There are a couple of members on this thread that received 2nd copies, i'm sure they wouldn't mind posting their spare copies to Europe, it would only cost a few £, perhaps message them and ask
IF there are any non-USA members who did receive duplicate copies of PW#31, please send me a message, a PM preferable. Just click my name on the left and you'll get my official club email. We may ask you to post these out and reimburse you as needed.For the time being, we'll take care of the two members in Spain today. I just created the international shipping and customs labels, and JonnyB will get these out today. I should note that when processing these today, it tells me that First Class Mail to Spain is up to 4x longer to arrive than to say, Germany or France or other European countries...and based on all the ExPat information, I think
Correos may be the hold up? Both Alpina and debel56 received tracking information so they can find out where their magazines are once they leave the USA.
As our Admin Peter has alluded to, and I've been saying all along,
it is quite important that all members check their address according to local rules. For USA members, our printer does this automatically by placing the address list through a US Postal Service certification program which standardizes and corrects addresses. However it cannot correct errors such as a transposed house number, or something like that. We cannot do ANY checking on non-USA addresses. For all members, no postal service can place a mailbox at your home either. As editor JonnyB and I have been working through these issues, we have had returned Pagoda World magazines from members with incomplete addresses, incorrect addresses, along with "no mail receptacle". Sometimes when trying to contact the member, we don't get a reply. We have been assiduous in trying to get these situations corrected on a one by one basis as they occur. But it would be so much better if everyone, particularly those outside the USA, would use their local postal system's online service to verify their exact mailing address and format. I only use this as an example, but if you live in a small village in England and everyone knows that your home is "Flower Cottage, Whimsey Lane" Royal Mail instead may have it as 13 Whimsey Lane. It may have been a home built hundreds of years ago, and for which mail has been delivered without issue for decades--but the rules have changed. As all mail--first class letters to large packages--that cross international borders must clear customs, some jurisdictions require that the addressee's name conform to their legal name on government issued identification in case the item is held up in Customs. I don't make this stuff up. For all I know, the two magazines posted twice to Spain are still in their customs office somewhere awaiting clearance. No way to know.
Postal services the world over since Covid have tightened up so many things. What was normal 3 years ago is no longer normal.
While maybe just 10-15 magazines are returned to us, it is taking an enormous amount of time (not to mention club funds, at 3x the original cost) to sort out these issues.
