Last year I ordered several books from Amazon. Some of the books were second hand college text books and the sellers of these text books do not do international shipping. So I asked my friend who lives in the United States if I could have it shipped to her address and then she will just ship it to my Philippine address. I asked her to ship it via USPS. (United States Parcel Services) I would have preferred the she ship it via private courier considering that PHILPOST (Philippine Postal Service) will be the one to receive it if it is shipped by USPS and it is known to everyone in the Philippines that PHILPOST is so slow when it comes to delivering mails and packages. But since I ordered more than 15 books and some of these books are quite heavy, I opted to have it shipped via USPS as it was much more cheaper. Besides, I was not in a hurry to receive it.
On August 17, 2013 my friend sent the package. I was accustomed to the slowness of Philpost services so I figured out that I will probably be sent a notice to pick up the package in the office 3 months later.
By November 2013 since I have not received a single notice from Philpost, I went to their main office in Cebu city. The person in the counter told me that for packages I have to go to the warehouse at the back.
A guard greeted me and asked if I was claiming a package and if I had the tracking number for it. I was quite amused and delighted that PHILPOST already has a tracking number. This means that Filipinos can now track the status of their packages through the internet. I told him I forgot to ask the tracking number from my friend so he just asked for my name and the address to which the package was shipped to. He checked a computer terminal and after a few minutes told me that the package is not in Cebu and is probably still in Manila.
I was not surprised at all as I was already anticipating this considering that Philpost is notorious for delayed deliveries. By mid December, there was no notice whatsoever from PHILPOST about my package so I decided to browse the internet and search for their website in order that I can find an email address so that I can inform PHILPOST Manila office about my problem. True enough in their website, there was a section there wherein you can track your packages. I clicked on “Contact” signed an online form and sent my message.
January 2014 came and I got no response whatsoever from PHILPOST. So I asked the tracking number from my friend. Since she lost the receipt, she went to the USPS and asked for it. After several days she emailed it to me. I immediately inputed the tracking number in the PHILPOST website. According to the website. The packaged was sent from the U.S.A on August 17, 2013 and arrived in the Philippines on August 26, 2013. The last update of the PHILPOST website was that it was “En route to delivery office” by August 31, 2013. That confirmed my theory that the package was stuck in Manila.
Somebody told me that I should contact the post master general about this problem. So by February 7, 2014 since I still received no notice or any response form PHILPOST I sent this email to the post Master general:
“Ms. Maria Josefina M. Dela Cruz
Office of the Postmaster General
Liwasang Bonifacio
1000 Manila
The Philippines
Dear Ms. Dela Cruz,
I bring to your attention a package that was sent to me from the United States which I have not received until now. The packaged was sent from the United States last August 17, 2013. By November of 2013, since I still have not received it, I went to the Philpost main office in Cebu and inquired if it has arrived there. The personnel there told me that they could not find it in their computers and that it must be in Manila. I asked the tracking number from my friend who sent the package and she give it to, it is _________
After checking with the Philpost website the last activity there was 8/31/02013 and it says “Enroute to delivery office”
By December 2013, sent a message through your website raising my concern. But until now, I have not received a response from your personnel.
The package contains nothing of value that requires for it to go through a lot of customs brouhaha. It only contains books and most of them are even used.
It only took From the United States to the Philpost 9 days for the package to arrive from the United States. It’s been more than 5 months now and the package has not yet arrived in Cebu. Manila and Cebu couldn’t be that far compared to the United States and Manila. No wonder the recent news banner story of the Philippine Daily Inquirer contains the story that a U.S lawyer says that our Philippine Mailing system sucks. (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/575202/ph-mailing-system-sucks-says-us-lawyer) Being the country’s post master general, I hope you could look into this and improve things at PHILPOST.
Here are details about the package: ________
Hoping for your prompt action regarding my package.”
I expected the reply from the post master general’s office to be as delayed as the arrival of my package, but to my surprise 2 hours after I sent the email. (And mind you that was sent on Saturday evening at 8 p.m.) I received the following response:
“Dear Atty. Diaz:
This is to acknowledge your receipt of your email regarding your package sent from the US.
First of all thank you for bringing this concern to our attention.
We have forwarded your complaint to the concerned department and we shall update you once we received the information.
We will not let incidents like this go unnoticed and we will do everything
we can to reach a fair and just resolution.
Lastly, we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. PHLPost is committed
to render effective and efficient service. Anything that goes against this
commitment is something that needs to be addressed urgently.
Thank you for your kind understanding.
