Uk/Crete Postal Service

[P&B]

Having recently setup home in Crete, we wondered what the expected delivery time should be for letters to and from UK/Crete.

We sent a letter to the UK from Crete (posted in Kalyves) which took about 7 or 8 days - This is absolutley fine but wondered if this is about average?

We're still awaiting delivery of a letter from the UK which was posted 11 days ago on the 12-March - Should we be expecting to wait this long or has our mail gone awol?

[Jeffstclair]

We find post going to the UK is quicker than post coming from the UK . I've never worked out why ...But we have had letters come via Germany ! That seems a bit odd ...whereas things from here just go via Athens to the UK ...

[moved 2 crete]

Similar experiences over the 12 plus years we have lived here on Crete in our Kolimbari Chania region area post from here to the U.K as quick as 3 days from here to reach the destination, but from our U.K family and friends to here especially over the Christmas periods has taken as much as 8 weeks on overall, we have asked the postal services at the U.K end and have been told that it an overload of work for overseas post...

[Kilkis]

Exactly when you post it could make a difference. In my local post office if I give in a letter after 12:00 it won't leave until around 12:00 the next day. Also I don't think any Greek postal service works on Saturday and Sunday so if the letter is still in Greece when you hit a weekend that can add another 2 days. Thus a letter posted before 12:00 early in the week might reach its destination 3 days earlier than one posted later in the week. Apart from that I would say about 1 week either way, give or take a few days, with outgoing from Crete being a bit quicker than incoming, probably because UK postal services do operate through the weekend.

Warwick

[altohb]

In this neck of the woods (Sitia) it seems to take 2-3 days going to the UK, and about a week coming back. The Sitia post office has 2 collections, one at 9.30 and one at 14.00, and it seems that if you catch the early one it helps!

This all applies to "normal" post. Registered post to the UK takes a good week, and from the UK anything up to 10 days, as it all goes via courier (GLS/ACS) once it leaves the UK. Same for parcels from the UK. Make sure you tell whoever is sending you registered mail or parcels to put your contact phone number on the envelope/package so the couriers can let you know it has arrived. Otherwise you can get caught up in a cycle of things going backwards & forwards to the UK - I speak from painful experience!

[Kilkis]

I'm not sure if all registered post from the UK goes the GLS/ACS route, Altohb. I think there are different categories of registered post and I think it is only the tracked categories that go the courier route. I could be wrong.

Similarly not all packages arrive by courier. For example Amazon seems to use i-parcel quite a lot at the moment and they hand off to ELTA in Greece so the parcel arrives at your local post office.

Also it is best if you get the sender to put your mobile number on the package rather than your landline. For some reason couriers seem to like phoning mobiles rather than landlines. Anybody living in a larger town where there are street names and house numbers it is probably not necessary but it is vital for anybody out in a village.

Warwick

[bobscott]

We generally try to post in Chania - letters posted there on a Sunday generally reach their UK destination by Wednesday but Tuesday is not unheard of. From UK to Crete is a moveable feast for us as we only get mail twice a week in Kokkino Horio (and only once a week when our normal delivery day is on or just after the first of the month - that's because the postman goes around the villages paying pensions!). And all of our mail, parcels included are delivered in bulk to the local mini-market. Sorting it out is a DIY job!!

All that may change at the end of this month when it was rumoured earlier that from April the post would all stay in Vrysses, to be collected by individual addressees!! Imagine the chaos, and the chore of going from this end of Apokoronas to the other end once a week minimum just to see if there is any mail for us! What will happen to the monthly pensions payments is anyone's guess.

Watch this space. Bob.

[filippos]

So get together a manageable group of, say, six friends and organise a rota to take turns in collecting all the group's mail. A goes to Vrisses on Tuesday, B goes on Friday, C goes the following Tuesday etc. That means two post trips each week, as now, but each group member travels only once every three weeks.

[bobscott]

I rather fancy the idea of about 150 people from the Kokkino Horio, Plaka, Kambia, Drapanos, Paleloni, Vamos and other villages all turning up at the post office in Vrysses demanding to see if there is any mail for them. Every day for a week. That would soon sort things out. On reflection though, perhaps not!

