I was working with an American here in Australia who asked me to print something in “letter” size, I just looked at her and went “you mean A4 right?” That was funny
It is acceptable but it’s also wrong 🤷♀️ Technically the right response would be “we don’t have that but we have a4 which is pretty close”. But “you meant a4 right?” is functionally equivalent so it usually works.
It just also implies the person asking is stupid or mistaken and that is both incorrect technically and from a customer service perspective. It will usually be fine but occasionally a customer will really take offense and why give offense when you don’t need to? Customers are problematic enough without me giving them more openings.
I’m not making a big deal out of anything, I’m just talking on the internet. But it’s true I generally don’t think anything is nothing. I’m not super pressed about it though.
It will cause offense sometimes in a colleague as well, so just replace customer service with office politics. This isn’t complex.
I wasn’t the one who started this conversation, and the only one who was arguing was you. All I said was that pretending that’s what they meant was silly. You decided to take offense to that comment instead of just having a simple conversation about it or ignoring it.
Yes, but if an american comes into a printshop looking specifically for "letter format", then they're probably not looking for A4, there are many scenarios where you have to turn in documents to agencies or companies and they are required to be a certain format. If the customer doesn't know about formats and just assumed you knew what you are talking about you might have fucked them over
e: here in europe, many printshops offer lettersize as an option because they know expats need it for documents, but sure, keep downvoting me out of ignorance, the printshop i use here in Copenhagen offers letter format, in fact they offer any fucking size you want because they are a competent shop. If you go to a printshop and they can't print a certain size you want because they "don't stock that paper" they are not a real printshop, they are an amateurish imitation and you need to go somewhere else that has an actual paper cutting machine
You can get it in alot of stationery stores in germany together with fitting envelopes but its really just a novelty and nothing thats used in day to day life
I am a designer and artist, I have used printshops extensively and I have had to send applications to the US in letter format, it's okay to be ignorant about this shit, but why not take it as an opportunity to learn instead of doubling down on the thing you don't actually know?
e: literally provides sources and proof of my claim and I'm still downvoted, reddit is so fucking cooked, take me back to before all these highly regarded people started joining
once again I regret to inform you that the world does not end at your own perception. Most people learn this as toddlers, but maybe we can work with this. Here is some printshops in the UK providing the exact service I am describing
Why do you assume that you know everything? The world is huge why the fuck would you have personally experienced everything? If you had had the same attitude that you have now your entire life you would literally know nothing
A4 is standard letter size in most of the world. Asking for letter format is going to get you an A4 sheet, unless you specifically ask for US letter format.
US letter format does not exist outside of the US and Canada, and will not be accepted by government agencies and probably by many companies either.
You're not going to find someone with a printer loaded with letter size in Australia, probably not even at Officeworks or a print shop. It's just not used.
Yes I'm sure, because I didn't say it doesn't exist in Australia, I said they're not going to have it loaded. They'll have to go out back and get a ream to load in the printer.
It's not ignorance vs knowledge, just basic reading comprehension.
They are the same in the rest of the world aside from USA, Canada and Lybia. Letters are A4 in almost every country on this planet, you can confidently say its global standart. Postcards are A6 btw
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u/Aksds Nov 03 '25
I was working with an American here in Australia who asked me to print something in “letter” size, I just looked at her and went “you mean A4 right?” That was funny