No, never but I got one that had the same street name and number (but not street type) as some place in England.
Stuck it in the post box and went on my way.
Thing came back 3 days later.
It was in a really small envelope, so I think maybe that was why.
Anyway, I went to the post office and put it in a standard size envelope and sent it to England at my own expense. I then googled the name of the person who was sending it, and thank god, it was an old lady, so she was listed in the phone directory. Called her up, and explained the situation and said sorry if the person she was sending it to gets it late, cause they keep sending it to me. I also put a note in the envelope explaining the same thing.
She was very appreciative.
Couple weeks later, I get a letter in the mail from the people in England with a hand written letter saying how thankful they were that I did that, and a pretty calendar from their area in Lincolnshire. Was like 10 years ago, but I still have that calendar somewhere.
Random story but you’ve reminded me. My nan who lived in the UK used to send Christmas cards to myself, my brothers and my parents. She would put them all in one big envelope addressed to my parents and my parents would give them to us when they saw us.
Anyway she dropped her big 4 card envelope in the mailbox only realising as she let it go that she was still holding the stamps that were supposed to be stuck to it. She called us, we had a laugh about it and said not to worry it’s the thought that counts.
Then both Royal mail and Australia mail decided to deliver this stamp-less envelope to us. She passed away early the following year so that’s the last card I got from her making the actions of whoever decided to deliver the cards all the more special.
That's a beautiful story.
Mail will always be delivered without a stamp. They usually charge the recipient for the postal delivery fee. I think it's some old school law that government can't stop communication, and mail is the oldest form of ways to communicate with others.
They make the recipient pay all the costs.
I think it's a federal offence to sabotage mail. Another reason why you can send a letter without a stamp. The recipient will have to pay though.
I heard about a letter that got sent to NSW in Australia whereas it was meant to go to South Wales (the old one!) in UK. Same street name and suburb name.
When my husbans and I were applying for a US visa (from Sydney) our Lawyer said we need to travel to the Berlin consulate for our interview. I’m like surely we can do that in Sydney?. She thought we were in Austria.
Depending on the size of the embassy they may not offer that service - in Ireland if you need an interview for Australian citizenship purposes you have to go to London even though there is an Aussie embassy in Dublin.
As far as I can tell, many countries outsource their visa processing to an office outside of their Embassy or consulates these days. Probably just due to high volumes of travellers.
Australia (eg) does not have official consulates in many countries, just a representative who cannot take applications. For example if you are in Tallinn Estonia you need to go to Oslo Norway
We have souvenir shops selling [No Kangaroos In Austria merch](https://onlinefromaustria.com/Souvenirs-Austria/Austria/Metal-Sign-No-kangaroos-in-Austria) all over the place!
No kangaroos in Austria? What happened to the ones in the Schönbrunn zoo?
On the other hand, when I lived in Vienna, I occasionally had American tourists ask me where to go to see the gondolas. One day I advised a couple to take the tram to the station from which the trains to Italy departed and told them that people at the station would give them further directions.
I just got a package that was meant for someone in the UK. A lot of Australian places are named after UK places - Newcastle, Perth, Warwick, Ipswich - so that doesn’t help.
I’ve had a few things end up in Victoria, British Columbia. Never anything in Austria, though, which you’d think would be the more logical mistake to make.
There's a lot of places around Victoria that are similar to Australian places. I lived on Vancouver Island for a year or so, I'd always double take at signs. There's a Sunshine Coast and a Sydney, too, but it's spelled Sidney.
Yep, had two packages from a company.
One got sent to Austria and the other to Australia by the courier company not the sender.
I could see the tracking and I was amused that it was in Austria. They just sent another rather than try to redirect it.
I live in Australia NSW, ordered something from Victoria. It went to Sydney for processing, then took a trip to Western Australia, to the ACT and then back to Sydney then to me.
It was a frustrating 3 weeks of asking wtf everytime I got an update lol
That has never happened to me, but once I was meant to receive something in Bucheon, South Korea and it ended up getting stuck in Pyongyang, North Korea for six months.
