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How to keep the Mexican Post Office honest when shipping packages?


gringohombre

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I have had this question for some time about the Ajijic Post Office. The details sometimes have been different but the particulars of today's experience is this: I took a box there (25 lbs., 9" X 17" X 15") to go to The Netherlands. He puts it on the scale and then goes to the phone and talks for a while and writes something down. He comes to me with a price of about 3,800 pesos. I made a face and told him that this was too much. He then went back on the phone, talked to someone and came back with the price of 2,810 pesos written on the paper. I had been shopping this shipment around and FedEx from here was quite a bit higher, approx 4,500. So although the time was a little longer (10 days vs. 5) I said OK and gave him the money. I asked for a receipt and he wrote the tracking # and price on a small piece of paper and with a metal stamp stamped a circular stamp with the date and Correros AP Ajijic. My question is why did i not get a printed receipt? There was no cash registrar and what was the deal with the phone calls and no printed receipt? Am I paranoid or is this how it is done at the Mexican Post Office?

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That is how it is done.

I mail quite a few letters out of the country. They weigh them all then total the numbers up on a claculator and verbally give me an amount to pay. (Identical sized/weight letters to the same area often vary a lot). I used to ask them to put the stamps on while I'm there but they say they can't. Odd that is how it is done in most countries. So I just hope they aren't pocketing the money and chucking the letters.

For awhile I switched to the Post Office in Jocotepec as they would put the stamps on while I waited. But they quit doing that. They always have some excuse why they can't put the stamps on the letter right away-they don't have any stamps, they have to wait until someone comes back, the computer isn't on, etc. A primitive system that is open to theft and corruption.

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I don't think the Ajijic post office is a complete facility... I went there for a cost estimate - and she did have to get on the phone. That set off an alarm - so I went direct to the Chapala office. And they gave me a stamped copy of the shipping label (which had to list the contents) -

I always got excellent service from the Chapala Office - did probably help that I was a tipper - that is, when my carrier delivered packages to my home in riberas, I did tip - , and he was usually there when I went in. And if I took boxes in to be shipped, I usually did leave a tip - but they also would carry the boxes from my car into the post office - so I always considered them a full service post office:)

Last year when I shipped some boxes to Florida, they did recommend Mex Post to save money versus the regular postal service. Don't know if use Mex post to other countries - but it is less expensive - and I had no problems.

And before I would ship packages, I would stop by for shipping labels first - so that I was using the correct forms...

So I would think you should have received a copy of the shipping label - which has the tracking number - and should have been stamped by them And that sounds expensive. Looking at US rates, it is about $80 to send a priority mail large box - so guessing you sent a much heavier box - but charges should be similar too, or less than shipping from US is my guess.

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If you really really really want to get it there, and it is valuable or time sensitive, I suggest you use FedEx from the airport (direct service) or use one of the local services such as iShop'n'Mail. And yes, if you want to use the local mail service, go to Chapala. The Ajijic PO is a bunch of incompetent sweeties. I could embroider on this with tales of the Ajijic post office, but it defies imagination. I believe in the local PO about as much as I believe in Santa Claus. Yes, Virginia, sometimes miracles happen, but I put my faith in FedEx.

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I did not have to fill out any paperwork or sign anything nor did I get a printed receipt or tracking #...just hand written on a 3" X 4" piece of paper. He indicated that he would do the paperwork from the labels on the box. On top of that after I handed him the 2800 I was fishing in my pocket tor the 10 pesos and he waved me off to not bother...Waaaaat? For sure it is the Chapala P.O. the next time.

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In more than seven years, I've never had a problem with the Ajijic post office, in sending things out, whether they put the stamps on in front of me or not. But often I ask which stamps are available and try to pick interesting ones just because I know the person at the other end might enjoy seeing them. In all the years I have sent things to the U.S., nothing has ever been lost or damaged. Two things never GOT here, however - weirdly enough, an inexpensive phone case from China and an equally inexpensive used photography book from Amazon. Go figure! Not the end of the world, in both cases my $ was refunded.

