Change or delete a paper letter and get credits back

A paper letter that is still waiting can be changed, sent earlier or deleted, on every plan. Once the print centre has printed and posted it, nothing can be changed and no credits come back.

What is possible when

The page of a letter and its menu in the list only offer what can work. A button that is missing means that the action is not possible at that moment.

Edit a scheduled letter

1. 01

   Open the letter

   In Manage Letters, tab Paper letter, open the menu of the letter and choose Edit Letter. Or open the letter and press Edit.

2. 02

   Make your changes

   The composer opens as Edit paper letter, with the letter filled in.

3. 03

   Save

   Press Save changes, check the dialog Save these changes? and press Save changes again. Back to the letter leaves without saving.

The lock time

• A letter can be edited until 1 hour before it is handed to the print centre.
• The hand-over is at 12:00 UTC on the posting day. When you scheduled the letter, the review dialog showed both deadlines in your own time: until when you can change the letter, and until when you can delete it.
• After the lock time the Edit button and the menu entry are gone.
• A letter sent with Now cannot be edited at all.

What can and cannot change

• The name and the address of the recipient, inside the same country
• The text, the greeting and the sign-off
• The date written on the letter and the paper style
• Whether your address is printed under your name
• The posting day: any day from tomorrow, within the range of your plan

• The country. The postage was paid for that country
• The delivery option, standard or tracked. It was chosen when the letter was paid for
• The price. An edit takes no credits and returns none

To change the country or the delivery option, delete the letter while it is waiting, which returns its credits, and write it again.

After a move to a smaller plan you can still edit the letter. A posting day that stays where it is, is accepted. Only a new day has to fit the range of the plan you have then.

Send a scheduled letter now

Open the scheduled letter and press Send now, or choose Send now in its menu in the list. The dialog Send this letter now? asks first. Confirm with Send now, or press Not now to leave the letter waiting for its day. No extra credits are taken.

Send a failed letter again

A letter with the status Failed did not reach the print centre. Press Send now on its page or in its menu in the list and confirm. The letter is handed to the print centre again and is not charged a second time.

Send now is not offered for a letter the print centre already has, such as one that shows Could not be printed or Stopped at inspection: it would be printed and charged twice. Delete such a letter and write a corrected one. What each problem means is in tracking and statuses.

Delete a letter

1. 01

   Press Delete

   On the page of the letter press Delete, or choose Delete in the menu of the letter in the list.

2. 02

   Confirm

   The dialog Delete this letter? explains what happens. Press Delete letter, or Keep letter to go back.

3. 03

   Read the message

   The message Letter deleted says how many credits were returned. If it names no credits, none were returned.

• Deleting removes the letter and its text from your account. This cannot be undone.
• Deleting works longer than editing: until the letter goes to the print centre, and after that for as long as the print centre can still cancel it.
• A returned credit shows in the Credit ledger as Refund. See credits and prices.
• Delete is not shown while a letter is being handed over, and not while it is posted and still followed.

Remove a finished letter from your list

A posted letter cannot be deleted, but once it is finished you can take it off your list. Remove from list replaces Delete for a letter that:

• was delivered
• was returned by the post
• went by standard delivery and was handed to the print centre more than 45 days ago, so it is no longer followed
• was posted, and the print centre has since removed its record of it

The dialog Remove this letter from your list? says it plainly: nothing is cancelled and no credits are returned. The letter and its text are removed from your account, and this cannot be undone.

When credits come back

FuturePostman returns credits only when it is certain that the letter was never posted. That is the case when:

• the letter never left FuturePostman: it was still scheduled, or it failed before the hand-over
• the print centre confirms that it cancelled the letter before posting

You then get back everything the letter cost, the extra credits for tracked delivery included. The refund is in credits, not in money.

Why a letter that may be posted is not refunded

A printed letter that is in the post cannot be called back, and its printing and postage have been paid. So when you delete a letter that the print centre already has, FuturePostman first asks the print centre where the letter is. If there is any sign that it was posted, or if nobody can tell, nothing is deleted and nothing is refunded. You then see one of these messages:

• Follow a paper letter: tracking and statusesWhere to follow a paper letter, what each step and status means, and what to do when a letter is stopped, fails or comes back.
• What a paper letter costs in creditsA paper letter is paid with credits. How many depends on the destination country and the delivery option, and the composer shows the price before you confirm.
• Write an address the print centre acceptsWhich address fields a paper letter needs, how the address is printed, what to do when a letter is stopped because of its address, and what is printed about you as the sender.
• In the appYour paper lettersOpen the list to edit, send or delete a letter.