Chile Forum

can someone explain to me why the mail service in chile is so odd, for lack of a better way to put it? by that i mean why are there no mailboxes on street corners, why does one have to go and stand in line to buy stamps (from one person lone sitting at a desk in a small room in the huge Santiago post office mind you!!) and why can you not give/leave your mail to the carrier delivering the mail? i hear you must PAY them to take your letters and are charged per letter? please...there has to be a more efficient way!!

Oh my! StorkLady! I will be watching any responses you get on this one. Here is my tale...I purchased a one-year post office box in Futaleufu. Number 25 if anyone wants to write! Anyway, I go in, check in my little cubby, and nothing. But! The postmaster cheerfully waves to me, and takes out the general delivery box from a metal cabinet, and places it on the counter for me to thumb through. And there...addressed to me at my post office box number, will be two or three pieces of mail. I pluck them out, and he beams at me with his doughy smile, as if to say, "Bueno!" I stand there with my mail, and my 20,000 peso key in hand, and smile back at him, buy some fresh bread he's just put out, a six-pack of beer, and head home. Ahhhh, Futa!

Vicki

When I lived in Santiago, there would be an actual boleto and stamped recibo (maybe trimester or bi-annual - can't remember) for mail service payed by each apartment dweller.

Now in this small community on the coast, when I ask the conserge if I need to pay he waves away and says no - so maybe covered by our gastos comunes payment?

Not sure if I'm understanding this correctly... people in Chile have to pay to get their mail?

SoCal-Lady wrote:Not sure if I'm understanding this correctly... people in Chile have to pay to get their mail?

yeh still don't quite get this one myself.. sometimes i pay the postman and sometimes i don't.. (either way i just wait for him to ask for it).. so far i have received 99% of mail sent to me.. oh and they take the term snail mail literary here.. i post myself a postcard from the 4th Region to the 8th region using Correos de Chile and it took 15days to arrive! (around the same amount of time it takes most mail to arrive from Australia) i still find it amusing that my bills never arrive late

Yes, you have to pay for certain mail delivered to you,The mailman will keep an accurate acount of how much money you owe to him,a couple pieces of mail may go "on credit" , but after a while you may experience "lack" of mailing.....

These is establish by a Government Decree (Decreto del Ministerio de Transportes y Telecomunicaciones, de octubre de 2004), and the cost is $CL 30 for every piece of mail.

This is called "DERECHO OF CONDUCCION" or Right of Delivery...Loosely translated

And if you don't paid Correos Chile is allowed by law to retain your mail and you are forced to retire your mail after 30days in a Centro de Distribución Postal (CDP) Postal Distribuition center

Info about postal regulations here: (In Spanish)

http://www.correos.cl/productos_personas/faq_r4.php


Another thing, ZIP CODES (Zone Improvement Plan), there is zip codes for all the cities in Chile, there are machines to sort the mail based in this system, millions of dollars were spent into this, but nobody uses it , WHY?...too complicated....Somebody told me that the only piece of mail "zipcoded" in Chile is the Phone Bill,I don't have a Phone so I can't no verify this.
My other bills don't have a ZIP CODE on them

ZIP CODE INFO PAGE HERE:

http://www.correosdechile.cl/codigo_postal/index.php

Actually you can go to the Correos Chile and find your Zip Code ther , mine in Valpo is 2381071 VALPARAISO

Do those handling charges apply if you have a po box downtown? Uhm, in a larger town like Temuco or Santiago. Sorry not a place like Futa where everyone know you.

You know, I don't think handling charges apply if you have a PO box, or get your mail "entrega general". I think it's if you get mail at your home or building. I might be wrong on that, but I'm pretty sure.

As far as Futa goes, and everyone knowing you...doesn't seem to make much difference! I went for ten business days in a row looking for a VERY important package sent from Temuco addressed to LANSEN. The post master would shake his head no each day, and when I pointed to a package on a low shelf and asked him to check, he wouldn't, saying that it wasn't for me. So finallly I set my rotwieller on him via a telephone call. He said he had the package there and it had been there for all that time. When I went in that day, he happily, smilingly, and acting very officially, presented me with the package.

I have also deduced that the post master holds mail for WEEKS before sending it on to Chaiten, then on it's long journey north. Friends and family in the home country started emailing me last week saying they've each gotten multiple letters (all at once) from early February to mid-March. Guess he was busy baking bread or shearing sheep.

One last anomaly...I sent a letter to friends in Panama regular mail, another to the bank, certified. The certified envelope has still not arrived.

Just nuts, I tell ya!

Vicki

Gloria wrote:... What I will love the most will be NO MORE JUNK MAIL!!!

One of the least described benefits of moving to Chile!!

Although I have a mailbox, the post office doesn't put Certified Letters in it. Instead they leave a little slip which you have to take to the general office, and sign a receipt, then they hand over the items (usually bills). However there was one time when I tried to do this, and the counter lady asked me for my authorization...for a letter addressed to me that should have been delivered to my PO Box. When I asked her who was supposed to authorize me she did not even bother replying, and flat out refused to hand over the mail, even though I showed her my carnet. Luckily one of the older ladies behind the counter recognized me and came to the rescue...

Certified letters in the states work the same way I believe. You receive a notification in your box and you sign for it.

Hmmmm.... how I would love to copy many of the comments regarding the bad mail service in Chile. As a U.S. Postal Service employee, I can gloat about how good 'we' move the mail. In spite of the horror stories many americans may have about our 'snail mail' and how bad the service is. I have mailed packages to Santiago from the U.S. and it has taken no fewer than 15 days each time. I guess it's sort of a thing to keep in mind when complaining about our US postal service, in stark comparison to what I have read here.