Chile Forum

I posted before about this, and I cant find the thread, so I apologise in advance for making another one. But I mailed something to my girlfriend in Santiago on December 9th from New York with USPS First Class Mail Int'l Parcel. The packaged contained a toy which is a barbie doll, and a Christmas card. It Still hasn't gotten to her! I tried calling USPS and they said it is non trackable because of the weight and its first class int'l parcel. I know there was things going on with the Chilean customs strike etc etc, but what is the hold up? It should have definitely got to her by now right? Only thing I can think of, is I used a old UPS box to put the items in and wrapped it up with packaging paper and wrote the address on, and maybe they opened it in customs and wont accept that box? I'm totally lost and very annoyed she hasn't gotten this package yet...Mailed on Dec. 9th and here it is Jan 21st still hope?

Should have been there by now. Obviously:

(1) Lost or stolen never to be found.
(2) Or will someday show up at a future unknown date or at least a part of it at the original sending address or receiving address.

Sorry to hear about it but for all practical purposes consider it gone. If it was stolen by a Chile Aduanas guy, hope that he loses his job when he gets a new boss due to the new Prez.

ShawnG81 wrote:I tried calling USPS and they said it is non trackable because of the weight

Note I have one letter (sent from Chile to the US *registered*, about 4 months ago) lost (it was non trackable neither in Chile nor in the US because of the long, 14-digit tracking number).

Yea, never send anything to Chile you do not want lost by either UPS or USPS. Neither is very reliable in Chile.

Fedex and DHL are fine, but anything that ends up in the regular Chilean mail system once it arrives in Chile and really gets delivered is just luck not logistics.

xxx

This brings to mind our story about the Chilean postal system.

Last August I gave my hubby a subscription to Surfer's Journal. I used his work address, which is a casilla. His company regularly receives mail there, and mail addressed to him personally likewise has been received there with no issues. The magazine never came. In the meantime, we rented a casilla for our personal mail (what little there is). I contacted the magazine, and they confirmed the subscription had been sent out and confirmed the address. We questioned all humans involved at the company and at the post office. No one had ever seen a single issue. So I changed the mailing address of the subscription to our personal casilla. To this day (well, yesterday anyway) he has never received a single magazine. I ask the mail guy every time I go in, and he says No, no magazine has come. My only guess is that somebody somewhere in the Chilean Postal Service knows a good thing when they see it. I used to take the USPS for granted...but I totally appreciate them now.

xxx

The US postal service isn't entirely blameless. All my copies of American Indian Art failed to arrive. I'd complain, and they'd send me a copy in a different, plain envelope, and I'd get that one. Mail never left the US postal service care. It went out of country, but in the US Armed Forces mail system. (that's an expensive glossy magazine, more like an art book, for those of you who aren't familiar with it)

I wouldn't be surprised that its not there yet.

My mother-in-law sent us a letter from Chile in early December and we just got it last week. And a couple years ago I sent the woman that is now my wife something for her birthday from Canada to Chile. Her birthday is mid-April so I sent it at the beginning of the month. I made a trip to Chile two months later in June (landed on the 2nd)... I beat the package by about a week and I half I think… I could have been more, I don’t remember exactly.

For what it's worth. we live in a far flung place in the US empire and I've been waiting for 12 weeks now on a package sent through USPS. I really believe that they actually only put mail in the boxes a few days a week.

Years ago while living in Ecuador, I sent my nephew a birthday card with a crisp $20 USD in it....it failed to arrive and of course I cursed the Ecuadorean mail carriers/system for their obvious corruption. My older brother, the dad, questioned me suspiciously about whether in fact I HAD actually sent anything, thinking I was using an easy excuse to 'slide' on another BD gift. Imagine everyone's amazement when a year later, the card with the $20 showed up....in time for the next birthday!! I quietly asked forgiveness to all the underpaid, ecuadorean postal workers that I had maligned.

Sending things to Chile is hit and miss.. about 50/50 depending on where you send it.. When I was in Chile I received everything I was sent yet when I send anything to Chile it never gets there..

el puelche wrote: its a no no to mail cash for birthdays etc. Once money is found, every piece of mail will be opened from that time on, regardless of what it is, and you will never get any mail. Can you imagine as they fight over the bag with your mail in it when it comes in!!!

I am not sure if in the past I ever sent money or something that would cause all mail sent by me to go missing.. it's quite plausible that this is the reason though..