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Your receipt should be the small form with the tracking number on it. I just sent a registered letter to the US and it took nearly a month to reach LA

Go to correos de mexico, click English and there you'll find Track & Trace

http://www.correosdemexico.gob.mx/Paginas/Home.aspx

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Two years ago this January I sent an envelope containing a U.S. check to a doctor in Guadalajara. Same story. No stamp placed on it while I was there. The envelope NEVER did reach the physician. I had to take a bus in to pay the physician myself. The good news was that the check was never cashed - just disappeared. I figure a lot of the mail gets thrown in the trash and they keep the cost of the stamp.

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I have used the post office to send packages many times and they always arrived . They always were sent were sent registered.

A cousin of mine sent more than thirty poscards and the post office told her they would put the stamps, not one card arrived...

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We once had a PO box at Ajijic post office but gave it up when we discovered much of the incoming mail was returned to sender even after receiving the official Ajijic stamp on the envelope. It just could not find its way from the counter to our box which was 5 feet away. We did get a letter from Social Security (even after telling them to NOT send mail to us except email) which was hand carried to our old address. A friend called us to say we had mail and Jorge then came with it to our new address even though it had the PO box address in Ajijic on the envelope! You just can't count on them doing the right thing most of the time.

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A number of years ago, when I lived in Ajijic village, I subscribed to the print version of The New Yorker. The Ajijic post office delivered it, albeit a standard 3 weeks late. As long as it came, I didn't care. Then it stopped coming, even though I had a year left on my subscription. I finally called the magazine and told the subscription department that it hadn't been delivered. They extended my subscription for six months. Nothing arrived.

One fine day about three months later, I was working at my computer and I heard a loud THUMP!! in my garden. I went out and there on the brick walk was a foot high bundle of--you guessed it, the missing magazines. They were pristine. Where had they been? Did someone at the PO read them all and then bring them to my house? Had they simply been stored for some reason? Who knows! From that day forward, The New Yorker came, every week--albeit a standard 3 weeks late.

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It all depends on the value of the content. Some people do not want to spend 5000 pesos to send 1500

pesos worth of merchandise. If you get a tracer and receipt from the post office you are better off

using the post office. It takes 2 weeks to get to Europe or the US and it is way cheaper than Fed Ex or

DHL .

This year I have used the post office a lot and so far so good every package has arrived

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Last December I paid for a subscription to "International Living" magazine to be delivered to the Ajijic post office, I've yet to receive one copy of the magazine.

A few months ago I bought a book online...same story. I contacted both companies, and they confirmed my Mexican address was correct, lesson learned, no more

on-line subscriptions for me.

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The point of my initial post is the way that the business (money) is handled there. There was no printed documentation, no printed receipt, no chart showing the levels of service and charges. Just a guy on the phone (twice) quoting a price, handwriting a receipt and tracking number and taking my cash. Now, I have been a businessman most of my adult life and Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder could see that.this is a big problem.

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The Mexican post office has been a problem for many years. I keep thinking that someone is going to tackle the problems and fix them but nothing happens.

It isn't difficult to fix. A friend went to the PO in Puerto Vallarta some years back inquiring why he wasn't getting any Christmas cards. They took him into the back where they had letters strewn all over the floor. That is how they sorted them.

I live in San Juan Cosala so my mail comes via Ajijic. They stamp it when it arrives in Ajijic. Someitmes it takes 10 days to get from Ajijic to San Juan Cosala.

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The point of my initial post is the way that the business (money) is handled there. There was no printed documentation, no printed receipt, no chart showing the levels of service and charges. Just a guy on the phone (twice) quoting a price, handwriting a receipt and tracking number and taking my cash. Now, I have been a businessman most of my adult life and Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder could see that.this is a big problem.

Several years ago I sent a registered package to Europe from the Chapala Post Office. It never arrived and the only answer I received when enquiring was "no se".

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On the 22nd November I mailed a calendar to the U.K.at a cost of 445 pesos from the new ishop mail post office in San Antonio .

I had to ask for a receipt, the employee wrote it on a piece of paper, not the usual official cash register receipt.

I didn't see anyone actually put stamps on the package, also there was no declaration form for contents of the package.

I was assured that it would take ten days to arrive at the U.K. address, to date the package must still be in transit?

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