OT: USPS Breaking My Chops
 

Here's a new one for you.

I mail out about 50 packages a week, most of them weighing 2 - 6 ounces.

I put together a package last week that weighed exactly 6 ounces. I printed out the eBay Postage label and taped it to my package. Yesterday, the package was returned to me along with another one. There was a sticker on it that that says I need to add more postage because the package is over 6 ounces.

I know that the package weighed 6 ounces but I didn't realize that it now weighs 6.2 ounces after I placed the label on it. The label weighs .2 ounces.
So, what is someone suppose to do? Add .2 ounces onto each calculated weight to account for the label? That was first.

It cost me an additional 18 cents. Had to drive 5 miles to PO and stand on line fro 15 minutes.

The second package had the same issue except this package originally weighed 2 ounces and now it weighs 2.2 ounces. If you print out eBay shipping labels, you will notice that the price is the same for 2 and 3 ounces. So, why did they send this back? I asked the woman who worked at the PO and she didn't have an answer. There was no extra charge for the second package.

You wonder why we all love the USPS.

I feel your pain. I recently shipped an ebay purchased priority mail with insurance. The postal employee forgot to scan the tracking information on the package :mad:

Don't get me going on USPS :mad:

I've come to the point that when I weigh something, I add an ounce when printing the label. I figure USPS isn't going to bother you for paying too much, and the extra 20-50 cents (if that) is worth preventing any potential hassle.

If I mail out 50 packages a week and add the extra postage of .20 - .50 to each package, you can see where my profits end up.:mad:

Yea, it's the same price for 2oz and 3oz packages. Therefore, when I ship, I always use 3oz even if it's under 2oz because it's the same price. I use a baby scale for weighing my packages, and it only has increments of 0.5. I always round up, so if it's 3.5, I use 4oz for the shipping label. If the scale shows 4.0 oz, then I use 5oz. It's only a few cents difference, and it saves the hassle of the package being sent back, or the receiver of the package having to pay postage due which I have heard stories of also. Also when I weigh, I add a full sheet of paper to the top of the package to take into account the label and tape.

Still better then FedEx, who weighs every single package, and usually always finds a way to tack on an extra fee, for about a thousand different reasons (fuel surcharge, residential, address look-up, etc...) The one I've seen that really annoys me is "change of address", and you look it up and find out they changed "Apt# 25" to "Suite# 25" or visa versa....and CHARGE your account extra for it. :mad:

At least they sent them right back to you from the originating Post Office, instead of waiting until they got to the delivery Post Office and slapped a Postage Due on it, because an over-zealous inspector doesn't realize a 1st Class rigid, flat package, qualifies for Delivery Tracking and doesn't need to be upgraded to Priority Mail.

Maybe we will have better luck when drones become available to the general public.

I do exactly what Gary said. I always round up, and if my scale says something close like 4.95, I make it 6. With the new rates the jump is miniscule, it's like 8 cents extra or something. Not worth the hassle. And yes, I always do 3 oz for the small ones. Saves me time having to weigh them too.

unreal:cool::eek:

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What happened?!?

USPS is hilarious
 

I just received my copy of the Lew Lipset encyclopedia of baseball cards from USPS. It took longer than I expected and realized the prob when I did the tracking. The book went from Maryland, to NC, back to Maryland, and then to Virginia, where I live. That means the book passed me twice. Then we wonder why USPS is losing money each year.

On a related note, can some explain WHY a book (media mail) shipped by USPS from Baltimore area or Washington, DC area ALWAYS goes to Greensboro, North Carolina FIRST before heading to its recipient ?

...

USPS recently lost two packages I sent on the same day. One had tracking and made its way to the local PO of the purchaser and then it never moved again. The other didnt have tracking info and was also never delivered. These two instances were the first packages I ever lost. Im still holding out hope they both show up someday,somewhere.

I had no idea that was possible. Did the postage rate change or something?

I also had to deal with the expired electronic stamp. Had about a dozen packages come back to me one day because it was stamped a day earlier. Had to wait on the stupid line for 30 minutes just for them to restamp everything.
I asked why this happened. They told me that every so often someone checks individual packages to make sure the postage is correct.:confused:

This happened to me last week as well. I was doing something right next to a terrible post office that I try my best to avoid, but went in to mail my item, and was told "I can't take that" about 10 times as I tried to explain that it is U.S. postage, and of course I can use it any time I like. So, I gave up and went to my main post office, who took it without evening batting an eye. It sucks that we are paying the wages of some of these terrible postal employees. Some of them (most of them maybe) are great, of course.

There are avid readers in Greensboro.

My Post Office takes good care of me. I assume anything placed on a package, after I weigh it, is not weightless.

Most likely a regional hub that everything in that area goes through. We have one in Coppell Texas and everything goes through there within a fairly large geographic area....

expired postage
 

Here is the deal with "expired postage". It really isn't expired. The clerks just need to date stamp it with the correct date. The reason we want the item mailed on the date that is on the postage is this- Let's say that I put postage on the item today, the 10th. I don't get to the Post Office until the 13th. The item gets mailed, and delivered on the 15th. The person receiving the package then says - "That damn Post Office took 5 days to get a package from X to X. We have a LOT of people that print the postage for their tax returns on the April 15th and then try to mail it after the tax deadline.

If you are going to print your postage on the 10th and mail it on the 11th, then put the 11th on your postage meter and date it for the day that plan on mailing it.

The clerk was wrong for rejecting your items. Your postage was good and it just needed to be stamped with the correct date.

