Cyprus-Forum.com

[THE HIGHLANDER]

Can anyone explain how the Cyprus Postal system works when recieving letters and parcels ?

1- Are there posties in Cypus who actually deliver letter mail through your letter box including remote areas of the beaten track ?
2- Do they also deliver bigger parcels too or do they put a card through your box and you have to collect yourself at your nearest local P.O ?
3- Assuming there are posties do they appear in your neibourhood daily or is it less ?
4- When collecting a bigger parcel does the local subpostmaster/clerk double up as customs and excise and ask questions about your parcel or has it been opened already by customs at a larger sorting office before it reaches the smaller local P.O ?
5- And what about bigger deliverys/small consignment you may have outwith the P.O say from an international carrier does anyone have any experience with those ?

Any advice or personal experiences good or bad would be warmly appreciated. Many thanx Brian.

"HAVE A NICE XMAS EVERYONE AND ALL THE BEST IN 2007"

[unique_earthling]

Here we go... My experience of the postal system over the years has been a nightmare but then i think you all guess that... I just breath a sigh of relief when i see something in my post box. I must say its a lot better than it was, a few years ago a certain body of people used to think it was their perks to open a box of chocolates sent to some old lady from her daughter, or take other items.

Its not like the UK where its treasonable with a custodial sentance to tamper with the mail. The service does not take responsibility for protecting the mail from loss or theft and apprehending those who violate postal laws.

Often its the posty boys that help themselves or cant be assed to deliver it so it ends up in a ditch some where. Its best to have a P/O box and yes! on larger items you do get notice that its arrived at the post office. Always register post and take every precaution to be on the safe side.

[susanbunny]

Mail is a nightmare as unique_earthling says, ours is so bad in our village, that we have it delivered to our friends in the next village, who have a really good service. The trouble with a lot of places the village has grown, but there is still one post person, and there wages have not gone up. Our post lady actually told me she doesn't get paid enough to deliver it!!! Mind you she has two other jobs, so hasn't really go the time...........

Susanbunny

[Cyprus Vending]

Hi Brian

It really depends on where you live! Here in Mesoyi our post service is great... When we lived in Peyia we never had a single letter in FOUR months!!!

For business I use DHL in Paphos & they we recieve (client) parcels for you FOC.

Stuart

As for customs - I have never had a problem - BUT I always make sure the papers are in order. EU deliveries are not so strict, but ones fron China etc - they are tight on!

[devil]

OK, a real answer, instead of complaints. Theoretically, each village has a postal agency and a postman, usually separate. The agency sells stamps and handles the mail in the postbox but practically nothing else. Only the larger towns and cities have post offices which handle a varying degree of services (e.g., to send an EMS, you have to take it to a main PO, not a sub-PO). The postman is paid a pittance (£100/month) to deliver letters and small packets; he does not deliver parcels. He organises his own beats and may deliver only once per week, especially to remote areas. They often cannot read Latin alphabets, so wrong deliveries are rife if not written in Greek, especially if poorly addressed.

Parcels cannot be picked up in a local agency: you have to go to a District Main PO, unless you have a postbox at a nearer one or you address it Poste Restante to a specifically named PO.

My experience is that small packets from within the EU (no duty/VAT) are sometimes delivered, but not always. I have always had to pick up foreign parcels and small packets subject or not to duty and/or VAT from the Central PO in Nicosia (I live in Larnaca District): I don't know whether it's the same for other Districts. There is a Customs service at that PO (very good one, actually). Note it can take 3-5 days for a foreign parcel to be registered through to the notification sent + delivery time of the notification, from the arrival in the country. If something is really urgent, it should be sent by EMS/DataPost.

Private courier services are a catastrophe. DHL and FedEx are, by far, the worst. They do NOT deliver outside the main cities and they can sit on packets for days before notifying you (by phone), especially if you happen to be out when they do phone. They often make mistakes as to which of their offices have the packet. As an example, on one occasion, I received a phone call from DHL in Nicosia that a very urgent packet had arrived. I went (special journey) to their Nicosia office, to be told that it had been sent to Latsia; went there, to be told that, as I lived in Larnaca district, they had put it in the van to their Larnaca office. The same afternoon, I was picking someone up at the airport, so I went to the Larnaca office, to be told it wasn't there. At this point, I lost my paddy and started to blow my top. The poor girl (with fractious baby) in the office started phoning around and it was eventually traced to the DHL reception area in the airport (the van from Latsia does not go to the Larnaca office). About an hour later, twiddling my thumbs with my guest waiting in the car, I received the documents (after about 100 km of futile travelling and >3 hours wasted). This is not unique; I think I must have lost my paddy with DHL at least 15 times in the last 8 years. The galling thing is that the DHL vans pass from Larnace to Nicosia within a couple of hundred metres from my front door. Will they deliver? Will they f..k? (To be fair, they have delivered twice when I have been especially angry for some balls-up, but only because the director lives in the next village!)

OTOH, UPS have delivered to the house on a number of occasions and I always recommend that my interlocutors use UPS for minimal hassle.

[Snad]

As far as customs go they seem to open anything they want. I got a jiffy envelope from my friend in the UK that had 3 self recorded Dvds in it and they opened it and that was from an EU country. They do stamp it it and seal back up again.

Make sure you get a letter BOX preferably on the outside of your wall, as the posties will just chuck it on your doorstep from the street if you don't. Then the inevitable happens and the wind blows it away.

[zebedee]

my folks seem to have a good postie in Peyia. I posted a large jiffy bag from wales with pressies in about 10 days ago and they got it yesterday. I'm told they get deliveries twice a week. They looked into getting a p.o box and apparently thetre's no more capacity until february. But there's no waiting list so it'll be first come first serve, if it happens at all! lisa

[THE HIGHLANDER]

HI FOLKS...........
Thanx a million everyone i now have a much better understanding of the postal system.

Merry Xmas and all the best in 2007.

[sofo13]

when i used to live in Limassol some years ago,we had a postie doing his rounds on a moped daily and never had a problem.That was between 1990 and 1995.Even now when we go for a few weeks at a time we see the postie making his rounds daily.But thats in Limassol.....