Joesmoe
IMOKUR2
Team:
I recently ordered an item from Australia, and it took four weeks to get to me, and is likely a result of a disconnect between AU Post shipping labels and how US Post processes labels.
The package in question showed up in New York, made its way to the Washington airport, over to the northern Virginia processing center and paused. Then it went back to the airport, and back to New York. And paused. Then it went back to the Washington airport, and back to the northern Virginia processing center, and paused. I called in an inquiry at that point, and they said, "We'll get back to you." Meanwhile, the package went back to the airport, and back to New York.
Several days later, it went to a different place in New York, and after several days more, it returned to the Washington airport for the third time, and the northern Virginia processing center for the third time. At that point, someone had gotten the word, and the package made its way to my post office, and was delivered the next day.
At some point, the post office responded to my inquiry with, "The sender put a nonsensical post code." Someone else from the post office called, and said these packages are machine read for 99.999% of them, and there is little they can do to change anything."
When I finally saw the package, sure enough, the "nonsensical post code" was the sender's phone number, and was the most prominent number on the right side of the label, exactly where the AU Post label placed that field, and where US post codes are normally found.
Suggestion for future mailings: write all the sender information small, and in light ink, as high and far left as you can get it. Write the "To" information in obviously larger type/heavier lines and push the entire address to the right side of the label. Try to leave off the phone number, or if you must put one, perhaps write it vertically to the left of the address. And the US post code should be the most obvious number to the bottom right of the address with nothing else below or to the right of it.
I hope that helps.
I recently ordered an item from Australia, and it took four weeks to get to me, and is likely a result of a disconnect between AU Post shipping labels and how US Post processes labels.
The package in question showed up in New York, made its way to the Washington airport, over to the northern Virginia processing center and paused. Then it went back to the airport, and back to New York. And paused. Then it went back to the Washington airport, and back to the northern Virginia processing center, and paused. I called in an inquiry at that point, and they said, "We'll get back to you." Meanwhile, the package went back to the airport, and back to New York.
Several days later, it went to a different place in New York, and after several days more, it returned to the Washington airport for the third time, and the northern Virginia processing center for the third time. At that point, someone had gotten the word, and the package made its way to my post office, and was delivered the next day.
At some point, the post office responded to my inquiry with, "The sender put a nonsensical post code." Someone else from the post office called, and said these packages are machine read for 99.999% of them, and there is little they can do to change anything."
When I finally saw the package, sure enough, the "nonsensical post code" was the sender's phone number, and was the most prominent number on the right side of the label, exactly where the AU Post label placed that field, and where US post codes are normally found.
Suggestion for future mailings: write all the sender information small, and in light ink, as high and far left as you can get it. Write the "To" information in obviously larger type/heavier lines and push the entire address to the right side of the label. Try to leave off the phone number, or if you must put one, perhaps write it vertically to the left of the address. And the US post code should be the most obvious number to the bottom right of the address with nothing else below or to the right of it.
I hope that helps.
