sunnydays

Moved to San Pablo recently and posted off several letters of change of address to the UK. "not enough stamps" said the kindly middle aged lady behind the counter, "I will put them through the machine for you". This is the machine in front of the server. I accepted this and then she offered to post them for me. Quite naturally I trusted her and we parted with a smile.
3 weeks passed and no response from my letters.
Repeated the exercise this time with a younger lady who stamped them all and handed them to me for posting in the box......all responded!
During this week I sent a local newspaper to my aged colleague who i thought would benefit from the info, the same kindly lady weighed the large A4 envelope and said 850 normal or over 1000 pesos "Special". She used the machine again for the stamp but kept it from me and said she would post it for me and waved from the back of the office from where I took it the delivery place was.
Remembering my earlier experience I asked my wife to send another paper 2 days later and it came to 380 pesos normal or 450 "special". This time my wife asked for the envelope to check the value on the stamp from the machine to verify the value and then declined the offer of the same lady to post it. She put the envelope into the box herself.
Although I have no proof of my scam I can certainly advise any foreigner to check stamp values on airmail envelopes and put them into the post box them selves.

shiredevon

There is not a single area here that hasn't got some scam involved somewhere, you will notice that everything you receive via post has been opened to see if there's anything worth stealing in it,(that's if you receive it at all).

sunnydays

We have been lucky with our mail in Batangas, received all including seeds from the UK and BPI account statement etc, but San Pablo is going to be different. We normally send things by putting them into the envelope in front of the clerk to show no money but this caught us out.
Last year I received an order from a UK fishing shop and one of my telescopic fishing rods was missing....suppose i should be lucky that the other one was okay.

jackthehat

I had a couple of bad experiences, but now send everything via courier. It is not that expensive either. The majority of couriers seal the packages when you take them in. LBC will do the same service at your home or office. Never had a problem. And at least things arrive within a reasonable time.

sunnydays

LBC actually are the cheapest courier to the UK.....only by a few pesos, however its good to see competition. the odd thing to me anyway is that they have a minimum weight for documents and sending an important document means inclosing a newspaper or such like, can't imagine why this is, usually its a maximum?
Not looking forward to using them for a house sale soon, the lowest price amongst the three couriers here works out at about 35 pounds. hopefully I can do most by internet, print out, sign and then scan and return same way.

jackthehat

A point to note, is that you will require to put a clause in the contract for both parties to accept electronic documents, etc. Just the same as we did years ago for Fax Messages.

Full marks to LBC to for my move from Dubai to Manila. They quoted 35 Days, and it was Spot-On! Everything accounted for, and nothing broken.

desert-rat

There is a postman here. Comes a couple of times a week. Not had any problems with mail being opened or lost yet.