Mail sent from Dubai to Abu Dhabi is returned to sender - more than two years after it was sent

It may have taken two years, three months and a day to be returned but its sender was just happy to find that it wasn't lost. Emirates Philatelic Association​

DUBAI // No matter what country you live in, we all have complaints about the postal service from time to time but one letter going from Dubai to Abu Dhabi took so long to be returned that the sender was just happy it wasn’t lost.

It took two years, three months and a day for the letter to return to sender in Dubai after it was unopened by the intended recipient in the capital.

The invitation for an annual general meeting of the Emirates Philatelic Association was posted from Dubai on March 11, 2015 to a member in Abu Dhabi.

The dawdling letter’s return on Tuesday set stamp experts wondering about the lengthy route it took.

“Twenty-seven months in the same country and same postal administration, it’s really surprising. But it’s a good indication that a letter will never get lost and that it will come back to the sender,” said Abdulla Mohammed Tayyeb Khoory, president of the EPA, whose office received the truant letter on Tuesday.

“After that we have had three annual general meetings in 2015, 2016 and 2017. It’s just interesting to think of the journey of this letter.”

Stamped with Dh5.50 for registered post, the letter bears an “unknown” stamp from Abu Dhabi.

The normal postal procedure for a registered letter is a recipient is given two intimations in 14 and 28 days, after which the letter is usually returned to the sender.

“So it should have come back to us by April or even by May 2015 but it took so long. We have to find out what is the story,” Mr Khoory said.

“We send letters to our more than 500 members and a lot of letters come back to us because of a change of address or because people are travelling.”

Apart from the post, the EPA also alerts members via email, Facebook and Twitter.

The association plans to check if the Abu Dhabi member is receiving his mail or if he has moved on, but this time they’ll do it by picking up the phone. [e-mail]