My guy is in USP Lee, Virginia.. I have only wrote him three letters since hes been here. He recieved the first one which had a couple of pics in it fine.. I put 2 UK first class stamps on it and put it in the post box and it got there in just under a week. 2nd letter i did exactly the same way and it never got there. (the address was perfect although i didnt put my return address on the envelope on any of my letters.) Third letter i sent on the 5th of november and that had photos in too and it never got there.. I sprayed a tiny bit of perfume on this letter, but when i did this when he was at FCI williamsberg it got in fine. The last letter i put an extra stamp on too.. Does anyone have any idea why my first letter got there ok and the other two have failed, when i sent them all the exact same way. :( Its so f-ing annoying! :bash:
Advertisement
Must read Terms of Service & Privacy Policy and be at least 18
Advertisement
Last post
I think you should look up the mail regulations for the place you are sending the mail to. There is no "standard" in this country! Every place seems to be different. For instance, to the prison in Nevada I send the most mail to: mail will be rejected if it has perfume on it or it has stamps in it or there is no return addy. All of those things would or could cause mail to be sent back or undeliverable.
*might depend on which mail room person decided to let which thing slide at which time*
Did you put your return address on the 3rd letter? I believe it's [I]fairly[/I] standard practice to require a return address but as gooddog said nothing is standard. It makes sense for security purposes the way I see it and I don't agree with many rules that the prisons have in place. Granted, I can put whatever addy I want, but if something is not quite kosher, I'm sure they like to know that they have someone to go back to - hence the return addy.
Hope you find some resolution.
AND... if your mail gets rejected cuz of the perfume for instance, then they have an addy to send it back to.
Every prison I have had contact with the Unites States requires a full return address or it will not be delivered to the inmate.
This is something that Brits need to remember, because we generally dont put our own address on the outside of the envelope, and when we do, it goes on the back of the envelope. I've had letters returned before now because my address was on the back and not in the top left-hand corner of the front like American's do it.
I can understand your problems because sometimes I have the same. Starting writting I also wrote my address on the back side as it is here always that way and after 3 letters my PP told me that he is adviced to tell me to write my address on the front left upper side otherwise they will not be forward any longer to him.
Another PP in NY did not got a Birthdaycard and meanwhile 4 letters and we both did not know why. I believe him and I am sure he did not lie because we mail everyday additionaly on Corrlinks. Also one letter he wrote did not arrive. We thought because he wrote some things about some Gangs in his Prison and maybe that is the reason they hold this letter. Fortunately all pictures always arrive. It seems to be a little like a fortune wheel!
i don't think anyone will be posting on this anymore, but i am from the UK and i always got told i had to send my letters at the post office as they required an airmail stamp, then they put their own stamp on it too. i also have never put my return address on and they always seem to have got there (as far as i know) although maybe the regs have changed and this is why i haven't received any mail for a while.
but how did you know that they didn't get there??
When my guy was in Williamsburg (south carolina) i never wrote my address on the envelope and they all got in ok. BUT i did used to take my letter to the post office and send it over the counter with the airmail stamp and stuff and it got in ok..
Now hes in USP Lee its just confusing that the first letter just put in the post box with 2 first class stamps and no return address got there fine but the next 2 that didnt have a return address and more stamps didnt :(
Oh and do i need to put my return address on the top left of the front of the envelope rather than just putting it on the back? I will scream if he doesnt get this next letter so im gonna do everything perfect.
And is it best to avoid the post box and take it to the office so they can stamp it and give it a nice airmail stamp? even though the first one got there from the post box??
Am i making sense? lol :|
No, you can ask the post office for a sheet of Air Mail stickers - they are FREE. If that particular post office clerk wont give you one (they sometimes insist on having the letter there to weigh) then just go to a different Post Office and ask there.
It shouldn't make any difference whether you drop it in a postbox or take it to the Post Office, unless your area is prone to having kids drop matches into postboxes. I never drop a letter in the postbox if I miss the Saturday collection, I always either take it to a letter box inside a shop, or wait til Monday morning.
I've just re-read your first post though lea_leax, and 2 first class stamps are not enough to send a letter to the USA from the UK (even if previous ones have got there). A 67p stamp will get a postcard there, and a small envelope (C5 size) with a couple of sheets of A4 paper will cost you 97p. More than that (eg, if you put a couple of photos in, or some newspaper cuttings etc) will almost certainly bump it up to £1.47.
so if you get the airmail stamps and then put your own stamps on, how do you know if it'll be enough to send if you've sent a lengthy letter as they weigh them at the post office don't they??
it seems like quite a risky game, sometimes you're letters get there, sometimes they don't, surely it's just better to take it to the post office (which i hate doing!!) it would be easier to use a post box for me but my letters are always of different length/weight so i would never know if i'd used enough stamps?!
