Calling for help : Indonesian Post Barcode Sticker

[catchycat]

Rainy greetings fellow forum members, the sky is as dull as Indonesian postal service with barcode issue

LPU barcode sticker and the NEW LC barcode sticker have been irritating issue for both Indonesian postcrossers and international postcrossers that have received cards from Indonesia

Here are few examples :

Courtesy of @postcrossingbali & @dj

I’m sure those who have Indonesian card might have the barcode on their cards

Unlike USPS sticker that’s easy to peel off, these LPU stickers are nasty enough to peel and they’re often put on weird places. On the stamps, in the center of the card’s picture & even covering the ID numbers etc

Fellow Indonesian postcrossers have been trying to seek improvement from our postal service for quite a long time by asking postal workers not to put them in weird places, making the sticker smaller into QR code and changing the type of sticker that’s easy to peel off. However our complaints still have 0 results

This is why, I am wondering if any of forum members had experience with our annoying Indonesian LPU stickers.

If you have, we need your help by :

• Posting on this thread with pictures of your Indonesian cards that got LPU barcode and write complain
• or if you have social media like Instagram you could directly send DM to Pos Indonesia IG account here

With international complaints, I hope our postal service will take this issue more seriously , the complaints gathered can be forwarded to higher ups in POS Indonesia

On the side note, if anyone draws an Indonesian address from official site or sending to Indonesia forum activities, doing this will help your card saved from LPU barcode

( I know this is an extra effort ) picture above from @dj , I hope Indonesian postcrossers will protect their outgoing cards as well like that
Or you can simply put empty space around 6x2 cm for the label with hope that our postal service will put the label there, no guarantee tho

Thank you everyone who are willing to help us in this 'fight’

P.S : I wonder if there are other postal service other than Pos Indonesia that have this same issue

cc : @IndonesiaRaya & @medyloe

[RalfH]

The Lithuanian Post uses the same kind of stickers and some postal workers here in Germany kept that for a registered mail sticker, so they added another registered mal sticker and I had to walk to the post office to fetch the cards.

[Larch]

@catchycat

doing this will help your card saved from LPU barcode

or leave a blank space (at least 5x2cm or 2x1") on the backside / writing side of your postcard.

[catchycat]

Oh true! I’ve received a card from Lithuania with similar barcode, but their barcode is smaller and put in a polite space. Unfortunately many of Indonesian barcodes are put in impolite places

[S_Tuulia]

I recently had one little like that under my address, covering part of it.
Finnish post added it

(The address was partly written on that label.)

[mdmsamm]

So are you saying we should place all cards in envelopes? It certainly is not a pretty sight is it?

[RalfH]

I hope I’ll remind this thread when I have to write a card to Indonesia and leave some space for those ugly stickers.

[catchycat]

Oh no, I think most of us love written and stamped card. I gave suggestions to leave an empty space for the barcode, or cover the picture of the card with paper so the nasty hard to peel Indonesian barcode can be put there. If someone is going to send their cards to Indonesia

[catchycat]

If you ever received card from Indonesia with this hard to peel off barcode, you can complain here and I could use it as proof that international postcrossers hate it as well

[mdmsamm]

Ok I get it….it is early and I am only having first coffee…lol

[meiadeleite]

Here’s a small sample of mail we received recently from Indonesia:

“Oh… you wanted to enjoy this scenic view from Bandung or what is written on the postcard’s front? Well tough luck — here’s a non-removable sticker instead.”

Why would they do this to the postcard images?! It’s like Pos Indonesia doesn’t care about postcards, and just treats all mail as if traveling in envelopes. It makes me really sad.

The only time I’ve seen a carefully put sticker is this postcard, in which a postcrosser carefully drew a dedicated place for it:

[dj]

The barcode sticker is truly annoying. I’ll try my best by adding extra paper to cover the postcard. Also, I called the postoffice call center few days ago to complain about it. Unfortunately, they seems like not taking this issue seriously.

[snailmailkait]

Have you tried putting postcards in a plastic sleeve? I have had issues with my post office here in the US, where they will put the cancellation for the stamp on the front of the card, and not actually cancel the stamps. Super weird! When I use the plastic sleeve I cut a small square out where it sits over the stamps on the postcard, that way they are cancelled correctly. The sleeve might help the issue with the stickers!

[curry-king]

@snailmailkait

The sleeve might help the issue with the stickers!

…and helps the flood of plastic waste grow even faster.

[snailmailkait]

Not necessarily. All the ones I have used are recycled. Usually when I get an item that has a plastic sleeve on it, I put the sleeve to the side in a drawer in my desk and save it for when I need to use it. I usually have 5-10 on hand at a time, I even reuse the ones that people have used for the cards they have sent me!

[catchycat]

@snailmailkait

When I use the plastic sleeve I cut a small square out where it sits over the stamps on the postcard, that way they are cancelled correctly.

Yep. Some Indonesian postcrossers opt for this option and it works well (while plastic isn’t earth friendly), that’s why the washi tape with piece of paper sounds better to cover the card’s image.

However in few cases, the postal worker opens the plastic sleeve, put the barcode sticker on the card and put the card back in the plastic

Like we don’t know why!?

[anon7793644]

PostNL has its moments as well.
They seem to have a preference for putting an agressive sticker on beautiful stamps.
Sadly I can not post proof here for privacy reasons, but I get your annoyance !

Good luck everybody with this battle !!!

[Classic]

This has only happened to me the once because it is so rare that i’ll get a postcard from Indonesia, and I had no idea what it was at first. I thought it’d been stuck on by accident or picked up form another parcel. The sender of this postcard even had a large clear space (marked “place LPU here”) and it was ignored. This was such a visually stunning postcard as well.

[June060310]

I am so sorry to see those damaged postcards… China Post also put barcodes on mails, but thankfully only domestic mails will experience this. My friends usually put a sticky note or draw a square (Totally the same solution as people in Indonesia came up with!)on the back of the postcards. And China Post also purposely or accidentally ignore these efforts… The situation I’ve seen include “tape the sticky note on the postcard with the barcode”, “put the barcode on the front of the postcard” and “miss the square perfectly”.
I will send a message to Pos Indonesia. I hope it could help.

[catchycat]

Indonesian postcrossers and some postal workers aren’t sure about the function of the barcode as well @Classic . I thought at first before I never got it, it was used if someone didn’t pay enough postage or it was barcode for R mail . Thank you for the complaint

I see so it’s just not Pos Indonesia thing @June060310 . I hope China post used better sticker that’s easy to peel and doesn’t tear the postcard with it when it’s being peeled off. Now I understand why some people prefer their card to be sent in envelope , some people are okay with travel scars, but barcode doesn’t sound like it . Thank you for your effort for writing to Pos Indonesia. I hope they’ll respond you

Reading local postcrosser group chat, it seems like the complaints have been noticed by the higher ups and there will be better action about this. But we don’t know yet what will happen in the field