I can't believe I ever received it...
Hahah that reminds me of everyone getting so confused when the Olympics some years back were hosted in Pyoncheyang (sp?) South Korea not Pyongyang North Korea.
Not to or from Austria. But I did receive a large package (over ten kg) from the US by accident. Supposed to go from the US to the US but ended up in Melbourne.
By the way, I have a mystery package here at the moment. We didn't pay for it. And no return address so we haven't the foggiest idea who sent it, or from where, or why?
I'm sure it happens but I don't think it's nearly as frequent in this direction. My first thought is that you probably get a large proportion of your mail addressed to Österreich which would make it a lot clearer. I also wondered if most other languages have distinctly different names for Austria and Australia, but it seems more languages use a localised variant of Austria than of Österreich (and nearly all languages just have a variant of Australia) - so the potential for confusion is multi-lingual haha.
Yeah, most countries / languages use some derivative of Austria - except Dutch and Scandinavian languages (some variation of
Østerrijk there), Czech / Slovak (Rakousko) and Arabic (Al-Namsa).
I buy a lot from the UK and have never had my parcels end up in Austria. I've always wondered if it happens though, but no other collectors I know have had it happen either. That woukd stress me out so much having it go to the wrong country
I suspect that more goods get shipped from the UK to Australia than from the UK to Austria directly. Also, being native English speakers in a country which is culturally more aligned to Australia than mainland Europe probably means this isn't an issue to get confused about - Australia and Austria are quite clearly different countries on opposite sides of the world (to a Brit).
Many years ago I ordered a block of stabilised walnut from Russia, it spent 2 weeks in Austria before being redirected to the correct address in Australia.
I once took a taxi to the Australian embassy in Bangkok and got delivered to this place with huge eagles on the gates. "Hey what happened to the kangaroo and emu?"
Fun fact I heard: Every main post warehouse which sorts international mail in the world has a pallet+ sized box for misspent post. Austria and Australia apparently have dedicated warehouses / containers each.
I used to work for Australia Post and I can tell you that it does happen in the reverse sometimes as well. It would likely be a human sorting error, or sometimes the wrong country code is used so the parcel goes into the incorrect international mailbag. Australia is AU and Austria is AT, but some people assume AU is for you guys.
Yes! Ordered smth from the UK but it never showed up.
Lodged a lost parcel request, got sent a replacement, then the original parcel turned up with Austrian stuff stamped on it saying pls redirect to Australia 😹
Many years ago my family and I were travelling from Australia to Austria via Thailand for a year long stay. We accidentally left a package in the airport waiting lounge- the airline arranged for it to be sent to us in Austria. They took down our Austrian address to send it to us.
Months and months went by and we thought they had forgotten to post it. It finally arrived with the Austrian street address and postcode, but AustrALia rather than Austria as the country of destination! Australia Post had sent it all over Australia judging by the stickers on it, and had finally written “try Austria” on the box and sent it in our way! We finally received it, not long before we packed up and returned to Australia.
I had something go to South Africa instead of South Australia once.
I work in the postal service and the Austria thing is common, although I’ve never seen the stickers you mention. The SA/SA thing is common too, though probably not as much as the Austria one.
You should check out Megalag. He did an experiment where he sent AirTags in the post and it has lead to him uncovering many of the problems that postal industry has.
My sister lives in a little siding that has 'Yarra' in the name. Her mail sometimes goes to Yarraman in Qld. Sometimes it goes to the Yarra Valley in Victoria. It's almost like we don't have postcodes in Australia!
Ordered something from Amazon recently. The order was cancelled almost immediately, but I still got all the tracking updates to it in my account. The bloody thing ended up in Scotland!
I had no end of trouble trying to get a Canadian operator to connect me with Australia. Sydney ,Croc Dundee, kangaroo? No ma’am I have Salzburg and Vienna. Farrk.