Yes, we do have a lot of ***holes in the Post Office, but no more than any other business. With 500,000 employees we are bound to have our share of idiots. (Myself included) :)

Happy mailing! Rick

Rick, thanks for the explanation. I agree that every business has its share of idiots. When things go wrong, we need to blame someone. I would say for the most part things go real well with the PO. Unfortunately, we focus on the bad things.

Compared to many other businesses, the PO is actually doing a good job. Can't judge the whole company based on a few bad apples.

Now, if only they would deliver that box of cards to me that they lost 2 months ago.

The PO in New Orleans is the worst I have ever encountered. The employees are incredibly rude and unhelpful. Rant over.

My mailman is pretty cool. Twice last year I got this exact same scenario: returned with a sticker on it for more postage. Both times, right in front of me, he said "that's crap" and pulled the sticker off, stuck it in his truck, and mailed it again for me. Both times the package got where it needed to go. He said sometimes someone gets on a power trip and starts rejecting everything.

My mailman rocks! He's called/texted me when sig required packages arrive and he knows I'm in town, so I can walk home to sign.. If he sees me on the street elsewhere on his route he'll pull over to hand deliver insured packages. Last week while I was in Chicago he texted to tell me that our keys were in the door (wife left them there on way to work) and that he hid them under the doormat... We've even played football in the street. Love the guy! And it's not just me.. He knows everyone on my street.

USPS, in spite of its flaws, is far and above my first choice over any other courier (especially FedEx & DHL- hate them both)

That said, OP's issue sounds annoying.

What really annoys me about the postal service is the way it tries to discourage and even hide the less expensive methods for mailing items. Go into a post office and look at all the signs and informational brochures listing your mailing options and try to find one mention of parcel post or media mail. There's nothing there. There is also no mention of International Airmail M-bags, which are often cheaper for sending printed material overseas. You also can't get parcel post or media mail postage on the Internet. For parcel post, it's difficult to even find out the cost online. They try to make it extremely difficult to use anything other than Priority Mail, which is usually the most expensive way to go.

I was standing in line the other day behind a woman who was clearly befuddled, and I think for good reason. She weighed her thin, padded envelope at the payment station and ended up giving up and getting in line. When the price the postal employee gave her was much higher, the employee said that it was because this is a parcel, not an envelope. She said that a lot of customers make the mistake of thinking that what she had was an envelope.

According to every dictionary on the planet, it WAS an envelope.

When the post office went to that two tiered small package/envelope b.s. it really confused (and continues to confuse) people. Just weigh the darn package and charge me for it. Letter v. pack. Drop it! And to the guy back a few spots who said FedEx (and me @ UPS) add fees after the fact.....that is correct. We HAVE to make money. We have shareowners to deal with!

What's especially funny about that store is that the same customer could hand a different clerk that same kind of thin padded envelope with a tracking label on it and 1st Class Package postage, and they'll get the line about it not being thick enough to qualify as a "package" and therefore cannot have tracking added unless it is upgraded to Priority. Bottom line is that there is a lot of confusion regarding thin padded mailers on both sides of the counter :o

Rick, could you remind me again what should be written on a PWE with a card in toploader inside to indicate that it is stiff/non-machinable? (In addition to the added 21-cents postage, correct?)

Lance and pbspelly & Scott
 

pbspelly - you are absolutely correct. Our instructions our to "sell up". Offer the most expensive product first.

Lance - you are correct in saying that if you go to one clerk you may get different rates than the clerk 3' over will give you. It really is fairly simple, but many of the clerks don't seem to know the rules.

When you are adding 21cents postage just mark the envelope as "non-machinable" or "non-standard".

Scott - even though something is in an envelope, if it varies in thickness, or if it has something like a pack of gum, or a graded card, it is no longer a flat, because it will not go through the flat sorting machines. It needs to be treated as a parcel, because the parcel sorting machine will handle thicker/uneven envelopes without damaging them. The same thing applies to rigid items, like a photo mailer. An 8x10 photo mailer may seem to be a flat, but since it is rigid it will not go through the flats sorting machine without damage, so it needs be be handled like a parcel and parcel charges apply.

There is a cheap, safe way to mail single cards, thanks to a special ruling that was made for Netflix. For single, ungraded cards, I use a 6x8 photo mailer. It is under 1/4" thick with one card and a topload, it is under 6 1/8" high, which keeps it in the letter category, but it is rigid, which makes it non-machinable. The postage is 91 cents. 2 ounce postage of 70 cents and the non-machinable charge of 21 cents. The only downside is you cannot purchase tracking, so you don't want to send an expensive card this way. If the postal clerk hassles you just tell them it is a non-machinable 2 ounce letter. If you have a problem with it, give me the zip code of the Post Office and I will contact them.

Good luck! Rick

Thanks Rick. I know, and for me personally, since I've been dealing with USPS' definitions for 12+ years, it's not an issue. My comment was regarding the postal employee's reference to a customer making the "mistake" of thinking that an envelope is actually an envelope.

I just mailed a first class legal size envelope that was about 3/8" thick with documents folded, I expected to pay about double normal rate. Got hit up for the "parcel". I have always asked them to meter them in the past and they would with normal postal rates by weight. I guess no more, it weighed 1.3 ounces but cost $2.32. Will fax or email it for free next time, especially now that you can sign documents via the internet.

Instead of promoting business the postal service is pushing it away. More evidence that government has no idea how to run a business.