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Postal Service There is one Correos (post office) in Chiclana in Calle Jesus Nazareno and numerous yellow post boxes around town and different neighbourhoods. How frequently and reliably they are emptied is not known. However, letters posted in the boxes inside and outside the post office itself generally reach UK in about 3 days. The post office is open Mon-Fri. 8.30 a.m. till 8.30 p.m. Sat. 9.30 a.m. till 1 p.m. Unless you live in a fully urbanised area, it will be rare to get your post delivered to the door. Most people buy or rent a post box (buzon) in a local Venta. Some charge by the three-months, six months or a year and some a one-off payment. Venta Florin, for example, charges around 30€ to buy the box. Some people in more outlying areas like Medina Sidonia and Alcala go their town’s post office and collect mail direct: others get a box of mail delivered to a local venta and it’s a sort-it-yourself service. There are several ways here, and most of them a bit hit-and-miss. The postal service seems saturated, particularly around Christmas, and post can sit for days in the Sorting Office due to a shortage of delivery personnel. If staff are off sick they don’t provide a replacement for his/her rounds, so it sits there until they return. The buzons are usually quite small and, if you’re lucky, a yellow and white notification of a package that won’t fit in your box will be left in the box for you to take the main post office: you show your Residencia card or passport and sign for it. If you’re unlucky, the parcel may be left lying around near your buzon, trusting to luck that you find it before anyone else takes a shine to it! A buzon in the post office itself is a pretty safe bet, but recently they said there is now a 2-year waiting list. An international company, Mail Boxes Etc., have premises in the main road in La Barrosa and they will rent you a box for 90€ a year. You pay a deposit for the key and you can check your post any day, any time, as you get a key to the shop (they sell stationery and have a cybernet premises downstairs). They will take in parcels and keep them in a safe place, putting a notification of this in your box. They cannot sign for a registered (certificado) package/letter but the Correos notification will be put in your box. Packages for “Payment on delivery” will be accepted if you notify them beforehand and leave them the money. December 2005. Update March 2007 A new, friendly, English run business has recently opened in Los Gallos, Chiclana. see them here The Posthouse aims to address the problems encountered above, offering a more efficient service, specialising only in mail collection, and at 20% less than the current rental fee offered by "Mail Boxes Etc" The staff at the Posthouse, working in association with the Correos, collect the mail delivered to the central sorting office in Chiclana daily (Mon - Fri) ensuring that all mail received reaches its destination (your mailbox) on the same day that it is cleared in Spain. They also offer a "you have mail" service, so that you have no wasted journeys to check an empty mailbox. There is ample free parking next door (unlike Barrosa or Chiclana centre) and no queues just to post a card! A despatch mailbox allows customers to post stamped mail (letters and cards only) securely. This is then posted by Posthouse staff at the Central Post Office in Chiclana. The despatch mailbox is cleared every day (Mon-Fri) at 11.00 am. The rental fee at the Posthouse is 70€ per year with a 20€ deposit for the keys. The mailboxes are A4 size within a secure mailroom. Any larger items are held in the adjoining office which can be collected during office hours. So although more than a venta the service ensures that your mail is received by you and not left in a pile in the corner. The unit is also alarmed and has a CCTV system. So, the Posthouse offers a much more reliable, secure, personal and friendly service at a fair price. It has 408 boxes (increasing to 1000) and no waiting list. Update May 2008 SAVE MONEY, SAVE TIME! With The Posthouse now into it’s 2nd year in business, our aim to provide a safe, reliable, convenient and secure mailbox rental service has certainly been achieved, and we have now extended our services to include the despatch and receipt of mail. With our unique ‘You have mail’ service being an integral part of the postbox rental package, this means that customers are advised when they have received mail collected from the Central Sorting Office daily, Monday to Friday. This saves clients making unnecessary journeys to check their postboxes, and with many people in the Chiclana area living in outlying areas where post is, to say the least, ‘hit and miss’, this has proved to be very advantageous to existing clients. We have now increased our existing services. From 1st May 2008, The Posthouse now provides all of our usual postal related services plus those offered by Offex Easimail, Spain’s largest English-Speaking Courier and Postal Service, making us the only provider of the same in western Andalucia. The Posthouse now provides the following services to and from Spain via the Royal Mail: UK 1st and 2nd class Post, UK and International Recorded Delivery, Worldwide Airmail, Special Delivery, Airsure, and Standard Parcels. All letters and parcels sent via courier and then flown from Malaga on British Airways Scheduled Flights and delivered directly into the Royal Mail Sorting Office by Offex staff based at London Gatwick Airport.At The Posthouse there are great savings to be made when sending mail. For example, letters weighing up to 100g can be sent to the UK for as little as 1 euro, making it cheaper than Correos, and without the inconvenience of having to queue in the Central Post Office. Plus, there are very competitive rates for mail sent within Spain and Europe. There is now no need to purchase stamps, no need to search for a mailbox, and The Posthouse is easily accessible with ample free parking. We also have services for mail from the UK to Spain offering a fast and secure delivery service for Letters and Parcels. This allows for the ordering of goods online from British websites that only deliver to UK addresses. When registering for this service at The Posthouse, a UK address is provided. Mail from this address is then flown to Spain and sent by courier to The Posthouse for collection. Current rates can be obtained on request. Another new service is the British passport renewal service. Application forms, advice on documentation required, advice on the new Biometric Standard required for passport photographs, and payment details are all be provided prior to despatch via courier to the British Consulate in Madrid, thus saving time and money by ensuring that all details are correct beforehand. The Posthouse is the only company offering this service throughout the Cadiz region. Other services include ‘Express Parcels’, a trackable parcel service for both delivery and collection of parcels to and from the UK, ‘International Air Courier’, a worldwide Courier Service, and a very useful ‘Door-to-door’ luggage service, that offers the collection of luggage from any address in the UK and delivery direct to The Posthouse, and vice versa. We are also agents for Betterware UK products, offering free delivery on all orders. Please note that you DO NOT have to be a Posthouse boxholder to use any of our new services.
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