usps error... mailed to return address

[YourCastle]

I printed 100 postcards for one of my agents with variable data... return address upper-left, recipient address in the middle of the card. Agent applied postage stamps then dropped them off at USPS.

We received about 80 of them at my office with identical barcodes that USPS printed on them directing them to my office.

Has this ever happened to any of y'all?

Any suggestion on what I tell my agent? Besides, go get a postage refund from USPS? They're not going to cover the cost of re-printing, right?

 

[bill kahny]

Good luck even getting them to refund the postage. There is no accountability with the USPS. post a pic of 1 of the returns maybe I could shed some light on it.

 

[ReproElectroProspero]

Are you sure they were erroneously delivered to you? Did the cards have any ASE endorsements? (Text like "Return Service Requested"). We often get cards back this way because of this, but we want that outcome. If a person at 123 Fake Street has moved, we get the card back and it has a sticker that tells us they've moved with no forwarding address, or that they've filed a change of address and we should update our list from 123 Fake Street to 321 Ekaf Street.

Another cause could be the design of the card. USPS automated machines read bottom up, starting with zip code...so if there was text on your card telling the customer to come visit your address, and it was below the recipient address, the machine could easily mistake the address in the text as the recipient address.

Alternatively, if this was just some local schmo messing up, I would not hold my breath about a refund. Even if it were possible, the amount of work you'd need to do to get it would exceed the value of 100 postcards mailed.

 

[YourCastle]

Are you sure they were erroneously delivered to you?

thanks for your reply! Yes, error

USPS automated machines read bottom up, starting with zip code...so if there was text on your card telling

nothing below the recipient address

Did the cards have any ASE endorsements? (Text like "Return Service Requested").

no

Alternatively, if this was just some local schmo messing up, I would not hold my breath about a refund

yeah, I've dealt with USPS for years and they've never showed the slightest amount of concern about anything.

 

[YourCastle]

is it possible that the postcards were fed upside-down into the OCR/whatever machine and the return address was read FIRST, but somehow the OCR recognized it 180* and read it "correctly"?

 

[bill kahny]

was the return address in a cleaner larger font even though it has higher than the delivery address?

and with the usps anything is possible.

 

[YourCastle]

was the return address in a cleaner larger font even though it has higher than the delivery address?

yes

both were gotham book, but the return address was 18pt and recipient was 12pt. Please don't tell me that matters because I would be very displeased... also, it hadn't happened before, so...?

 

[bill kahny]

It's not suppose to happen NO. But .... I always recommend putting the delivery as large as you can and always larger than the return address.

 

[bill kahny]

Another thought, was the delivery closer the 1/2 inch from bottom or right edge, that ends the OCR read area? In other words is the delivery CSZ line outside the OCR area?

 

[MailGuru]

How confident are you with the quality of the address? Did you CASS certify the addresses?

At a quantity of 100, theyeould have to have been mailed at single piece first class. That means that if there was something wrong with the address, it would have been sent to the return address.

 

[YourCastle]

How confident are you with the quality of the address? Did you CASS certify the addresses?

At a quantity of 100, theyeould have to have been mailed at single piece first class. That means that if there was something wrong with the address, it would have been sent to the return address.

The client supplied database was used in the past without issue.

Agent applied postage stamps then dropped them off at USPS

 

[MailGuru]

Have had that happen when client supplied list was an excel file. The client highlighted a column of cells (like last name) and sorted that column alphabetically (instead of including all columns in the sort). Now, none of the names line up with the correct corresponding address (or, if they did, it was just a coincidence).

 

[MailGuru]

Last name a bad example. Usually happens when someone sorts on the address column. Then, address doesnt match the corresponding city, state, and zip that was supposed to go to that address.

 

[TJPrinter]

If the names and addresses weren’t messed up by the agent, then I would guess the 18pt return address was picked up when scanned. On a postcard size mailing, I would try to keep the return as far to the top as possible and either 9pt or 10pt. The template I send my customers has the lower right corner reserved for address information and is a block that’s 2.25” high and 4” wide. There’s a bit of leeway on the width of the address block but if barcodes are added it gets too close to design features like lines or solid areas. I always count on the fact that customers rarely measure correctly.

I’m sure someone at the post office can tell you what happened, but what a hassle that is getting to the right person. Informed Delivery confirms that every piece of mail is scanned and saved, but how long is the scan kept, I don’t know.

 

[Shawnd]

I would chime in but it would be a guess without seeing a scan of the mailpiece.

 

[kslight]

I would assume since you didn’t get all 100 back, either the addresses are invalid or an issue with the list. It seems likely that if the usps read them upside down they would have read them all upside down, not 80% of them.

I would look up a handful of the addresses in the returns and determine if there is an issue.

 

[namelessentity]

Why would you get the returns if it was stamped? Is your address the return address? We've had something similar happen, and it was just a post office mistake, but I still don't understand why you received the returns if nothing about the piece points to you.

 

[MailGuru]

Why would you get the returns if it was stamped? Is your address the return address? We've had something similar happen, and it was just a post office mistake, but I still don't understand why you received the returns if nothing about the piece points to you.

OP stated that the return address was his own (print provider's) return address.

Stamped, or, indicia doesn't matter. At 100 pieces, it would have had to been mailed First Class.

The USPS handles First Class as follows:
1) If the recipient has moved, and, the move happened within the last 12 months - Forward to the New Address
2) If they moved over 12 months ago, OR, if there is something wrong with the address, send back to whatever address is in the return address area.

 

[MailGuru]

So, logically, 1 of three things could have happened:

1) Something's wrong with the list

2) Something's wrong with the piece design

3) The USPS screwed up.

#1 can be eliminated by a very simple test. Take a couple of the cards that were returned, or, randomly take 2 or 3 records from your data base. Go online to USPS.com and select "Find A Zip Code". Key in the addresses. If the address is good, it will display a "plus4" after the zip code. If not, the address is bad. This could probably be your best scenario if your agent handed you the list, and, you printed and mailed the list he handed you. Now you can deflect blame to him (except that, in reality, you really should be CASS-ing and cleaning any list given to you by a client prior to mailing to prevent this very scenario).

If the list is clean and good, then, let's look at your piece design.
I'm not going to get in to the specific measurements of the "OCR Clear Zone", but, oversimplification would be this:

Draw a horizontal line from the left edge of the post card all the way to the right edge of the post card where the line just barely touches the top portion of the characters on the top line of your address block. Does any portion of the return address information extend below that line? If so, then their OCR equipment may scan that address instead of the recipient's address. I'm not even going to get in to why you would put the return address in a larger font than your mailing address. Most mailers make that return address as small as possible. I've seen some that even put it in a non-OCR readable font such as a script font to prevent this specific situation.

If it's not 1 or 2 above, then it's the USPS's screw-up. Good luck with finding a solution for that.

If it's a good, regular customer, you're talking about $73 in stamps, plus print/cut/tray for 100 pieces. I'd just run it again after making sure 1 & 2 above are good.

 

[gregbatch]

Without an image of the returned card we're shooting in the dark. If it was returned for any reason it should have a yellow sticker on it telling the reason for the return.