I have been expecting a letter from Australia for the past 3 weeks. According to my friend who sent the letter the post office there said it would take a week to be delivered. My friend wrote my Enlgish address on the letter. I have had things sent in English to my residence before and don’t recall it taking almost a month.
Can I go to the main post office (is that the one near main station?) and find out if there was a record of the letter attempted to be delivered? I’m thinking they had to get the Eglish translated into Chinese but does that really take 2 weeks? I hate to have it be lost, there were pictures in the letter and unfortunately my friend didn’t make copies like I told him to do Thanks for your help.
Are you near a big city? It usually takes about a week for letters to arrive for me from New Zealand. One of the mail order CD companies based in NZ has stopped shipping to Taiwan as there were problems. I had no problems at all with things getting through two years ago.
The romanization may be a problem if you are in small town Taiwan.
If it was registered mail only your friend can initiate a trace but I suggest you wait for a while longer, sometimes I receive mail within 5 days and sometimes it takes a months (or even a bit longer).
Guess those pictures will make their round first before you will see them …
[quote]Are you near a big city?[/quote] I’m in Taipei.
[quote]If it was registered mail only your friend can initiate a trace but I suggest you wait for a while longer, sometimes I receive mail within 5 days and sometimes it takes a months (or even a bit longer).
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It’s possible it went by surface mail, in which it will take months, if it hasn’t arrived after 3 weeks, it’s unlikely to arrive via air, especially if don’t write “AIRMAIL” on it.
You also have to be very careful about writing the address, with every lane and alley number present, and not like my sister who can’t even spell my name.And don’t forget the postmen can’t read the latin alphabet, let alone speak english, so using anything except block capitals is asking for trouble.
I’ve had a few things get lost or delayed, but every time it was because of sloppy handwriting. If it isn’t very clearly printed in block letters, it is much more likely not to make it.
I never had any problems recieving overseas mail when I lived in Peitou(Taipei city) but now living in Lotus Hill(Taipei County) and my magazine subscription from the USA is not arriving. I’ve recieved only one of the 9 issues they have sent. Zipcode and everything else is correct. Maybe the people at Shi-jr post office are enjoying my magazines…
Thanks for your help guys. I am holding out some hope that it’s just delayed and not lost. Man why didn’t my friend write my address in Chinese it’s not like he didn’t know how since he is Taiwanese Live and learn.
Thanks for your help.
