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Writing an address with a dash instead of a slash


rideswings

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Not sure where to post this, so hopefully it will get redirected to the correct forum.

I am sending something to Thailand, and they told me to send it to this address:

525/10 on a big road in Bangkok.

When I went to mail it online, my governments postal software would not let me use a slash (/) only a dash (-).

So I sent it to 525-10

Any chance the package will ever get there? My GF keeps telling me its wrong, and Im freaking out.

Who would ever think that a dash could be so important?

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Get the postcode right and you have no problem. Thai Post gets a lot of slagging off on TV, but locally they are brilliant. My postman is a friendly chap who sometimes stops for a cig and a soft drink. When I pick up parcels from the post office, they never even look at the pink card, but go straight to the parcel. Signature, customs duty if required and all done in a couple of minutes. Parcels posted inside Thailand not requiring signature, he will leave at the in-laws, who live a lot nearer to us. Way better than Royal Mail.

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My assistant in Canada mistakenly did the same with my American Express membership guide (no card included as that was hand-delivered...)...

It never arrived. That was regular post.

Fedex and DHL has arrived.

Not sure about registered mail.

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Many narrowminded multinational companies (IHG Hotels, for example) have websites that stupidy do not allow any slashes or similar when filling an address field.

Kudos to the Thai Royal Mail, that they have nevertheless delivered virtually all parcels and letters to my address in Thailand, even though a dash was used instead of a slash, or dash/slash entirely missing.

sometimes I wonder how narrowminded and clueless international companies (Airlines, Hospitality chains and the likes) can be......

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Tip, if the character test is client side (usually it's the case when you get a warning popup without the page 'refreshing'), there might be a workaround.

You can use several tools including HTTP Tampers on Firefox (not sure of the spelling) that will allow you to edit the data sent before the leave your computer.

If the verification is ever side, that won't help.

Sorry if this is too technical for the average TV member but for the geeks out there this can be helpful.

I have been using this for many buggy forms - especially when my email address was surprisingly considered "incorrect"

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Tip, if the character test is client side (usually it's the case when you get a warning popup without the page 'refreshing'), there might be a workaround.

You can use several tools including HTTP Tampers on Firefox (not sure of the spelling) that will allow you to edit the data sent before the leave your computer.

If the verification is ever side, that won't help.

Sorry if this is too technical for the average TV member but for the geeks out there this can be helpful.

I have been using this for many buggy forms - especially when my email address was surprisingly considered "incorrect"

Yep, you've lost me there.biggrin.png

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<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

The post office and couriers have to deal with a lot worse variations of addresses. I'm sure they can cope with that.

I hope youre right.

Get the postcode right and you have no problem. Thai Post gets a lot of slagging off on TV, but locally they are brilliant. My postman is a friendly chap who sometimes stops for a cig and a soft drink. When I pick up parcels from the post office, they never even look at the pink card, but go straight to the parcel. Signature, customs duty if required and all done in a couple of minutes. Parcels posted inside Thailand not requiring signature, he will leave at the in-laws, who live a lot nearer to us. Way better than Royal Mail.

Yes the post code is right but its a high density post code.

Wouldn't that also be 525, Soi 10?

Actually its Soi 24, but she didnt even tell me to write that in the address. She just said my address is "525/10 xxxxx Road, Bangkok, Thailand 10250,

Im not sure what the -10 represents.

Im going to take Stradivarius' advice again, and have another drink. Maybe some time this century the package will arrive or get returned to me..

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Why people write software that restricts certain characters while knowing foreign addresses will be input boggles the mind. I can't tell you how many times I've run into this. Some people that write the specs for software or the software writers themselves just seem to be brain dead.

Try entering a German postcode that starts with a zero when the input field is formatted as a number, not as text xangry.png.pagespeed.ic.Cla6z9sEn6laxSyB

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Wouldn't that also be 525, Soi 10?

nope

525 is the structure number i.e. condo or building, and the slash indicates unit inside the structure

The last time I had an address with a slash, the first part was my house number and the second part was the soi. it corresponded with my soi, and the other houses on the soi had the same second number as mine but the first part went in a sequential order.

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I had pretty much the same problem with the US IRS. I entered my address with the slash, but when I wanted to retrieve how much I paid quarterly in 2014 (I lost one of the print-out forms), the IRS information retrieval site cannot handle the slash. I have tried leaving a blank space or using both a dash or hyphen, and now I am not in the system, despite my name and SSN being part of the process.

Thailand can't be the only country that uses a slash, and even if it was, how hard can it be to include a slash in the software?

