BEWARE shipping to "UK!!"

For folks in the USA, sending cards, letters, packages, etc. to United Kingdom:

For YEARS, I have use the abbreviation: U.K.

Was at the post office this morning, had one package to ship to U.K. The Postal Clerk took a marker, blanked that out, and wrote out "United Kingdom." I said, "Don't like my abbreviation?" Reply:

It's the computer. "UK" means Ukraine, send something there and you'll never get it back.

:rolleyes::eek: So be sure to write it out completely!

I checked the card exchange, didn't see any issues on that list.

Good to know, thanks!

That's very interesting. Our computers here at work put UK automatically. But luckily I don't think we have any homeowners that live in the United Kingdom OR the Ukraine.

Well, I didn't even know this - I normally write England/Scotland on the last line.

"When sending mail to UK addresses we need a full and accurate address complete with postcode. You do not need to include a County name provided the post town and postcode are used. Avoid using commas or full stops and do not centre or stagger your lines."

From this site: http://www.royalmail.com/delivery/ma...sing-your-mail

I always write it in full :)

I don't know that I've ever mailed anything that way . . . but my niece and her husband are a few hours from flying to Lakenheath (not sure if I spelled that correctly, but it's about an hour from London), so I'm sure I'll be learning the correct way to address an envelope soon enough!

I just mailed all of my international Christmas cards this morning at a UPS store. One was to the UK and this is how I had it on the envelope. The lady that helped me looked them all up and she never said anything. I've been doing for several years now and I've never had a problem so hopefully the card will get to the correct destination.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by krazyaboutkatz

I just mailed all of my international Christmas cards this morning at a UPS store. One was to the UK and this is how I had it on the envelope. The lady that helped me looked them all up and she never said anything. I've been doing for several years now and I've never had a problem so hopefully the card will get to the correct destination.

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UPS doesn't use the USPS computer, so should be fine.

The HWAI (handwritten address interpretation) software directories should be able to separate out UK from Ukraine. I'd explain it, but I don't think the forum needs a dissertation on how the HWAI works.

As long as the complete address is there, you shouldn't have any issues with shipping, but the clerk was technically correct. The more information that is there, the less likely the DBL (disk based lookup) OCR systems are to make errors.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by krazyaboutkatz

I just mailed all of my international Christmas cards this morning at a UPS store. One was to the UK and this is how I had it on the envelope. The lady that helped me looked them all up and she never said anything. I've been doing for several years now and I've never had a problem so hopefully the card will get to the correct destination.

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Oops (UPS) uses a completely different system. They enter the data you put on the form into the computer, and their barcode tracking system cross references to that data, rather than actually reading the address.