Hello everyone,
I was bummed today when I came home from work and saw two letters I had sent out on Monday, returned to my mailbox. This has never happened to me before, and the only connection I can think of is that I used a new marker to write the addresses.
Does USPS have trouble processing envelopes if they are addressed using a metallic marker?
If so, that would be quite disappointing!! I just got my first metallic sharpie and it looks so lovely on envelopes.
More on this later in the week - time for me to sleep!
~Anne
Oh, I'm sorry, Anne! :( I've been very lucky so far and no letter or package has ever been returned to me. However, every time I go to the post office to drop things off, the random employee helping me would tell me I'm doing things wrong, ha!
ReplyDeleteOnce I wrote the names of the recipients with labels I made with an old label maker ... The lady said it looked confusing (?!). Another time, I was told not to write my address on the other side of the envelope, you know, where you close it; I was so puzzled! That's where we are supposed to write the sender's info in Argentina! From them on, I started always writing both addresses on the same side of the envelope and not so long ago an employee told me the mailman might not be able to tell which is the recipient and which, the sender ... I said' "My label is on the top left and says FROM and the recipient's address is in the middle and said TO". Her reply was "Try your envelopes to look easier to understand the next time" ... Oh, well, haha.
Did they write any reason why those letters got returned? Maybe the stamps you used were not enough? :/
Hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow! ;)
Hm. I didn't realize writing the return address on the other side of the envelope was "wrong"... it's so interesting the ways mail is different in different countries!
DeleteMy important day went really well, fortunately. Thanks for the well wishes
If the recipient's address is not written in black ink AND the return address is in black ink, the USPS machines read the return address. I've had it happen more and more lately. I've taken to either putting my return address upside, or sideways, if I'm using other than black ink for recipient. However, mostly I just give in to the black ink.
ReplyDeleteI think USPS read the return address and sent one of them back to me for that reason. I'll stick with the sideways method from now on. Thanks for the tip!
DeleteOh, and red envelopes are very hard for the machine to read no matter what color ink.
ReplyDeleteI got a letter returned to me yesterday because there was a small piece of tape over the stamp. It would not stay on the envelope so I didn't know what to do. Hope you can get those letters in the mail and get them to their places without being returned again :)
ReplyDeleteGlue maybe? I don't know. So far I haven't had trouble getting stamps to stick (*knock on wood*)
DeleteI've sometimes had envelopes returned for using the return address label as an envelope seal on the backside (despite there not being a stamp on that side to indicate that it was the front of the envelope). Now I just put it either sideways on the back or write it in one long line across the top and haven't had a problem.
ReplyDeleteAnd with the ones that are returned, I just black out the orange bar code they spray along the bottom of the envelope (and my return address, if it was problematically placed, re-writing it somewhere else) and drop it back in a blue box. They usually get there the second time around.
Good to know. One of the envelopes that was returned I think was because USPS read the return address by accident. They didn't cancel the stamp either. Oh well! I'll try again :)
DeleteYour blog makes me want to experiment with mailing techniques, but Im still timid because I don't know what will pass and not pass. It would be neat if you created a list do's and don'ts to fancy mailing from all your experiences.
ReplyDelete