We recently returned from Poland. We sent lots of postcards and none have arrived. Now I wonder if we were given the wrong rate for postage from Poland to the U.S. We were told to use PL2.50 (2.5 sloty). Does anyone know if this is the right postage for postcards from Poland to U.S.?
Thank you.
Hi!
When excatly did you sent your postcards?
The prize 2.5 złoty for each of your postcard is enough. I mean - this is a price for economical delivery (not prioritet), so it takes much more time. Via economical way your postcards will be sent by ship (the journey to USA lasts 2 weeks, according to website of Polish Post), but the ships don't sail out every day, but with some frequen (unfortunately, I can not tell you, how often). You need to also add the time to deliver your postards from the place where you sent them to ship and also time to deliver them to you in USA. So, in my opinion, it can take a bit more than 3 weeks.
The prioryty is only 0.7 zł more expensie.
Best regards,
Marcin
Thanks for the helpful replies. If we'd known about the priority, we would have used it. Now our friends will just have to wait.
Simple thing but I'm convinced those blue airmail stickers do make a difference...everywhere I go in Europe, the postcards are normally home before I am...
Our postcards were sent between Sept. 3 and Sept. 26, and so far I don't think a single one has come! I call that pretty slow.
I sent out a stack of postcard in Gdansk on Sept 24th and paid 2.50PLN like you. However, I did write prioritet on the postcard, as directed by the post office woman in hand gestures as I don't understand Polish (they ran out of the blue stickers). All my friends in Canada and Hong Kong received theirs on Sept 28th, BUT my friends in United States received it one to one and a half week later. So the US postal system might possibly slow down the delivery also. Hope your friends will receive theirs soon!
It's just a suspicion on my part, but I really wonder if the US postal system isn't the problem. About 3 years ago I sent a bunch from a single mail box in Wrocław. Postcards to Australia, Finland and Niemcy (sorry I just love the name) all arrived. Only about half to the US did. ABout 5 years ago a friend I was traveling with had none received in the US after mailing in The Netherlands.
I guess the reason I doubt my theory is before now I hadn't been able to find any others reporting the same problem.
We've never had this problem before, having traveled many places around the globe. It's been 6 weeks, and after another couple weeks, we'll just assume they won't come. It may seem unimportant, but including postage it probably cost about US$100.
I've been a regular user of the polish postal system for many years (not sending anything from or to the US though) - and to my big astonishment of around 600 letters sent none had been lost. Just once, a return receipt of a registered letter did not arrive, but the letter itself did. Most letters sent within the EU arrive on the 3rd business day nowadays, sometimes even on the 2nd.
If the postcards were not sent as priority, they might indeed still be on their way on a ship. I used to send some letters to Brazil a few years ago, the ones sent by air mail arrived within a week, those sent by regular mail took some 3-4 weeks.