Mail returned by An Post

Cathaoirleach

Sorry, I have no idea which forum this message belongs to.

I sent a packet to the USA recently.

Instead of putting "United States of America" on the address, I put "Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá" - (USA in Irish)

It was returned to my address a few days later - they ovbiously didn't understand the Irish bit.

Should I complain to An Post or just resend the letter in English? It's just that it cost me 5 euro (it's a packet) and now I have to pay another 5 euro to re-send it. :rolleyes:

Can I get a refund? I thought An Post were supposed to send and receive mail in Irish and English.

My name is URL

Just resend it. If you have the address written in Irish how is an American mailman gonna read it?

SV

What was the point in putting it in Irish anyway?

Ri_Nollaig

Cathaoirleach wrote: »

...
Instead of putting "United States of America" on the address, I put "Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá" - (USA in Irish)
...

Why would you do that? Its leaving a country where most wouldn't know that was USA in Irish never mind when it reached America.

iMax

"Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá" Does not exist.
"United States Of America" Does exist.

You just cost yourself €5. Suck it up & get it right next time.

CreepingDeath

Cathaoirleach wrote: »

Can I get a refund? I thought An Post were supposed to send and receive mail in Irish and English.

If they did, it would be within Ireland itself.
They pass the letter to the American Postal service, they have no such commitment.

Tell me this, if you had a serious car crash and were ringing for an ambulance would you insist on speaking in Irish ?

Cathaoirleach

It's just the USA bit that's in Irish, the rest is in English.

It says California on it.

I don't see why I can't have USA in Irish. All other countries put the country name in their local language. Eg. if I was sending a message from Spain, it would say 'Estados Unidos'.

It just seems like I'm being screwed for 5 euro. An Post is a government body and should be able to handle mail in both Irish and English, or I would have thought...?

Cool_CM

SV wrote: »

What was the point in putting it in Irish anyway?

+1
You were sending it to America, some Americans can hardly speak English, nevermind Irish (wich they are not expected to speak).
I'm all for the use of Irish, but there are certain situations where using Irish is neither advisable nor warranted. This is one of them.

Cuddlesworth

Cathaoirleach wrote: »

It's just the USA bit that's in Irish, the rest is in English.

It says California on it.

I don't see why I can't have USA in Irish. All other countries put the country name in their local language. Eg. if I was sending a message from Spain, it would say 'Estados Unidos'.

It just seems like I'm being screwed for 5 euro. An Post is a government body and should be able to handle mail in both Irish and English, or I would have thought...?

You are mistaking sending a package to a country in their local language and sending a package to a country in your local language.

Big difference.

Cool_CM

Cathaoirleach wrote: »

It's just the USA bit that's in Irish, the rest is in English.

It says California on it.

I don't see why I can't have USA in Irish. All other countries put the country name in their local language. Eg. if I was sending a message from Spain, it would say 'Estados Unidos'.

Could be this California http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California,_Buckinghamshire
or any other California in the world.
If you really wanted the package to get there, the onus is on you to provide the address that you want to send it to, the people sorting mail do not have supernatural powers and to return a package that is going to an address that they deem to be unclear is a lot better than delivering it to the wrong person.
Pay your €5 and learn from it.

AnonoBoy

Just write it in English and quit your jibber jabber.

pab_lowe

are any of you actually reading the OPs post. The address was in English apart from the country of destination. Once the package leaves Ireland, no one needs to translate the country of destination any more. Jeebus, even someone with a modicum of cop could guess the destination if California was the next line

iMax

Cathaoirleach wrote: »

It's just the USA bit that's in Irish, the rest is in English.

What's the point of doing that?

Dude, they should have charged you double for the hassle.

TPD

Why write an address in two different languages? Seems like you did it for the novelty and got burned. Suck it up and move on, I say.

KTRIC

Someone correct me here but am I right in thinking the name of the country should be written in the first language of the country its being sent from. The remainder should be written in the first language of the recieving country ??


I live in Germany and when I post to Ireland I write the address in English (i know An Post should be able to read Irish and English, but I couldn't be bothered) and then the country "Irland" at the end.

Ri_Nollaig

pab_lowe wrote: »

are any of you actually reading the OPs post. The address was in English apart from the country of destination. Once the package leaves Ireland, no one needs to translate the country of destination any more. Jeebus, even someone with a modicum of cop could guess the destination if California was the next line

was gonna ask that,
did it actually reach America?
While I still think its stupid to have USA in Irish once it reached America you would think the California would be enough from there and since they use Zip codes.
oh well lesson learned, use English next time

punchestown

Just bring the package back to the Post Office and explain what happened. It will be reposted for you without any additional cost.

Rabies

Well done OP.

Monkey61

Am I missing something here...you wrote the address in English and then decided to put USA in Irish, just for the craic??? Come on...

el_tiddlero

Talk to Joe FTW

Karoma

Oh dear, thash was offul mean of the man. Tow-tally offul. Thash'll cosht you a cúpla yoyo's for your cúpla focail. Offul, I say.

antodeco

Bothar, Cuineas, Cailin Bainne, Sharon Ni Bheolian.

