Almost Started A Riot At USPS Mailing Coins

At least they have a sense of humor!

Complex and numerous and open to interpretation by each postal clerk (as we've seen in this thread), or maybe just ignored by many. The "rule" book is over two inches thick. How would YOU like to have such a rule book in YOUR job to use and follow?

For 22+ years I mailed a Reader's Digest-sized mag averaging 24 pages per issue and prepared it, according to the rules, for first-class ruling, with clear "First-Class" markings on it.

Imagine my choice of language when one mailing disappeared around Christmastime, only to turn up in a warehouse in Kansas City a month later - apparently because some dufus didn't read the labels on the mailing carton and assumed that the magazine was a fourth-class mailing and sent it to mail heck to wait out the rush season.

So, yeah - the way the USPS is set up now, it takes only ONE moron to screw up a mailing, in spite of the thousands of hard-working, helpful, courteous employees who go out of their way to try to get your stuff from point A to point B.

I used to work for IRS (now I work for the good guys...) Our rule books filled over 38000 pages. They were the Internal Revenue Code and the US Treasury Regulations. Thank goodness for the Paperwork Reduction Act passed in the 1980s.

I have yet to have any problems with a bubble envelope when I buy and label online through ebay. As has been pointed out, First Class with Delivery Confirmation is only $1.75. It's dropped in the drive-through mailbox, and, when picked up, goes directly to the processing center. There has never once been a problem.