Job Discussion Forums

[saloma]

What are the chances packages sent from overseas to Turkey are going to reach their destination?

My sis sent a care package to a friend last year....never made it. Is this normal?

[molly farquharson]

oin 8 years i've had 3 packages go astray out of several. I have learned to tell people that they need to put whatever it is in a big padded envelope, which is delivered directly. Anything in a box goes to the cevizlibag post office (for the euopean side anyway) and is opened once before i pick it up and once when i get it. it's a hassle. but things i mail out generally get there. they can also be sent registered from there (wherever there is). one package from my daughter never came and then she found it on her doorstep-- evidently it hadn't got past the warehouse in new jersey or something. can't blame that on the turks.

[31]

[quote="molly farquharson"]oin 8 years i've had 3 packages go astray out of several.

3 out of several?

Huh?

[sandyhoney2]

All packages I sent out got to their destinations. One care package sent to me from Canada took so long we figured it was lost, but actually reached me two days before my birthday. Was supposed to be for Christmas. Still, sucking on candy canes and drinking Canada Dry in March was fine by me...

On a related note, my flatmate was expecting a care package that took so long we thought it too was lost. While she was teaching here, her mom passed away. She went home for the funeral, contemplated not returning, but came back anyway (ET was great about it, btw).

Months later, the package arrived. That was emotional for her. Me, too.

[justme]

That's a sad story, but it's also a very nice story...

When I first came 3 years ago, it took a minimum 6 of weeks for a package to arrive from the US, and now it seems to take 1 1/2- 2 weeks. I wonder what happened?

If the package weighs less than 1 kilo, it doesn't have to go through Cevizlabağ. Or so I've heard and it seems to be true. The Cevizlibağ place is preferable in the winter-- hot, crowded, and cranky in the summer. But it's next to the �lker chocolate factory, which has an industrial chocolate smell that manages to be scary instead of nice. On the other hand, if you've no political objections to �lker, you can stock up at the nearby outlet shop and that can be fun.

I suppose there's alway a chance your friend's package is sitting in customs somewhere, and someone just flaked with sending out the notice. I think if it sits in customs long enough they eventually end it back.

Anyone ever had a problem with stuff getting stolen from packages?

[saloma]

I once sent myself a package from Jaisalmer, India. It was all stitched up in cotton and sealed with red wax, and I had to sew the post papers on it with a humungus needle and twine.

I waited 8 months... I had given up hope when one day it showed up! I was strangely shaped and dirty on one side, it looked as if someone had been using it as a pillow for quite a while!

When I opened it, it was so fantastic to see the things I had totally forgotten about buying! Like Christmas in July!

Thanks for the advice. I take it that pretty much all my belongings will have to be brought over with me in my luggage alowance....

[justme]

When I first came here I shipped myself some stuff from the States and it all made it ok, though it was 2 months after I arrived and it was all pretty dirty and beat up. Just don't ship anything breakable. I just used the regular post.

Also, from the US at least, your allowed to bring extra stuff on the plane with you-- it has to weigh less than 80 pounds per piece, and you pay 100 or so perpackage, which isn't a whole lot more than the shipping price. I don't know about being able to do this from other countries...

[saloma]

I think I'll be coming from Canada. There are so many Canucks on this board, does anyone have some up-to-date info on luggage allowance?

It's possible I could mail some stuff to myself, It'll mostly be clothes....

[saloma]

I'm back with this question again. How about UPS or DHL? Sending things this way will cut out all that red tape of going down to the P.O. for stamping, waiting and inspecting, right? Anyone tried this?

(I want to send a large but not -so-heavy box.)

[Theresa]

Going the other way round: What are people's experiences of sending things to the UK using the Turkish post?

[scot47]

Do not know about the UK of GB and NI, but I have posted books from Istanbul to rural Bulgaria and they arrived okay.