Do mhathair!

RonMexico

Ha Ha

Homer

Amadan

kelle

It was a bit silly putting SAM instead of USA, but the Americans are real jobsworth types. If you misspell or omit any part of an address, the letter won't get delivered. I once had a letter sent back because I put St instead of Street (that's what i think it was, no reason was given and my relatives hadn't moved!).

TheZohanS

Cathaoirleach wrote: »

Should I complain to An Post or just resend the letter in English? It's just that it cost me 5 euro (it's a packet) and now I have to pay another 5 euro to re-send it. :rolleyes:

Can I get a refund? I thought An Post were supposed to send and receive mail in Irish and English.

You should thank An Post.

Now you have an opportunity to put the correct address on it and it's only costing you €5.

Had it made it to the US you would probably be down your €5 and the contents of the package.

topper75

Cathaoirleach wrote: »

Sorry, I have no idea which forum this message belongs to.

I sent a packet to the USA recently.

Instead of putting "United States of America" on the address, I put "Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá" - (USA in Irish)

It was returned to my address a few days later - they ovbiously didn't understand the Irish bit.

Should I complain to An Post or just resend the letter in English? It's just that it cost me 5 euro (it's a packet) and now I have to pay another 5 euro to re-send it. :rolleyes:

Can I get a refund? I thought An Post were supposed to send and receive mail in Irish and English.

You are definitely entitled to a refund. €5 too little to worry about? It's principle that matters. The language act means that An Post (note they are not called The Post funnily enough:pac:) are obliged to deliver your parcel as the address was written in the OFFICIAL language of Ireland.

For all the haters that think principle doesn't matter - well if it didn't the Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá wouldn't even exist at all. It'd still be 'Her Majesty's colonies in the Americas'.

I always write Irlanda or whatever when sending postcards home from hols, so it is perfectly logical to expect the Irish postal service to get the parcel into the American system, where 'CALIFORNIA' is the next line picked up on. Definitely refund (or free resend) due from An Post.

You get no satisfaction there mo chara - then this guy http://www.coimisineir.ie/ would love to hear from you.

IvyTheTerrible

topper75 wrote: »

You are definitely entitled to a refund. €5 too little to worry about? It's principle that matters. The language act means that An Post (note they are not called The Post funnily enough:pac:) are obliged to deliver your parcel as the address was written in the OFFICIAL language of Ireland.

They are obliged to deliver your parcel. However last time I checked they don't operate in the US.

AlmightyCushion

Re-send it except this time write it in klingon.

topper75

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

They are obliged to deliver your parcel. However last time I checked they don't operate in the US.

:oI'll tighten that up - An Post are obliged to get it to the States, where their system takes over. It's not the 'American mailman's' concern what we call his country in our language.

minidazzler

topper75 wrote: »

You are definitely entitled to a refund. €5 too little to worry about? It's principle that matters. The language act means that An Post (note they are not called The Post funnily enough:pac:) are obliged to deliver your parcel as the address was written in the OFFICIAL language of Ireland.

True, but An Post were being Smart, what happens if it was sent off to America, and they decided that another language couldn't be read so Binned it? Then the OP would be complaining about that.

TBH, it is all the OP's fault for just being illogical.

Ri_Nollaig

minidazzler wrote: »

True, but An Post were being Smart, what happens if it was sent off to America, and they decided that another language couldn't be read so Binned it? Then the OP would be complaining about that.

TBH, it is all the OP's fault for just being illogical.

If they where really been smart you would imagine they could put a sticker on it saying "United States of America"

Karoma

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Re-send it except this time write it in klingon.

That's going to hurt some people's ego when that gets it there, but not Irish.

minidazzler

Ri_Nollaig wrote: »

If they where really been smart you would imagine they could put a sticker on it saying "United States of America"

That's not their responsibility.

topper75

minidazzler wrote: »

TBH, it is all the OP's fault for just being illogical.

Illogical? - Yeah we can talk about that.

Parcels sent from France would have Les Etats Unis, in French.
Parcels sent from Spain would have Los Estados Unidos, in Spanish.
Parcels sent from Ireland would have Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá, in ... oh wait....must apply logic here!

IvyTheTerrible

topper75 wrote: »

Illogical? - Yeah we can talk about that.

Parcels sent from France would have Les Etats Unis, in French.
Parcels sent from Spain would have Los Estados Unidos, in Spanish.
Parcels sent from Ireland would have Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá, in ... oh wait....must apply logic here!

60 million people speak french as a first language
Hundreds of millions of people speak spanish.

How many people speak Irish as a first language?

el_tiddlero

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

60 million people speak french as a first language
Hundreds of millions of people speak spanish.

How many people speak Irish as a first language?

42

anplaya

a girl i know said to me her family or herself wouldnt use the word ireland if they were sending a letter /parcel from her own country ,they would use their own word, and it gets here everytime she expects something and shes not from exactly a huge global spoken language country.she said basically the mailmen there send it to the countries destination and whoever is in charge of post in that country sorts it out there.

so ye,theyre just ****ing you about.

