Can I post an Orange France prepaid envelope from the UK

September 18, 2016 1:30 PM

I need to return an Orange France identification coupon in the next few weeks. It has a prepaid envelope, but I'm in the UK for the next six weeks. How can I post it from here?

I bought an Orange France mifi box with simcard last week in France, I misread the instructions and thought I had a year to register the simcard. Nope, I've got two months. All simcards in France have to be registered with proof of ID. I'm going to be in France again in six weeks, but that will be pushing the two months deadline, which is really 1 month deadline before they suspend your account and another month before they cancel it completely.

The coupon comes with a prepaid envelope addressed:

Orange
Retour Coupon
Authorisation 32777
86029 Poitiers CEDEX

Will it get there if I post it in a new envelope to that address with the right postage for a letter from the UK? (With FRANCE added, obviously)

Or is there a non prepaid alternative address I can send it to in France that will get it to the same place? I've had a hunt around on Orange France online customer services, but not had much luck finding anything, but my French is only ok, so I might be missing something obvious.

Annoyingly, I know at least three people in France right now, but no one who is going in the next few weeks!

posted by Helga-woo to Grab Bag (10 answers total)

Best answer: Can't you just send it to someone you know in France and have them pop it in the post?
posted by Tamanna at 7:55 PM on September 18, 2016

Uh, can you not go to a local UK post office, pay for an international lettermail stamp, place it on the envelope, and pop it into the mail? Am I missing something (not sarcasm)?
posted by Klaxon Aoooogah at 8:04 PM on September 18, 2016

On reread, European countries deal with each other's mail all the time. I'm sure it will get there. Add "France" to the envelope, pay for the international stamp, and post it.
posted by Klaxon Aoooogah at 8:10 PM on September 18, 2016

The prepaid envelope will only work from France, not from the UK. Go to a Post Office, ask at the counter if you're willing to queue, or go to a self service booth and follow the instructions for mailing to France. It's not expensive unless you want to do recorded/tracked delivery which I would as it is a copy of your ID, even then it's not too expensive.
posted by ellieBOA at 12:18 AM on September 19, 2016

Response by poster: I'm asking everyone I know to see if they know anyone going soon....

The address isn't a street address, as it's a prepaid envelope (Retour Coupon, Authorisation 32777....) I want to be sure it will still get there if I put it in another envelope with stamp. Hence the question.
posted by Helga-woo at 12:20 AM on September 19, 2016

Response by poster: I know how to send a letter to France :-)
posted by Helga-woo at 12:21 AM on September 19, 2016

Best answer: Keep the same envelope, just put a stamp on it and add France at the bottom. The address is complete, it'll arrive fine.

If you're really worried, memail me and I'll give you my address. You can send it to me and I'll repost as soon as I receive it.
posted by snakeling at 1:21 AM on September 19, 2016

I know how to send a letter to France :-)

I guess I misunderstood your question because you appear to be asking how to do exactly that...
posted by Klaxon Aoooogah at 11:01 AM on September 19, 2016

Response by poster: The question wasn't could I send *a* letter to France, it was could I send *this* letter to France.

I have had enough experience of customers services and bureaucracies in places I'm not familiar with to know not to make any assumptions that things will work the way I think they will. Including lots of experience of France.

Thank you for the reassurances that it would get there, luckily a friend of a friend is going to France on Friday. It will be posted in a nice yellow La Poste box, and I won't have to cross my fingers and hope that it wouldn't be discarded in a sorting office for not having a street address, or the wrong envelope, or having a stamp on it, or arriving by airmail...
posted by Helga-woo at 12:00 PM on September 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

For future reference, that address would still work written on another envelope.
posted by ellieBOA at 12:16 AM on September 20, 2016 [1 favorite]