Going Postal

[Aethian]

But...but...you've known me for a long while and I've always worked for the USPS since I've been a member.

Sad bunny is sad...



Biggest ones I don't like is green on green. I have one customer who insists on doing this. Just because her green spectrum is great doesn't mean everyone's is. At least I fixed her daughter of this habit and she now uses a white pen on her green and red envelopes.

[Kara]

But...but...you've known me for a long while and I've always worked for the USPS since I've been a member.

Sad bunny is sad...

Yeah, but I kinda forgot since I haven't been on in a few months. I sorry

[BookstoreEscapee]

Biggest ones I don't like is green on green.

That's part of the reason I used the labels on my cards. The envelopes are green and even with black ink I figured printed labels would be easier to read. I have used dark green ink on white envelopes in the past, though.

[Aethian]

Yea the contrast between dark green on white is good.

The key'ers I don't like are the CFS ones who can't even key in the right code even when we make a correction to the code and cover up the address that was the problem.

[MoonCat]

That's a lot of useful info there, Kara, thanks for that!

USPS can be frustrating. My sister used to work for a charity in town and had to send out mass mailings. She'd follow the instructions given by the folks at the PO and the next time she went, someone would tell her it was done wrong and had to be done over. Seriously, she never got the same instructions twice. Weird.

I used to put holiday stickers on Christmas cards. I could see that might be a problem. What about those adhesive return-address labels?

[Aethian]

The adhesive return labels are great things if they are placed right and firmly attached. Too many times people will put the right on the edge and it will catch on the machines/letters/magazines. If you put them on firmly and making sure the edges are all connected they are great.

[lordlundar]

Speaking of Christmas mail, my icy heart melts every time I get a letter from a child addressed to "Santa Claus, North Pole." The postal service actually has a ZIP code we are to use for "Santa mail," so they actually do go somewhere and it's freaking adorable.

Yup, North Pole, Alaska. Real place actually, swear to God. The place that the letters get sent to, and I'm not making it up, is called Santa Claus House.

At least as far as the US letters are concerned. North of the 49th we have a different address to send to:

Santa Claus
North Pole
H0H 0H0
Canada

[Dentarthurdent]

I've done it too, I had no idea. I don't think anyone outside USPS really even considers it. No matter what color it's printed in or what color envelope, all we see is a black and white image (usually not the best quality, either). The scanners are probably dinosaurs.

When I was in college, I did data entry for the school's research department. Part of my job was to take the surveys we had students fill out and fill in the bubbles properly for them with the correct type of pencil, because 80% of them just checked the bubbles or didn't shade them darkly enough. The scanner we had was unable to read them if they weren't 100% darkened in #2 pencil. I once spent 40 hours a week for 3 months filling in bubbles. I really pretty much lost it.

[Kara]

I has a sad. I've only been keying live mail for 3 days, and tonight I saw something gloriously ignorant and I don't think there's possibility of ever seeing anything equally, not to mention exceedingly, stupid ever again. The wonderful sight that I beheld was a letter addressed simply:

"Pope
The Vatican
Washington DC"

I would be willing to bet money that it was an angry letter informing His Holiness that if he doesn't like the way we do things here in 'Murica, he can just go back to where he came from.

[dalesys]

"Pope
The Vatican
Washington DC"

It's been just over 50 years since we had a Roman Catholic President...

[morgana]

I would be willing to bet money that it was an angry letter informing His Holiness that if he doesn't like the way we do things here in 'Murica, he can just go back to where he came from.

No bet.

Great to see you back, Kara. Been thinking about you.

[Javarod]

Welcome to the wonderful world of the USPS. While i don't work for them, i work with them... or something like that. I'm a PRS contractor here in St Louis (hence my title of bag man), so i get to see the side of the Post Office that the customers don't. And see how bad some of the stations are run, i've forgotten just how many clerks i've trained on PRS packages, which obviously isn't my job. Still, its not a bad gig, and i'm just amazed that the mail moves as fast and cheap as it does.

[Aethian]

I can never understand how some of them are so bad. But then I guess I've been lucky with the four I've been in.

[Cia]

I sent off a bill with the address, a PO Box, showing through the little window in the envelope. I received it back two months later with a yellow label stating that the address was "unknown". Yep, the Post Office couldn't find the PO Box and no the PO Box number wasn't closed.

Sent off another letter with this address format:

Customer
PO Box #
Street Address
City, State and Zip

It was returned as "undeliverable". Okay fine, the customer doesn't have a mailbox or doesn't have the mail person drop off the mail inside the building. What I didn't like was that the letter went back to the PO and instead of directing it to the PO Box they sent it back to me. Looked through the FAQs on the USPS website to see why they'd do such a stupid thing and it turns out that they only look at the address nearest the city, state and zip line.

[Aethian]

Unknown could mean more then one thing. The recipient could be unknown, the po box number itself could be wrong. Like the numbers only go up to 500 and the number was 700. When things like this happen the letter is sent back to the sender because the sender may know the correct address. Typos can happen in mass billings.

As for what addresses we only look at your a bit mistaken. Letters are sorted by state, city, and then by zip code. From that step they are then sorted by the first line of the address. The second line is only used if the address is designated as needing a suite/apt number/letter.

If there is no apt/suite letter/number the piece of mail is sent in bulk to the address of the zip code where clerks then sort the mail to route. The carries then sort it to address.

If in a chance of the number not existing we will ask who ever has that particular street, like a street that covers multiple routes/zip codes. The carrier can sometimes match up with a name and the item can be delivered. Sometimes we may guess and ask who we think may be the recipient. If from there we can't match up the letter it can be sent back as AUK, UAA, NSN

Attempted Unknown
Undeliverable As Addressed
No Such Number

Or sometimes Out of Delivery Zip Area

A lot of times the yellow sticker will just say Unknown. I honestly don't know WHY since that's not a valid code but that's what we even see at times.