SPECIAL DELIVERY: Post office nightmare for expats in Spain

A WINTER jacket, a school bag and a 22-piece tea set are just a handful of the vast and varied items on expat Lynda Martin’s missing post list. 

Add in an expensive plasma pen and a €500 ultrasound machine and it starts to sound like an episode of the Generation Game.

But these are just some of the things that have gone missing when sent from abroad to her local post office (correos) on the Costa del Sol.

Indeed, in the last year alone, over €1,000-worth of packages have mysteriously vanished into the void at Fuengirola post office. 

In the latest of the disappearances at the Los Boliches branch, the aesthetic medical practitioner lost a specialist ultrasound machine, shipped from China.

She believes the items have been pilfered or mislaid by light-fingered posties. 

“I’m sure they must know what’s valuable,” Martin, 62, from Cumbria, told the Olive Press, this week. “Because on the same day recently, we had a delivery slip through our letter box for a cheap dress and another slip for an expensive dinner set. 

“The slip for the dress had the correct date. But the slip for the porcelain set was a month earlier, so it was impossible for me to collect as you only have 15 days to get it.

“I’m sure someone changed the date in order to keep it.”    

Martin however, isn’t the only expat with a bone to pick with the posties. 

“A guy from correos called me and said I have a Nespresso delivery for you,” says Ruth Boden from Mijas Costa.

“He said he’d leave it at the gate but it vanished by the time I got there. I hope he enjoys his coffee.”  

Another expat Christine Hunt, who lives beside Mijas Golf, also lost a valuable package at Christmas time.

“I got a ticket for some boots I ordered but the post office said they were sent back. Back where? I gave up and walked away. 

“Someone else got my new boots for Christmas.” 

Eventually, Martin decided enough was enough and last year contracted a lawyer to draft a legal letter demanding the branch give her all her post.

“All of my missing post magically appeared when I turned up with this legal letter. However, all if it had been opened and someone had been through it.”

Now the problem has started again she has vowed to get to the bottom of it.

“Where is the depot? They say they have sent things back, but to where? I think anything that looks expensive they just keep,” claims Martin, who has lived in Spain for 17 years. 

When the Olive Press approached a manager at the branch this week, she insisted parcels were only held for up to 15 days before being returned to the sender. 

She totally denied that anyone was keeping post, and added: “There is no depot. But if it’s here, they can have it,” she said.