A Five-Star Delivery by Pos Indonesia

[Yellowhorn]

On May 21, I sent a horn to San Francisco, US, using the air-mail international shipping service at Pos Indonesia. I was told that the estimated time of arrival of the package would be within three weeks.

This morning, I got an email from the buyer of my horn saying he got it. That is only 10 days!

By contrast, a seller of another horn sent it to Jakarta, Indonesia, from Ontario, Canada, on 4 April and told me to expect it in about four to six weeks. Today (30 May) marks eight weeks since the horn was shipped, and I have seen no signs of it. I called Pos Indonesia this morning and was told that the horn has not entered Indonesia.

While this experience with the two postal services can speak for itself, I'd like to thank and congratulate Pos Indonesia for a job well-done!

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By contrast, a seller of another horn sent it to Jakarta, Indonesia, from Ontario, Canada, on 4 April and told me to expect it in about four to six weeks. Today (30 May) marks eight weeks since the horn was shipped, and I have seen no signs of it. I called Pos Indonesia this morning and was told that the horn has not entered Indonesia. . .


YHB illustrates, painfully, the risk of using national mail services. Government owned services don't need to answer to customers, they answer instead to their government's bureacratic structures and continue in business as long as the prevailing politicos sanction them, unlike a corporation that will go out of business without continued customer patronage -- and therefor tend to be more responsible. Those of us shipping internationally, well okay, domestically too, would be served by using a courier service (DHL, FedEx, UPS, etc) where there are signoffs at each transfer point. Shipping by a domestic government mail service remains dicey in my opinion. I've been lucky so far, but am switching to courier service for expensive items from now on.

When government postal systems do perform, I agree with YHB that they are praiseworthy.

Let's all send a prayer to YHB that his horn arrives!

[Yellowhorn]

Thanks, Jason.