Hand calligraphy & post office don't mix?

[evangundy]

I'm sorry your letters/cards/packages have not been delivered yet.

I had a friend who worked for the Post Office a couple years ago, and I was told by her, that the mail first goes thru machines that read the addresses optically. The system looks for very simple easy to read lettering. (It really prefers simple font machine printed addresses and it prefers the address in a certain position on the envelope. If the return address is lower on the envelope than it should be, the scanner thinks thats the mail-to address) It pushes thru what it recognizes and spits the others out for hand-sorting. During the holidays, when mail volume is higher, and during this economy of using fewer and fewer manual hands to do the work, the hand-sorting sometimes got backed up at least 2-3 weeks behind.

So for the past couple years, I hand write notes inside my cards, letters, even bill payments, but use computer created printed labels for the outside. And the preprinted return address labels. I've had much less mail delivered late. Some still is, but much less.

[badgercat]

I'm sorry to hear about your lost hard work. Hopefully it will turn up.

Do you have any sort of confirmation that it was because of the calligraphy? As someone else mentioned, maybe there was a problem at the place where you posted them. Or an honest mistake of insufficient postage, if you mailed them yourself with stamps rather than taking to a post office? I'm not sure how the Canadian post works, if they would return to sender in that case or forward it on anyway with a envelope request to make up the postage (this has happened with a package from my boyfriend's mom that she accidentally shorted by $0.50).

I'm genuinely curious why you chose not to include a return address. That's something that was beaten into my head by my mom, so I can't imagine ever not including it.

Of course, the postal service is not perfect, but I'm still amazed that I can send a letter across the country in a few days for less than half a dollar. Also, my uncle is a long-time USPS letter carrier, and seeing how hard he works I've found that I tend to have a little more sympathy for the postal service than many others do.

[shootingstar]

I'm genuinely curious why you chose not to include a return address. That's something that was beaten into my head by my mom, so I can't imagine ever not including it.

Of course, the postal service is not perfect, but I'm still amazed that I can send a letter across the country in a few days for less than half a dollar. Also, my uncle is a long-time USPS letter carrier, and seeing how hard he works I've found that I tend to have a little more sympathy for the postal service than many others do.

Just lazy, I normally do write the return address. That still is not an excuse to hand sort the mail with large, clearly written addressed envelope/pkg. front.

As for the letter carriers that deliver from door to door, I'm sure most work hard. Those sacks are heavy and am glad there are more ergonomic packs with padded straps for them to carry the letters. And still dealing with dogs, unshovelled walks, etc. These workers are further removed from the operations of inside workers at post office. (Evenlyn, this is just an observation. Wonder what the policies are for handsorting, if any.)

My prediction within next 25 yrs., hand calligraphy & calligraphic arts will reappear in greater vengeance but maybe in a nouveau art or media form..since handwritten stuff as an art, is becoming increasingly lost to mass-produced computer fonts and children learn less and less on cursive writing or handwriting in general. As you can tell, I really appreciate viewing art gallery exhibits with this stuff. At the British Museum, in the manuscript rm., I was in heaven. WHen getting into the groove of doing calligraphy, it is abit like cycling...one falls into a trance. So much that have occasionally fallen in love with executing the letter shapes that I spelled the word wrong!

Ok, am sounding artsy. But that's what it is in the end-- an art And why would I do it still for family, etc.? Am an artshead/art dabbler in the family, so it has meaning to them --back to the kid playing with paints, dreaming up poetry. THat's all.

Meanwhile Trek's idea is good one, suggest in calligraphic design on envelope, etc.. Meanwhile have to track this year's stuff for next few wks.

[salsabike]

Of course, the postal service is not perfect, but I'm still amazed that I can send a letter across the country in a few days for less than half a dollar.

Actually, I think the USPS does an incredibly good, prompt, and reliable job for not a ton of money on our parts.

[Trek420]

Actually, I think the USPS does an incredibly good, prompt, and reliable job for not a ton of money on our parts.

+1.

As for the letter carriers hard work vs those inside the sorting room; I'm just a tiny teeny cog in a big company but I volunteer on the safety committee in our building. A big surprise to me was finding out not only the huge number of on the job injuries but who gets them most.

My thought is that would be technicians, the folks climbing ladders and such. Nope. It's us office workers that get hurt the most particularly ergonomic issues especially repetitive stress. Carpal tunnel and repetitive stress are very painful and crippling. I'm sure some of those workers would rather face a dog than sort thousands of letters a day by hand.

I once had my day minder stolen out of a back pack slung casually on my chair in a coffee shop. The thief took the day minder which had a little cash stuck in a pocket, but also all of my id etc He must have grabbed the cash and tossed it into a nearby mailbox.

A few weeks later I got an envelope with the dayminder, they'd figured out who and where I was, got it all back but the $20.00.

[Irulan]

well, I wish I could agree with the above, but I sure don't. We have two significant home businesses, and the amount of mis-delivered mail ( our incoming getting delivered elsewhere, and no we don't have a weird address) is disturbing. Especially when it's incoming payments. I will spare you my laundry list of complaints but I have real, consistent problems with USPS.

[redrhodie]

well, I wish I could agree with the above, but I sure don't. I will spare you my laundry list of complaints but I have real, consistent problems with USPS.

