Follow a paper letter: tracking and statuses
Where to follow a paper letter, what each step and status means, and what to do when a letter is stopped, fails or comes back.
6 minutes to read
Every paper letter has a page of its own that shows where it is: waiting, at the print centre, being printed, posted and, for tracked delivery, delivered. The same page tells you when something went wrong and what to do about it.
Where to look
Open your paper letters
Go to Manage Letters and choose the tab Paper letter. Each row shows the recipient, a status, the posting date and the credits. A small pin marks a tracked letter.
Open the letter
Click the row, or choose Show Details in its menu. The page Letter Details opens.
Read Where it is
The section Where it is shows a headline, the steps of the journey, and under What has happened each event with its date and time.
Being printed
It is being printed and put in its envelope.
- Scheduled
- At the print centre
- Printing
- Posted
- Delivered
Stopped at inspection
What was wrong
Check the address, then delete this letter to get your credits back and send a corrected one.
- Where the letter is now
- The steps, with the one the letter has reached
- What went wrong and what to do, shown only when a letter stops
In the list you can search by recipient, city or country. A search looks through your newest 500 paper letters. Filter by status has Scheduled, At the print centre, Posted, Delivered, Failed and Cancelled. At the print centre also finds letters that are being printed, and Failed also finds letters that show Stopped at inspection, Could not be printed or Returned.
The journey
- Scheduled
- At the print centre
- Printing
- Posted
- DeliveredTracked delivery only
The steps on the page, the status in the list and the filter use the same names.
| Status | Headline on the page | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled | Waiting for its day | The letter waits on FuturePostman. It is handed to the print centre on the posting day, at 12:00 UTC. |
| At the print centre | At the print centre | The print centre has the letter and checks it before printing. |
| Printing | Being printed | The letter is printed and put in its envelope. |
| Posted | Posted, or On its way for a tracked letter | The letter is with the postal service. For standard delivery this is the last step. |
| Delivered | Delivered | The postal service has confirmed the delivery. Tracked delivery only. |
Tracked letters
- The page shows the mark Tracked and, when the print centre provides one, the Tracking number.
- FuturePostman shows the number as text. It does not link to a tracking page of the post.
- Events of the post, such as the delivery, appear under What has happened, with the place when the post reports one.
The details, the text and the PDF
- Details lists Created, Posting date, Delivery, Paper style, Credits Used and the Letter number, and once they are known also Handed to print centre and Delivered. Give the letter number to support when you ask about a letter.
- Your letter shows the letter itself at every status: greeting, text, sign-off, your name and, when it is printed, your address. A line marks each page break.
- Preview PDF and Download PDF are always there. Once the print centre has the letter, they show its copy, the file that is printed. Before the hand-over the PDF is made from your stored letter.
How the status is kept up to date
- FuturePostman asks the print centre for news in the background. You do not have to keep the app open.
- While the page of a letter is open, it updates by itself when the status changes.
- Refresh status asks the print centre right away. The button is there from the hand-over on, as long as the status can still change. In the list, the same action is Sync Status in the menu of a letter that is at the print centre or posted.
- A posted standard letter is checked for 45 days after the hand-over, in case the post returns it. After that nothing new is expected and the button is gone.
When something goes wrong
A letter with a problem is shown in red. The page marks the step where it stopped, and says what to do. When the print centre gave reasons, they are listed under What was wrong.
| Status | What happened | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Failed | The letter did not reach the print centre, also after the automatic retries. Nothing was printed. | Press Send now on the page of the letter or in its menu in the list. No extra credits are taken. Or delete the letter to get the credits back. |
| Stopped at inspection | The print centre could not accept the letter as it is. Often the address is the reason. | Read the reasons, delete the letter to get the credits back, and write a corrected one. See addresses. |
| Could not be printed | The print centre has the letter but could not process it. It was not printed. | Delete the letter to get the credits back, and write it again. Send now is not offered, because the letter would be printed twice. |
| Returned | The letter was posted, but the post could not deliver it and sent it back. The address may be wrong, or the recipient has moved. | Check the address and write a new letter. The credits of a posted letter are not returned. Remove from list takes the letter off your list. |
| Cancelled | The letter was cancelled at the print centre and is not sent. | Delete it. See when credits come back. |
Only a letter that shows Failed can be sent again, because the print centre never got it.
Automatic retry before the hand-over
If making the PDF or passing it to the print centre does not work, FuturePostman tries again by itself, up to 3 more times, 15 minutes apart. During that time the letter still shows Scheduled. Only when all tries have failed does it show Failed.
Once the print centre has a letter, FuturePostman never sends it a second time by itself. A failed letter stays failed until you act, so no letter is printed twice.
The email you get when a letter fails
- When a letter changes to Failed, Stopped at inspection, Could not be printed or Returned, FuturePostman sends an email to the address of your account. A cancelled letter sends none.
- The subject is
A problem with your paper letter. The email is in English. - It names the recipient, says in one sentence what happened, and links to the page of the letter. That page says the same in your language.
- It is sent once per problem. A letter can fail years after you wrote it, so keep the email address of your account up to date.
When a letter is finished
A finished letter stays in your list with its details, its text and its events until you remove it. Remove from list is offered for a letter that was delivered, was returned, or was posted and is no longer followed. Nothing is cancelled and no credits are returned. See remove a finished letter from your list.
The print centre keeps its own record of a letter for a limited time and then removes it. On the page of the letter this changes:
- What has happened gets the entry Print file removed after the retention period.
- Preview PDF and Download PDF stay. The PDF is then made again from your stored letter.
- Refresh status is gone, because there is nothing left to ask.
- A tracked letter that was posted but never confirmed shows Posted with the remark that tracking has ended, and the step Delivered is taken away. No delivery confirmation arrives any more.
- Change or delete a paper letter and get credits backUntil when a scheduled paper letter can be changed, what deleting does, when the credits come back, and how to send a letter now or send a failed one again.
- Choose standard or tracked delivery and a countryStandard and tracked delivery for paper letters, how the composer shows what a destination country offers, and what the app does and does not tell you about delivery time.
- Fix a problem with a letter, a payment or your accountFind what you see on screen, then read what it means and what to do: failed letters, links that do not open, refused files, credits, payments and sign-in.
- In the appYour paper lettersOpen the list and follow a letter.