WTF is with the International Postal Union's International Response Coupons?

The BBQ Pit
1

I could have put this in GQ, but whatever the answer, i’m going to be pissed at someone. If i get one particular answer, i’ll be pissed at myself for being an idiot. If i get the another answer, i’ll be pissed at the postal employee who served me today.

So, i recently received a letter from the UK. It required me to return something by mail, and so the sender enclosed a Coupon-Réponse International, or International Reply Coupon. The coupon looks exactly like the one on this page (of course, it does not say “Specimen”). In place of “Nom du Pays” it is stamped “Grande-Bretagne,” and there is a round postal stamp (from Nottingham) in the small box on the bottom left (where the specimen says “valeur”).

Now, i’d never even seen one of these before, let alone used one, but my relatively logical mind assumed that this coupon meant that return postage had been paid by my UK correspondent, and that i could just hand over the coupon with my envelope in order to receive “free” postage to the UK.

If the postal employee who served me is to be believed, i am wrong. She told me that these are coupons purchased in the US for sending overseas, so that people overseas can send things back here for free. She insisted that the coupon i presented her had been purchased in the US, and that it could only be used by someone overseas to send a ltter back here to America. I pointed out that, given that this coupon had a stamp from a post office in Nottingham, England, it was highly unlikely that it had been purchased here in the US.

She continued to insist that this was the case, and as proof that it was an American product she pointed to the picture of the little girl and said that “only a US product would have a picture of Shirley Temple on it” (!!!) Well, the International Postal Union page that i linked to above strongly implies that all such coupons used worldwide have “Shirley Temple” on them (the girl, by the way, is not identified by name anywhere). But my postal nemesis would not be moved.

I then pointed to the back of the coupon, where it says (in six different languages) that

I pointed out that “any country of the Universal Postal Union” was a term that likely covered the United States as well as a whole bunch of other countries. She continued to insist, however, that this is a product purchased here to allow the benighted folks of other nations to send mail to America. The concept of an international union and international agreement covering and binding multiple nations seemed to completely pass her by.

So, what the fuck is going on here? Am i a moron, or is she? Is there something i’m just not getting about this system, or does she just not know her job? Help me, people! :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

2

If you buy some in a country where they are way underpriced then cash them in a country where they are more expensive you can make out like a bandit. Just give me $100,000 and I’ll handle it for you. So you aren’t out any money while you wait you can tell all your friends about it and get THEM to invest, too! :smiley:

3

mehendo, you appear to be correct: http://pe.usps.gov/text/Imm/immc3.html#npLZq39wats

Note 372.3.b of the International Mail Manual. Did you ask to speak to the Supervisor or Manager? That is what I would suggest you might want to do. It appears that this Postal Clerk was poorly trained. Good luck.

4

In my experience, due to the international nature of the postal system, there is little or no difference in price between postal charges in wealthy countries and third world ones. Letters I’ve sent between Australia and Vietnam cost about the same in both directions.

5

Do please let us know what happens if/when you go back to read 'em the riot act over this, mhendo. Sounds like the counter staff there aren’t informed of the whole manual in their training.

6

Ah, but it is in the “about” where the profit lies, like that programmer who sent all fractional cents into his own account. And it’s why I need a large amount of money upfront. But please make the money order out in American dollars, not Australian dollars.

sigh It isn’t nearly as much fun whooshing people who aren’t from around here and can’t be expected to know the story of the Ponzi Scheme. :frowning:

7

Many thanks for that reference.

I went to usps.com and did a search but nothing came up. I didn’t realise that there was also a usps.gov.

Those regulations make it pretty clear that she should have accepted my coupons (i actually had 2) and put them towards the cost of the letter at a rate of 80c per coupon. The cost of sending the item was just over $2.00, so i would still have had to pay about 50c of my own money.

But the whole issue wasn’t about money for me anyway. It was the sheer stubbornness of the woman in the face of what seemed, to me, to be fairly clear evidence that she was wrong.

You know, the fact that she’s going through life sure that she was correct, and that the Australian guy who came to the counter yesterday was an asshole who didn’t know what he was on about, burns me up a bit, and makes me want to go in there with a printout of the regulations and throw them in her (or her manager’s) face.

But at the same time, i’m not really interested in getting her in trouble or getting her fired. And marching into the post office and waving around my evidence that she was wrong seems sort of like a rather petty thing to do. I leave that sort of behavior for the Straight Dope. :slight_smile:

But i still have a few of these coupons, and if i need to send something overseas again you can be sure that i will take them, and a printout of the regulations, and will refuse to move until they are honored.

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Just so you know I’m almost positive that the picture of the girl in the linked image is not Shirley Temple, even though she is a little hard to make out.

9

Yeah, i didn’t think so either.

The picture is clearer on the actual coupons that i have, and it looks a little bit like her, i guess, but i really don’t think it is.

And you’d also wonder why an international postal union would choose a child star from the 1930s as its symbol, and why it would do so without even mentioning who the person is, either on the coupon or on the website.

10

Airmail letter from USA to Switzerland: US$ 0.80 .
Airmail letter from Switzerland to USA: CHF 1.80 = US$ 1.50, i.e. almost twice as much

11

Forgot the links
USA International mail postage rates

Switzerland International mail postage rates

12

But TheLoadedDog was comparing wealthy countries and third-world countries.

Which is which in your comparison? :slight_smile:

13

She works for the Post Office. You couldn’t get her fired if you were the President of the United States.

Best you can do is make sure she learns WTF is up.