Me too.

I can report that they have paid insurance claims on stolen packages, but it's not fun to deal with.

[Trek420]

I still think they do an amazing job for very little. Like the time I reused an envelope (tip, don't do that if it has one of those barcode things. Regardless of what you write it goes THERE. Duh Hey, I have an excuse; I was at the airport, had paid all my bills over the phone but needed to mail a check and had that one envelope).

They got it back to me with a lovely little personal note.

OTOH with all their losses to e-mail, autopayment, paying online, plus I think all of us are trying to reduce our carbon footprint, protect our privacy and get rid of junk mail ... so what does USPO do?

They try to compete with UPS, Fedex, DHL etc.

The one thing they have an exclusive on is letters. Nobody UPS's a holiday card that I know of.

Imagine if they got into the business of "bringing back the letter" with shops right inside the post offices with cards, lovely stationary and invites, local post cards, chisel tip pens and calligraphy books, real address books as opposed to ones built into your phone, those little lap top writing desks ....

when they make me Postmaster General that's what I'll do.

[badgercat]

Of course, the postal service is not perfect, but I'm still amazed that I can send a letter across the country in a few days for less than half a dollar.

Actually, I think the USPS does an incredibly good, prompt, and reliable job for not a ton of money on our parts.

Your use of "actually" makes me think that you think that I was implying something to the contrary so I just wanted to make sure my previous comments were clear. I think using the USPS is a great value for the services provided.

[However, I concede that my experiences with them have been less extensive than others who have been weighing in on this thread (business owners, etc). I probably only mail a handful of packages a year, and a few dozen letters/cards/bills/etc, so I'm kind of a small fish in that pond.]

[salsabike]

Your use of "actually" makes me think that you think that I was implying something to the contrary so I just wanted to make sure my previous comments were clear. I think using the USPS is a great value for the services provided.

[However, I concede that my experiences with them have been less extensive than others who have been weighing in on this thread (business owners, etc). I probably only mail a handful of packages a year, and a few dozen letters/cards/bills/etc, so I'm kind of a small fish in that pond.]

No, Badgercat---I did think you were saying something positive, and I was seconding it. I didn't think you were implying anything to the contrary.

[badger]

the SPCA always sends me lovely return address stickers every year, so I always put a little bit of cuteness on my cards.

I've so far *touch wood* not had anything get lost in the mail, though I have had FedEx outright steal one of my packages (expensive ski goggles). It was so brazen, considering it had a tracking number, they claim it got "lost". They must think I'm a moron if I'm to believe that.

They settled on insurance but only paid $100 CANADIAN when I paid $140US. Something to do with it being claimed in Canada. I was so mad.

I do have to give kudos to the post office for being able to decipher my chicken scratch. Sometimes I'm in awe of how horrible my handwriting is.

[Cataboo]

Deeiamond, are these packages you're receiving in Singapore or in the US? If it's Singapore, I'm not sure it's the USPS fault.

Shootingstar, If you want to continue using calligraphy, just mail your letters out earlier (like early november) so that they have time to be hand sorted. There are just way too many people in the US and or Canada all of whom are sending Christmas cards and packages at one time to expect the post office to have enough personnel to hand sort letters or packages that can't be scanned by a computer. I think your relatives are just tearing open the envelopes anyways, so whether or not the the address is written pretty is somewhat immaterial - but possibly your relatives are a lot more sentimental than I am. I keep envelopes if I need the return address, and since yours didn't have one, I'd've just tossed it after possibly admiring your calligraphy for a few seconds... However, as a compromise you could do calligraphy on an envelope and then put that envelope in another one that you address in block letters.

That being said, I have terrible handwriting and the USPS always manages to get my letters or bills where they need to go on time.

I use USPS when I sell on ebay, buy as well... So maybe 5-10 packages a month for a few years. I've only ever had 1 thing go astray. So they've almost always done a good job for me.


I rarely go to the local post office, because I can do most of it online and put in a request for the post man to it up. I do find a lot of employees in the post office cranky and have been yelled at by them a few times in the last couple of years... And they get really irked when you print out a shipping label and then a few days later drop it off at the post office. So I don't go I can't say that I've ever been yelled at by a UPS or a fedex employee, however.

What I do find annoying is the USPS refusal to track packages. Yes, they technically have it with express mail, and you can often get info off a priority mail label... But half the time I have ebay packages being mailed overseas with priority or express mail and all I can see on the tracking is... "shipping label created" and then about two weeks to a month later, I'll get feedback from the buyer saying they received it... I just cringe everytime that happens, because I know at some point some buyer is going to take advantage of the fact that I have absolutely no proof of delivery to file a claim against me on ebay. I do ocassionally have buyers emailing me saying "the tracking says nothing, did you actually send it??" and I will ask them to wait another week or two and tell me if it shows up. It has invariably shown up, but packages should not leave the country without being scanned in AT ALL. The last time, it took nearly 2 months for a pair of shoes to get delivered in Australia... and luckily the buyer was very patient with it... but I had no proof that I'd sent the package.

If I call and complain, USPS will say "we don't offer tracking on priority mail packages" Even if these ones have delivery confirmation. It can't be all that hard if it's already in place for express mail packages, and come on... fedex & ups manage.