And thanks for your suggestion Phil - but some well-meaning expat would probably put the lid on it by demanding that a secure and authorised person should undertake the transfer! Unless of course it was only for a select group of friends - which may just work if the PO would allow them to take away mail for other people.

Bob

[filippos]

Yes, Bob I was thinking of small groups who enjoyed mutual trust. If Vrysses is anything like Kalyves there'd be no problem with the PO releasing ordinary letter post as that's just put in a box by the counter. Packets and parcels could be a problem but it should be possible to work out a means acceptable to the post office.
If the PO folks want some sort of formal arrangement, off the top of my head: To give the PO staff a check system, print up a card with a request/declaration along the lines of "Please allow any of the people named below to collect mail and packages for any of the others listed." Below that, three columns with each person's name, mobile number and a blank column for signature. All those on the list visit PO together (taking Passport/Res. Cert.) and sign in front of the head honcho. PO keeps the list. Each of the group keeps a copy of the list. When designated groupie (with ID) goes to collect he/she asks about packages for those listed. If postie has doubts he/she can check signature of collector and/or call the relevant recipient's number on their signed list.
In most cases most people know they have a parcel in transit so could give the collector a separate OK for the PO who would still have the check phone list as an extra confirmation.
Each groupie would need to go to the PO less often, could take outbound stuff for mailing/buy stamps etc., the PO would be less crowded and the postie would only need to check through the packages once instead of as many times as there are group members.If acceptable to the PO staff I'm pretty sure something like that would rapidly become routine.

[johnincrete]

I allow about 3 weeks from placing an Amazon order with standard delivery to receiving an email from the post office in Athens to be followed by one from the local post office at Mournies. It seems that the size of the package makes no difference - the other day I picked up a small package (DVD) and a larger one containing printer ink at the same time: the former could easily have been delivered to the post box outside my building but the latter would not fit. It is a much better system than the one where a carrier just throws the package over the gate - as has happened several times in the past - or where they leave a label on the post box (ACS is chief culprit and it is guesswork which office to go to).

At Christmas, I received most of the UK origin cards in mid-January and one not at all!

[Kilkis]

...(ACS is chief culprit and it is guesswork which office to go to)...

It shouldn't be guesswork, John. Typically there is one office that serves each area so once you find out which one serves your area it should virtually always be the same. There is a store locator on the ACS tracking page and if you select XANION from the drop down menu, near the bottom, and put in your post code/address it should show you which is your store. You can refine the search on the page that appears so that it only shows main stores. I would guess that yours is Agnostou Gogoni 129 and if you phone that office they should be able to tell you where the package is if it is not there.

Typically whichever office has my packages, normally Maleme, they phone me and I usually tell them to keep it there and I go and pick it up. Sometimes the guy will phone me from the van and tell me he is going to be in my village in 10 minutes. In that case I either meet him in the centre or, if it is not convenient, I get him to drop it at the supermarket and I pick it up later. I suppose that if you have a street name and number they will probably bring it straight to the house without phoning.

Warwick

[Jeffstclair]

Yep I agree, I use ACS a fair bit, the Sitia branch don't deliver out here, so they ring me if a parcel arrives and they hold it until I am going in to town.. The regular postal service is pretty good here as well, Stephenula the post lady delivers to the house, if we are out she leaves letters under a rock on the front step , she will take out going mail , and pays out the old age pension to my neighbours , you can pay bills , cartax , phone, electric in you kitchen if you want... it's a great service and very important to the villagers who don't have computers (all of them except us)....

[johnincrete]

My experience of ACS is of parcels for my daughter at school, often heavy boxes of books, sometimes just something small. They deliver in the morning when the school is not open so leave a label. Sometims it is from the office in Chania you mention but often from Souda. The labels on the post box outside my home are for other people so I don't know where they come from - although the Chania office is only just round the corner! I have received two books in separate deliveries (not via Amazon) that where just thrown over the gate and damaged but I don't know which carrier. I picked up one parcel that had been thrown over the gate in the pouring rain and brought it into the building. - which is of course nothing to do with the original post but generally, I think we who live in town get a predictable service which appears to be slow this end of the journey.

[bobscott]

Slight reprieve. I understand that the postal service from Vamos to the surrounding villages is to be extended until the end of April. Not confirmed though. Bob.