{"id":749,"date":"2010-04-22T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2010-04-22T12:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/?p=749"},"modified":"2010-04-22T12:00:50","modified_gmt":"2010-04-22T12:00:50","slug":"poczta-polska-%e2%80%93-going-postal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/poczta-polska-%e2%80%93-going-postal\/","title":{"rendered":"Poczta Polska \u2013 Going Postal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Yes, today Anna’s going postal. In more ways than one.<\/p>\n

I am pretty sure there is an entire level of hell reserved for Poczta Polska<\/strong> (Polish Post). A very special level of hell, no doubt. And even then, I can imagine the devils in charge \u201cgoing postal\u201d when they\u2019re told who its for.
\nYes, it\u2019s time for another Poczta Polska<\/strong> rant. No surprise here, after all it\u2019s difficult to do anything other than rant when talking about this institution. Because no two other Polish words inspire so much conflicting emotions as \u201cPoczta Polska<\/strong>\u201d, not even \u201cDoda Elektroda<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n

As most of you know, I don\u2019t live in Poland. But every so often, as most Poles away from the motherland, I require a little something to remind me of the old country.
\nSometimes it\u2019s instant barszcz czerwony<\/strong>, sometimes a box of ptasie mleczko<\/strong>, nothing big, and nothing special, just the usual stuff.<\/p>\n

Enter Poczta Polska<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

There are no words to describe just how much I despise this institution, so I am not going to even try. And besides, it raises my blood pressure and high blood pressure is bad for my health.<\/p>\n

You see, when I was in Poland last year, I sent several small packages (pakiecik<\/strong>, noun, masc., plural:<\/em> pakieciki<\/strong>) to myself. As a test of sorts. Some I sent via airmail (these days called \u201cPriorytet<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 Priority) and some using the fancy-schmancy, supposedly fast and very expensive EMS \u2013 express mail service, called Pocztex.<\/p>\n

Pocztex costs a lot but gives you a tracking number, which you can actually try to track even when your item leaves Poland. I say \u201ctry to track\u201d because the results may vary. Sometimes you can, and sometimes you can\u2019t. But the good thing is that someone has to sign for a Pocztex package (or a Pocztex letter) upon delivery and the signature is (supposed to be) stored electronically. So, at least in theory, you can check when your stuff was delivered and who accepted the delivery.<\/p>\n

In that respect, it\u2019s similar to the \u201cpolecony<\/strong>\u201d (registered) option, but speaking from experience, 9 out of 10 post offices will tell you that you can\u2019t send a polecony<\/strong> abroad. Instead, they will try to convince you to use either Pocztex or some other certifiably certified gizmo. And even if you manage to send an overseas polecony<\/strong>, it won\u2019t do you any good – polecony<\/strong> is worth only the paper your receipt is printed on. In reality, once the mailing leaves Poland is as good as gone.<\/p>\n

And then, there\u2019s the good old airmail. Oh, sorry, priorytet<\/strong>. No tracking numbers, no nothing, just the good will of Poczta Polska<\/strong> that your pakiecik<\/strong> will, at the very least, leave the borders of the country.<\/p>\n

And here are the results of my very informal pakiecik<\/strong> sending and receiving experiment.<\/p>\n

Out of 5 packets sent via airmail (priorytet<\/strong>), some registered and some not, I\u2019ve received exactly zero. Zip, zilch, nada.<\/p>\n

Out of 2 packets sent via Pocztex, I\u2019ve received both. One 4 days later, one 2 months later, but hey, at least they got here.<\/p>\n

I hate to say it, but the problem seems to be limited to Poland. I get packets and packages of various shapes and sizes from the US, Canada, Korea (South) and a few other, assorted countries more or less regularly and without any hassles. But from Poland \u2013 nothing. If it\u2019s not sent via EMS, oh pardon me – Pocztex, it\u2019s as good as gone forever.<\/p>\n

Now, by all means, if you have a good Poczta Polska<\/strong> story, please do share. Because it seems that good Poczta Polska<\/strong> stories are nothing but urban legends. Or like a UFO sighting. (Though personally, I\u2019m more inclined to believe someone saw a UFO than had a good Poczta Polska<\/strong> experience).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Yes, today Anna’s going postal. In more ways than one. I am pretty sure there is an entire level of hell reserved for Poczta Polska (Polish Post). A very special level of hell, no doubt. And even then, I can imagine the devils in charge \u201cgoing postal\u201d when they\u2019re told who its for. Yes, it\u2019s…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7521,3354],"class_list":["post-749","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-poczta-polska","tag-post-office"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}