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Why people write software that restricts certain characters while knowing foreign addresses will be input boggles the mind. I can't tell you how many times I've run into this. Some people that write the specs for software or the software writers themselves just seem to be brain dead.

exploits_of_a_mom.png

I realize this cartoon most likely makes no sense to you.

Only the more computer educated will enjoy that joke.

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For Bangkok you should be OK if the name of the road is somewhat decipherable and the postcode is OK.

A bit more complicated for upcountry addresses (mostly no road names, just house and settlement number).

I don't want to clutter this thread with details (has also been discussed in detail at other threads).

Edited by KhunBENQ
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Wouldn't that also be 525, Soi 10?

nope

525 is the structure number i.e. condo or building, and the slash indicates unit inside the structure

The last time I had an address with a slash, the first part was my house number and the second part was the soi. it corresponded with my soi, and the other houses on the soi had the same second number as mine but the first part went in a sequential order.

I don't think there's any consistency to the way that house numbers are assigned.

In my case every residence (private home, apartment and condo) on the soi has the first 3 digits. After the slash is a sequential number that corresponds to the order in which the residence was registered on that soi, which is why the numbers don't run sequentially when traveling along the soi.

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Wouldn't that also be 525, Soi 10?

nope

525 is the structure number i.e. condo or building, and the slash indicates unit inside the structure

The last time I had an address with a slash, the first part was my house number and the second part was the soi. it corresponded with my soi, and the other houses on the soi had the same second number as mine but the first part went in a sequential order.

I don't think there's any consistency to the way that house numbers are assigned.

In my case every residence (private home, apartment and condo) on the soi has the first 3 digits. After the slash is a sequential number that corresponds to the order in which the residence was registered on that soi, which is why the numbers don't run sequentially when traveling along the soi.

Thanks, that explains what that number means after the slash. My kneejerk reaction was going to say how insane that is, and why would they want that number anywhere but the county registry, not on a mailing address, but then I remembered that this is Thailand.

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I don't think there's any consistency to the way that house numbers are assigned.

In my case every residence (private home, apartment and condo) on the soi has the first 3 digits. After the slash is a sequential number that corresponds to the order in which the residence was registered on that soi, which is why the numbers don't run sequentially when traveling along the soi.

Thanks, that explains what that number means after the slash. My kneejerk reaction was going to say how insane that is, and why would they want that number anywhere but the county registry, not on a mailing address, but then I remembered that this is Thailand.

Typo in my post above - I meant to say that every residence on my soi has the same first 3 digits, and these 3 digits are unique to the main road from which the soi runs. The digits after the slash indicate the order in which the residence was registered, so the combination yields a unique house number or address.

Because houses aren't built in order along a soi, the house numbers don't run sequentially (which explains why so many people can't find our house. They give up as soon as they encounter a house with a higher number than ours!)

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<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

The post office and couriers have to deal with a lot worse variations of addresses. I'm sure they can cope with that.

I hope youre right.

Get the postcode right and you have no problem. Thai Post gets a lot of slagging off on TV, but locally they are brilliant. My postman is a friendly chap who sometimes stops for a cig and a soft drink. When I pick up parcels from the post office, they never even look at the pink card, but go straight to the parcel. Signature, customs duty if required and all done in a couple of minutes. Parcels posted inside Thailand not requiring signature, he will leave at the in-laws, who live a lot nearer to us. Way better than Royal Mail.

Yes the post code is right but its a high density post code.

Wouldn't that also be 525, Soi 10?

Actually its Soi 24, but she didnt even tell me to write that in the address. She just said my address is "525/10 xxxxx Road, Bangkok, Thailand 10250,

Im not sure what the -10 represents.

Im going to take Stradivarius' advice again, and have another drink. Maybe some time this century the package will arrive or get returned to me..

I would absolutely include the soi number, I think leaving it out would create far more problems for your postman than the slash/dash issue.

Sophon

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Why people write software that restricts certain characters while knowing foreign addresses will be input boggles the mind. I can't tell you how many times I've run into this. Some people that write the specs for software or the software writers themselves just seem to be brain dead.

Forward and reverse slashes are used in computer programming. You cannot use them to name folders in Windows OS etc.

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Why people write software that restricts certain characters while knowing foreign addresses will be input boggles the mind. I can't tell you how many times I've run into this. Some people that write the specs for software or the software writers themselves just seem to be brain dead.

Forward and reverse slashes are used in computer programming. You cannot use them to name folders in Windows OS etc.

Its impossible to explain this to the non computer educated usually older generation. Wonder how many got the cartoon that was posted in this topic.

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