If you want to communicate from Mexico to anywhere else in the world, do not use the Postal Service. If it is not the worst in the world, it has to be in the top ten. I have harangued and harangued about this in countless columns and articles. The Mexican feds have yet to do something about it. Are they listening?
The most recent mishap was that it took a check from my wife’s parents more than eight weeks to reach us. When we endorsed it and sent back via airmail, it took more than a month to reach our bank. We spent more than $2.50 USD to send it and it still took that long.
If you want to live in Mexico, you will have to contend with the issue of communication. How to do it, when do it, and what is going to work the day you need it to function.
The mail system sucks. There is no other way to describe it. Actually, there is another way but I don’t think my editors would like me to use that kind of language. There are times when you will elect to use the postal service. Be prepared for the worst.
It currently costs more than $2.00 USD to send a first-class letter to the United States. There a less than 50% chance that it will ever reach its destination. The same goes for mail coming into Mexico from America. It is a crap shoot at best. Always be prepared for the worst when using the postal service.
If you have a really important document, you have to use DHL. But, keep in mind that this is Mexican DHL. The Mexican cultural affectations that affect every single thing in this country do not stop just because you are now dealing with an international business.
I have a friend who is a translator. He routinely sends and receives documents from his international clients. Once, because some client did not dot an “i” or cross a “t” correctly, the DHL people simply threw the package into the undeliverable bin. Now, mind you they had his phone number on the shipping invoice and could have called him to verify his address. They didn’t. That’s how life is here.
Another friend was trying to send a baby’s dress via DHL to a niece who had recently given birth. She wrapped it up and sent it DHL to America. When it arrived, the dress was gone but they delivered the empty package. This is so typical.
Any letter or package that you need to send out of the country, or to another Mexican town for that matter, will be at the mercy of a culture that really does not care if your package gets delivered or not. Before you think me too harsh, let me throw this at you.
Here in Guanajuato, the local mail service is so bad that the utility companies do not dare deliver monthly bills via the postal service. They have guys who hand deliver the utility bills to your house. That’s how little the residents of Guanajuato trust the Mexican Postal Service.
If at all possible, email or fax documents. I do this as often as I can when I send articles and even entire books to agents or editors. However, not all American publishers comprehend the expense and danger of sending valuable documents out of Mexico and demand you use the postal service.
To demonstrate even further how bad it is, listen to this.
Decades ago, expats would “mule” their mail out of Mexico. What this means is that the expat communities were so close that when someone was heading back to the U.S. they would send along mail with him or her.
Now, there are mail services. You can actually obtain a street address in the U.S. where all your mail will be delivered. Then it will be trucked privately into stations in Mexican storefronts where you go pick it up. The problem is that Guanajuato does not have this, yet.
Phone service is fairly reliable when it stays connected. If you have DSL Internet then you can use one of the many services, like Vonage, where you can call back and forth to the U.S. for virtually nothing.
So, fax or email documents if you can. If you just have to courier them out of the country, use DHL. But, be prepared for a high failure rate even with them.