Christmas post rules: no animals, batteries and lotions, and beat the deadline

If you want to post gift parcels to friends and family overseas and have them arrive before Christmas Day — and you don’t want to pay airmail rates — you had better make your way to a post office fast.

“SA currently has very little delay with items leaving the country, but these parcels have to go through time-consuming clearance procedures in the country of destination,” the Post Office said this week.

For sea and surface mail, post your parcels no later than the dates below:

• Parcels destined for islands in the Indian Ocean — the Seychelles, Comoros, Mauritius and Reunion — must be posted by Monday October 28.
• The islands of Tristan da Cunha, Ascension and St Helena — no later than October 31.
• Parcels to Australia, Great Britain, Europe, the Americas (North and South), the Far East and Asia should also be posted no later than October 31.
• Items going to countries bordering SA — Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Swaziland — should be posted no later than December 8.

Air mail is the only other postal option you have for parcels being sent to all other countries in Africa and they must be posted no later than December 1.

That’s also the air mail cut-off date for all Christmas post being sent to other countries.

How to make sure your parcel arrives safely:

• Parcels must be packaged securely, as they are transported in bulk.
• If your item doesn’t fill the container, fill it with packaging material such as shredded paper or polystyrene to act as a shock absorber.
• Make sure the items you are sending are legal in the country of destination. In most countries, plant and animal material cannot be imported.
• If someone is posting a parcel to you from overseas, ask them to include your cellphone number with your address. That makes it possible for the Post Office to SMS you when your parcel is ready for collection.
• Parcels containing ion lithium batteries, liquids, lotions, aerosols or creams may not be sent via air mail.

The Post Office apparently has had to advise that no live animals may be posted either.

“All air mail items are X-rayed and scanned to make sure the content is legal and safe,” the Post Office said.

“Parcels containing items that are not allowed are rejected by the transporting airlines and returned to the Post Office.”

• GET IN TOUCH: You can contact Wendy Knowler for advice with your consumer issues via e-mail: consumer@knowler.co.za or on Twitter: @wendyknowler