Sincerely yours,
Myrachelle Gay Tolosa Santos
Chief of Staff
Office of the Postmaster General”
I was quite amazed and impressed at the quickness of the response. By Monday (2 days after I sent the email) I received the package and it was personally delivered to me at my office by somebody from PHILPOST Cebu.
Days later, the one who delivered my package visited me in my office. She apologized profusely to me. She said she is not making any excuse and admitted that the mistake falls on her on the basis of command responsibility and that she just wanted to explain what might have happened. She explained that the post man assigned to our office address sent two notices and it was received by somebody from our office. I told her that I never received any notice and I told her if this was the case, one of the guards probably received it. Unfortunately we changed guards last December 2013 so I could not call the attention of the guard who probably received it. Since they do not have a copy of who receives notices for packages (unlike registered mail) she does not know who received the notices for me.
I told her that there are two possibilities for this. The first possibility is that the notice was received by the guard and the guard did not give it to me. (Philpost sends out three notices if I am not mistaken, informing the recipient to pick up the package from the post office) The second possibility is that the post man failed to do his job and that he never delivered any notice to our office at all.
A counter argument to these possibilities is as follows, our guards always give us our mails and I have not known any instance wherein they have not done so. The Philpost personnel said that it is unlikely that the post man assigned to our area will not deliver any notice to me since he has a good record and so far there are no complaints against him. I do not know anymore which is anymore. I just suggested to her that perhaps PHILPOST should improve its system and that it should come up with a system to determine if a notice is delivered and that another team should make a followup, a sort of check and balance system.
She told me she has not been getting any sleep lately because of this problem and that she had been receiving calls from Manila as she is being questioned what has happened to this particular package. Instead of getting mad, somehow I felt pity for her. I told her, it was nothing personal. All the while I thought the package was still in Manila and all the while I thought the delay was in the Manila office, when in reality it was the Cebu office that was really causing the problem. I told her not to worry about it, that I accept her apologies and that I will send an email to the post master general about commending her actions of apologizing to me and for personally delivering my package.
In the end it was truly a learning experience for the local PHILPOST personnel in Cebu and the entire Philippine Postal Service Office. Hopefully they would be able to install a better system to solve the delays in the delivery of our mails and packages.
I also commend the PHILPOST local personnel for humbly accepting her mistakes, apologizing for it and taking full responsibility. Above all my hats off to Myrachelle Gay Tolosa Santos, Chief of staff of the PHILPOST post master general for her prompt response regarding this matter and I only wish that the entire Philippine Postal Service Corporation will be as efficient as her.
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Hi Sir
Can you share Ms. Dela Cruz email address?
Thanks
Mai: Yes sure. For any complaints on Philpost you can write to the Post master general at pmgNOSPAM@philpost.gov.ph. Please remove “NOSPAM” to reveal the true emaiail address. I did this purposely so that their email address will not be harvested by online email harvesting spiders.
Hi, thanks for sharig your experience. I have sent a registered letter to makati from my place here in Europe with a very urgent content and is still stucked in Manila… yesterday I wrote to the PGM and already got an answer that they will look into it. Hopefully Ill have a happy ending!
Simo: I wish you all the best ! Hope your problem will be solved. 😀
Yes, it was delivered on monday morning already. Finally! Thanks again 😀
I came upon this blog post while looking at experiences with PhilPost. I have been a regularl recipient of parcels from the US and it usually takes a month. But this is the first time ever that I have waited more than that and I am seriously afraid that the parcel I am waiting for may have been pilfered. I’ve been to Manila CPO as I always have my mails picked up from there and did inquiries to no success. I have seen the post master general’s email and tried my luck. Here’s to hoping I may get a positive outcome from this.
I wish you luck in your dealings with Philpost 😀
Thank you for sharing your experience! I have emailed the post master as well because I have been waiting for an order I placed online for more than three months now. Hopefully they will reply to my email, but as I am simply a student, they might not be worried about what I have to say to the post office.
I am sure they will give attention to your problem. Keep your fingers crossed ! 😀
On March 31 2015 I sent a small parcel by post from Switzerland and paid about 1000 Pesos freight to General Santos City.
The parcel arrived on July 6, 2015, more than 3 months later, and we had to pay another 100 Pesos for fees to get the parcel.
It’s a real shame that in the 21st century the Philippine Government does tolerate such a lousy state owned enterprise. Shame shame shame
Shame indeed . . . Perhaps it would be much better if government privatise Philpost 😀
Tried to email PMG, so far no reply. Been waiting for my parcel for almost a month now, it was sent Nov.1st and took only 3 days to reached the Philippines. But till now it’s pending in custom.
