The time I tried to set up a proper mail forwarding system from Thailand

I thought I could just fill out a quick online form with USPS and be done in 20 minutes. Turns out getting a legitimate street address for mail in Bangkok, dealing with the 6 month forwarding limit, and actually getting a package took me about 6 weeks of back and forth with the post office. Ended up paying $85 for a service called Planet Mail that forwards everything to a PO box here. Has anyone else had a nightmare with international mail forwarding or found a better way?

3 comments

3 Comments

terryw676d ago

Yeah I dealt with this exact same headache moving back from Korea. Tried the USPS online form thing and it just kept erroring out on me because my Korean address didnt fit their stupid dropdown menus. Ended up using a mail forwarding service too but I went with St Brendan's Isle after reading about them on some expat forum. They give you a real Florida street address and hold your mail for like 30 bucks a month. Sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet and pay for a service that actually works.

reesel506d ago

Hold on a minute. Are we really gonna pretend like stuffing your mail through some random Florida forwarding service is somehow better than dealing with USPS? You folks are paying $30 a month just so some company can sit on your junk mail and maybe forward it if they feel like it. I've seen those outfits lose people's paychecks and insurance cards because some part-time employee set the wrong thing aside. USPS is free through the online system and they actually deliver to your door. So you gotta type an address a little different? Big deal. Type something close and let the post office figure it out. They've been doing this for like 200 years.

emery_black6d agoMost Upvoted

Man I feel your pain @terryw67. I had a similar meltdown trying to explain to USPS that my street in Tokyo was literally just a number and a dash, not a dropdown menu option. The online form just stared back at me like I was speaking a different language. St Brendan's Isle sounds solid for $30 - I went with a service that gave me a Texas address but they lost my car registration renewal twice before I wised up. Sometimes you really just have to pay a little more to not pull your hair out over mail.