PBH / colombia (travelguide, pictures) / post

Sending post to and from Colombia

Written Judith in Medellin.

Sending mail from Colombia should be a simple, straightforward experience. After all, your letters/postcards to send home are neatly addressed, you’ve got the money to buy stamps, what could possibly go wrong?

The answer is, quite a lot.

Firstly, after you’ve been here a while, you start noticing a distinct lack of post boxes. That’s because they don’t exist here. Once you’ve got over that minor shock, you locate your nearest post office. There are two types. The state-run, Adpostal, and the private ones, Deprisa.

Letters sent with Adpostal cost from 3,200 pesos each and can take anything from one week to one month to get to their destination (especially if it’s in Europe). If it’s any further away expect an even longer arrival time – a letter I sent to Australia once arrived exactly two months later.

Letters sent from private post offices cost about double the amount at state-run places but there’s no guarantee they will get there any quicker – although they are supposedly more secure. The choice is yours.

So here you are, standing in one of Adpostal’s outlets. In Colombian state-run post offices there is usually only one employee licensed to sell stamps, and you HAVE to make sure he’s the one you’re dealing with. This is because there have been many scandals over recent years involving post office workers selling stamps to customers, steaming them off the envelopes which the customer has trustingly left with them, and re-selling them. So, once you know you’ve got the right man, make sure the stamps are actually stuck on the envelopes in front of you, or do it yourself.

The next step is to ask him to stamp them with the official post office stamp – in front of you. One employee said to me once, “I’m busy now, leave it with me and I’ll do it later.�? Never agree. The chances are he’s going to steam the stamps off, bin your letters and re-sell the stamps. And make sure he puts the post office stamp over the stamps you’ve just stuck on. Otherwise they can be re-sold.

This done, you should be in the safe knowledge that your letters will finally, some day get to their destination. But just to make sure, drop them into the letterbox which you should find somewhere on the Adpostal premises. Don’t leave it for the employee to do it. He might not.

Finally, before your transaction is over, make sure you get a receipt. Post office employees must BY LAW issue you with a receipt when you buy stamps, so the government can keep tabs on who’s nicking what stamps and where, if they are. If you don’t get a receipt and your letters don’t make it to wherever you sent them, you won’t be able to prove that you actually bought the stamps at that office in the first place.

A less stressful option is getting your envelopes franked. More and more Colombians are doing this now as it eliminates the risk of theft. But if you want to send home pretty stamps you have to go the long way round.

By Peter (Moderator) on Sep 11, 2002, 13:27 in Friendly Talkzone.

Peter (Moderator) says on Nov 11, 2003, 13:28:

Wow,, i don´t know what to say,,,
I never had anu problems sending/receiving any mail here in medellin....not that I send that many letters to family and friends at home, but anyway.although the arriving date of the letters varied quite a lot, I never experienced any/nor expected any problems with obtaining the stamps in the postoffice..
tnx for the ´warning´
saludos

Poor but snappy

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lvzervos says on Nov 30, 2003, 18:13:

REJECTED POST I live in Melbourne, Australia and an old friend of mine from Cartagena tried to send me a 'artesania' (in English, a handicraft) from there and they rejected it. Now I've asked him again to send it to me but it's been months and I still haven't got it.

What do you think could've possibly gone wrong? :'(

Somebody... Anybody... help.

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Peter (Moderator) says on Dec 23, 2003, 13:17:

mail delivery from USA Today is December 23, 2003. On September 30, 2003, I mailed a card from the USA to a family in Medellin who I was going to stay with in the middle of October. Today, they still have not received this card.

In June of 2003, I mailed a parcel package containing local Hershey's chocolate and other things from my area. The package arrived in September. Someone decided they wanted some of the chocolate. Out of 3 bags shipped, my friends received 1 bag.

I don't trust the contracts with the USPS anymore. I now use Airborne Express or UPS.

