MANILA, Philippines—By this time, some 10 people have forwarded to me the letter of Edsel Pono to Robert S. Mondonedo, regional director of the Philippine Postal Corporation (PhilPost) Region VII, complaining about the loss of a package he sent from Australia for his daughter in Cebu.

The package contained, among other things, a digital camera, his graduation gift to this daughter. When his family received the box that held the package, they found that it had been forcibly opened, the sealing tape destroyed and everything it contained was gone.

What made Pono decide to send his e-mail to everyone he knew—and what made those people forward the message to everyone else—was the fact that he did not seem to be getting anywhere with the PhilPost people. It seems nobody is unduly concerned about his problem.

Those of us who have had an unhappy and unfortunate experience with PhilPost—I am sure there are many —will probably exclaim, “Why in heaven’s name, if the package contained something valuable, did he send it by post?”

This is not the first time people have lost stuff sent by post. Even ordinary mail that comes from abroad often arrives mangled and torn, resealed with scotch tape and with the notation “Received in this condition” or something like that.

I am curious how almost every envelope from abroad arrives looking like foreign post offices have grisly bears or large cats sorting mail.

I even heard once a weird but extremely funny story from a photographer in my old newspaper. His relatives in the United States sent him a pair of used shoes but still very desirable since they were “stateside.”

He knew they were arriving because his relatives said so but he did not get even a glimpse of the shoes.

On being informed of what happened his relatives thought they would outsmart the post office people. They decided to send another pair, one shoe at a time thinking nobody would be interested in it.

But it appears patience is a virtue that postal service people have a lot of. Remember the phrase “waiting for the other shoe to drop?” Well, it seems the postal service people waited for the other shoe to arrive because our photographer also failed to receive the second pair.

The fact is, despite efforts by postmaster general Hector Villanueva to improve the country’s mail service, people see very little improvement.

That does not augur well for an agency that has to be financially self-sufficient. Given all the competition it has to face - from courier services, e-mail, instant money transfers—unreliable, untrustworthy and inefficient service will lose it to the few people who are still willing to trust it, like Pono.

I hope the PhilPost management will promptly act on Pono’s complaint and restore his trust in the postal service.

Lost cash

I remember once sending cash by postal money order to a relative in the province. After almost a month, my relative was still waiting for the money. After the problem was mentioned by my predecessor Marietta Giron in this column, PhilPost hastily conducted an investigation. They never told us the details of the investigation but we gathered the person who accepted the cash “forgot” to send it to the right addressee. PhilPost was decent enough to reimburse the money.

But after that experience I do not bother anymore to use PhilPost for cash remittances. I would rather pay a little more but have the satisfaction of knowing the remittance will arrive safely.

After the PhilPost incident, I used the banks but recently, I discovered the convenience of Western Union through Lhuillier pawnshops. The money was sent about 10 a.m. I immediately sent my cousin a text message giving her the transaction number, and by 11 a.m. she replied that she already got the cash.

Now Smart has come up with yet another convenient remittance system that will cost the sender only the price of a text message informing the recipient of the cash transfer.

The new Smart Money is described as a reloadable account that is used in tandem with Smart mobile phone or MasterCard, which serves as a debit or cash card.

Subscribers can pay bills, buy reload credits and make cashless purchases in all establishments here and abroad that accept MasterCard. Parents with sons and daughters going abroad can enroll them in Smart Money and transfer cash quickly and effortlessly using their own Smart mobile phones.

Visit any Smart Wireless Centers or call 15177 for free on your Smart mobile or landline number 845-7777. Visit www.smart.com.ph/money.

Send letters to The Consumer, Lifestyle Section, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Chino Roces Ave. cor. Mascardo and Yague Sts., Makati City; or e-mail lbolido@inquirer.com.ph