[Dx-qsl] Italian post office discounting IRCs?

[Peter W2IRT]

Hi all,

I received a followup email from Gabrielle this morning explaining the situation. This is something to think about when sending recycled IRCs to Italian managers.

The Italian Post Office redeems IRCs at different rates, depending on their country of origin:
-	Italian IRCs = 0,60€
-	European IRCs = 0,75€
-	JA/Oceania IRCs = €2,00
-	USA IRCs = €1,70


 - pjd


-----Original Message-----

All,
Earlier today I got the following message from IK3GES, the manager for TT8ES. 

I'd sent off an IRC and a self-addressed envelope along with my request, and from the Google translation below, it seems as if the Italian post office only redeems IRCs for 0,75€ instead of the value of air mail postage to the destination country. This would appear to be a violation of the UPU regulations and the end result will be the manager getting in an awful lot of IRCs but sending the cards out via the bureau. The worst part is that he requested $2 or 1 IRC on his QRZ.COM web page.

Can anybody clarify or confirm this policy from the Italian postal service? If so, it would seem that G$$$ (or mint stamps) are the only way to go when sending to Italy. I'm guessing that the OM's local post office official does not understand or care about the regulations.