UNITED KINGDOM IS DEPRECATED ... who knew?

[kinzel]

Yesterday I worked hard and got mail together and had a partial interview by phone before noon ... and another partial interview by phone and ... several more scattered throughout the day. Iphone fail -- not *my* phone, they were calling my landline at the office. But, calling from within a major East Coast city with an Iphone seems not to work so well for a lot of folks, and was frustrating for us and for the interviewer "I'm sorry, you're fading and echoing...."

...well, we shall see.  Eventually they got to talk to me and Sharon both because she came down after work. Right -- the interview started at 11 AM sharp and was over just before 5, with lots of technical timeouts in between.  We'll cross the fingers and hope something useful emerges.

In between I was also packing stuff, some for SRM and repacking some for Lee & Miller.  I tried, really, to get that last great Fledgling lump out the door again. The PO closes at 5 (see above, see below).

Well, try, try again --- I'm going *back* to the PO this morning with a lot of mail that says GREAT BRITAIN ... that's because UNITED KINGDOM isn't acceptable for international priority mail ... they will not mail it if it says UNITED KINGDOM...*but* but but ... so someone's going to have to fix some back-office automation... nevermind.  I do just hope the mail goes through this time.  I cannot believe how much postal rates went up since we started writing Fledlging -- more than half of the donation $25 proceeds for overseas shipments of Fledglings were eaten in postage. With taxes, boxes, and special labels the overseas portion was about a wash, I guess -- though shipping to 20 countries does show a lot of demand, donnit?

Also, domestically, we've had three more Fledglings returned with no label -- some modern mailing equipment apparently eats labels right off the box! -- and we're still getting boxes back marked "Moved, no forwarding address" or with the new address conveniently affixed to the front and a "postage due" stamp  requiring us to rebox and re-ship... After this morning the only Fledglings I have left to ship lost are those that have been returned and some that we've located from the  "Lost Souls" list, which seems appropriate with Halloween on the cusp.

Other things  .. my stepfather seems to be doing OK there at assisted living place in the country, we still need to mess with the Department of Motor Vehicles about who does and does not have a security interest in my car (though the note has been paid off),  we're waiting (not patiently) for the proof for Dragon's Bones, and now the weatherfolken say no snow for is for awhile. 

Comments

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Yes, the United Kingdom thing has been a problem with postal services for a number of years. Especially the abbreviation -- country code UK routes things to the Ukraine!

Re. iPhones and US cities -- I gather from a number of sources that the iPhone has been a disaster for AT&T because traffic from them has swamped the network, causing a large proportion of everyone else's calls to be dropped or degraded as well (I've heard figures of 30% or more calls in NY being hurt). It's the usual trouble with "all you can eat" plans, people take them literally (as both wired and wireless operators have found in the UK for the last decade or more).

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem is that AT&T doesn't have the best network coverage in many areas -- up here in the backwoods of Maine, they're practically useless.

Not that this affects Luddites such as me, who decline cell phone ownership . . .

[masgramondou.livejournal.com]

I never knew United Kingdom was not an acceptable postal country, Mind you I tend to address things to ENGLAND (or SCOTLAND or WALES) when I have to send things there but that's more from cussedness than thinking that United Kingdom was a bad country

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Well, my Irish ancestors thought that the United Kingdom was a "bad country" for quite a number of years . . .

[keristor.livejournal.com]

And I wouldn't completely disagree with them *g*...

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Most people don't, unless their post office has rejected (or queried: "Is this really going to the Ukraine?") it. Even worse, the UK Royal Mail has for most of that time actually told people to use 'UK' on the return address not even realising that they were using the wrong country abbreviation! (When I called them about it the call was escalated to a senior manager, who also didn't know, and then got back to me and admitted that they were wrong.)

I think that it is less common for the full form "United Kingdom" to be rejected, but it is not unknown. Whether they would accept the official name, "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", I don't know.

(Within Europe it seems that UK, Royaume Uni, and similar terms are accepted more easily. Perhaps Americans have more trouble distinguishing us from the Ukraine from that distance, just like we think that America is part of Canada and that Australia and New Zealand are the same place *g*...)

another instance

[n6vfp.livejournal.com]

I first experienced this in 1971, when asking for something to be shipped to the Isle of Man where I was informed by the post office that they were not part of the United Kingdom because they never surrendered to the British. They were extremely sensitive to this.

Re: another instance

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Man is in a similar (but not identical) condition to the Channel Islands, they owe allegience to the Queen but are not part of the UKoGBaNI. I'm not sure quite how the thread of their association goes. (But they, unlike the Channel Islands, are part of the British Isles, which is a geographic not a political area.)

The Home Office admitted back in the 80s that Cornwall isn't actually part of England either, the various people who tried to annex it didn't do the paperwork or something. But in practice the Royal Mail still delivers there and for all actual purposes they are part of the UKetc.

[(Anonymous)]

As has already been stated our full name is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It does seem strange that your post office insists on Great Britain which is only one of the constituent elements instead of United Kingdom. How I wonder are you supposed to address post for Northern Ireland

Richard

[phil-boswell.livejournal.com]

I'm just ecstatic that my copy of Fledgling is on the way, which is just as well or I'd be smacking my head so hard on the desk I'd be unable to read it.