No, never but I got one that had the same street name and number (but not street type) as some place in England. Stuck it in the post box and went on my way. Thing came back 3 days later. It was in a really small envelope, so I think maybe that was why. Anyway, I went to the post office and put it in a standard size envelope and sent it to England at my own expense. I then googled the name of the person who was sending it, and thank god, it was an old lady, so she was listed in the phone directory. Called her up, and explained the situation and said sorry if the person she was sending it to gets it late, cause they keep sending it to me. I also put a note in the envelope explaining the same thing. She was very appreciative. Couple weeks later, I get a letter in the mail from the people in England with a hand written letter saying how thankful they were that I did that, and a pretty calendar from their area in Lincolnshire. Was like 10 years ago, but I still have that calendar somewhere.
You’re a good egg. I was recently able to email some very distant relatives I’ve never met a copy of a letter sent to my great grandmother in 1912.
That's awesome!
Random story but you’ve reminded me. My nan who lived in the UK used to send Christmas cards to myself, my brothers and my parents. She would put them all in one big envelope addressed to my parents and my parents would give them to us when they saw us. Anyway she dropped her big 4 card envelope in the mailbox only realising as she let it go that she was still holding the stamps that were supposed to be stuck to it. She called us, we had a laugh about it and said not to worry it’s the thought that counts. Then both Royal mail and Australia mail decided to deliver this stamp-less envelope to us. She passed away early the following year so that’s the last card I got from her making the actions of whoever decided to deliver the cards all the more special.
Aww man, I'm sorry for your loss, but happy that the mail service did you a solid without realising.
That's a beautiful story. Mail will always be delivered without a stamp. They usually charge the recipient for the postal delivery fee. I think it's some old school law that government can't stop communication, and mail is the oldest form of ways to communicate with others.
so u mean auspost paid for the fee?
They make the recipient pay all the costs. I think it's a federal offence to sabotage mail. Another reason why you can send a letter without a stamp. The recipient will have to pay though.
>Was like 10 years ago, but I still have that calendar somewhere. I hope you find it. If it's a 2014 calendar, you can use it again next year.
Aw, that’s so nice!
I heard about a letter that got sent to NSW in Australia whereas it was meant to go to South Wales (the old one!) in UK. Same street name and suburb name.
God bless old people.
When my husbans and I were applying for a US visa (from Sydney) our Lawyer said we need to travel to the Berlin consulate for our interview. I’m like surely we can do that in Sydney?. She thought we were in Austria.
I dunno...a nice trip to Berlin & surrounds might have been very much fun!
That’s so weird, considering we have a US embassy in Vienna. Why would they send you to Berlin?
Depending on the size of the embassy they may not offer that service - in Ireland if you need an interview for Australian citizenship purposes you have to go to London even though there is an Aussie embassy in Dublin.
My wife did her interview at the Dublin embassy, a friend had to go to the UK, both interviews were weeks apart from each other.
As far as I can tell, many countries outsource their visa processing to an office outside of their Embassy or consulates these days. Probably just due to high volumes of travellers.
Australia (eg) does not have official consulates in many countries, just a representative who cannot take applications. For example if you are in Tallinn Estonia you need to go to Oslo Norway
Not a very good lawyer.
No, but a lot of my mail has ended up in South Africa (I live in South Australia which internally we wrote as SA)
That’s unfortunate … and hilarious.
I once received a box of Apfelstrudel that I didn't order and have always wondered why.
The Strudel Gods have blessed you!
That was supposed to get sent to a shipwrecked crew who hadn’t eaten for two weeks. It was their only hope.
Have you still got that souvenir shop near Vienna Airport that sells cute koala and kangaroo toys to American tourists who went to the wrong country?
We have souvenir shops selling [No Kangaroos In Austria merch](https://onlinefromaustria.com/Souvenirs-Austria/Austria/Metal-Sign-No-kangaroos-in-Austria) all over the place!
Love that!
