[ql-users] OT: Cheap [Christmas card] posting

[Robert Newson]

Phoebus, this may be of most interest to you, but others may find it interesting.

I've just received a Christmas card, posted by my mum, intended for someone in USA. Nothing odd about that you may say, considering how good the Royal Mail is. However, the card is franked 30 Nov (ok, so it's taken 2 weeks to get here), but since 24 Nov my mum has been in America, staying in Canada, having gone to the USA for Thanksgivings, where she posted the card, putting her standard return address label on the back (with no UK, England, Europe, etc).

The address has a wonderful label stuck over the address (in P.A.):

Return to Sender
Additional 12c Required for Nonmachinable Surcharge

Items of 1 oz. or less with any of the following cannot be processed
on Postal Service sorting machines:
a. Square letters.
b. Height exceeds 6-1/8 inches, or length exceeds 11-1/2 inches,
or thickness exceeds 1/4 inch.
c. Length (dimension parallel to the address) divided by height is
less than 1.3 or more than 2.5
d. Clasps, strings, buttons, or similar closure devices.
e. Too rigid or contains items that cause uneven thickness.
f. Address is parallel to the shorter dimension.

> Affix 12c additional postage, remove this label, and remail.

Label 100, July 2002

So, it was returned to this address in the UK, from the USA, for an extra 12c postage (on 37c - well, that's the number on the stamp) - what's the proper transatlantic postage? So, Phoebus, to send stuff cheaply, put the intended destination as the return address on the back, address it to, say, yourself, put less than required postage on it and the USPS will return it to the sender (intended destination - including overseas!) for more postage.

Incidently, cases a. and f. are both already covered by c. (In the case of a., length/height = 1 < 1.3; in the case of f. length/height < 1 < 1.3 - does this say something about the math [as opposed to the maths that we learn] they teach in the USA that the people over the pond can't work out cases a. & f. from c.?)