Job Discussion Forums

[alinyusa]

Is it a part of Muscat or a different city?

[Sleepwalker]

It's the post office across from the airport.

[urbanversion]

And where is best to post things to europe?

[Sleepwalker]

Depends on size and value.

You can send through the post office, use DHL or send cargo (the cargo department is in the big building just after the airport on the road to Seeb).

[Opti]

The regular Oman Post Office is the best place to use for mailing letters or parcels. (Hotels will also mail letters for guests.) They have the cheapest rates for all kinds of mail, from letters to overnight courier (EMS). For courier shipments, they use DHL or Aramex and the PO rates are nearly 30% cheaper than if you ship as an individual walk-in DHL client - I know!

Some of the smaller POs, such as the SQU campus PO, cannot handle parcel courier (EMS) shipments.

The standard postal service is usually reliable but a little slow.

If you don't have an individual PO box and use your work address as your mailing address, delivery can be delayed if your office messenger/mail clerk neglects to pick up your office's mail from the local PO. That happens a lot, according to a CPO official I talked with who has to deal with calls from irate people wondering where their mail is.

The downside is that most of the local PO branches are usually only open from 7:30 AM- 2:00 PM Sat-Weds. and maybe til 11:00 AM on Thursday. The PO in the Al Harthy shopping complex in Qurum is supposed to have 7-9 PM evening hours and the Central Post Office (CPO), across the highway from the airport, is open 8 AM-3 PM, then 5 PM-12 AM. It is also open Thursday mornings til 12:00 PM or 1 PM. (Call and check: 2451-9922)

The CPO is a surprisingly small old complex, with a narrow little old paved access road, NOT sign-posted in English (maybe not in Arabic either) that is easy to miss as you turn right off a small roundabout. If you can't find it, ask a taxi driver to show you. It is usually not very busy in the afternoons and evenings.

Unlike Post Offices in the UK, the US, and some other countries, Omani POs don't sell or stock any envelopes or boxes or supplies (except for free courier envelopes, etc.), so you must prepare everything before you get to the PO.

[Sleepwalker]

If your package contains anything valuable, be careful.

I am still trying to trace a parcel of DVDs that my friend posted before she left Oman a year ago. She paid insurance as she thought it would help.

I have been down to the Post Office several times and get passed from pillar to post.

Anything valuable, I pay extra for the courier.

[alinyusa]

I have sent my documents to a University in Oman using regular post, after three months they don't have it yet.

[veiledsentiments]

The Oman post office doesn't seem to lose all that much. I just had an envelope of documents mailed within my US state that never arrived.

VS

[urbanversion]

How good are fedex....just curious?