Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 12 Feb 2016 12:43:41am
re: Using ZIP +4
I do not know how many otherwise considerate and decent members I have had to open the USPS Zip Code Look-up site to finish their address, but it might exceed 50% of the people I communicate with.
Click here !!! →→→ ZIP CODE LOOK-UP
  2 Members like this post. Login to Like.
".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
I agree with Charlie's statement and we should enforce the Zip+4 on our applications. Zip+4 is supposed to speed up our mail service, so we can at least help it by using it.
Mike
Login to Like this post
"It's been three years now, since I joined a support group for procrastinators. We haven't met yet..."
The problem I have with zip+4 is what if you put the wrong 4, say transpose the digits? I suspect the letter would arrive later than if you had no zip+4 on the envelope. If it is supplied I use it but if not I don't look it up. I didn't even know what mine was until I just looked it up and we have been here for 23 years. Of course the only mail that may have it that we receive is junk mail that gets tossed without even opening it. I have never gotten zip+4 mail at my POB
Login to Like this post
"Seesomething you like in my Hipstore? Contact me for a deal!"
"The problem I have with zip+4 is what if you put the wrong 4, say transpose the digits? I suspect the letter would arrive later than if you had no zip+4 on the envelope."
I was a digit off on the plus 4 zip code sending a Christmas card and it was returned to me 3 weeks later. I had another returned because I addressed it to house number 133 instead of 135. Apparently they now have -0- tolerance for errors.
"The problem I have with zip+4 is what if you put the wrong 4, say transpose the digits?"
That was one of the arguments made when the original 5 digit zip code was launched. Human nature tends to dislike change of any kind no matter how beneficial.
Login to Like this post
"Just one more small collection, hun, really! LoL "
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 12 Feb 2016 04:12:58pm
re: Using ZIP +4
I've always been a stickler for people using zip+4 as I worked for IBM in the deployment of the machine that uses the code to sort your mail. In 1995 IBM finished development of the CSBCS (Carrier sequence Bar Code Sorter) for the U.S. Postal system. The purpose of the machine is to sort the mail in sequence to the carriers route so that he/she does not have to sort the mail by hand. The Plus 4 is a persons exact mailing address and in theory this is all you need to address a piece of mail. If the plus 4 is not added to the town zip code then the piece needs to be processed by another person who adds the plus 4 or the carrier has to sort the piece by hand. The machine is rather complicated, it is around 18 feet long has 3 computers, high speed optical code readers, various belts, gates etc. After the mail has been processed through the DBCS which sorts mail to the town, it is then processed through the CSBCS. The CSBCS was originally put into mid to larger post offices but over the years most of the machines have been moved to the major processing centers in big cities. The mail is all mixed up when it goes into the CSBCS but is all from the same town. It is run 3 times thru the CSBCS and after the 3 run it is all sequenced to the carriers routes of that P.O. When I started on the project I went to Endicott NY to train and work out bugs on the machines. After that I was deployed in the field with many other teams across the U.S. I was in charge of a team of 6 or 7 others and assembled the machines, worked out the bugs and ran them through extensive testing by USPS and then training Postal employees on how to run them. I made installations in 57 P.O.'s all over the country completing the very last installation in the fall of 1997. So if you do not add the plus4 it slows down the process, costs the P.O. money and is likely to take your mail another day or so to be received.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 12 Feb 2016 04:27:20pm
re: Using ZIP +4
Note: ZipPlus4 is also used for P.O. boxes. These are usually the easiest to figure out.
If your box # is say 356 the +4 would be 0356. I can't recall how the larger numbers
are figured but this works for the majority of boxes.
"... The purpose of the machine is to sort the mail in sequence to the carriers route so that he/she does not have to sort the mail by hand. The Plus 4 is a persons exact mailing address ..."
This is not exactly true.
Zip+4 is specific down to a segment of a carrier's route, but it is not the final delivery sequence.
For example, several adjacent houses on the same block will have the same Zip+4, and their mail will still be sorted by the carrier before delivery.
What Zip+4 eliminates are the banks of clerks, in each zip code, whose job it was to sort the mail by route number.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
Login to Like this post
"I collect stamps today precisely the way I collected stamps when I was ten years old."
Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 13 Feb 2016 04:17:44am
re: Using ZIP +4
"...The problem I have with zip+4 is what if you put the wrong 4, say transpose the digits?..."
The same thing that happens when any other transposition or mistake is made.
I recently sent an envelope to one of my daughters. She had just moved to a three bedroom Townhouse from a smaller unit, distance 200 feet, closer to the swimming pool
I put the new address but used the old Zip+four.
Result: Two weeks later the envelope was returned to me as undeliverable.
The mistake only involved the last two digits and both mail boxes are in the same community cluster.
In fact both boxes are under the same awning, eight feet apart, but in different banks.
The stamps were cancelled, more or less lightly, so I found something with the new address and correct Zip+four that I taped over the initial address. I must have converted the binary to a black marker line and off it went and amazingly it got delivered within three days.
Mistakes happen and neither of us is immune. However I send five to seven small envelopes a week to members, my children and their children as well as letters to friends, and that is the first time I made a mistake that I knew/know of with Zip+four.
I did send a payment to someone who had moved and not changed his address in the club. That took about three weeks to resolve itself.
Login to Like this post
".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
Not a Zip +4 (we only have those on our mailing list where the person provided it) but a "Return To Sender" issue... I did the 1400 postcard mailing on January 11th and the returns are still trickling back to me! Getting one or two nearly every day.
It seems that the ones that "forwarding time expired" and gave me the new address, all came back in a few days. The ones I'm getting now are just "Not Deliverable As Addressed"
I had been corresponding with a gentleman who refuses to use the zip code. He even has a sticker printed up with some DMM lingo saying he does not have to use the zip code. I never heard of this before. Any one else know anything about it?
I'm not sure if there is a legal requirement to use zip codes or not. Somehow I don't think so. But, I know that it sometimes takes weeks and weeks to receive mail without one.
He's probably just a Dirty Rotten Scoundrel that doesn't like to conform to society, or even told what to do. I used to get mail from a bookseller in Mississippi that always had "Confederate States of America", both after his Mississippi and my Florida addresses. I never had a problem receiving his mail, or he mine, as far as I know.
Mike
Login to Like this post
"It's been three years now, since I joined a support group for procrastinators. We haven't met yet..."
"... Wonder why he would refuse to use a zip code. Has he said? ..."
Has anyone told him that the bar codes on his incoming mail contain a zip code applied by Big Brother, or that all of his outbound mail has a zip-code-laden bar code applied by Big Brother, or that Real Freedom Fighters use FedEx?
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
Login to Like this post
"I collect stamps today precisely the way I collected stamps when I was ten years old."
Please Note: Postings that were loaded from the old Discussion Board cannot be edited.