Mailing packages out USPS

[geldor1]

Here is an interesting FYI.

This was discussed in an earlier post, about using Priority boxes and covering them with some other wrapping paper and shipping them first class.

I said that I read somewhere that a postal employee charged someone Priority rates because they used a Priority box. Even though the box was wrapped in brown paper.

I came home from work yesterday and found a postage due notice in my mailbox. Went this morning to pick the parcel up at my local PO and asked why the $$ due. I was told,

Because the sender used a Priority box and only paid for First Class. The box is still the property of the USPS and any unauthorized use..blah, blah, blah.

The box had a USPS Metered sticker, so the retail counter accepted this as First Class. ???

I was told the post office is cracking down on this practice.

This is not a complaint in any way towards the sender of the package, but just a heads up to others who use this practice. :love:

 

[waliguy]

Go to a different Post Office...LOL!

I remember a couple of years ago USPS changed their boxes and did start printing on the INSIDE of their boxes. I think that kept people from simply turning their boxes inside out and shipping that way, getting them sent first class, still using USPS materials. Myself included.

 

[PuroBrat]

I believe I will just continue my current practice with regards to the materials provided for Priority Mailing. I will just pay the extra $1 or so and send it Priority :lookup:

My feeling on this is that if they continue to provide more boxes than are actually being used for priority, they will simply discontinue providing boxes for priority mailing. Then I will be forced to BUY my boxes. Since they do have boxes you can BUY if you want to send first class, I would recommend using them.

Disclaimer: The above statements are purely IMHO :sign:

 

[Big Slim Junior]

I love the fact that you can get free boxes from the USPS. When I first started sending stoges through the mail I bought some boxes at the UPS Store for about $2 a piece. Add postage to that and you're not too far from the cost of using Priorty mail (free box and mail w/DC#). PLUS... you can do it all online. :thumbs:

 

[vewyphishy]

geldor, so why didn't they send that notice back to the sender? After all, THEY were the ones who didn't pay for the appropriate postage. Doesn't seem to make any sense. :lookup:

 

[ivan37]

geldor, so why didn't they send that notice back to the sender? After all, THEY were the ones who didn't pay for the appropriate postage. Doesn't seem to make any sense. :lookup:

Because then the sender could just fudge their address if they aren't worried about the package having to be returned to them. Or the sender could put "Bill Clinton" with the correct address so that if the package has to be returned to sender it still gets returned to the correct address, but if they get a postage due notice you can just bring it to the PO and say "Hey, Bill Clinton doesn't live here, someone must be playing a joke on you".

Sending the postage due notice to the sender just results in fewer problems like above because you know something was sent to that address successfully and so the address is real.

 

[CoventryCat86]

Wow geldor, if my post office wanted to break stones, I woulda had lots of postage due for cigar pool mailings. Lots of people turned the boxes inside out with all the big, black "USPS" lettering as plain as day and mailed them to me using metered stamps WITHOUT paying the Priority Mail rate. The clown at the counter from where that package was sent NEVER should have accepted the package.

cigah_smoka REUSED a priority mail box when he sent a package to me. He turned it inside out BUT he paid the priority rate so USPS had nothing to complain about!!! Now THAT is funny

You can get small cardboard boxes for next to nothing from VeriPack. SD_Stack and Wascal have discussed this in the past.

 

[PuroBrat]

One last time for me to chime in here.

If you are sendng cigars through USPS to a recipient, there is going to be some costs involved, and the Difference between 1st Class and Prioity, $ wise, is not enough to even discuss. I sent a stick one time and I will never do it again. Priority is Easy, it is relatively inexpensive and it is faster. DC#s are great to have as well.

I do not think the savings of 1st class is worth the extra trouble of finding a box (or trying to use USPS priority boxes incorrectly), buying your own tape, etc etc.

Besides, if you can't afford to pay for Priority, maybe you should rethink the idea of sending cigars? Bottom line to me is that my Bros here are worth the Priority, and to not use a DC#.....unthinkable. Just my $0.02 but there it is.

 

[ricmac25]

I'm not an environmentalist in any way, but...

what's the big deal with reusing a previously used priority mail box? It has already served its mission. Instead of me throwing it away, I am recycling it. Good for the environment! :thumbs: I am not condoning using a brand new priority mail box wrapped in brown paper. I understand the argument on that case. But I don't see the problem with doing that to a box I was going to throw away anyway.

 

[Toaster]

Admittedly I'm a cheapskate by nature, but there is a difference in 1st class vs. priority mail. I can send 4 to 5 cigars for about $1.10 to $1.25 first class mail, vs. $3.85 for priority.

I'm not condoning or condemning either practice, I'm merely saying that there is a pretty significant difference in price. You're talking about roughly 33% of the cost.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not defending one side of this debate or the other- just saying in my experience, the cost of 1st class mail is about a 1/3 that of priority mail.

Mail On!

:thumbs: Toaster

 

[emodx]

I use priority for just about everything. I order the boxes and tape online and they come in the mail. I try and do all my postage online also. I used to be a critic of the USPS, but now that they have made the service customer driven, I am back in their corner.

Emo

 

[sir-smokes-a-lot]

I am mixed on DC use.
(one reason is I found that the campus PO no longer scans them in before they send them.)

for just a trade, will not put one on as it it between two people who trust each other.
yes for passes and GBs
no always on bombs, that one depends.

as for the mailing Q, am not going to start up that debate again , but Toaster has a point that it is a good 50%+ cheaper to go 1st class and it gets there in relatively the same time.

 

[MilesMingusMonk]

I am mixed on DC use.
(one reason is I found that the campus PO no longer scans them in before they send them.)

for just a trade, will not put one on as it it between two people who trust each other.
yes for passes and GBs
no always on bombs, that one depends.

as for the mailing Q, am not going to start up that debate again , but Toaster has a point that it is a good 50%+ cheaper to go 1st class and it gets there in relatively the same time.

I participated in a box split with other CPers in December. The originator of the split posted in a thread that packages were mailed out. After about 10 days, I realize I had not received the mailing. I emailed the originator letting him know it was AWOL and asked him if he had used a DC for the package. Luckily he had, but he hadn't posted the DCs at the time of shipment in the thread. I punched the code in online, saw that it had been received at my post office. I took that to my (small town) post office and told them about this package that I had never received nor ever received a notice of pick up. After a 15 minute search at my insistance, they find the box (properly addressed) but misnumbered by the post office handlers and thus, misshelved. If it hadn't been for that DC #, I would never had any proof that the package in fact existed and it would have sat there forever.


Using DC is worth the money.... and when it is FREE by using the "Print and Ship" label system online at USPS.gov, there is no excuse not to use it!

 

[cohibasurfer]

Well I'm guilty of doing the inside out ... first class trick myself! I was never charged priority. I hope no-one on the other end ever had to cough up a buck or two. :sign:

 

[sir-smokes-a-lot]

don't get me wrong, will def. put DC on for a pass or a Group Buy,

just do not see the need to heve one for a trade between 2 Bros (though I usu. do it anyway.)
As for bombs, as it is a suprise, do not post #s often before I send them.

 

[emodx]

Well I'm guilty of doing the inside out ... first class trick myself! I was never charged priority. I hope no-one on the other end ever had to cough up a buck or two. :sign:

You can send me cigars all week long, and I'll pay the difference each time to get cigars outta hock!

Emo

 

[Toaster]

Agreed... Anyone who wants to test the postage due thing... feel free to bomb my ass back to the stone-age. Address available upon request!

Screw it, you guys can bomb me even without wanting to test the postage due method