Are you new at writing wishing? I can't remember. I know that for ME I worried about that and ran to the post office at the beginning all the time. Now I KNOW that I can get 8 sheets of loose-leaf paper in a letter for one stamp. That makes one ounce. So I can go up to 16 for an additional 17 cent stamp.
I know your paper and stuff is different but eventually you'll know what you can put as your "standard" and then you can just run to the post office if you divert from that.
hiya, nah i'm not new, well.. been writing nearly a year, just registered on this forum.
i am from the UK though, does that not matter? i don't want to be writing and writing and my guy not actually receiving letters!
my letters are always different prices everytime i send them at the post office?
Well then you probably shake it up with pretty papers and stuff. I'm ALWAYS writing on loose-leaf paper. I need the lines otherwise my handwriting is all over the place. If I bought stationery....I'd use the whole pad or box on one letter. The papers are always so small. I've written 16-24 page letters at times - that's 8-12 sheets of paper. That would LITERALLY be a whole pad of stationery, lol. I talk too much, lol.
16-24 pages!!!!!!!!!
After all the talk on here about emails being impersonal I wrote my dude a 'proper' letter... well I got a page and half and then my hand was really hurting and my writing was so scribbly you couldn't understand it so I covered the rest of the paper in kisses and drew a big ol' pair of tatties =D
Lol!
This was when I was "with" my ex. I still write him but we are no longer together. Basically I never stopped writing. I'd just keep the paper nearby and mention something stupid that I just saw on TV even if it was just a dumb commercial. It was just a constant dialog of my thoughts. Now I usually write just letters. They're more like 6-12 now. But I have pretty big handwriting also.
I have a set of digital kitchen scales, so I load up my envelope with the letter, photos, newspaper clippings, whatever I'm sending, and then I can exclude a photo if needed, to keep it within the $2.20 price range.....
I always write my return address on the envelope, here in Aussie we write on the back, and neither my pp's or I have had any issues with the mail rooms requesting I address it in the top right corner (that just looks weird to me to start with! lol)
Only issues I've had with mail, some things have taken 4 months to get to me....but at least they turn up .....eventually!
If I recall it was postmarked then showed up 4 months later right? I bet some Doofus postmarked it at the prison then it got put up on top of a file cabinet or something out of the way because it was a big box and then 4 months later someone said, Looky Here!" Duh!
Yep, that was it....post marked out of TX around 27 April, finally got to me (via frigging Mars!) in early September!! I've had 2 like that now....the first one was a package from my main guy, the other was a letter from another pp. Wouldn't the postmark have happened at the USP office/sorting centre?? eitherway, it got to me eventually
Bindi ~ I've had a couple of mine returned via Oklahoma, I'm guessing because the USPS thought UK was OK!
wishing ~ calm down. Take your letters to the post office like YMIHere says and get them weighed, but keep a note of how much it costs you to send a certain number of pages. Then get a range of stamps (I usually get 67s, 97s, and 50s) and a sheet of airmail stickers and then you wont always have to go to the post office to get your letters weighed. The only weighing they do is at the point you stand at the counter and pay for the postage if you have the letter with you. Once it is in the grey sack, it doesn't get weighed again - it doesn't even get checked again for the correct postage as long as it has a stamp of some kind on it.
I very rarely get my letters weighed anymore and I write 6 days out of 7 most weeks. All of mine get to Hubby in TX just fine.
I'm guessing that if your prison is like mine it has a red Pitney Bowes cancellation postmark on it. Sometimes they charge the inmate and the money is put on by the machine OR they put a stamp on it but it gets the red ink and you can see the amount is $0.00. If it's that pink ink - that is put by the prison and it will have a postmark date. Now if it is black ink with the squiggly lines...THAT is the post office. I'm thinking the error was in pink ink.
You sure know your stuff.. Right down to the INK lmao.
so you can just buy the sheets of stamps, how much for? this would be a lot easier for me as our post office is soo slow and the que is always huge! i try and go in my lunch break from work but i am still stuck in the que by the time it's over.
does the mail take the same amount of time to get to your pp if you put it in the post box?
just found this!! think this will be VERY helpful for me, you put in how much your letter weighs and it tells you what postage you need and how much it will cost!
http://pricefinder.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/PriceFinder?catId=9110075…
Hi there, i doesn't sound to me that you are putting enough stamps on there. I usually put a minimum of 3 x first class stamps, and i always write my address on the back. Also an airmail sticker is required or write airmail.
