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Post by Catida on Jun 1, 2022 18:20:45 GMT
Do you often get your letters returned to you? Why? Or has the reason been unclear to you?
This has happened to me a few times. The sorting machines have mistaken my return address as the delivery address. A couple times it happened with japanese envelopes that are meant to be used vertically, and I wasn't too surprized to find them back in my mailbox. I then gave up and started to use them horizontally, even if it is in conflict with the evenlope design. But I have also had normal envelopes returned, if I write my return address on the backside.
Today it happened again: an envelope with the delivery address written clearly on the front, and my return address written with tiny letters on top of the backside (because this stationery design has a box for it there), was delivered to my own mailbox. It had been stamped in Helsinki. The stamp was on the return address (on other side of the envelope than the postal stamp?!). I have sent this particular envelope design many times before without any problems, so I'm planning to just put it back in the mail and see what happens.
I know the way the machines prefer is to have the envelope horizontally and the return address written on the front side, on the top left corner. On the other hand, people seem to manage to send all kinds of weird envelopes, with the address written all over the envelope or half hidden in drawings etc. So maybe the trick is to make it so artistic, that the machines interpret it as unreadable, and then maybe a living person looks at it and gets it sorted to the right place?
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Post by tramplingrose on Jun 1, 2022 19:17:00 GMT
That's happened to me plenty of times Catida. I either stick it back in the mail, or will take it to a counter agent, who's usually as confused as I am as to why it was returned! But I've always assumed it's something with the automated sorting machines and the way I've decorated or addressed my envelope.
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Post by penguy on Jun 1, 2022 22:09:26 GMT
I had it happen once. The clerk at the post office said that perhaps 2 letters went through at the same time and the address read by the machine was from other envelope. Or perhaps you envelope went through backwards so the return address was read instead of the recipients address.
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Post by sunshine2170 on Jun 2, 2022 1:09:59 GMT
For that reason I have always put my address on the front top left hand corner. I used to put it right in the middle in the back - mainly to hold the back of the envelope closed...Until some of my letters were returned. Letters go through a machine very rapidly and if anything is out of sync it will get spat out to a bin to be dealt with manually by a human. That can wait until someone has time to go through them. So homemade envelopes need to be the regulated size. not sure how much leeway these machines have with cm to inches
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Post by davidv on Jun 2, 2022 19:42:17 GMT
I’ve never had a return. I have mailed a few calligraphic envelopes, including some that I would assume would definitely not be machine readable. I have always put my return address in the top left. I sometimes ask my wife “you could read this right?”
My most recent decorated envelopes had the address all in Lombardic capitals, so they were pretty unusual letter forms. I like to think that they were handled by a human and that that helped them go to the right place. They were also local, so I assume only had to be sorted once. I might not have tried that for international mail, where I assume they’d have several times they needed to be interpreted.
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Post by allanorn on Jun 4, 2022 1:19:09 GMT
I've never had letters returned for unreadable addresses. I've had a couple for "closed PO Box" (which is odd), and sometimes an "unable to forward" either by a forward expiring or they left no address. In one instance the "unable to forward" was due to multiple problems with a carrier at the recipient's post office, only found out when they applied for InCoWriMo with the same address I had on file and used for their rejected letter. USPS has a domestic mail manual (DMM) which is very specific about envelope parameters and how to address envelopes. I am not too creative with envelopes because the scanners seem to have tight tolerances that may even be machine-dependent or not calibrated often enough. For instance, a letter katiel sent me technically should have made it on the first try, but after a few minutes with a ruler I realized too many properties were at the margins of the scanner "hit boxes" and it may have even thought the letter was 90 degrees out of phase. (Fun fact: USPS determines length of the letter by the orientation of the recipient's address, which is assumed to be written parallel to the length of the envelope. Don't write addresses that come out taller than they are wide!) I've also had some letters take months to arrive from foreign correspondents because return addresses were on the back of the envelope and placed closer to the scanner "hit box" for the recipient's address. I was able to determine the USPS has scanners for both sides of the envelope and reading the return address on the back of the envelope as the send-to address, which just kicked the letter back and forth between post offices. Once I asked them to put the return address on the upper left-hand corner on same side as my address, their letters took just days to arrive without any issues.
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Post by eefa on Jun 5, 2022 9:47:09 GMT
I've had the same letter returned to me twice on two consecutive days! I used to always put my return address on the back but now if it's a sticker I put it on top left corner and only if I"m using my address stamp do I put it on the back. I still don't really know for sure what was "wrong" with that letter I had returned twice.
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Post by summer87 on Jun 5, 2022 17:07:53 GMT
Ive had a letter to Turkey returned for not having a 'CN 22 form'..about 6 months later. Which makes no sense. Usually these forms are only needed for heavy registered mail. I took the envelope as it is and stuck it inside a bigger envelope and re-sent it..without any CN22 form. It reached in a month.
A letter to US was returned to me last year..about 2-3 months after sending it. Reason: the address is wrong. It wasnt though. Re-sent it. It reached without any issues.
Both times, address of recipient was written in normal capitals in front, bottom right. My address in normal capitals, middle/behind the envelope. Weird.
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