Poor but snappy

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simplicia says on Mar 11, 2004, 07:31:

This is a BIG problem in Colombia. If you live in a major city it is not as bad but I agree that you need to send your mail by Fed Ex. The regular mail does arrive but sometimes does take months!

simplicia

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Sweetie Pie says on Sep 15, 2004, 19:01:

i need help!! what do these three spanish phrases mean

me ases mucha falta

te quiero mucho

quisiera tenerte a mi lado a hora mismo

i need these translated in english fast

send me the translations to my screen name Cuteass391 at aol.com

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Peter (Moderator) says on Nov 5, 2004, 10:12:

Translation me haces mucha falta = I miss you so much

Te quiero mucho = I want(or love) you so much

quisiera tenerte a mi lado a hora mismo = I would want you to be next to me right now

Poor but snappy

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TechGromit says on Jan 23, 2005, 08:25:

Airborne / UPS Does Airborne / UPS have offices in Columbia? I checked in the Cartagena phone book and located a Fedex office, but didnt see either UPS or Airborne. I wondered becase durng my entire trip to Cartagena I didnt see a single Postal or fedex truck. When you ship via Fedex do they deliver to your house/apartment? Or do you need to pick it up at the office like you do the mail?

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boomer says on Jan 23, 2005, 11:00:

Shipping to Colombia DHL Express, UPS, FedEx, USPS All have service to Colombia, however, USPS is not insured or garranteed. In Colombia, shippers use private contractors to deliver pkgs and mail. It's risky!!! Best you can do is Insure, Insure, Insure!!!! If it's a letter (not valuable or rushed) use USPS for less than a buck. 14-20 days and $.60 will usually do the trick. I've used UPS and FedEx for pkg shippment and won't do that again!!! $30 and 9 days for an envelope (FedEx). $225.00 and 21 days for a small pkg (UPS) + and an additional $212.00 to get the pkg out of customs and delivered!!!! Someone in Bogota Custom's decided they could use what was in the pkg?????? "I could have bought a round trip ticket and delivered it myself for that kind of money." So, what's a guy to do???? I got smart!!! Colombian's living here don't pay like that to ship pkg's to Colombia. If they don't have a family member returning home for a visit, they use smaller shipper's that specialize in USA to SA. I found one that ship's only to Colombia at a rate that is unbelievably low and the delivery time to the door is 3-5 days. Ask around. You'll find..... (any Latin Supermarket is a good place to start)
ps - You'll find very affordable phone cards there also!!!

orgullo_de_colombia

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gringuito says on Jan 28, 2005, 19:48:

postal test I decided to test the Colombian postal system. I sent a letter a day for over a month to my girlfriend in Colombia. I sent some to her house in the north part of Bogota and some to her work place in Zona Rosa. Just for the heck of it, in some I put a US $1 bill wrapped up in two sheets of paper so it was not visible through the envelope. Each enveloped was numbered. Later I asked which numbers had arrived and if any of them had the $1 bill in them.
The results - 67% of the letters arrived to the home address and not one of them had the $1 bill in them. My girlfriend said the envelopes kept arriving wet. To the office the arrival was slightly higher at 75% and all that arrived had the $1 bill inside of them.
While the the USPS and Colombian postal system is not as reliable, I found a difference of $200 in shipping just a single 10 pound package using UPS, DHL and some of the other services.

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eagle46 says on Jan 30, 2005, 15:59:

Shipping Post to and From Colombia OK Boomer, you said "I found one that ship's only to Colombia at a rate that is unbelievably low and the delivery time to the door is 3-5 days. Ask around. You'll find..... (any Latin Supermarket is a good place to start)"

So, are you able to share the shipper with us, or would it be better to find one in our own neck of the woods? I had shipped something right before the Christmas rush. IT was a sizable box with all sorts of stuff in it. I guess I was fortunate that nothing was touched. It went to Tulua. But the USPS did warn me that packages to Colombia, Mexico, and some other countries have MUCHO problems arriving at all or in tact! It took about 4 weeks to get there though. It was risky!

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Eva says on Apr 15, 2005, 23:50:

mail forwarding services to Colombia Hi, does anyone know of any reliable mail forwarding services that U.S. citizens can use in Colombia and how much this costs? I seem to remember a company called Jet (?) or something that would forward bulk mail once every two weeks or so directly to my neighbor's apartment in Bogota, a very secure way to get your mail when living overseas. But now I can't find this company listed anywhere. Thanks!

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naranja says on Jun 9, 2005, 15:27:

Sending items to Australia from Colombia Hi there,
I am looking at sending some packages home to my family in Australia from Colombia. Does anyone know of the best way to go about this, or a reliable and not hugely expensive company to use? I've just been browsing on the internet and some of the prices I've come across are absolutely sky-high. Time is not really a concern. Any advice appreciated!
Cheers

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