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Hell yes! Folks from Saint Petersburg shop in Finland. They even order parcels to Finnish addresses next to the border because Russian mail sucks badly. Once I
by gritzko 13y ago
Hell yes!
Folks from Saint Petersburg shop in Finland. They even order parcels to Finnish addresses next to the border because Russian mail sucks badly.
Once I was crossing from Finland to SPb and I was questioned by customs on whether I've bought my stuff in Finland. Apparently, everybody's doing that and they are trying to tax it.
Goods are unreasonably expensive in Russia. I was living in Netherlands which is not particularly cheap but Russian prices for the same stuff are 2x NL price normally. Incomes are lower and inequality is hellish.
TLDR: cleptocracy sucks.
- thesz 13y agoThe Russian mail "sucks" because there was a sudden horrifying jump in mail packages volume. Russian Postal Service wasn't prepared to that. It is doing progressively better as time goes. If you want to talk about cleptocracy, let's talk about US a little bit. Let's start from yellow light duration scandals (from the top of my head): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdD5fvYHtKQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdD5fvYHtKQ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_light_camera#United_States_3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_light_camera#United_States_...
- gritzko 13y agoRussian mail struggles with that jump for 20 years at least. I am 34.
- thesz 13y agoI had no problems sending and receiving mail packages 10 years ago. I am 42, BTW.
- gritzko 13y ago1 I dislike very much the fact of being dragged into a discussion of this kind. Problems of Russian Mail are universally known. 2 Circa 2004 two my parcels arrived to different post offices late and cut open. There was no valuables inside (I wasn't that naive.) Ever since I used express services (DHL, TNT, PE) 3 I heard similar stories from other people (late&open) 4 Recently I received two packages by Russian Mail. They arrived late (1 month travel time) but were not open. An improvement. 5 Still I (we) use tracking to pick a parcel as local offices don't notify receivers. They let a package bounce silently. Forewarned is forearmed. 6 Lady at the post office was very kind. 7 Before receiving my parcels I was studying a vk.com official community for computeruniverse.ru clients, which is full of horror stories and detailed official 20-step instructions on how not to get screwed. 8 The same applies to letters, unfortunately. A local letter may travel for a month (even town hall officials complain about that). 9 A letter I sent from San Francisco arrived to Yekaterinburg in about three months. Just before I arrived myself. 10 YMMV. Russia is a great country. Cheers.
- thesz 13y ago1 You started that. They started not long time ago, you can see an onset of jokes about Russian Post Service on the popular jokes site bash.im (former bash.org.ru). This onset started about two or three years ago. 2 Me and my friends and relatives had not have problems at the same time. 7 I can cite you horror stories about everything. 20 steps to eat potato and not get screwed. I think you also heard about selection bias, do you? 10 I think you had to start with YMMV instead of ending with it. Because, you know, for every anecdote you tell I have another anecdote to tell you.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- mantas 13y agoTo be fair, he posted his experience. Discussion starts when someone questions what somebody said. Blaming memes is just lame. No good viral meme starts without a reason. Poor memes without any real reason dies way before getting popular. What's the difference if someone is starting or ending with YMMV? It looks like nitpicking for the sake of writing bigger blob of text.
- solomatov 13y agoThey buy stuff from Finland not because it's cheaper but because they can return VAT when they cross the border.