Post from UK

[Alvin]

Hi everybody, we live on the beach Villas in Caleta de Fuste and we have been expecting post from the UK for about 4 weeks now. Is anyone else having problems with post coming from the UK, or is it just a Caleta problem? I must admit I haven’t seen any Correos vans or postal workers for ages. Thanks in advance for any replies. 

[Johnrgby]

Hi everybody, we live on the beach Villas in Caleta de Fuste and we have been expecting post from the UK for about 4 weeks now. Is anyone else having problems with post coming from the UK, or is it just a Caleta problem? I must admit I haven’t seen any Correos vans or postal workers for ages. Thanks in advance for any replies. 

We got some stuff Monday, that had taken 22 days, but an item I bought from Poland arrived last Thursday and took 6 days, I think it is a tad hit and miss

[Emmi Smith]

Correos is very hit and miss at best of times. To test it out, I have even sent myself a letter or card FROM Caleta TO my Caleta address, and never arrived!!!

[Cotillo_Tom]

I've done a couple of test posts from the uk to Cotillo and they took five weeks and six weeks to be delivered to my letterbox.  In the first case, I got fed up of waiting, so visited the office and his immediate reply was "I delivered to you ten minutes ago".  Sure enough, on return, it was sitting in the post box!!!

[Gone Fishing]

My experience has been somewhere between Tamara's and Tom's

About 12 years ago I sent a postcard from Cotillo back to the pour souls still working back at the office in the UK.
It never arrived.


....... or so I thought.

12 months later, on holiday again, I didn't bother sending a postcard as the previous one had gone AWOL.

Upon my return to work the office secretary said ''Thanks for the postcard''

I thought she was being cheeky, but there on the notice board was the card that I had sent the previous year.

It only took twelve months to get there!

[Captain Sensible]

We've had letters sent from Government Departments in Las Palmas to our home address in Caleta recently.  In the first case mine arrived and my son's didn't.  In the second, mine arrived and my wife's didn't.
The problem is that the delivery staff are only on temporary, short-term contracts, so I presume they don't care whose post box they put the letter in.  To get a letter you rely on someone returning the letter to the post office so they can try and deliver it again.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

We are very lucky here in Tindaya. We have a fantastic postman, Pedro, who came and spoke to us when we first moved here and took note of our names. Our post from the UK takes on average 1 week to arrive. Pedro is amazing - if he sees me out in my car he'll attract my attention and hand me my post to save him traipsing down our end of the village. He saw me going into Central Salud in Corralejo one day and followed me, found me and handed me a parcel as he knew it wouldn't fit in our letterbox!
The problems arise when Pedro is on holiday, normally for the month of August - we don't get anything! I do feel sorry for the relief guy though as very few of our roads have names and very few houses have numbers - those that do don't follow in a logical sequence. We managed to 'train' him last summer to call at the bar to see if anyone was there who recognised English names and they became our temporary postbox!
Our biggest ongoing problem is with couriers - half the time they ring before they reach the village which is great, I can arrange to meet them at the bar. The others (such as SEUR) don't bother ringing and we just get notification from Amazon (for example) that the courier wasn't able to deliver.
Another alternative is to rent a postal box at one of the Correos offices - not sure how much they cost though.

[Emmi Smith]

I rented a box at the PO in Caleta some years ago. It cost then approx.Euros 60p.a. To be honest it worked 80% of the time but I still had missing post. If a PO employee is "lax" it can end up in someone else's box never to be seen again!!

[Captain Sensible]

You also have to pay for each named member at your address, and like Emmi says then you still not might get your post.

[Alvin]

Thanks everybody for your helpful posts. We’ve lived in Caleta for 5 years now, and I can honestly say that this is the worst the postal service has been since we moved here. 
I will inform my family and friends in the UK not to waste their Money on birthday cards etc and the postage charges. I have no confidence in Correos at all now!