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 Replies: 24 / Views: 2,278 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
974 Posts |
Just thought you all should know.
I went to mail three padded envelopes containing 2, 5, and 10 coins and one regular letter envelope containing 1 coin First Class yesterday.
According to the Postmaster, any envelope that has a "bump" or "extra thickness", not a flat envelope with paper, is now classified as PARCEL mail. This includes those birthday cards with sound or what they deem as "merchandise". He was squeezing the life out of my package and verified with his collegues that I was supposed to get charged more! I told him I'll just put a stamp on it and let it ride next time and he said if you put a regular stamp on it, the USPS is now going to charge a surcharge to the person it is delivered to. So in short my 1955 penny I mailed cost me $1.13 instead of $0.41...which means I almost paid someone to get my penny! LOL So instead of me paying about $2 to mail them, it cost me $5!
So I thought about it last night, you know how when you get legal sized papers in the mail with 3 sheets in it tri-folded. I think I am going to stick my coins taped in 2 x 2s in the middle of blank papers so it gives the appearance of being paper and save $0.70 or more when shipping small stuff...in this case $3!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3233 Posts |
Uh-oh. Ken, now you have me worried. I wonder if my envelope will get to you w/o a surcharge. I hope so. I folded paper around the coins but there's a bit of bulk in the center. I'll keep my fingers crossed. I wasn't sure how else I could protect the coins without wrapping them the way I did or, otherwise, sending them in special padding. Let me know as soon as you get them!
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
974 Posts |
I will, Bruce. It caught me off guard because he went and said he had to make sure he was charging me the right price...thinking he was going to give me the hook-up only to shank my wallet LOL
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Forum Dad
 United States
24147 Posts |
quote:
I think I am going to stick my coins taped in 2 x 2s in the middle of blank papers so it gives the appearance of being paper and save $0.70 or more when shipping small stuff...in this case $3!
Then when it jams up the sorting machine they use for flats, you'll really be on their you know what list.  |
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Valued Member
United States
280 Posts |
Did you ask him where in the manual it states this. The USPS has their Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) available online. The best I can find is "C800 Automation-Compatible Mail C810 Letters and Cards 3.3Rigid and Odd-Shaped Items Rigid items (e.g., pens, pencils, keys, bottle caps) are prohibited within mailpieces. Reasonably flexible items (e.g., credit cards) are permitted. Subject to 5.0, odd-shaped items (e.g., coins and tokens) are permitted if firmly affixed to and wrapped within the contents of the mailpiece and envelope to streamline the shape of the mailpiece for automated processing." Manual is available here: http://pe.usps.gov/archive/html/dmm...10/DMMTC.htmAs a general rule, always put your coins between two pieces of cardboard the exact fit of the envelope. This not only protects the coins, but prevents casual lookers from determining that there are coins inside. |
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Forum Dad
United States
24147 Posts |
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Valued Member
United States
264 Posts |
The USPS changed all the rules this month or last. I know at work we had to get all new equipment and software as the size, type package, rates, etc. changed. It has given our mailroom people fits.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1952 Posts |
I take them free priority (cardboard) envelopes and cut them to fit the envelope and have never had a problem with them. Ken you should have a few of them from me and I don't think anyone has been charged for them . I think the guy was having a bad day and decided to take it out on you. the postal employees will not disagree with each other with you there "makes them look bad". I mail 41 cent coins almost every day.
Gary too
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Forum Dad
United States
24147 Posts |
quote:
i think the guy was having a bad day and decided to take it out on you.
Gary, trust me, Nelrak's postal employee may have been having a bad day, but he's 100% correct. The postal restrictions on flats have tightened up severely.  If it's a padded envelope, it's automatically a parcel. It doesn't matter what's in it. The 1st Class parcel rate is almost double the rate for flats now. |
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Valued Member
United States
306 Posts |
***Edited by Forum Dad to remove innappropriate reference. See Family Friendy***
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Pillar Of The Community
3147 Posts |
When it comes to coins I ALWAYS use a bubble mailer as automated sorting machines can squeeze the coin right out of an envelope. I know as I have had it happen. The empty envelope arrives with a small hole on one end and an unknow postal employee went home with a smile on his face after finding an old classic on the floor. I never take that chance any more. Bubble mailer or box!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1247 Posts |
The post office is the tap-root of Institutional rot in this country. Maybe UPS will come along and steal what is really first class mail from them if they now want to call it "parcel mail." But they'll always have junk mail. Junk from a junk institution.  |
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Forum Dad
United States
24147 Posts |
quote:
The post office is the tap-root of Institutional rot in this country.
Except for the 60% of their work that they pay FedEx to do. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
The flat rate boxes also went up again. Now $8.95 or something like that. I just sent out one and was shocked at how much they have gone up in a few short years. As already noted never send out coins in any envelope where it may appear there is a coin inside. Always put 2 pieces of cardboard inside with the coin(s) attached somehow to one of them. If they feel like coins, they may never get lost.
As to what you were told at your post office I think someone there is just going to extreames. By me I think I could put a postage stamp right on a coin and they'ld take it but probably ask if I want insurance.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1247 Posts |
The post office doesn't have the capacity or the motivation to enforce all this. The only thing missing from the post office are Visigoths hurling rocks at them from the parking lot.
USPS might be able to put up a "show of force" for a month or so but then they'll just have to stop fondling the mail and start delivering it. We are the only ones that can make it so by believing they can make it so and "complying"---By doing the same thing we've been doing all along--believing in the strength of rotted out oak trees.
They tried the same thing with fax machines when they first came out. They had the audacity to try and say a fax was first class mail and if you wanted to send one you had to stand in line for an hour and pay the post office to use the official postal fax machine. Turns out with fax machines the post office was basically up "expelled waste matter creek" with no means of forward locomotion.
This just might be the same thing. People aren't in the mood for bumps in envelops garbage. BTW, I read the same thing and bumps also, supposedly, include the metal clasps on the larger envelops.
What would stop someone from organizing of bit of civil dis-obedience on the Internet? Where everyone in America agrees to mail themself a nickel on a certain date. And then refuse delivery if they want more money. How hard would that be? What then will the post office do with a few hundred millions pieces of "non-compliance" mail?
They can't enforce this. Only we can enforce it for them by believing.
"He felt safe in the oak tree's presence; it was a thing that
nothing could change or threaten; it was his greatest symbol of
strength.
One night, lightning struck the oak tree. Eddie saw it the next
morning. It lay broken in half, and he looked into its trunk as
into the mouth of a black tunnel. The trunk was only an empty shell;
its heart had rotted away long ago; there was nothing inside--just a
thin gray dust that was being dispersed by the whim of the faintest
wind. The living power had gone, and the shape it left had not
been able to stand without it."
Atlas Shrugged--Ayn Rand
Edited by longnine009
07/02/2007 6:27 pm
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Forum Dad
United States
24147 Posts |
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They can't enforce this.
They can and they will. Watch and see. |
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Replies: 24 / Views: 2,278 |
Posted 06/29/2007 11:41 am
