New Spanish Law..postmen don't have to deliver?

Has anyone else fallen foul of the new Spanish rules regarding postmen?
 
We have 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 find heaps of mail stuck between the railings outside the main gate, on the floor and soaked through from the sprinkler systems on the community....its a nightmare.

We therefore decided to install a large community postbox on the wall outside the main gate and a couple of the resident owners 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. 

We have now also started  to receive loads of mail 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?

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 have also 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.

Has anyone else experienced the same problem and how have you resolved it, any hints or advice greatly appreciated.   

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Have not heard of that one promedia, but I know we had loads of trouble with the post on our Urb.
The post boxes were erected by the builder on the outside of the 2 buildings but it turned out that the boxes were numbered wrongly so we had to turn them all around ( difficult cos by then we didn't have the keys )
We had the front of the boxes glassed in to protect the mail from the weather and sticky fingered people BUT we could not have them locked and give the Correos the key for deliveries as they are no longer accepting keys and will not deliver at specific times so the glass must remain unlocked.
Then the Correos changed our adresses and we foung people in the same building but according to the Correos, they lived on different streets!!
That's all sorted now, but we still get a fair amount of mail for other Urbs and we get loads of stuff in the box marked Correos which I think people believe that if they put thier mail in there the Correos will collect it for posting !! WRONG !!

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Hi all after 10 months we still dont get any post at all it could be the road going up to are apts, the community is trying to sort this out but when will we get are post i dont no other than paying for a private  post box bye irene

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karensun

interesting that you "had not heard that one"   as you are well versed in all the problems in Spain, this concerns me that we might be given some bulls**t by the post office or someone in their offices, 

Has anyone else heard of this new ruling, do some communities still have postmen using door codes or keys to get onto a community to deliver the mail correctly inside the complex or is ours just a new higher standard of customer service!! that we have to learn to live with and be prepared to accept these days in Spain?
 
Have you or your community noticed any changes in the postal service or is it so crap nobody notices any changes. Interested to get some more feedback from elsewhere along the coast. 

Maria L. de Castro, our legal guru on this forum, whats the legal responsibility of the post office to deliver, do you know??

Letters of complaint on our behalf from our administrator to the post office in la Cala appear to have fallen on deaf ears 

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"Have you or your community noticed any changes in the postal service or is it so crap nobody notices any changes?"

The latter. We regularly receive letters addressed to completely different streets, which also explains the number of expected letters that simply never arrive. We thought this was at least in part due to the sorting office temporarily being moved to an industrial unit out of town, while renovations were carried out at the local main PO - which took over two years. Now it's re-opened, there's no improvement. On several occassions, I went to the industrial estate to enquire about some item I was expecting, that hadn't arrived. Each time, they claimed to have nothing for me, but each time, the missing item mysteriously was delivered the next day! On one occasion, I went to find out what had happened to a magazine I subscribe to. After checking our pigeon hole, the boss came back with my mag, saying there was nothing for us, except some propoganda! Although I'm not a big fan of junk mail, someone pays for it to be delivered, and the PO just disregard it - along with a mag that I've actually paid for myself!

Irene, if your complex is new, has anyone been to the PO to register it for deliveries? Until you do, it won't be included on the postie's round. Even if he walks past it everyday to deliver either side of it, in the PO's mind, it simply doesn't exist, until you request that they included it on their round.

And even then, the chances of getting your mail regularly, as you can tell from this thread, is fairly remote anyway. If you are not already committed to sving trees by receiving all your bills on-line, the Spanish Correos will do a good job of persuading you. Perhaps it's govt. policy, to help the environment?

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Our urb has one big letterbox which the post is put in. Volunteers on the committee sort it every day and put it in our locked post boxes. It has the benefit of not being filled with junk leaflets.

Mark

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Hi roberta i think we are going to have a area on phase 1 where all the mail is going to be put but i dont no if the security man will post it to each block or if some one offers to del it to each block but when that will be i dont no, we have d/debits for most things so we dont get cut off for are services thanks irene

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Hi i for got to say I think they are going to build some think between block 1 and 2 bye irene

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That's very odd!

In our block of ten units, we are the only Brits - all the others are Spanish.. Never had any problem with our post - I wonder why?

Steve.

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The road is not finished and the post man wont come up that road  as it belongs to the rail company .bye irene

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We do not have our post delivered we have to go to the small post office in the village and pick our post up.   It is open one hour a day so if you know you have post  this is what you have to do, even the Spanish queue up for post.    But give it is due it does seem to work.  The more established houses do get their post delivered but it is often sticking out of letter boxes, but no one seems bothered about it.    We do have post boxes in the entrance door with key's so when this will be implemented well maybe tomorrow maybe not.         Pat

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Steve (Sten46) - just luck. Our building is mostly Spanish, so nothing to do with anti-foreign feelings (assuming that's what you were hinting at?) I often get mail for Spanish neighbours (or Spaniards who live in a completely different street) put in my box, so I know it's not just mine that goes astray. 

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Steve, you bought a resale so how old is your apartment ? Could it be you get post delivered as you're in Almoradi town maybe !?!

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Just found this thread. I'm getting post delivered, albeit two weeks after being sent (local bills). It seems to take the same amount of time as international mail. Is this normal? I have also found that my DD for telefonica comes out even before I get my bill. Again is this normal? Is registered post quicker?

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   I am afraid we do not get our post delivered, we have to go to  the Post Office to pick it up and it is only open an hour a day. So it is only if we remember to go we get the post.  I have heard that direct debits do come out first then you receive the bill. But that happens to me in UK Virgin take the money then I receive the bill.     But we have received mail from UK in Spain and it normally takes three to four days.   Pat

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How strange Pat, we are not far from you in Mar y Sol and we DO get the post delivered!!!

Bills do come out before you get the bill though.

Gloria and Mike

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We have a great system. There are 172 houses and an older man that we all know enjoys picking up the mail from the P.O. and goes round delivering it.

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Our post is delivered to a covered vestibule next to the pool that is locked overnight and during siesta. At all other times it is open to the general public as we are not a gated community and outsiders use the pool and restaurant .Someone (God knows who) sorts it into alphabetical pigeon holes, however their alphabet seems to be a make it up as you go along one so it's necessary check every pigeon hole. The President doesn't respond to requests for secure post boxes.

Could I put my own box up on my house and register with the PO to have my mail delivered directly to it?

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   Hi Gloria and Mike, yes I am afraid we still have to pick up our post just had that confirmed from someone that is there all the time, something to do with the wrong addresses using the plot number, not house number so it will continue till that gets changed.   The times I have been to the post room and they give you everyone's post so you have to search through for your own post.   But it is quite handy as you can tell neighbour's that they have post to be collected and visa versa.   Pat 

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There was a Royal Decree passed in April 2007 by which a new class withing postal regulations was created:

Developments with no delivery:   

Are called " special surroundings " ( Entornos especiales)  and Correos ( National Public Postal services) are under no obligation for home to home delivery. In these cases, letters and parcels will be placed  in determined pigeonholes placed in an specific point of the development or group of houses.

This special rule is applied to those surroundings where the number of  registered residents are 25 or less per hectare, or  when the number of remittances are under 5 per week and address. 

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