Fedex and Phils Fedex and found out that there was really a theft! (I didn't make any follow ups on where the anomaly happened)

So, bottom line of this.. mail delays (or worst stolen items) happen regardless of what services you use

[Jasman0717 9]

I used priority mail international and Claudeth received the packet in seven days. Have you gone back to the USPS to put a trace on the package?

[fish 0]

What else is new with the delayed postal service in the Philippines. I sent a christmas package for my parents first week of Nov which contains tennis shoes and some shirts and I had it address to my sister who works in gov't office in QC on the BOX I put to the "warning Philippines Post Office beware stealing is a crime, the long arm of the law will caught you" and when my sister get my package at the post office the people at the Custom office told her is this how the people overseas perceive us and my sister just apologize and explained to them that my had lost packages before.

I've lost 2 letters and 1 package before address at our house this time my sister got my package in a week i think my warning worked!

I used priority mail international and Claudeth received the packet in seven days. Have you gone back to the USPS to put a trace on the package?

[marrs 0]

That is troubling news to me. I did plan on using fedex to send my passport to PI. Maybe not. I do know that Fedex in Cubi is about to be closed or moved. SO who knows what people do when they are about to be out of a job(Im just saying. Dont know if that is correct)

I may try DHL they have an office in my fiance's city and I havent heard anything bad about them yet!

[marrs 0]

That is troubling news to me. I did plan on using fedex to send my passport to PI. Maybe not. I do know that Fedex in Cubi is about to be closed or moved. SO who knows what people do when they are about to be out of a job(Im just saying. Dont know if that is correct)

I may try DHL they have an office in my fiance's city and I havent heard anything bad about them yet!

[kits_24_faith 0]

I guess it depends on what you declare when you ship stuff through Fedex. Here's what I do all the time. When I ship something to the Philippines I don't mention anything that has a risk of getting stolen or will be an interest to the potential theft. In other words if I was shipping a letter and a portable dvd player I would replace the dvd player with something like books. I never had problems of doing this, and more likely the box would never be opened. I guess the bottom line is it doesn't matter what courier you use, it's the DESTINATION hehehe. OH well, it happens.

[Bill B 0]

My experiences sending cards and boxes through regular and priority USPS mail to Cebu is not good. We have had a couple cards and one box never make it. We also had one box that made it, but had been opened and some things taken. Even chocolate and candies were opened and some taken, but not all. When my fiancee checked with her local post office they just blamed it on Manila saying the USPS goes through there before Cebu. After those bad experiences, I tried USPS Global Express. Those packages made it ok, but even then my fiancee had to go to the post office to inquire because it never showed up in the time it was supposed to. By the way, every box we have sent USPS has been opened and inventoried in the Cebu post office.

My best experiences have been with FEDEX and UPS. We have never had anything go missing with either of them and the tracking works well too. Neither of these companies have opened or inventoried our package contents either.

Although considerably more expensive, I recommend you use FEDEX or UPS for shipping important or valuable items. Not sure about DHL, I would imagine they are as good as FEDEX and UPS since the pricing was similar when I called them to inquire.

[mikeandlani 0]

I guess it depends on what you declare when you ship stuff through Fedex.

you're probably right. the last package was marked high value since it contained a land title, and it arrived to me with its bottom forced open. good thing the land's certificate of title remained intact.

I guess the bottom line is it doesn't matter what courier you use, it's the DESTINATION hehehe.

per the fedex investigation, the box was already reported with an exception in alaska. that somehow made it easier to accept, at least the theft wasnt attributable to my countrymen.

[c_topolinski 0]

I sent my wife's Christmas present on Dec 8th. She received it on Jan 2. I used USPS Air Post Registered, it took 27 full days to arrive. Normally during non-holiday times it takes 16 full days to reach her. I'm afraid to send anything there that is not registered, she has always received my reistered mail, because it goes through a much more scrutinized process then regular mail, it is also very slow. I have used USPS guarenteed mail, the best you can do with that in United States is 3-6 days tops, there is know next day air I believe. Fed Ex is very reliable, but extremely expensive.

Edited January 6, 2008 by c_topolinski