Printing the Russian Language problem

[winner188]

I printed my shipping label for Russia but the buyers address is just upside down question marks and other unrecognizable letters. When I created the label the address was in the correct Russian Language do.

I am not experiencing any other problems with other labels.

This is my first time creating a Russian shipping label.

Thanks in advance

Bill

[momcqueen]

Assuming you're using Shippo? Can you save it as a PDF first and then print the PDF? Unless you have a Russian typeface font installed on your computer, you won't be able to straight print your label like lettermail from ebay. At least, I don't think so from what I know about typefaces.

[winner188]

Thanks, yes I am using Shippo but the PDF also shows the incorrect typefaces.

[momcqueen]

I then suspect it's a Shippo problem. Try their Customer Support, it's usually very punctual.

[winner188]

Thank you

[momcqueen]

If you don't hear back quickly enough or if you do and they just can't offer any real fix in time, try Snap Ship via Canada Post. It may work better if you copy and paste all that yourself.

Actually, maybe try to edit the buyer address yourself with Shippo too, copying and pasting directly from the eBay Sales Record.

[winner188]

Thanks for your help, I'll give it a try.

[rose-dee]

I wouldn't be surprised if Shippo isn't up to speed in Cyrillic language programming for their Canada Post label services. 

Phone them and see what they say.  If they can't fix the problem and get your label properly printed, ask for a refund and use Paypal to do your Canada Post label or go to the Canada Post site itself.  I've created Russian labels in Paypal and there was no problem.

The other option, if Shippo can't fix this and refunds you, is to simply print out the buyer's address as it stands on eBay (or better still, as on Paypal) onto blank paper, stick it on your parcel and head for the nearest post office. 

If you want to check that the Russian address isn't nonsense or garbled, etc., send me a PM with a screen shot of the address and I might be able to help (I used to speak/read Russian, but it's rusty Russian these days). 

[winner188]

Thank you for your help. I've converted the address (Russian) to English using an online language translator.
The address looks legit.

Is it ok to use the converted to English address, will the Russian post office accept this.

Bill

[femmefan1946]

Yes English and roman letters are accepted under the terms of he Universal Postal Union.

[cumos55]

Go to the sales record page for this transaction 

Transfer the buyer's information with respect to address to the small box to the right ... the buyer's address box.

Lift a copy of this information and transfer the address  to a "word" document., or similar document preparation tool

Increase the font size ... print this address and then  place this address on the parcel..

Then compare this printed address to the original address on the sales record page.

Also ... At the end of the address place...Russian Federation...  Very few people from here in Canada to Russian will understand the Russian language

--------------------------------------

It was many years ago that I did this  with an address to Hong Kong.... In this situation the parcel had both the Chinese and English

addresses.

[cumos55]

The cyrillic alphabet... used with Ukrainian and Russian ... is not foreign to me .

Like every  person who lived in the north end of Winnipeg, and had  Ukrainian ancestry, my parents sent me to Ukrainian school.

It does help today  because I have sold books in Ukrainian  as well as Russian.

 My reading language is Ukrainian... but Russian is close mainly because of the cyrillicr alphabet.... A dictionay kelps with Russian.

But I never confuse Russian with Ukrainian,,,  the same word can have different meanings in the two language...  as I found out one day a few years ago.  

That was when I found out that a book about Taras Shevchenko, a Ukrainian poet,  was published in Russian  and not Ukrainian.  Shevchenko lived for several years in Russia.

[winner188]

Thank you for your assistance.

[winner188]

Here is the response I received from Shippo customer service -

In the Shippo dashboard, the use of Russian characters is not supported; unfortunately, most major carriers like Canada Post don't support the use of foreign characters. If possible, reach out to your customer and ask for the address in Latin characters and it should be ready to ship with Canada Post.

[momcqueen]

Hmmm. I don't doubt that's what they told you but that doesn't correspond with my own Canada Post label experience.

[femmefan1946]

It's a UPU language.

In effect Canada Post has agreed to 'support' the use of Cyrillic.

Languages

French is the official language of the UPU. English was added as a working language in 1994. The majority of the UPU's documents and publications – including its flagship magazine, Union Postale - are available in the United Nations official languages:

• Arabic
• Chinese
• English
• French
• Russian
• Spanish
• Portuguese

http://www.upu.int/en/the-upu/languages.html

I'm actually a little surprised because I though Sanskrit was also accepted. Certainly I've seen philatelic covers addressed in Sanskrit . and Japanese come to think of it.

[winner188]

I was disappointed with the response from Shippo.

[pjcdn2005]

I would be too. I've sent a few items overseas with the address in another language and just made sure that the country was in English. Canada Post didn't seem to have a problem with that.  I honestly can't remember though if I printed those labels through Paypal or how I did them.

[momcqueen]

I sent a parcel to Singapore this summer with Chinese characters as the buyer's name and it printed fine with Snap Ship. 

[zee-chan]

Personally I would also just hand write the buyer's address on the box / envelope as well so that the postie in Russia can read it.