Residents of Kabul are complaining about the high prices and poor quality of postal services in Afghanistan. They say that despite paying high fees, their parcels sometimes arrive after long delays and, in some cases, are damaged in transit. They add that delays in delivery mean important documents and essential goods do not reach the recipient when needed and lose their usefulness. According to these residents, postal companies are not accountable for lost or damaged parcels, and when shipments are delayed, they avoid answering customers by offering various excuses. They allege that some employees of these companies treat customers inappropriately when they follow up on the status of parcels and do not address their complaints.
Speaking to the Hasht-e Subh Daily, these residents stress that, because of the high costs and problems with postal services, they use cargo companies to send their parcels abroad. They add that, to send parcels within the country, they turn to acquaintances, drivers of intercity taxis, or courier services.
Sediqa, a Kabul resident, says the price of postal services in Afghanistan is very high and does not match the quality provided. She adds that these high costs, especially for sending parcels abroad, put considerable financial pressure on families, and many are forced to use cargo companies to save money, although these companies are also sometimes unreliable.
The Kabul resident says: “Currently, Afghan Post is active in the country, and because it is state-run, its services are relatively acceptable given the existing circumstances. However, the cost of these services is a concern for citizens. Alongside Afghan Post, several private companies also operate in the postal sector, and their prices vary.”
Shafi, another Kabul resident, says that delays in delivering shipments and the indifference of postal companies to customer complaints have reduced public trust in these services. He adds that in some cases, after a delay in receiving their parcels or a problem in transit, customers do not receive a clear response from postal companies and face difficulties in tracking their shipments.
Shafi says: “Postal services in Afghanistan are offered at high prices, but unfortunately the quality of service bears no relation to the money people pay. Long delays in delivering shipments, weak service, and a lack of proper accountability have put people in serious trouble.” He calls on officials to take action to improve service quality, ensure timely delivery of shipments, and address customer complaints.
Samiullah, another Kabul resident, says that delays in delivering shipments and the high costs of postal services have also made it difficult to send goods from abroad to Afghanistan. According to him, some citizens of the country living abroad choose other ways to send their goods home instead of using postal services.
The Kabul resident says: “Because of the delays and high costs of postal services, some of those who are abroad prefer to send their goods to Afghanistan by other means, because sending shipments by post is both time-consuming and expensive.”
Shahab, another Kabul resident, says that the lack of precise addresses for houses and alleys, together with the high costs of postal services, has made sending and receiving documents difficult. In Shahab’s view, the lack of clear addresses for houses and alleys makes the delivery process difficult, and to improve postal services, the addressing system and the related infrastructure must be standardized.
The Kabul resident says: “Once or twice we used postal services to send a certificate, but they charge a lot. We also gave up on sending documents needed for a passport because of the costs. In Afghanistan, the addresses of alleys and houses are not defined, and for this reason, people face many problems.”
Meanwhile, several Taliban-controlled Afghan Post employees say that repeated inspections of shipments along the transit route, especially at airports, can disrupt the delivery of goods and make it difficult to guarantee that all shipments arrive safely.
An Afghan Post employee, who did not want his name to be mentioned in the report, says that shipments sent from Afghanistan are inspected at several stages, including in Afghanistan and Dubai. According to him, goods are sometimes damaged during these inspections.
This employee, who works under Taliban control, says: “We warn those who send fragile goods that we cannot fully guarantee they will arrive safely. Shipments sent from Afghanistan are inspected several times, and serious inspections also take place in Dubai. In some cases, insufficient care is taken with people’s goods during inspection, and the goods are damaged.”
The employee adds that shipments are inspected because of security concerns and to prevent the transport of narcotics and other prohibited items. However, in his view, care should also be taken to keep people’s goods intact during these inspections.
He says that despite the existing problems, providing postal services in Afghanistan is important given decades of war and damage to infrastructure. According to him, some cargo companies also do not give customers a clear guarantee against damage to goods.
These complaints come as the Taliban-controlled Afghan Post company has announced that it has active postal and cargo relations with 192 countries. The company’s head of business development has said that Afghan Post services have expanded across the country and that 22 types of postal and cargo services are now offered to citizens.
He has also said that Afghan Post’s costs are up to 30 percent lower than those of the private sector, and that this year, new post offices have been established in Kabul and a number of provinces.
According to information published on the website of the Taliban’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and Afghan Post, the cost of sending shipments abroad varies depending on the weight of the parcel and the destination country. As the weight of a shipment increases, the cost per kilogram decreases.
You can read the Persian version of this report here:
هزینههای بلند و خدمات بیکیفیت؛ شکایت شهروندان از خدمات پستی
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