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Post by ginny on May 4, 2020 16:14:09 GMT
Hi folks, anybody else putting overseas mail on hold for a while?
I have recently noticed that overseas mail (I am in Germany, so 'overseas' to me means anything outside of Europe [Europe obviously includes the UK]) takes ages and ages to arrive. A letter to the United States that I posted on 13th April still hasn't arrived (usually it takes 5-10 work days), and I have decided now to sit this out and not reply to overseas mail for a while (sorry to all my overseas friends on here who are waiting to hear from me!).
In contrast to this, mail within Europe seems to go fairly quickly - I had a letter today from the UK that was posted on 30th April, and considering that the 1st of May is a holiday here and the 3rd was a Sunday, that's a really quick delivery.
So, I will focus on European and domestic letters for a while now.
How do you handle the current delays due to the pandemic? Have you changed the order in which you reply to letters, or do you just continue with your usual pattern?
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Post by radellaf on May 4, 2020 17:23:04 GMT
I look up the country on the USPS Service Alerts page and see what they say. If it doesn't say to not send stuff, I send it. If it takes a month that's probably fine. If it doesn't get there hopefully I can find out and either print and mail, or electronically send, my scanned backup of the letter.
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Post by distractedmom on May 4, 2020 18:23:52 GMT
I’m still mailing letters but I have started scanning the international ones before sending them on their way.
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Post by mailartist on May 4, 2020 19:16:59 GMT
I’m still mailing letters but I have started scanning the international ones before sending them on their way. That's a smart idea. That way, it can be resent, digitally, if something goes awry. I sent a 5Q letter to a forum member from France, and PMed that I had sent it. I mailed it almost two months ago, and have not yet heard that it arrived. I assume it's still in transit, but that's kind of a long time . . .
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Post by christyotwisty on May 5, 2020 0:25:39 GMT
I receive mail from France and the United Kingdom, with little delay, so I send mail to those nations.
Japan, I've been told by an inhabitant, appears to have suspended transoceanic mail service, at least to North America.
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Post by voiren on May 5, 2020 14:53:27 GMT
I'm continuing in current order of replies. Did send a Canada one surface mail.
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Post by PhotoJim on May 5, 2020 15:43:06 GMT
Canada here. I've been getting mail to and from the UK and France reliably. I'm not sure if anyone in any other countries has tried lately, though. (US is never a problem.)
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Post by allanorn on May 5, 2020 18:39:22 GMT
My current foreign correspondents are from Canada, UK, France, and Austria. I had one in Switzerland but then moved to China for work before COVID, so who knows where she is. USPS is shipping everything they can but some mail is going by boat. When I notice that a specific country is going via surface mail I will email the person notifying them that I’ve sent mail. My thought is that I can’t be held 100% responsible for requests from foreign countries to suspend mail if USPS accepts it. La Poste (France) is recommending to only send “urgent” mail. The two-ounce letter I sent to filpot counts as “urgent” as, uh, she asked if I was okay. Having said that, my Austrian writer can’t send mail to me right now so I’ve noted that in the email I sent. I should photograph foreign correspondence, but I don’t mind writing it again either.
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Post by radellaf on May 5, 2020 19:10:54 GMT
I honestly find the scans more useful for myself than as backups. I've printed and re-sent two, I think, in 5-10 years. But, I've looked back on a previous letter while replying to one about 1/3 of the time. I never remember what I wrote and, if nothing else, it helps me avoid repeating a subject, or re-mentioning books or shows when I could mention newer ones. If you _have_ a scanner on your printer, it's just so easy to do...
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Post by filpot on May 7, 2020 9:50:17 GMT
My current foreign correspondents are from Canada, UK, France, and Austria. I had one in Switzerland but then moved to China for work before COVID, so who knows where she is. USPS is shipping everything they can but some mail is going by boat. When I notice that a specific country is going via surface mail I will email the person notifying them that I’ve sent mail. My thought is that I can’t be held 100% responsible for requests from foreign countries to suspend mail if USPS accepts it. La Poste (France) is recommending to only send “urgent” mail. The two-ounce letter I sent to filpot counts as “urgent” as, uh, she asked if I was okay. Having said that, my Austrian writer can’t send mail to me right now so I’ve noted that in the email I sent. I should photograph foreign correspondence, but I don’t mind writing it again either. Mail has started to trickle through to me, so I'm hoping your letter made it onto a boat!! Looking forward to it already........
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Post by radellaf on May 9, 2020 20:57:49 GMT
The ship from Australia came in: letter from Apr 7 arrives May 9.
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Post by michelleg on May 11, 2020 16:39:16 GMT
I honestly find the scans more useful for myself than as backups. I've printed and re-sent two, I think, in 5-10 years. But, I've looked back on a previous letter while replying to one about 1/3 of the time. I never remember what I wrote and, if nothing else, it helps me avoid repeating a subject, or re-mentioning books or shows when I could mention newer ones. If you _have_ a scanner on your printer, it's just so easy to do... Same here - glad I'm not the only one! I also keep a spreadsheet (because I just love spreadsheets, I'm weird liek that!) of everyone I correspond with - last letter I rec'd, last letter I sent, birthdays, etc. My memory is terrible these days after I had surgery several years ago. I once rec'd a Christmas card from someone who wasn't in my contacts list and wasn't on the Christmas card exchange I was doing - couldn't for the life of me remember who she was! And then I checked an older spreadsheet from my LEX days - and boom, there she was. Oops. This has become even more important during a quarantine where days run into each other and I keep count of them like Tom Hanks on a deserted island!
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Post by motsamicaux on May 13, 2020 14:51:44 GMT
A letter I mailed from here (USA) on March 28 was delivered to my pen pal in southern France on May 11. International snail mail has mutated into... sloth mail....
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Post by michelleg on May 14, 2020 13:09:33 GMT
A letter I mailed from here (USA) on March 28 was delivered to my pen pal in southern France on May 11. International snail mail has mutated into... sloth mail.... Hahahaha! Aww - I love sloths, though....just not delivering my mail. lol
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Post by vertolive on May 17, 2020 0:22:24 GMT
I just keep writing, regardless. It seems to get through to both Great Britain, Canada, and Oz. Oz is slower.
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