post

Hi is anyone having problems receiving uk post we have had one letter since Christmas and I know that at least three items have been sent to us in the last 5 weeks, nothing has reached us so far.

Hi - I´m afraid that the post in Orihuela Costa is very hit and miss.  They tend to save up until they have enough mail for your box to make it worth coming out.  I have had nothing for several weeks and then 9 letters in one day!

They also take great delight in not delivering anything which is not perfectly addressed.  I heard a man in the post office in Playa Flamenca being told that yes, there had been mail for him, but, as the address was not correct they had sent it back!!  I also remember a few years ago when they changed all our addresses, didn´t tell anyone, and then refused to deliver to the old address.

I think a visit to Playa Flamenca post office is needed.  Just avoid 9 - 9.30am when they go for their breakfast!

Postal delivery in Spain, whats that then? A novel idea though............

I'm surprised to hear these comments.  I've posted stuff many times to Spain w/o any problems and co-incidentally I sent a letter from the UK to my bank in Mazarron on 12th February, paying in a cheque and asking a couple of questions - had a reply from them by email this morning. 

So not only the post being quick, but also the bank staff being extremely helpful. 

Can you imagine that happening in the UK ?

 Well to be honest I'm not surprised at all. Post will mostly arrive but not necessarily on time. Sounds like you have been very lucky Acer. It certainly isn't the norm. But that goes for national and international. However the French postal service is even worse so I wouldn't complain too much.

The post office will not deliver to our urb because we don't have a bank of post boxes. We put a post box up on our villa gates but the answer from them is still no even though the postman comes on his moped and delivers to a couple of houses owned by Spanish residents and also to the President. The PO boxes are all taken and the post office will not hold mail for us to collect. 

We have a house in the middle of the French countryside and the postman can be seen in his little van every day tootling around the lanes delivering to all the remote villages and properties.

In the UK our post is delivered daily by 10am and our local bank staff are very helpful. 

I guess it just shows the different experiences we all have.

I guess it just shows the different experiences we all have.

Most certainly right Poppyseed - in honesty I've got a bit of a downer on UK banks currently as I've just been though a 9 month battle with one of the big 4 trying to persuade them to correct something that should have been a formality.  I ended up writing to the CEO at his home address to get a result.  But in fairness it was not the local bank staff but the HO bods that seemed to delight in being bl**dy awkward.

But getting back to the thread, I don't know, but possibly the Spanish differentiate between the simple large number deiveries like to banks and other commercial concerns as against a small number of private letters to rural and out of town locations.

I worked overseas and got used to the post box system whereby you collect your mail each day from a hole in the wall in a central location.  I found it works well and I'm surprised that the UK hasn't moved in that direction.  For the UK postal authorities it must cost a fortune to deliver one letter to a country house with a half mile drive - so perhaps the Spanish are just being a bit more pragmatic.
 

On our urbanisation in Torre Pacheco the postman comes every day. We have all our postboxes in one location. They even deliver small packages to  our property if they do not fit in the post box, or if it is to big for them a note stating you have a parcel to be picked up from the post office in town. I have had post that has taken 3 days from date of postage sent from the UK arrive in my post box. Also post that i have sent to UK has arrived in reasonable time (4 to 5 days)