An example of how inconsistent USPS can be for shipment to Thailand

I have literally had 100's of packages sent to me from the U.S. during the six years I have lived in Thailand. I have had packages come in as fast as four days and others take up to a month. The delay is usually on the U.S. side, not Thai Post. In the past Thai Post had problems but in the last five or six years they have become a very efficient and reliable organization; at least for deliveries to Bangkok. I know that deliveries to outlying provinces can still be a problem due to local corruption and other issues. In my experience once a package gets to the Laksi main sorting center, the package is delivered the next day (normally) if regular airmail and often the same day if EMS. In the six years that I have lived here only three packages have been lost. All from the U.S. and know way to know if lost on the U.S. side or Thai side as regular airmail only has a customs label barcode, which is not intended for tracking. One was during the floods and would have hit Laksi around the first days of the postal center in Laksi being flooded, so I believe that package was a casualty of the floods. If it does track, it stops tracking when it leaves the U.S. If your package is seized by customs or a duty was assessed, the customs barcode number will track but only on Thai Post's intranet system (local post office can track for you) and not on the public internet tracking system. Once the clerk at my PO Box inadvertently scanned the customs label and it did track on the Thai Post website, but this is the rare exception.

For those that do not know USPS is a private corporation owned by the U.S. Government but must be self supporting, as it receives absolutely no government funding. But they must abide by dictates by the U.S. Congress on how to operate and they are told how much they can charge by the U.S. Postal Rate Commission. So you have an independent corporation totally controlled by the government which no government funding. If that is not a recipe for bankruptcy, I don't know what is. They are currently running at a loss of millions of dollars a day with no end in sight.

Anyway, here is my story about four packages and one letter mailed the same day from near Los Angeles, CA which clearly shows how inconsistent and unreliable USPS has become. All four packages were mailed on March 6th in the morning and the letter was mailed at the same post office in the afternoon. Three packages were addressed to Bangkok and one to a province outside of Bangkok. Two of the Bangkok packages were scanned as processed at the export sorting center in Los Angeles the morning of March 7th. Another packages was scanned as processed at the same sorting center 30 hours later on March 8th and the fourth only had a scan at the origin mail facility and was never scanned at the export sorting center (this is common as packages are scanned on a conveyor belt and if put the wrong way the scanner cannot see the barcode). Now here is the first problem. All the packages were mailed at exactly the same time but the scans show they were handled at the export sorting center at least 30 hours difference in time. What accounts for this time difference? Your guess is as good as mine. The letter has no customs form so it cannot be tracked. Two of the packages were delivered on March 12th to Bangkok. The third Bangkok package and the letter were not delivered until March 15th. Finally the package for a province outside of Bangkok was delivered on March 16th. So the score is two packages delivered in six days (five if you consider the time difference), one package and a letter delivered in nine days and the package outside of Bangkok delivered in ten days.

So if you have a package delayed from the U.S., don't blame Thai Post. More than likely the delay is on the U.S. side. Also, if your package gets tagged for an outgoing customs check (it has happened to me) this can delay the export of the package by one to two weeks or longer. You might see a scan that says "ingoing to customs" and "outgoing to customs" but not guaranteed. Also, once a package is inside a U.S. customs' facility it cannot be tracked and you just have to wait for it to leave the black hole.

Also, never use EMS or a courier and try to avoid Priority Mail packaging or large boxes. Anything other than standard airmail has a much higher likelihood of being examined by Thai customs. The Priority Mail boxes are brightly printed and shout out hey customs look at me. Regular airmail is considered to contain less valuable items and almost never examined. The only times I have had packages examined by customs is when they came in large boxes or by EMS.