Cathaoirleach

I've just been on to An Post customer service for the past 20 mins and they are saying the complete opposite to all the comments here.

All internal and external mail in Ireland must be processed in Irish or English. My packet was returned by An Post in error - it never left Ireland.

It's up to An Post to send the mail to the country as indicated on the letter, be it in Irish or English. Once it reaches that country, the local postal service just processes the local address, ignoring the country.

So, had An Post sent my packet to USA, the U.S. Postal Service would only process the local address, eg. California, and ignore "Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá".

The problem was An Post. I have to bring my returned packet to the local post office and they will ensure that it is processed with no extra charge.

I also got a PM there - the Official Languages Act 2003 hammers down heavy on government agencies that do not provide services in Irish, so maybe that's why An Post were so eager to help me.

Anyway, now you know. You can write the country name in Irish and it must be processed by An Post.

topper75 wrote: »

You are definitely entitled to a refund.

pab_lowe wrote: »

are any of you actually reading the OPs post.

Thanks guys, the only two comments of support.

topper75

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

60 million people speak french as a first language
Hundreds of millions of people speak spanish.

How many people speak Irish as a first language?

No numbers for you - nowhere near the volume of people who speak French and Spanish of course. Does that invalidate the Irish language for you in some way? Maybe he should have gone with Mandarin characters?

I thought the problem you guys had was that the American mailman speaks English alone and none of the 3 languages above, and therefore there is some kind of imagined or unwritten obligation to write the countryname in English?

OP sent parcel from Ireland with the country name written in Irish - An Post have no reason for not being able to get it to the states.

dsmythy

People make mistakes. Get over it.

anplaya

Thanks guys, the only two comments of support.[/quote]

check above yer last comment;)

Ri_Nollaig

Cathaoirleach wrote: »

I've just been on to An Post customer service for the past 20 mins and they are saying the complete opposite to all the comments here.

writing it in English might have saved some time :pac:

topper75

Bloody awkward this Gaeilge chaps - just refuses to die!

Credit due to An Post for their admission. Professional credibility and patriotic credentials fully restored. I am by no means mistake-free myself.

Mr.Lizard

Cathaoirleach wrote: »

Sorry, I have no idea which forum this message belongs to.

I sent a packet to the USA recently.

Instead of putting "United States of America" on the address, I put "Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá" - (USA in Irish)

It was returned to my address a few days later - they ovbiously didn't understand the Irish bit.

Should I complain to An Post or just resend the letter in English? It's just that it cost me 5 euro (it's a packet) and now I have to pay another 5 euro to re-send it. :rolleyes:

Can I get a refund? I thought An Post were supposed to send and receive mail in Irish and English.

No offence but that was a really stupid thing to do. If you were writing a love letter to Barack Obama would you address it something along the lines of "An Teach Buí, 1600 Pensylvania Av"? As a rule of thumb address the letter the way the recipient indicates ie not "Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá" .

iMax

topper75 wrote: »

Bloody awkward this Gaeilge chaps - just refuses to die!

Sooner it dies the better. Bloody useless language. If the OP HAD written the address in klingon, there'd be more people able to read it than speak Irish as a first language...

ShooterSF

I don't speak Irish. Hated the language in school but what I hate more are posters who move their goalposts when their point is proved wrong because deep down their point was only there in the first place because of some bigotry.

How many of you sending International post use the recieving countries language for the whole address? Do you find post doesn't quite leave the country for 中國 (China)? How many of you would put the whole address in English regardless of the countries language. The OP's approach was actually the right way to do it, other than the fact that Ireland uses both languages (at least officially).

Lollipops23

OP while i'm glad you got a refund and the problem got sorted, i think it was silly to put the USA as Gaeilge on the envelope. why bother?unless your own everyday language is Irish, even then it just seems you did just becuase you could.

Cathaoirleach

Mr.Lizard wrote: »

No offence but that was a really stupid thing to do. If you were writing a love letter to Barack Obama would you address it something along the lines of "An Teach Buí, 1600 Pensylvania Av"? As a rule of thumb address the letter the way the recipient indicates ie not "Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá" .

The Yellow House? Why would I write the local address in Irish? I simply wrote the COUNTRY name in Irish, which An Post, as an Irish government body, should be able to process and send to that country. Once it reaches the States, they only look for the local address, not "Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá".

As much as you hate me for writing the country name in Irish, I still have a right to do so, and An Post were in the wrong, not me. Hence the refund :rolleyes:. Get over it.

anplaya wrote: »

so ye,theyre just ****ing you about.

Thanks anplaya, missed that post.

Lollipops23

Cathaoirleach wrote: »

The Yellow House?

yep it's one of those weird things, it transaltes wrong. but that's the term we were taught in school too.

ShooterSF

Lollipops23 wrote: »

OP while i'm glad you got a refund and the problem got sorted, i think it was silly to put the USA as Gaeilge on the envelope. why bother?unless your own everyday language is Irish, even then it just seems you did just becuase you could.

Until we stop using it and officially announce it dead, stop wasting kid's time in school by forcing them to learn it and paying teachers good money to teach it why shouldn't the OP?