Ay nako….Tried to email PMG, so far no reply. Been waiting for my parcel for almost a month now, it was sent Nov.1st and took only 3 days to reached the Philippines. But till now it’s pending in custom.
Atty. Diaz,
Thank you so much for this blog post..
For weeks I was calling the post office, trying to get updates regarding the status of my package and nobody could give me an acceptable answer except that I had to wait… Tracking site states enroute to delivery office for already over a month.
My wedding was coming up and in that package was my wedding dress, I happened to read this blog three days before the wedding day, I actually already lost hope that time and already looked for another dress at the local stores but just couldn’t find anything that I liked better than the one in the package, so, I agreed to settle to a rental dress if the package wont arrive.. I tried to email the address mentioned above and stated the urgency of the matter, I got a reply few hours later that they are tracking where the package really is..
The next day I got a call from post office CDO,
Telling me that they are bringing it to my location, Davao, and will do their best to get it to me on time.. On the morning of my wedding, it was personally delivered by Davao City’s Post Office General Director to my address and he personally apologized for all the trouble it had caused..
Thank you!
I was able to wear my dream wedding dress on my wedding day!!! It meant so much to me 🙂 Cheers!!!
You are most welcome. Glad to be able to help. Congratulations on your wedding ! 😀
Hi Atty.,
I find your blog helpful.
I’m a newbie, actually. Just purchased an item online from outside the country.
May I know if the email address above is still active?
Hello Arden, I am not sure if it is active, but you can try it out. Thanks for visiting my blog.
Hi atty,
I am going to deliver a cd from philippines to new zealand, I don’t know if phil post will be able to deliver it on time because he badly needs it. Can I ask if the outgoing process of philpost is reliable and trustworthy?
-Andy
Hi can I ask for the Philpost email address? it’s almost 2 months now and still I didn’t received my package 🙁 I went to Philpost Cebu but they said that my package are not there 🙁 It als says “Attempt Failed Delivery” Status. Thanks!
Brant from Cebu
Hi Atty!
Thanks for this blog and the email you gave ‘coz it is really helpful and be an awareness to the Philpost office.
I wanna share my experience with Philpost, their tracking website is not that updated. I tried tracking my package using that website then it says “enroute to delivery office”, so i really don’t know if my package was already delivered to cebu or not. Also I keep calling Philpost office main, located in Plaza Independecia. Staffs of that office are very rude in answering phone calls. I don’t know why they are like that. Still hoping for a fast and liable service of Philpost.
Is it necessary if your package is less than a kilo and it is place in a box do we really need to pick it up at the warehouse or they’ll deliver it?
Hi Atty:
I have the same experience. MY boyfriend from Arizona sent me a package twenty days ago via USPS. He told me that the package was expected to reach me after 7-10 days. I got worried when after more than 10 days, it hasn’t arrived yet. My boyfriend got worried, too so he gave me the tracking number to check it myself. I checked many times until today and it said that it’s been delivered unsuccessfully and that it’s been forwarded/redirected? It doesn’t make sense since my boyfriend asked a few times if he wrote the correct address in the package and I confirmed it. Any chance that it may have been lost or stolen? Can you please help me find someone from PHLPOST who can really help me? I work in Quezon City but the package is addressed to me in Calamba, Laguna. Please help.
Hi ngano Wala paman gi abot ako package hapit na mg 6 months, ordenary angel pg hulog Pero grabi ka dugay hangtod krn sala pa giabot.
From Sweden to Cdo ang package, palihog ko action Phil post. Costumer service,
Respectfully Dale Christian Suniel.
Hi ngano Wala paman gi abot ako package hapit na mg 6 months, ordenary ang pg hulog Pero grabi ka dugay hangtod krn wala pa giabot.
From Sweden to Cdo ang package, palihog ko action Phil post. Costumer service,
Respectfully Dale Christian Suniel.
Hi Atty Diaz,
Good Morning. I am in Cebu at the moment waiting for my package to arrive from u.s we’ve been waiting for it 9 days now. It was stated that they attempted to deliver it at 12:06am on January 8 and January 9. This is so crazy because who on earth will send a parcel at 12:06am. I was wondering what advice can you give about it?? should I go to the nearest postal office here??
Thanks in advance 🙂
ICE
You can address your concerns to the Post Master general, I am sure they will take immediate action on that matter.
its been a month atty that i havent received my parcel. i just cant imagine that the system was so slow. can i ask for the email add. thank you
Philpost delivery it takes 3 to 4 months to get a notice card
Who is the latest post master general and can you share email address for me to send an email too about my concern?