Hope that helps
samsarah, so you just put yours in the normal post box? with three 1st class british stamps then you write airmail? how long does it usually take to get to your pp? any longer than taking to the post office? do you always put 3 depending on the weight?
I do that wishing....for a regular letter i put 3 on and depending how many photos i send i put another stamp on..sometimes il add 3 photos with a say 6page letter a4 and put 4 firstclass stmaps on and he always gets it.
Doesnt take any longer really than going to the post office...takes about 9-11 days to get there but just depends really
That's only from working in an office. Pink ink is an office postmark - black ink is a postal cancellation over a regular stamp.
Hiya Wishing.
Yep, 3 x stamps, airmail sticker or write it on , and in the post box. Takes about 4 days from me to Whichever of my guys i have sent it to .
sunrays wench, as i read down the posts i was thinking the same as you. i can get 1 pce a4 in an airmail envelope for 67p 3sheets and air mail envelope for 97p. and up it goes depending on weight. if i send cards otr photos i always get it weighed at the post office. i have had returned post when i didnt put enough on and once when i totally forgot the stamps, luckily i had written the return address on the envelope.
[QUOTE=ldl;977097]sunrays wench, as i read down the posts i was thinking the same as you. i can get 1 pce a4 in an airmail envelope for 67p 3sheets and air mail envelope for 97p. and up it goes depending on weight. if i send cards otr photos i always get it weighed at the post office. i have had returned post when i didnt put enough on and once when[B] i totally forgot the stamps, luckily i had written the return address on the envelope[/B].[/QUOTE]
hahaha, that reminds me ldl......I was sending a postcard to a WAP member (not an inmate) and I had to check her full address (foreign country - weird address hehe)....I'd written out the whole card, luckily put my return address on it, and somehow it got mixed up with my other mail, and I posted it!!! lucky for the return address, it turned up in my letterbox a day later, and I was able to fill in her details and post it again!! lol (my blonde moment)
@YMI - all D's mail comes with his own stamps on it, and is only 'black inked' - so to me, it made it out of the unit and got lost in transit, somewhere between San Antonio and here... one of my other pp's has his mail stamped with the pink ink, never had an issue with his....yet! (hope I don't jinx myself now!)
Hmmph! Honestly I was completely prepared to blame it on the prison. Very interesting. We need to talk soon Chica!
Gosh, I can' be the only person that never goes to the post office to mail my letters? :P
The big red boxes have become my best friend. lol.
I just always make sure I drop it in before 6pm. And I have 3 in walking distance from my house.
I've luckily never had a problem with it coming back because there wasn't enough postage .*knocks on wood*
I usually weigh it in my hand, I'm not a human scale or anything but I can judge it fairly good. lol
I sent 6pages (printed) along with 6 photos the other day and I put one €0.95 stamp on it an everything was good, he got it.
Meh. *shrugs*
also, whether I take it to the PO or drop it in the box, it takes the same amount of time to get there.
I REFUSE to give the post office more money than they are entitled to. Sometimes my pals will put extra 2c stamps or something - like maybe 10 extra cents and the reality is 10c isn't enough to have gotten the letter through if the 44c wasn't enough. One ounce is 44c. The next ounce is 17c. Another 17c after that. I prefer to weigh it than to give those (insert expletive here) one cent more than they are entitled to. But that's just me. I know what my typical letter costs and I base anything over that on those factors. Sometimes I have a conundrum where I'm sending pics and long letter and clippings or whatever and on that rare occasion I go to the post office again because I REFUSE to give them one cent more.
the post offices here used to weigh it for you and put the stamps on it and everything, now they say " here ya go, I've weighed it, it takes x amount of stamps. Now, buy a sheet of stamps, stick it on and drop it in the box at the door".. lol
I remember when you could buy single stamps, aaah.. the old days. Now I gotta buy an entire sheet (I hate doing that for National Stamps, as I only ever need 1 and not 10).. but I don't mind for International stamps.
I forgot what my initial point was......
Bugger as the first letter ive just send off to nevada has scent/male cologne. Bugger bugger bugger >.<
Ive sent a letter with a little spray of perfume to my pp when he was in South Carolina and it got in fine..
I think it varies from prison to prison so you never know, it might get there! Fingers crossed eh? :)
Mr. Moog - They also may let it slide the FIRST time. I sent lipstick letters to CA and they are not allowed. He got the first one and I think they gave him a warning but it takes so long for us to turn around a letter that I sent the next 3 or 4 before I got the first one back. Hopefully it will get thru and now you know for next time.
I have an Urban Decay lipstick called 'Jailbait'... Ol' boy loved that one =D
lol @ Jailbait.
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!