Address format from US to UK?

Soldato
Joined
17 Aug 2009
Posts
17,790
Location
Finchley, London
Someone I've come to know over a few months from a baking forum has been helping and basically teaching me stuff, as baking has become a hobby of mine. The person lives in California. She's very kindly offered to send me, for free, a particular baking tin and some american cake flour, both of which are hard to find here. She insists I don't buy a tin as she has plenty not being used. But of course it's going to cost her a fair bit in postage which kind of makes me feel a little uneasy. Do you think I should offer to reimburse her postage costs, is that the right thing to do or should I just accept her kind offer? I suspect she would refuse to accept my reimbursement offer but maybe I should at least offer.

Secondly, and no doubt a bit of a silly question :p, what would be the best format to give someone in the US for my london address to make sure it definitely gets here?

According to Google ' The USPS prefers that all mail to England, Scotland, or Wales be addressed with GREAT BRITAIN. Northern Ireland should be addressed as NORTHERN IRELAND. (The United States Postal Service has computer systems that use UK as an abbreviation for "Ukraine".)'


What would be your preferred format of these six permutations:

London,
postcode,
GREAT BRITAIN

London,
England,
postcode,
GREAT BRITAIN

London,
postcode,
England,
GREAT BRITAIN

London,
postcode,
UNITED KINGDOM

London,
England,
postcode,
UNITED KINGDOM

London,
postcode,
England,
UNITED KINGDOM
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
17 Aug 2009
Posts
17,790
Location
Finchley, London

Wikihow:
Will my letter be delivered to England if I use UK in the address instead of United Kingdom?

Yes, UK is a well-known abbreviation for United Kingdom.


Google:

The USPS prefers that all mail to England, Scotland, or Wales be addressed with GREAT BRITAIN. Northern Ireland should be addressed as NORTHERN IRELAND. (The United States Postal Service has computer systems that use UK as an abbreviation for "Ukraine".)'
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
17 Aug 2009
Posts
17,790
Location
Finchley, London
Right, thanks chaps. I've replied to her giving the London, postcode, UNITED KINGDOM format, and saying "Thing is, this is obviously going to have a postage and packing cost for you all the way from Cali to London, an expense I wouldn't want you to have, so I would naturally be very happy to reimburse those costs."
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Feb 2009
Posts
15,910
Location
N. Ireland
Wikihow:
Will my letter be delivered to England if I use UK in the address instead of United Kingdom?

Yes, UK is a well-known abbreviation for United Kingdom.


Google:

The USPS prefers that all mail to England, Scotland, or Wales be addressed with GREAT BRITAIN. Northern Ireland should be addressed as NORTHERN IRELAND. (The United States Postal Service has computer systems that use UK as an abbreviation for "Ukraine".)'
It shows you clearly in the pics how to address the package/envelope so that there can be no confusion between UK/Ukraine.
Name,
House/building number & Street,
City/Town & Postcode
Country

USPS ‘prefers’ you not to use UK. Prefers being the important part. But if the city/town and postcode are all present and unique to the UK you’ll be golden. USPS website also offers the option to print prepaid shipping labels and claims it will correctly populate the delivery address for you. Might be worth pointing your friend down that route.
more importantly are you sharing what you bake with the rest of us!!
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
17 Aug 2009
Posts
17,790
Location
Finchley, London
She just replied

" Don’t worry about the postage. I’m happy to clear out another unused cake tin. I’ve been dumping things off onto my sister. While she appreciated it at first, she became overwhelmed. I finally said I wouldn’t bring anything more over to her house without her expressed consent!"


It shows you clearly in the pics how to address the package/envelope so that there can be no confusion between UK/Ukraine.
Name,
House/building number & Street,
City/Town & Postcode
Country

USPS ‘prefers’ you not to use UK. Prefers being the important part. But if the city/town and postcode are all present and unique to the UK you’ll be golden. USPS website also offers the option to print prepaid shipping labels and claims it will correctly populate the delivery address for you. Might be worth pointing your friend down that route.
more importantly are you sharing what you bake with the rest of us!!

Thanks matey. Oh yes, I always share slices of my homemade cakes and pastries with OCuK. :) Allow me to show off some of my creations. :p

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/33121144
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/32529512
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/33405736
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/33381260
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/32547435
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/33148633
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/32775404
 
Soldato
Joined
31 May 2009
Posts
21,257
Wikihow:
Will my letter be delivered to England if I use UK in the address instead of United Kingdom?

Yes, UK is a well-known abbreviation for United Kingdom.


Google:

The USPS prefers that all mail to England, Scotland, or Wales be addressed with GREAT BRITAIN. Northern Ireland should be addressed as NORTHERN IRELAND. (The United States Postal Service has computer systems that use UK as an abbreviation for "Ukraine".)'

The US can be pretty retarded at anything they attempt, can't they!
What an absolute bunch of ********.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Jan 2003
Posts
5,995
Location
Expat in the USA
Feel uneasy ? Perhaps return the favor. I'm sure there's some baking goods in the UK that are hard to get in the US. Tell her please allow me to return the favor. And go get her something cool from the UK.
 
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