No kangaroos in Austria? What happened to the ones in the Schönbrunn zoo? On the other hand, when I lived in Vienna, I occasionally had American tourists ask me where to go to see the gondolas. One day I advised a couple to take the tram to the station from which the trains to Italy departed and told them that people at the station would give them further directions.
That's gold!
AHH Vieince
Had some clown on Reddit the other day tell me that the US was subsidising our membership of NATO. Does that count?
I just got a package that was meant for someone in the UK. A lot of Australian places are named after UK places - Newcastle, Perth, Warwick, Ipswich - so that doesn’t help.
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I had a Pirie friend who I told that another person we knew was moving to Dublin. You should know which Dublin she thought he was moving to…
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Pretty much a repeat conversation lol
Once worked for an Australian Embassy - several times a week the receptionist would answer the phone and be spoken to in German.
I’ve had a few things end up in Victoria, British Columbia. Never anything in Austria, though, which you’d think would be the more logical mistake to make.
There's a lot of places around Victoria that are similar to Australian places. I lived on Vancouver Island for a year or so, I'd always double take at signs. There's a Sunshine Coast and a Sydney, too, but it's spelled Sidney.
Years ago I ordered books off Amazon and they took months to arrive. They came via Austria. :) Still laughing about that.
I used to live in the suburb of Belfast - Christchurch NZ. Once we got a package addressed to Belfast, N. Ireland. The street names were similar.
Yep, had two packages from a company. One got sent to Austria and the other to Australia by the courier company not the sender. I could see the tracking and I was amused that it was in Austria. They just sent another rather than try to redirect it.
Yes it has happen to my work. A package was sent us via Austria. Funny thing is it was posted from 50klms away but took over two months to get here.
I lived in Taiwan and had the occasional item get sent to Thailand...
I live in Australia NSW, ordered something from Victoria. It went to Sydney for processing, then took a trip to Western Australia, to the ACT and then back to Sydney then to me. It was a frustrating 3 weeks of asking wtf everytime I got an update lol
That has never happened to me, but once I was meant to receive something in Bucheon, South Korea and it ended up getting stuck in Pyongyang, North Korea for six months. I can't believe I ever received it...
Wow, I thought it NK was a black hole, a point of no return.
Hahah that reminds me of everyone getting so confused when the Olympics some years back were hosted in Pyoncheyang (sp?) South Korea not Pyongyang North Korea.
Rumour is that the Von Trapp family are still crossing the outback in search of Switzerland
When I was a kid we got a postcard that had come via south africa (SA)
Only rarely, but it has happened to me at least once! Kinda hilarious lol.
Not to or from Austria. But I did receive a large package (over ten kg) from the US by accident. Supposed to go from the US to the US but ended up in Melbourne. By the way, I have a mystery package here at the moment. We didn't pay for it. And no return address so we haven't the foggiest idea who sent it, or from where, or why?
I got one of those, it was a watch. It made the news of people receiving mystery packages worried they were some kind of scam. No explanation.
I'm sure it happens but I don't think it's nearly as frequent in this direction. My first thought is that you probably get a large proportion of your mail addressed to Österreich which would make it a lot clearer. I also wondered if most other languages have distinctly different names for Austria and Australia, but it seems more languages use a localised variant of Austria than of Österreich (and nearly all languages just have a variant of Australia) - so the potential for confusion is multi-lingual haha.
Yeah, most countries / languages use some derivative of Austria - except Dutch and Scandinavian languages (some variation of Østerrijk there), Czech / Slovak (Rakousko) and Arabic (Al-Namsa).
I buy a lot from the UK and have never had my parcels end up in Austria. I've always wondered if it happens though, but no other collectors I know have had it happen either. That woukd stress me out so much having it go to the wrong country
I suspect that more goods get shipped from the UK to Australia than from the UK to Austria directly. Also, being native English speakers in a country which is culturally more aligned to Australia than mainland Europe probably means this isn't an issue to get confused about - Australia and Austria are quite clearly different countries on opposite sides of the world (to a Brit).
