NOT a Happy April Fool

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

1st of April mail delivery made me sad, YELLOW stickers

more mail art that was sent to the USA in OCTOBER,

is being returned. sigh.

USPS cannot " read" the address, or does not like the arrows?

also the machine blocks out the rubber stampings on the back..

Also two were returned from Germany...in PINK!

soooo, time to put my mail art in boring clean white envelopes, how sad.

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

And then there are rare times when USPS "cares"!

This arrived at the Sticker Dude's place in Brooklyn:

full of mud and torn, maybe it did swim across the Big Pond? haha!

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

OK, working on TYPING US addresses...

will experiment and send a few to see if they arrive ok.

and yes...I have an ol' antique called a ROYAL typewriter :-)

(though it "misses" an "A" hit from time to time! ha!)

[Heide Monster]

For what it is worth, the USPS is very anal about addresses: The city (in capital letters), the state abbreviation (capital letters) on the same line and then exactly TWO spaces later the zip code.  As Nancy pointed out it can be on it's own line under if it doesn't fit.  The machine actually read the zip first, so I don't think MO and MD are a problem

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Yes, that's the format. What I was saying, wordily and badly, was that when the very last line of the address is just

ME04106

then I suspect some postal machines don't know how to read it, as it looks like a long zip code with letters in it. The machine wants to see city / state (abbreviated) / zip code -- all separated, as the last line.

Sorry I was so unclear :--}   And I hope this works, the waste of postage is awful, not to mention the frustration!

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Thanks, Nancy,

I'll try any thing , any way, just to NOT have mail returned and lose money on postage!

Although, USPS and Hallmark say that the correct way to address is:

Name

Address

City,State, and Zip code

I have been writing out the full name of the State,

as some States...like Maryland, when abbreviated,

and hand written might not be "MD" but look more like "MO".

Then there is always the mix up...is NE for Nevada or Nebraska?

and AR for Arkansas or Arizona...grrr! I try to double check, google always knows :-)

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Some of the envelopes (maybe all, but I can't see) might be hard for the machines to read because of how you're doing the zip codes? The USPS guidelines (I just read them now) say the machines read from bottom of the address upward. Your zip codes tend to have the state abbreviation right before them, as if it's part of the zip code. I would try leaving off the spelled-out version of the state, Kat, and instead put the state abbreviation there, with zip code (numbers only) after the state (or below if that line is too long for some reason). This must not have been a problem before the USPS went bonkers, but now with fewer machines and fewer staff, they must not be able to handle unusual format as well as before.

e.g.:

Nancy Bell Scott

47 Parrott Street

So. Portland ME 04106

Worth a try, I think -- good luck!

  

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Glad that Green Fields arrived in Paris :-)

Happy Spring to all, Happy Easter Time!

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Strange workings of the USPS over the Big Pond! Why mail art is coming and going to California and Washington State in the Far West, but being returned from Virginia and Iowa, etc...who knows why!

Let's see if the boring white envelopes get through within the next month?

And maybe I should start typing in addresses rather than hand writing???? It's a mystery, folks!

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Oh, Kat, this is getting stranger by the month. Your envelopes are to people all over the US, so it's not just one place being weird--and now returned from Germany too?! If I owned a mop I'd shake it, wetly, at whoever. You might be right that the stampings are throwing the human or machine decision-makers off, but it's hard to see why. And why now? Anyway, I am sorry such a discouraging thing is going on ... and on ...  

[Dean aka Artist in Seine]

Okaay, to make your April Fools day complete, I received one envelope with two pieces inside.  And that is worth more than all those rejects !  ha ha

Thank you for the Banana card and the Green Field card.  They made me laugh.

Best Wishes

Dean