Chile Forum

Hello all,

we've already read on this forum about the 30 pesos one has to pay for the delivery of a letter by the Chilean post. We moved in to our house on january the 22nd. Yesterday a postman handed over an invoice for January, February and March. We had to pay him 6000 pesos. Since we only received around seven letters (not counting aqua/luz/gas and some post adressed to former tennants) in this period the invoice should not have been more than 210 pesos. Because we were taken by surprise a bit and feared that no more post would be delivered in the future, we've paid the amount but under protest. We've send an e-mail to the Correos-site with our complaint but no answer so far.

We've heard from others in Santiago that not paying the mailman has lead to not receiving any mail. Isn't that illegal (it would be in our country), does anyone know what the law in Chile on this subject says. Can we find that specific law on internet, anyone has an URL?

Can anyone advise us how we can tackle this. We don't want to be taken for a ride in the future anymore.

In this matter we also have a question about the invoices from the companies such as Electra, water, gas, VTR, ADT etc. We think these bills are delivered by the companies themselves or by private delivery companies. If thát is the case we think we can manage without the post here since we've got a postbox with scanservices in the Netherlands.

Thanks in advance,
Ellen & Rene

My sympathies, E&R, as it would appear that you are indeed being taken for a ride -- one without a pleasant destination. So much is different in Chile; nondelivery of mail, for example, would be illegal in the United States, too. But I don't think that one can choose not to have postal service.

I'll be interested in reading replies from more knowledgeable AllChileans than I.

Hello!
from http://www.correos.cl
FAQ

¿Es obligación tener que pagarle al cartero por la entrega de correspondencia?

El cobro del cartero, es decir, el derecho de conducción de correspondencia a domicilio, está definido en el Decreto N° 472 del 19 de agosto de 2004, del Ministerio de Transporte y Telecomunicaciones, Subsecretaría de Telecomunicaciones, que establece lo siguiente:

"1° Fíjase en $30 (treinta pesos), a contar de la fecha de publicación del presente decreto en el Diario Oficial, el derecho máximo de conducción a domicilio por cada carta, impreso u otro objeto de correspondencia.

2° Autorízase al cartero para convenir con el destinatario el pago mensual de los derechos de conducción a domicilio, teniendo presente el promedio mensual de correspondencia que éste reciba."

That is: you may pay up $30 for each letter you receive. If you receive too many letters you may agree with mailman for a monthly fixed fee (this situation is very improbable)

You may claim directly to http://www.correos.cl/contactenos/index.php if you suspect that your mail is not delivered, this is ilegall under any circunstance

Anyway, I recommend you use manly registred mail, because regular service is almost imposible to track in case of claim

I wonder whether this is about "tipping' which became law. I have been told it's customary to tip the mailman-and we always do. I had no idea it was law(missed the earlier discussion).

I found this link that was interesting.

In 2007, Correos delivered over 400 million pieces of mail, including 6 million parcels. The company's 2,300 letter carriers operate a fleet of 1,480 bicycles, 400 vans, and 100 motorbikes to deliver mail and packages. Until recently, mail volumes were inching up, but the average Chilean receives only 30 pieces of mail per year.

Our mailman rides one of those precious motorbikes.

http://www.postalconsumers.org/postal_r ... e_--.shtml

Thanks tombrad for the official citation on this matter.

My experience in Chile:

(1) In the conserge staffed departamento in Santiago Centro, residents were eventually put on a quarterly or trimester plan (can't recall) paid individually to the mail carrier who was supposed to stamp and return the invoice when paid. The most I ever recall paying was something like $1.500 pesos or so for three or four months. Combine that with double billings (sometimes hard to keep track when the last time you paid or if you are paying for a past occupant) and the occasional loss of mail, quite a scam they've got going IMO.

(2) In the current departamento on the coast, I've never been asked to pay for mail service. The conserges handle the client/mailman relationship and I assume any tip required to make the maildude happy comes out of the gastos comunes pool.

Thanks for the sympaties and thank you Tombrad2 for the info and translation of the correos bit.

Meanwhile we found the link to the respective laws via the senate library site ourselves (http://www.bcn.cl). We will press further with this, once we're we wont give up easily . We already found our way to a consumer forum in Chile. If and/or when we've got anything worthwhile to share we'll let you know.

My experience: when I moved to my home, after the 1st mailman visit I gave him dos mil pesos and told him "para que no me pidas plata en todo el año", he left with a big sunrise and I never paid him any peso since then (in 7 years), oh my mistake, once he delivered a pack near christmas and I gave him mil pesos.

I had an horrible experience with USPO when my Lenovo Laptop was sent by registred mail from Texas, they delivered to ARUBA instead Arica, I strongly recomend to use the registred mail service because is tracked by TNT, and I was able to follow the pack in their multiple bounces between USA, the remote islands and finally Arica

I strongly suggest always to use registred mail

Chile express is what we use for important legal documents. Fedex outside the country will contract to Chile express in the country.

UPS chile could not find their own office, let alone any other address and will half the time hand it over to the local postal service.

Turbus cargo will do small packages, but in general we use them for large cargo.

We have also used lancourier outside the country for important documents.

The local postal service is for junk mail basically. Rarely when they do deliver is it anything important because no one else will trust them either.

Utility companies have their own delivery services. Often they are late. We often get bills several weeks after they are due. As we not only have to handle our bills, but many of our clients pay us to take care of their bills we run a daily calendar program so our secretary can track what needs to be payed and when. Waiting on the bill itself from the company would be a mess.

I guess I am lucky that the Correos doesn't deliver to my house (even though they are suppose to). I got a mailbox downtown just like my landlord who lives nearby. Correos apparently doesn't deliver to them either.

Correos de Chile is a joke!.. In the two years I were there I would sometimes get mail from Australia and sometime I wouldn't. It's hit and miss and paying the mail man seemed to help in the letters being delivered!.. We ended up renting a PO Box and 90% of mail arrived and much faster.. just a thought.. I think we pay about US$50-60 a year..

It seems that renting a mailbox or PO box is an option for a fair chance that we receive our mail (what should be someones right in the first place because the sender has already paid for the service). Does that mean we don't have to pay the 30 pesos rate for every letter we receive and are there official rates for a mailbox?

eeuunikkeiexpat wrote:In the current departamento on the coast, I've never been asked to pay for mail service. The conserges handle the client/mailman relationship and I assume any tip required to make the maildude happy comes out of the gastos comunes pool.

I am in the same situation as EEUU and I think this is why I get all of the mail I'm supposed to.

I have sent two pieces of mail via Correos to the US. One was a check to a buddy for winning fantasy football league which I sent certified and was able to track online. Arrived in about three weeks. The other was a postcard for my friend's niece which I did not send certified: her kindergarten class was collecting postcards from people that live in other parts of the world. This also arrived in three weeks.

I have yet to experience the difficulties described on this forum...