The Spanish Postal System is a nightmare!
Monday, August 4, 2008 @ 1:10 PM
Our community has been receiving mail for the past 4 years without a problem, the postman had the door code, he came in and delivered accordingly into the owners boxes, occassionally leaving obscure letters neatly under a stone, in the dry, on the side for owners to try and deliver themselves using their own personal knowledge. this seemed to work quite smoothly up until a few months ago when we were informed that the rules had changed and "POSTMEN DO NOT NEED TO GO ONSITE" they can just leave it at the gate and thats enough?
Our post for the 3 phases started being dropped at the sales office and then was distributed around when someone called in or went past. Now the sales office has closed, we were finding heaps of mail stuck between the railings outside the main gates, on the floor and soaked through from the sprinkler systems on the community....its a complete nightmare for all 3 phases.
We therefore decided to install a large community postbox on the wall outside our main gate. Every owner was sent a sticker to rebadge their own postbox to make things even easier over 50% of owners have now clearly identified their postbox.
A couple of the resident owners then agreed to check and deliver the post into the inside boxes on a daily basis, this appears to be working at the moment, but what happens when they both go away at the same time. We have also toyed with the idea of paying the cleaner a little extra to do the job for us, which puts it on a more formal footing.
What is concerning is the amount of incorrect mail we are now receiving for the other phases and more disturbingly lots of other communities. It's as if the postman just goes around the communities in the area and sticks a wad of letters in any postbox he sees, so that his bags are empty when he gets back to the sorting office. We reguarly have to put 30-40 letters a week back into the post for resorting, that have been delivered to the wrong community...so how many of our letters are going elsewhere and binned????
All in all, the post in Spain has become a total disaster, it was never great, but it did appear to work and its important for a lot of people who are looking out for pensions cheques, birthday cards, family letters, new bank and credit card post, not to mention, community fees, summons and legal letters that are being sent to debtors.
We then investigated moving all our postboxes outside the main gate or to install a complete new set which has a cost implication of over 3000 euro's, but then we are all concerned that the postman will just leave the post on the top anyway and all the junk leaflets will be left to blow about the place and make the whole area a complete scruffy eyesore, so that has been abandoned!!
Has anyone else experienced the same problem and how have you resolved it, any hints or advice greatly appreciated.