(no subject)

[zanzjan]

On my way to drop my daughter off at school this morning, I stopped at the small-town post office near her school to mail a story to the UK. This is the first time in 20 years or so that I've been in this particular post office.

First thing, the woman chewed me a new one for not spelling out "UNITED KINGDOM" fully, as apparently there could be some confusion that will cause my mail to get lost if I use something as apparently ambiguous as "UK". It's been a rule for years, she told me. I'm willing to believe that, but I've mailed a metric tonne of stuff to the UK and never once had anyone have problems with the abbreviation.

Second, despite the fact that it was under an ounce and just paper, she made me fill out a customs form for it and says that's a new rule too.

WTF? Has anyone else had this happen to them?

Comments

[aviatrix18.livejournal.com]

sounds like bullshit to me.

[julesjones]

The thing with spelling out the name in full wouldn't surprise me, but it seems to make no difference whatsoever in whether my post gets there. I don't remember any of our local counter stuff bugging me about it, but then they're usually too busy making me put a return address on the envelope.

The customs form for under an ounce sounds unlikely, but on the other hand, given what I've heard about the nonsense instigated in Australia in the wake of the WTC attacks (all overseas parcel mail has to be handed in at the post office and photo identity produced to prove that you are the person named in the return address), it's not impossible. OTOH, if there is such a rule, the automat at Mountain View post office knew nothing about it on Saturday afternoon when I sent a four ounce envelope to a UK market. Sounds like a bad case of power going to someone's head.

[istemi.livejournal.com]

for not spelling out "UNITED KINGDOM" fully

Dat's Y-O-O-N-I-G-H-T-E-D ...

[brooksmoses]

No, no! Any fool noes that when the Queen knights a body, it's with a "k"! Y-O-O-K-N-I-G-H-T-E-D...

[stale-hermit.livejournal.com]

The customs form thing may just be legit. I have to sign a customs package form now when I get review copies sent to me from the SF Site office up in Ottawa. Seems like it just started to be a requirement within the last 3-4 months, although my postal deliverer swore it had "always" been the rule. Even though he used to just leave the package in the mailbox.

As far as individual post office decorum, there are definitely post offices around here I will NOT use. Dunstable, MA actually told me it was illegal to send a box of books at Media rate and demanded I pay for first class postage; they said 'media rate' postage was only for single books and CDs.

Who knows what the counter person would've said if I'd wanted to send it to the U.K., too?

[zanzjan.livejournal.com]

ah, Dunstable. I can tell you stories about Dunstable.