UPS prepaid return service

[Suin]

Hello,
just writing this post to warn of the problems that occurred with using UPS for sending passports to visa office with a prepaid return envelope for sending them back. In my experience with UPS I wouldn't trust them such an important service any longer.
We used their service for sending passports to the visa office upon their request and did as we were advised by them - included the prepaid envelope back. We were lucky enough that our passports were ready right on the next day. But instead of happiness we have been living in a nightmare already for a week. Visa office contacted us a few times asking to arrange the shipping as UPS doesn't want to collect the package on the reason that local UPS don't trust Canadian UPS! Can you imagine one country UPS doesn't trust UPS of another and that is worldwide postal service!
The main problem that they don't want neither pick it up nor create another shipment to us - at our expense. They just refuse any communication. Visa office is about to give up as they finalized the application and have other things to be busy with. UPS doesn't care either.
The only people who suffer - we. And it looks like there's no end to it.
So, in case anyone is thinking about using the fastest and reliable carrier to send your passports - please do take into notice our case to avoid any possible problems.
Thank you.

[Swede]

Ouch, that's a sad story.

Thank you for your warning anyway!
Which courier would you recommend?

[thaihubbie]

I need to send documents (in order to Sponsor my husband) from Mongolia to Bangkok, to the Police Clearance Centre with a 'self addressed stamped' envelope enclosed. Do you think it's better I use some sort of courier service like DHL or Fedex (which they have here)? Does that mean that the Police Clearance Center in Bangkok needs to contact Fedex to come and pick up my docs when they are ready to mail to me here?

[Suin]

Ouch, that's a sad story.

Thank you for your warning anyway!
Which courier would you recommend?

actually, I'm scared to recommend anything, just in case.... maybe there are some other members who have good experience with another carrier. that would help a lot.

[Suin]

I need to send documents (in order to Sponsor my husband) from Mongolia to Bangkok, to the Police Clearance Centre with a 'self addressed stamped' envelope enclosed. Do you think it's better I use some sort of courier service like DHL or Fedex (which they have here)? Does that mean that the Police Clearance Center in Bangkok needs to contact Fedex to come and pick up my docs when they are ready to mail to me here?

there are usually two ways to send a package with these types of carriers: to arrange pick-up, and drop off yourself. you just cannot mail it by an ordinary postal service.

I would recommend to contact the carrier in advance and reassure that the return service will not fail. but I cannot say for sure, as we were given guarantees that there wouldn't be a problem, but it happened different way.

[job_seeker]

Hello,
just writing this post to warn of the problems that occurred with using UPS for sending passports to visa office with a prepaid return envelope for sending them back. In my experience with UPS I wouldn't trust them such an important service any longer.
We used their service for sending passports to the visa office upon their request and did as we were advised by them - included the prepaid envelope back. We were lucky enough that our passports were ready right on the next day. But instead of happiness we have been living in a nightmare already for a week. Visa office contacted us a few times asking to arrange the shipping as UPS doesn't want to collect the package on the reason that local UPS don't trust Canadian UPS! Can you imagine one country UPS doesn't trust UPS of another and that is worldwide postal service!
The main problem that they don't want neither pick it up nor create another shipment to us - at our expense. They just refuse any communication. Visa office is about to give up as they finalized the application and have other things to be busy with. UPS doesn't care either.
The only people who suffer - we. And it looks like there's no end to it.
So, in case anyone is thinking about using the fastest and reliable carrier to send your passports - please do take into notice our case to avoid any possible problems.
Thank you.

Hi Suin,

     Which visa office did you send your passports to?

[job_seeker]

I need to send documents (in order to Sponsor my husband) from Mongolia to Bangkok, to the Police Clearance Centre with a 'self addressed stamped' envelope enclosed. Do you think it's better I use some sort of courier service like DHL or Fedex (which they have here)? Does that mean that the Police Clearance Center in Bangkok needs to contact Fedex to come and pick up my docs when they are ready to mail to me here?

Hi,

     Were you able to get stamps from Thailand to affix to your self addressed return envelope?

[Suin]

Hi Suin,

     Which visa office did you send your passports to?

Our office is in Viena

[Suin]

Hi,

     Were you able to get stamps from Thailand to affix to your self addressed return envelope?

we are not in Tailand and never have been there. UPS doesn't use stampes. While we were sending passports to the visa office the UPS guy created a retrun labled envelope, and put it together with the passports into the main package. Even a tracking number was assigned to it.

[thaihubbie]

Sorry if it was me that mixed up some people on this thread. I'm wondering if I need to get some stamps sent to me from Thailand, to then stick on envelopes, that will then be sent by courier to Thailand with my documents OR I could do what Suin did and use a courier company such as Fedex, UPS or DHL and have a return labled envelope sent into the Police Clearance Center?
oh..so complicated

[job_seeker]

Hi,

     Were you able to get stamps from Thailand to affix to your self addressed return envelope?

we are not in Tailand and never have been there. UPS doesn't use stampes. While we were sending passports to the visa office the UPS guy created a retrun labled envelope, and put it together with the passports into the main package. Even a tracking number was assigned to it.

Hi Suin,

     I was replying to thaihubbie's post so I quoted it. Sorry for the mix-up.

[job_seeker]

Sorry if it was me that mixed up some people on this thread. I'm wondering if I need to get some stamps sent to me from Thailand, to then stick on envelopes, that will then be sent by courier to Thailand with my documents OR I could do what Suin did and use a courier company such as Fedex, UPS or DHL and have a return labled envelope sent into the Police Clearance Center?
oh..so complicated

I think you should. But you should also know that you are getting enough stamps for the weight of your packet/parcel.

[job_seeker]

Hi Suin,

     So were you able to figure out how they would be sending your passports back to you?

[Karlshammar]

I am absolutely shocked to hear this. The Austrian UPS doesn't trust the Canadian UPS? It's not an issue of personal trust; they should shut up and do their job. I would try calling UPS and asking them what the hell they are up to (maybe not using that exact choice of words...).

I'm really sorry to hear about your troubles. I've the three big shipping companies (UPS, FedEx, and DHL) quite a few times and had both good and bad experiences with them all. Not a big fan of either one, though I do generally prefer UPS. I've never had troubles like this, though.

[Suin]

Hi Suin,

     So were you able to figure out how they would be sending your passports back to you?

Embassy tries their best, I even surprised, but UPS keeps saying that Canadian side didn't do its job properly and they cannot accept the packet that is not correct. That's stupid situation, as we cannot go and pick it up ourselves - without passports we are helpless.