Unbelievable! Freaking Post Office.

[SkyHog]

I can't believe it. I mailed out a rebate offer in the mail the other day, with a 39 cent stamp on it. Today I got it back in the mail with a stamped "13 cents additional postage required."

I went down to the post office to pay the postage and asked why it was needed. I was explained that since there was a piece of cardboard inside the envelope, it would have to be handled by a person, not the machine, and therefore, additional postage was necessary.

So then - 39 cents is to cover the lack of any need of human intervention while a machine processes the envelope. Somehow, I think it costs the Post Office much less than that. And they are a government agency. Should they be profiting off us like this?

 

[tonycondon]

ive discovered these automated postal thingies that theyve got now. i havent even looked at a real person to mail a letter for about 8 months. lotsa 39 cent charges on my debit card though...

 

[Steve]

Probably cost them $30 to collect the $0.13.

 

[MSmith]

They're right. http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/601.htm#wp1065523

If you had put MORE cardboard in it so that it wasn't lumpy but still under one ounce it would have been OK.

Not that I agree, but at least they are being consistent to their rules in this case (I fight with them all the time at work when the local folks start making up additional rules).

 

[wbarnhill]

I can't believe it. I mailed out a rebate offer in the mail the other day, with a 39 cent stamp on it. Today I got it back in the mail with a stamped "13 cents additional postage required."

I went down to the post office to pay the postage and asked why it was needed. I was explained that since there was a piece of cardboard inside the envelope, it would have to be handled by a person, not the machine, and therefore, additional postage was necessary.

So then - 39 cents is to cover the lack of any need of human intervention while a machine processes the envelope. Somehow, I think it costs the Post Office much less than that. And they are a government agency. Should they be profiting off us like this?

The 39 cents is supposed to pay for:

+Picking up the letter
+Delivering the letter to the local Processing and Cancellation center
+Processing (including maintenance on the 0 human intervention machines)
+Routing and Delivery to appropriate destination center
+Sorting for final delivery
+Final delivery to addressee

Though the processing portion does not involve humans directly, indirectly it does, not to mention the other individuals involved in the chain. Sadly I believe the Post Office runs in the red most of the time. Email took a large chunk of income out of the USPS. Add in gas prices and I'm just glad it's only 39 cents.

 

[alaskaflyer]

Has nothing to do with the post office, but I hope you didn't put a PO box as your return address on the rebate offer. I had two come back rejected in the last two months (for a total value of almost $150) because the rebate offer stipulated that it was not offered to PO box holders. Of course they gave you thirty days to correct the error. Mine came back 31 and 39 days after the drop dead date. Naturally. And I only have a PO box so I'm not sure what I could have corrected.

 

[SkyHog]

eek - that's just not right about the PO Boxes. Thankfully, I do not have one for personal uses.

BTW - this only irks me because I refuse to use the Post Office is most cases. Their policies are stupid, and flat out - email is destroying the USPS because they refuse to adapt and stop raising their prices. I'm sorry, but at 39 cents a pop, even processing only 1 million letters a day = $390,000. And that is more than likely only a very, very small percentage of letters sent each day. And I suspect that they are making a very hefty profit, regardless of what they claim.

And Email is convienient. UPS and FedEx are more expensive, but at least I don't feel like I'm being violated everytime I use them.

 

[EdFred]

Here's a post office story as told to me by my Sensei a couple weeks ago:

So, I go to the post office to mail a letter, and we put it on the scale. She says that will be 39 cents and I give her the change and she puts the stamp on the letter. Oh, I'm sorry sir, that will be an additional 13 cents. Huh? The weight of the STAMP pushed the envelope weight over the limit. So I had her take the stamp off the envelope, and it went back to 39 cents. That's what I am paying! Put the stamp on - 52 cents. Take the stamp off 39 cents. Finally, I took the envelope, tore a little bit off of if it, and had her put the stamp back on - 39 cents.

Isn't beuracracy wonderful?

 

[AirBaker]

I always loved putting random things in those junk mail 'reply envelopes'. The ones that have the postage paid by the addressee. Send them back crap.

 

[wesleyj]

I always loved putting random things in those junk mail 'reply envelopes'. The ones that have the postage paid by the addressee. Send them back crap.

i have done that for years, now i get little or no junk mail in the box, now my email, thats another story,

 

[gprellwitz]

I always loved putting random things in those junk mail 'reply envelopes'. The ones that have the postage paid by the addressee. Send them back crap.

Isn't that a violation of some rule governing sending hazardous materials or biohazards or something?

 

[AirBaker]

Isn't that a violation of some rule governing sending hazardous materials or biohazards or something?

I think you're referring to www.mailpoop.com. I send the figurative crap back.

 

[ausrere]

Has nothing to do with the post office, but I hope you didn't put a PO box as your return address on the rebate offer. I had two come back rejected in the last two months (for a total value of almost $150) because the rebate offer stipulated that it was not offered to PO box holders. Of course they gave you thirty days to correct the error. Mine came back 31 and 39 days after the drop dead date. Naturally. And I only have a PO box so I'm not sure what I could have corrected.

I had a friend tell me that he got around that by putting the address of the post office building and adding "Box ####". They apparently delivered it just fine... no where on the letter did it say PO Box. I wonder if that would work everywhere, or just for his particular branch.