Loosing stuff in the mail

Hi guys… I hope this is the right place for a post like this…

In the end of December I shipped some 4.5 kg to from Singapore to my TW address…
And well… it never arrived… Ive received a good handful of other packages from around the world so this came quite unexpected!

The Singapore mail service guarantees me that my package would have left their country within two business days, and well… honestly I have a little more faith in the SP mail than the Taiwanese one…
The Taiwanese mail service is apparantly unable to help in any way.

Anyone got some similiar experiences they would like to share? Maybe even some suggestions?

The package was not insured and didnt have a tracking number (I sent as regular mail - not as a parcel)

Cheers from rasmus

Without tracking or any sort of insurance it is probably lost forever.

First go to your local post office and ask them to search around for packages. It might have been forgotten by a delivery person, had an address that the carrier didn’t understand, or any other mishap. If it is not there, try calling the distribution center to see if they have it laying around.

If those do not work, you probably will never see the package and should consider using tracking in the future.

I can recall only one problem. Five to ten years ago someone sent me a package from the States. I waited and waited, but it never arrived. Nor was there a notice of attempted delivery. Eventually the package was returned to the sender as undeliverable, which was especially strange because it had my correct address on it in Chinese characters as well as romanization. :idunno: [Edit: I double checked. This was 10 years ago, and the package did not have Hanzi.]

I recommend checking with both your closest neighborhood post office as well as the post office at the next higher level. (It will be much larger and serve as the distribution point to the smaller post offices.)

If it’s not in either of those places, maybe it will eventually show up in Singapore.

You (OP) use your physical address for mail??? :astonished:

No way. My box is crammed so full of crap every day that it’s useless. Not to mention that the door is falling off. Nor would I trust a mailman to deliver a parcel to my house.

I have all packages sent either to my PO box or my office.

I never once got anything that was sent to my home address in Taiwan. When I started having things sent to a business address, I got them every time.

in 2007 or so several letters from my bank from Germany including one envelope with an ATM card vanished. And a parcel with candy from home. Or was it 2008? They had been sent to a NeiHu address. Wife said they later arrested a mailman (well, lady) who had countless old mail bags in her car and had stolen stuff on a regular basis for a long time. After the alleged arrest all mail was delivered.

However I am now always using my business address instead.

next time, don’t send 4.5 kg of prime bud through the mail. especially from Singapore.

Surpisingly I have received all my post: SA to China.

Make sure it has a tracking number. Keeps the postmen on their feet.

I LOVED the Post Office in Taiwan, once I realised they don’t quite queue in quite the same way as in England … never had any problems.

Is it possible it is stuck in customs or something? Did it have anything of interest to them?

did you address it to Cape No. 7 in Hengchung? Apparently there’s a mailman down there who’s a real slacker.

Amazon lost my book. I get lots of nice suggestions on what I should buy next. I get confirmation of my original order. I get LOTS of messages, yet, try telling anybody that, “HEY? Listen up! I havn’t got the damned book”. Response: “Sorry, you have contacted a computerized system that can not respond” (READ, “We don’t give a fuck”. Ok, I’ll write it off to incompetent people here or there. But I still don’t have the book. Ya, I know, local PO, regional PO, done it. Does God have a PO? I guess that’s next.

:slight_smile: that was funny

My dad mailed me 300 bucks cash once from usa to taiwan. Never arrived. I sent 20 bucks in the mail as a trial once from usa to taiwan. Never arrived. But all the other stuff without money has always arrived.

:slight_smile: that was funny

My dad mailed me 300 bucks cash once from usa to Taiwan. Never arrived. I sent 20 bucks in the mail as a trial once from usa to Taiwan. Never arrived. But all the other stuff without money has always arrived.[/quote]
I’m guessing that mail went via Johannesburg, South Africa. It’s known as affirmative shopping. Never send money in the mail!

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I’d check with both customs and the post office, as has been suggested. I get 5 or 6 parcels a year mailed to my home address from my folks back home, and while there is at times some delay, it’s usually due to some slacker in an office, rather than an address or mailman issue. I’ve found that the more mail that comes to me address, the more future mail will get through. I’ve had a few nitwits, such as my alma mater, send me stuff with a totally incorrect address in terms of spelling, and the post office has still managed to get it delivered.

I had a problem with my election ballot. The courier company returned it (to their office in Arizona or some such state, rather than to Elections Canada )as undeliverable, saying it was not a proper address, because it didn’t have a floor listed in the address. I am quite sure the driver (or whoever sent it back) didn’t even bother to look at the building before they deemed it undeliverable. I was able to get it on time, but what a pain it was. Not all addresses have floors, just as not all streets have sections.

Canada customs searched a box once and stole the bread knife (a really good one), managed to cut right through the address, making it hard to read, and scored the Tupperware container inside with whatever box knife they used to slice it open. They taped the box up with official “you have been searched by Canada customs” tape and sent it on to me. I complained to the Ombudsman, but never did get the knife. Costly knife, it was.

My current predicament is the dogs manage to get the mail before I do, and I come home to piles of shredded paper on the living room carpet. I have to sift through the paper to figure out whether it was junk or a bill I need to figure out how to pay. I really need a mailbox farther from the door. The dogs probably think they are protecting the house from these bad people who come everyday. My heroes won’t be so smug when the water gets shut off and we all die of dehydration. Currently, my water, hydro (electricity), and gas are all approaching, or past, overdue status. I have tried taking scraps of paper to 7-11 often enough that they no longer laugh at me. Sometimes the bar codes are intact enough to scan, but usually not.
I think BnQ may sell mailboxes. Otherwise not sure where to look.

My experience is that small and/or non valuable packages are delivered as usuall. Only the big packages get stuck at customs. Right now I have a package stuck at the Belgium customs, and no one there can (or wants) to inform me what’s going on with the package. In the past they finally delivered the package, but only if I paid like 10-12% import fees when receiving it (or else they sent it back if there is a return address on it).

Normally you have to write the content of the package on the box form of the postoffice. These days I just write something unsuspicious, so they won’t open my package (again).

I’ve never loosed anything in the mail, but I have lost stuff in the mail. That might make me a loser, but at least I’m not a looser. :sunglasses:

I am pleased (wrong choice of words) to hear that I am not the only one having package delivery problems. Amazon is the issue.

They have not let me down in the past and yet, when you have an issue, just try finding anyone to talk to online. Sure you can call and talk to someone but that’s $. Why can’t they get their act in order?
Try to talk to any service provider on-line and you will see what I mean. I really believe Amazon is a good and caring provider but they need to do a bettter job with talking to people who have not received their order. Cusomer Service will not get you where you want to go. Let’s get with the program, Amazon

Unfortunately, it seems to be a fact of life that things get lost in the mail every now and then, everywhere. I always wondered how letters and packages get lost. But of course there are many possibilities ranging from careless or stealing postal workers, traffic accidents to natural catastrophes. I’m glad it only happened a few times to me, and the most annoying of these incidents was about 2 years ago when I lost 4 of my favorite guitar tab books in the mail sent from Germany to Austria. I also never received a package a friend sent to me from Spain to Taiwan. But this could be the fault of either postal service.

In the past 4 years I think I have received every item sent to me. (Holland to Taiwan). Even mail with content considered illegal (according to TW law), those I did in an open envelope. They all arrived. :bravo:

To avoid import tax, always described the content as “birthday present”.
If the item isn’t worth over about 200 Euro, it will never be any problem.

Good luck.

Ps none of the (home) addresses was written in Chinese, nor do I have my name at my door or mailbox.
Weird they don’t seem to do that, would give a lot less missing mail if you ask me…