No surface mail any more

luckat

Sent off a parcel to Japan today. A hoodie, couple of T-shirts, slippers, a book, CDs - you know the kind of thing.

Sixty-five bleeding euro!

There's no surface mail any more, except to Britain, its former colonies of Australia and Canada, and its colonial master the US.

Anyone know of any way around this? I'm going broke sending off care parcels to the family!

(And why on earth don't post offices take credit cards, several geological ages after every other corner shop does? Join the 20th century, lads, never mind the 21st!)

Sarsfield

I can't answer any of your questions, but An Post (and probably many other traditional postal services) need to cop themselves on very quickly.

The day when utility bills & bank statements mostly arrive by e-mail is just around the corner (its started already). I'm guessing that accounts for the vast majority of domestic business. Unless they can pick up new business, that will spell the end of postal services as we know them. I don't consider that a good thing.

luckat

Is there surface mail from Wales, England or France to other countries at a reasonable price? If there is, it'd be well worth someone with a van or a truck setting up a service to bring truckloads of parcels over on the ferry twice a week, stamp 'em and send 'em!

parsi

http://www.letterpost.ie/USO04.html#Zone4 - has 2kg Economy packages going to "rest of the World" for €11 ...

www.sds.ie have a 2.5kg priority parcel for €56 ..

dudara

An Post have deteriorated immensely in the last few years. I've had three or four letters go missing in the last few months, and it takes 2-3 days for letters to be delivered now. Next-day delivery is now the exception, not the norm

LFCFan

Our estate is suffering bigtime lately getting post. Sometimes it's a month or 2 late. Other times you don't even get post. An Post are a joke.

seamus

Originally posted by dudara
An Post have deteriorated immensely in the last few years. I've had three or four letters go missing in the last few months, and it takes 2-3 days for letters to be delivered now. Next-day delivery is now the exception, not the norm

I have to concur with that. They used to be a world class service. If you got your mail in before the afternoon collection one day, you could be almost guaranteed that it would arrive anywhere else in the country the next morning. Now it takes a minimum of two days to send mail to the same county. Apparently it's still miles better than a lot of other countries, but I've received mail from reliable organisations (i.e. they send the mail when they have it to send) with dates from a week or two previous.

eclectichoney

yeah have to second that. we don't get post delivered every day, usually 3 times a week i'd say, and it took a letter posted in dublin three weeks to get to me, even though i live in dublin too. it's disgraceful.

Syth

It's ridiculus that they close for lunch and at about 5pm, and are closed on saturday and sundays. Nearly everything is open at weekends now. Join the 21st century.

The idea of getting someone with a van is a great idea.

RainyDay

Instead of sending the care parcels from here, I find it much easier to order stuff online from a local supplier in the country of the recipient and have them ship it directly.

Urban Weigl

A good start may be http://www.amazon.co.jp/ -- how's your Japanese?

luckat

You can actually translate the .jp page into the tongue of the Saxon if you want, and translate the yen into the tongue of the euro.

DaithiSurfer

I have a LOT of mail dissapearing now that i know was sent.
The other side of the coin is that i get a LOT of mail in my letterbox that is nowhere near my address. The number of the house isnt even close and the name of the estate is completely different.
Can't postmen read anymore?