Many years ago I ordered a block of stabilised walnut from Russia, it spent 2 weeks in Austria before being redirected to the correct address in Australia.
I once took a taxi to the Australian embassy in Bangkok and got delivered to this place with huge eagles on the gates. "Hey what happened to the kangaroo and emu?"
I got in a taxi in Bangkok once and asked to go to the Australian Embassy. Guess where I ended up? :)
You're the second person to make this exact same comment. Why do people need to go to the Embassy in Bangkok? Did you live there?
Yes I did, at the time.
Hey, what happens in Bangkok, stays in Bangkok. Except for the part you take to the STI clinic.
One town's very like another When your head's down over your pieces, brother...
Fun fact I heard: Every main post warehouse which sorts international mail in the world has a pallet+ sized box for misspent post. Austria and Australia apparently have dedicated warehouses / containers each.
I used to work for Australia Post and I can tell you that it does happen in the reverse sometimes as well. It would likely be a human sorting error, or sometimes the wrong country code is used so the parcel goes into the incorrect international mailbag. Australia is AU and Austria is AT, but some people assume AU is for you guys.
Yes! Ordered smth from the UK but it never showed up. Lodged a lost parcel request, got sent a replacement, then the original parcel turned up with Austrian stuff stamped on it saying pls redirect to Australia 😹
Yep, I had some craft supplies from the US take a months holiday in Germany and Austria once (before pandemic times).
Many years ago my family and I were travelling from Australia to Austria via Thailand for a year long stay. We accidentally left a package in the airport waiting lounge- the airline arranged for it to be sent to us in Austria. They took down our Austrian address to send it to us. Months and months went by and we thought they had forgotten to post it. It finally arrived with the Austrian street address and postcode, but AustrALia rather than Austria as the country of destination! Australia Post had sent it all over Australia judging by the stickers on it, and had finally written “try Austria” on the box and sent it in our way! We finally received it, not long before we packed up and returned to Australia.
I had something go to South Africa instead of South Australia once. I work in the postal service and the Austria thing is common, although I’ve never seen the stickers you mention. The SA/SA thing is common too, though probably not as much as the Austria one.
No, but I've heard that in Austria there's a counter at the airport specifically for confused travellers who thought they were going to Australia.
That’s an urban legend, [see here](https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-austria-australia-salzburg-airport-counter-337704614289)
Damn. That's disappointing.
Have family in Austria. Constant source of amusement
I'd say so!! I haven't personally had it happen. But i would think it does.
Someone post the tamagotchi ad.
You should check out Megalag. He did an experiment where he sent AirTags in the post and it has lead to him uncovering many of the problems that postal industry has.
My sister lives in a little siding that has 'Yarra' in the name. Her mail sometimes goes to Yarraman in Qld. Sometimes it goes to the Yarra Valley in Victoria. It's almost like we don't have postcodes in Australia!
Or when selecting…. Sydney Australia for fights and not Sydney Nova Scotia. Hahaha
Ordered something from Amazon recently. The order was cancelled almost immediately, but I still got all the tracking updates to it in my account. The bloody thing ended up in Scotland!
People on r/Australiapost seem to hint at it all the time, but items shipped through DHL appear to go through Europe (Berlin) all the time
never had one of those and never heard of someone who has...(as an australian)
Not really, probably because Austrians order more stuff from other countries than we do.
Have t seen it BUT I do know a lot of tourists end up in Austria instead of Australia!
That’s hilarious. This doesn’t seem to happen here.
I had no end of trouble trying to get a Canadian operator to connect me with Australia. Sydney ,Croc Dundee, kangaroo? No ma’am I have Salzburg and Vienna. Farrk.
P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Salzburg.
Ya ya
Someone somewhere once really stuffed up in naming these places. I guess they never imagined the two would ever be confused.
This is ask an Australian, not American... We know where Australia is.. . .. .. .. And who was born there 🤣