Advice needed from current South African students

I read in another thread that it was not advisable to have ones books sent from South Africa via the post. Is the same advisable for mailing applications to South Africa? I checked on an express letter via UPS and it is $80 per. That is doable but I would hate to put out the extra $ if it is unnecessary.
Thanks,
Chris

 

Greetings.

Genuine Express delivery with Fedex is about eighty dollars; I assume your UPS quote is for a similar level of expedited service. Unless you've procrastinated far too long, or a deadline that must be met has sprung up unexpectedly, there is absolutely no reason for that level of dispatch in your dispatch. <g>

Fedex, and I'm sure UPS, will also deliver the same packet only a very few days later for about half the price. USPS (i.e. "US Mail") also offers Global Express and Global Express Guaranteed mail services, which offer somewhat inferior service at a somewhat inferior price.

Your best option, probably, would be USPS Global Priority Mail. A fixed-rate, half-height envelope costs only $5.00 to SA, a full height envelope $9.00 (as I recall).

Of course, as "Roysavia" mentioned, you can just send your correspondences to SA via ordinary USPS Air Mail, but USPS Priority Mail seems like the best compromise between being parsimonious and being profligate.

As far as getting stuff from SA, your choice isn't as clear. Thus far, my nascent tutelage with Technikon SA has, directly or indirectly, involved having two items mailed to me. Both were sent via standard SA Air Mail. One arrived fairly promptly (I'm guessing a week or two, but I could be off in either direction), the other one, which was SA Air Mailed about Oct. 8, is still meandering along on its journey to me.

Clearly, again, your best bet is to budget plenty of time for a package to reach you. Alternately, you might want to ask your SA sender -- if it won't be too much trouble for THEM! -- about the possibility/cost of sending your package via the SLOWEST service offered by Fedex, UPS, Airborne, etc., or by Speed Services (www.speedservices.co.za, the SAPO's express mail division).

Also note that it may not be necessary for you to purchase your SA text books in SA. My SA math text book is also published in the USA, and printed in the UK, UNDER A DIFFERENT ISBN NUMBER! (Do not just search your favorite book purveyor for the SA ISBN number for your required text book!)


Cordially,
Richard Kanarek

 

I sent a paper copy of my proposal to UNISA by first class mail. UNISA received my package in seven days. If you are purchasing books from SA, I recommend you have them delivered by Federal Express. This is going to cost you roughly $140 U.S. If you have them delivered by mail, you could end up waiting for more than six weeks. Better yet, why not just purchase them in America?

 

It has been a really mixed experience for me. The material Unisa sends me themselves, usually comes by UPS and arrives in 7-10 days. No problem.

If I have to send an assignment through the mail, I usually use USPS Global Priority or Express. I have tracked these letters and find that they get to SA in a day or two, but for some reason don't seem to show up on Unisa's Students on Line page for another two or three weeks sometimes! Maybe they were delayed in the SA mail or maybe they reached the assignment department but sat around for a while before being processed.