The shocking truth of media mail abuse exposed!
Archive: Online bookselling
Have you ever taken a package to the post office to have it rejected for reasons as unintelligible as they are paltry? You have if you sell books by mail.
There's the Russian roulette of the clerk you get. While I remember a postal substation in San Francisco that seemed specially staffed with the unable and unwilling most of the folks behind the counter incline toward helpfulness. They are easily forgotten when you are face to face with a clerk whose chief ambition seems to live up to worst stereotypes of the pettifogging bureaucrat.
Even the nice clerks are helpless victims when hit by The Memo. Some months back a memo was sent to the North Carolina post office by a USPS muckety-muck in Greensboro. Seems some folks were abusing Priority Mail and Global Priority flat rate envelopes. I bet they were; I even sympathize. But the allowable levels of envelope fatness and sealing tape depended on the clerk du jour. It was hard to know which books we'd be allowed to ship in the flat rate envelopes. The only solution would've been to supply everyone with exact limits and set of micrometers. Thankfully the memory of that memo receded from the clerks memory after a few weeks.
Today when Yance, our invaluable clerk, dropped off today's batch of ecommerce he was told that media mail packages would have to be brought to the post office open so they could be inspected. Seems some folks are shipping items that aren't media via 4th class special standard of whatever media mail is. Bricks?
Special shipping rates for publications stem from the historic impulse to make news and information easily available. Though Totally Nude Aerobics is a long way from colonial newspapers. As a man with a vested interest in keeping my customers' cost down I'm all in favor of media mail. The junk mailers get special rates and many of them wish they didn't. How about special rates for people who sell anything? Not that I'm a Jack Kemp kind of guy.
Mom, Dad, Buddy & Sis aren't going to know this when they come to the post office to ship a book to grandpa (or a sexy video to their out-of-town paramour). I can imagine their pleasure when they are told they'll have to open the package or pay a higher rate. Many to spare themselves the embarrassment of a shoddy looking package or exposure will probably just pay the extra money. Until the memo is forgotten.
2 · Posted by: Richard on March 24, 2004 04:27 PM
This memo was from a USPS regional manager. It was there in black and white for Yance to read.
The clerk said we wouldn't be expected to bring our packages open because they know us. A few regular folks will probably be annoyed and then it'll fade as the silliness about priority did.
3 · Posted by: Malco23 on May 22, 2004 10:52 AM
The new regulation about media mail is true. I talked to two different postal clerks about it at two different post offices. They had the regulation printed out on USPS letterhead, etc.
4 · Posted by: Richard on May 22, 2004 05:43 PM
It isn't unusual for people to offer opinions without really knowing what they are talking about. Even worse on the web than in real life.
Thanks.
5 · Posted by: Steven on July 13, 2004 03:00 PM
I also was floored when I made my usual daily treck to my local post office (last fall/early spring?) to ship my multiple packages of media mail books. Since 9/11 I had been adding a label to my packages clearly stating that they contained books and all of the clerks knew me. Despite this and the resulting delays in the line they insisted on the policy. I made a special effort to come in with my business tax certificate and two legal picture IDs (passport & driver's lisence) to talk to the postmaster & argue for a “Known Shipper” designation so I coul avoit this hassle. Luckily he was reasonable about it and it worked out and he agreed to my point. I worked as a traffic manager before moving to a new state to return to school and push my online bookselling business. It has been common practice, even before 9/11, for shippers using expedited air shipping to provided carriers with proper IDs etc., in order to become “Known Shippers.” A “Known Shipper” could then avoid the extra paperwork and delay related to airline security needs.
Steven
6 · Posted by: Steven on July 13, 2004 03:24 PM
I wanted to comment on priority flat rate envelopes. I have found it necessary to keep an eye on postal clerks for who either forget to charge the flat rate or decide that the flat rate is not appropriate. I prefer to rely on the USPS Domestic Mail Manual descriptions of appropriate use of the flat rate envelope:
“Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope $3.85, regardless of weight or destination, for matter sent in a Priority Mail Flat Rate envelope provided by the Postal Service.”
AND
“Any amount of material that can be mailed in the special flat-rate envelope available from the USPS is subject to the 1-pound Priority Mail rate, regardless of the weight of the mailpiece.”
I keep a copy of the relevant pages from the DMM/Domestic Mail Manual with me (from: http://pe.usps.gov/text/dmm/I022.htm; also available as a free hard copy at most post offices). This does not always work though. Postal clerks often have one of the older editions of the DMM anyway plus there is a tendency to weight their personal interpretations as equivalent to or more relevant than the regulations themselves.
Steven
7 · Posted by: Richard on July 14, 2004 06:39 AM
5. - Thankfully after being shown the memo we haven't been bothered at all. I can only imagine what a policy if really enforced would do at Christmas time.
8 · Posted by: Richard on July 14, 2004 06:41 AM
6. - We catch a clerk in an error about once every six months. Our employee who takes books to the post office almost always managed to get the same guy who is pretty good.
9 · Posted by: Mina on October 22, 2004 06:53 PM
Some rules I was told today at the post office in Urbandale, Iowa: If you have a label on any media such as a cd or floppy disk, that is considered “correspondence” and the package cannot be sent as media mail. The same goes for anything written included with media being sent. The hand-out describing media mail does not include this rule.
10 · Posted by: Joe Carey on January 12, 2005 01:26 PM
I just had to return a used book to the seller because they sent me the wrong book. Of course, I needed to include a money order to cover the postage for them to send me the right book.
The clerk at the post office whom I USED to consider a friend made me pay regular postage because I was putting a money order in the envelope with the book!
Now how absurd is that!?! There is such a thing as being totally anal and my ex-friend/post office clerk has proved it!
Feel free to share your feelings about The shocking truth of media mail abuse exposed!. Please stick to the theme of the entry. Disagreement is fine. Homophobia, racism, and kindred expressions of hatred will be deleted.
This site is one of my hobbies. I genuinely enjoy hearing from people and hate moderating or killing comments. Forthright disagreement is fine as long as it is civil.
My thanks,
Richard
1 · Posted by: catana on March 24, 2004 12:43 PM
The requirement to keep media mail packages open for inspection is totally bogus. Such “memos” are an invention of local staff. Otherwise, you could find information about it on the USPS site. This has been discussed endlessly on several booksellers' boards. No post office can afford the time to check every media mail package and then wait til it's sealed by the customer. Writing to the regional or state PO will put an end to that particular abuse. Or, if possible, talk to the supervisor at your PO. Unless he's the guilty party. If so, let him know you're going to go over his head to get the problem resolved.