Post Office Nightmare -where to complain!
 

Having lived in Valencia for almost 15 years, I am finding the postal service going from bad to impossible. Mail always seems to take an age to arrive, not only from the UK but also from inside Spain as well. This week for example my postal deliveries have been thus:

letter from UK posted 7th April delivered 27th
letter from UK posted 22nd April arrived 27th
letter from Barcelona posted 15th April arrived 28th (also have the Correos tracking record for that one which confirms the dates).

This week is not an exception, it seems to be the norm yet other ex pat people living south of here in Javea and Denia seem to have no problems at all which makes me suspect there is something fundamentally wrong within the Valencia postal system on a local basis - its as though letters just pile up somewhere and they decide to deliver when there is enough of them! - which can be several weeks after they were posted!

We have complained at out local post office and our postman is well aware of our concerns and has informed his boss who cannot understand why we are having issues - but has not taken any action so now I think its time to escalate this issue - but to whom and how?

Re: Post Office Nightmare -where to complain!
 

Many years back one of my neighbours hadnt received a letter that had been posted a while before. She went to the local post office and found the mail was being distributed from someones house in la Font D'en Carros near Oliva. She went to the house to enquire and when she was let in found a huge pile of undelieverd mail sitting in a pile in the middle of the living room. Seems one of the postal workers was on holiday and therefor a backlog was forming

Maybe that gives you an idea of what the delay may possibly be.

Re: Post Office Nightmare -where to complain!
 

The terms Spain & Complain are incompatible and a waste of time.

Re: Post Office Nightmare -where to complain!
 

I always had the idea that post from the uk would take 1 to 3 weeks to arrive, so your dates seem pretty normal to me, although now I think about it, if it can take only one week, why would it ever take three?

Re: Post Office Nightmare -where to complain!
 

I always saw long-delivery times (and sometimes non-delivery) as very much the norm.

Correos is NOT the Royal Mail.

Re: Post Office Nightmare -where to complain!
 

I've found that normal post doesn't really work very well. Its slow and often never gets there at all.

But certified ("carta certificada") seems to be a very different service. Faster, and actually gets there every time.

Re: Post Office Nightmare -where to complain!
 

The strange thing was that the latest post we supposed to be 48 hours ' and tracked ' the tracking said received on 15th April ' next entry was "delivered 27th"!!! Fantastic tracking service eh!

Re: Post Office Nightmare -where to complain!
 

I've had things delivered to Madrid from the UK that has taken 3 weeks and I've had things delivered from Madrid to the UK that's only taken 3 days. I don't think it's just a Valencia thing, it's insane.

Re: Post Office Nightmare -where to complain!
 

I recently sent a DVD to Maun (it's Botswana) 3.10€ and arrived within 3 weeks.
A second one following the same route last week was 1.85€.
I think the difference was weight, one in a plastic case while one was in a sleeve.

I have not had a problem since using an accommodation address inbound and taking all post to the Correos to be weighed prior to launch commit.

Re: Post Office Nightmare -where to complain!
 

I can't advise the op on who to complain to re Correos but as someone who sends parcels around the world as part of my business via normal mail services Spain is not that bad,1-3 weeks is a good guesstimate of the time taken.

This is better than some EU countries with Italy, France and the Netherlands being worse in my experience with your item standing a good chance of going walkies in France and Netherlands and taking 6-8 weeks to Italy although it has improved in the last 2 years.

The worst in the EU for me is Greece,I now longer send anything there because it was all going missing including tracked services

I do often send parcels to myself from UK to Spain as we only ever have hand luggage so cant take certain things on board ie fishing hooks and its normally a 5-7 working day service, but as op said we are south by Moraira way so maybe the post is faster

Re: Post Office Nightmare -where to complain!
 

My parents have a villa in Javea and post internal and from the UK is about 1 week on average - seldom longer - here it is so erratic - how can two letters both posted in the UK and both arriving on the same day been in the system for a difference of over week! Post to the UK is usually very fast - my post takes 3 days normally to arrive there!.

Re: Post Office Nightmare -where to complain!
 

It's all part of the charm of living in Spain ;)

Re: Post Office Nightmare -where to complain!
 

Not when you don't get a letter from DWP, and your pension gets stopped, as happened to our friend, or letters from pension providers requesting a signed form within a certain time limit, or the pension is stopped
Pensions are reinstated, but it's a hassle you don't want

Re: Post Office Nightmare -where to complain!
 

I think my wifes record is a package posted from Sevilla to Australia that took 5 days! :thumbsup:

She posts stuff all over the world and never had any problems with the Spanish postal service.

Re: Post Office Nightmare -where to complain!
 

I think those who have had no problems with post in Soain are in the minority
Post from Spain to UK is normally fine, and quick.
UK to Spain is a different story
We had post that went missing, some was put in another's box, same surname but different address, so they had not read it properly
Some got delayed as it went to the post office in town before arriving on the urbanisation
As I said, the outcome can be disastrous if a reply is urgent, or by a specified date.
I asked for a complaints form, and the man at the desk broke out into a sweat, imploring me not to, promising me it would improve.
The problem was made worse by new staff who got confused with surnames, second names, so went in the wrong pigeon hole.
Mail not collected then disappeared
It is worth filling in that complaint form, because it has to be processed, and may result in action against the staff.
The threat of one is usually enough to make them pull their socks up!