Royal mail standard letter UK to India delivery timelines

iwant2asave

Hi,

Does anyone have any experience of sending a letter from UK to India via Royal Mail International Standard? 

Royal mail delivery aim indicates 5 to 7 working days.

I realise this is only an aim, but it's been 8 working days since I sent a letter so wondering if anyone has any experience of how close this aim was to reality.  Thanks,

Sam

Hoenir

Once the letter arrives in India then down to the speed of delivery of the local services. 

martindow

I've found that RM's delivery estimates can be wishful thinking and as Hoenir has said it is partially dependent on the efficiency of the receiving country's postal service.  

I'm wondering what the letter is that precludes sending as an email or Whatsapp for instance.  If it has a monetary value or is a document that would be difficult to replace I think I would want to send it with a tracked service of some kind rather than as a letter.

Eldi_Dos

If doing this on a regular basis it is better if the recipient sets up a PO Box from which they collect the mail.

iwant2asave

martindow said:

I've found that RM's delivery estimates can be wishful thinking and as Hoenir has said it is partially dependent on the efficiency of the receiving country's postal service.  

I'm wondering what the letter is that precludes sending as an email or Whatsapp for instance.  If it has a monetary value or is a document that would be difficult to replace I think I would want to send it with a tracked service of some kind rather than as a letter.

It was a document that has no monetary value and is personal and useful for the recipient and no-one else.

As I understood it, from the India link I put above. for "International Signed" it said "Items tracked until they leave the UK" and "A signature is taken on delivery however we don’t provide a copy of the signature to you as part of the service and it’s not available to view online". 

Given this, and that it didnt have a monetary value to anyone but the recipient, I didnt see much point in using that service if its not tracked outside of the UK and there is no signature or evidence provided even on delivery, hence used the standard.

Anyway the letter is now received by the recipient so all good.

Savvy_Sue

Our (admittedly not recent) experience of using RM tracked to anywhere foreign was that it held the process up in a ridiculous fashion. Just adding that for anyone's future reference, and noting 

iwant2asave said:

"Items tracked until they leave the UK" and "A signature is taken on delivery however we don’t provide a copy of the signature to you as part of the service and it’s not available to view online". 

You really are in the hands of the receiving company's postal service! 

iwant2asave

Savvy_Sue said:

Our (admittedly not recent) experience of using RM tracked to anywhere foreign was that it held the process up in a ridiculous fashion. Just adding that for anyone's future reference, and noting 

iwant2asave said:

"Items tracked until they leave the UK" and "A signature is taken on delivery however we don’t provide a copy of the signature to you as part of the service and it’s not available to view online". 

You really are in the hands of the receiving company's postal service! 

Agreed, and from the reviews that I have searched, the India service appears to be far better than Royal Mails!

I woudn't be surpised if most of the time taken for the delivery was in the UK !

Eldi_Dos

iwant2asave said:

Savvy_Sue said:

Our (admittedly not recent) experience of using RM tracked to anywhere foreign was that it held the process up in a ridiculous fashion. Just adding that for anyone's future reference, and noting 

iwant2asave said:

"Items tracked until they leave the UK" and "A signature is taken on delivery however we don’t provide a copy of the signature to you as part of the service and it’s not available to view online". 

You really are in the hands of the receiving company's postal service! 

I woudn't be surpised if most of the time taken for the delivery was in the UK !

I would be.