USPS New Rules

[G.A.tor]

hello all....

My company ships about 50,000 parcels a year...we use UPS for 90% of the shipments, but at least 10% (mostly international), we run through our local PO. This did not use to be the case, but unfortunately, the PO has had to raise rates to the point that it is more cost effective for our customers for us to use UPS (after all, the customer foots the shipping cost bill). That said, I know every employee in our PO, from the carriers, to the window clerks, to the Maint. gal. The postmaster personally greets me and shakes my hand every time I am there. He has gone so far as to give me the last 2 University of Florida commemorative Gator championship art works, and thanks me for my business every time I see him...even if I only have a letter to mail.

Each and every window clerk always have a warm greeting for me, and over the past 10 years, we have all become friends. I am invited to Xmas and Thanksgiving type lunches, etc, etc. True, we are their largest customer, but that really only matters to the Postmaster (he has thanked me more than once for his bonus). Every clerk in there is an outstanding example of a customer service employee. Maybe it is because we are in a small town, maybe we just have great folks that work here locally, maybe I get special treatment at my local PO....but I will say that I received the same treatment in Miami, back in the 90's, too.

Underdog has even gone so far as to drive 100 miles round trip to another post office to pick me up a postal print I was wanting. Maybe these are exceptional examples, but I have never had a negative experience at any PO I have visited.

Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in.

gator

[HouseofComics.Com]

BTW, BPM (BOUND PRINTED MATTER) is NOT going away. They just won't print postage for it AT THE MAIL COUNTER.

 

If you use another method of paying for your postage (I use stamps.com), then it's fine. You still have to drop it off at the counter though.

 

Are you saying that like international packages, we need to stand in line to mail something BPM?

[Underdog]

Thanks for that Tec27. I guess thats my point. Different people have different experiences. The ones that have the negative experiences just are more vocal.

Again, I understand that. Every place of business has the good and the bad.

Don't lump us all together and don't attack my job. It's what allows me the few nice comics I get.

[Underdog]

BTW, BPM (BOUND PRINTED MATTER) is NOT going away. They just won't print postage for it AT THE MAIL COUNTER.

 

If you use another method of paying for your postage (I use stamps.com), then it's fine. You still have to drop it off at the counter though.

 

Are you saying that like international packages, we need to stand in line to mail something BPM?

 

I'm not following what he's saying here either. As far as I know, we will still be accepting BPM.

[comicdonna]

Gees Rick! No wonder you get invited to lunches. You gave a postal employee a Tec 27 ?

 

BTW I only deal with the USPS If I recieve a package from Fed EX I end up driving 10 miles to pick up the package, they leave it on top of multiple mailboxes 1/4 mile from my house, and I need to check the apartment deck attached to our house.

[sckao]

BTW, BPM (BOUND PRINTED MATTER) is NOT going away. They just won't print postage for it AT THE MAIL COUNTER.

 

If you use another method of paying for your postage (I use stamps.com), then it's fine. You still have to drop it off at the counter though.

 

Are you saying that like international packages, we need to stand in line to mail something BPM?

 

Earlier in this thread, some people said that BPM was no longer an option to mail a package. Since Media Mail has known problems with some PO's not accepting it for shipping comics, that puts a crimp in the bulk mailing of comics.

 

See this:

 

http://www.usps.com/ratecase/ratecase_faqs.htm

 

Can postage for Bound Printed Matter (BPM) eligible items be purchased at the retail counter?

No. To simplify options at the retail counter, BPM will no longer be offered. However, we will still accept nonpresorted BPM pieces for mailing at the retail window (as well as collection boxes and letter carriers, as appropriate) when the customer pre-applies postage using any of the current forms – adhesive stamps, meter strips, pc postage.

 

What that means to me is that you can still ship BPM, you just need to prepare the label and postage yourself.

[The Less Blob]

For some reason I do fine at the PO window. I smile, say please and ask how their day has been. Plus, for reasons that I don't fully understand, black women love me. So I do really well at the post office because 90% of them are black women here in NYC. Mind you, I too am a public servant, although, luckily, I don't deal with the public much (unless you consider convicted felons "the public"). But I do hear horror stories about some of the branches here in Brooklyn where I moved. And mail does seem to come into and leave the county very slowly. I've taken to telling all my customers that their comics are going to have an additional 3-5 day Brooklyn delay.

[HouseofComics.Com]

What that means to me is that you can still ship BPM, you just need to prepare the label and postage yourself.

 

Thanks! I'm sure my updated mailing software will still have the BPM option then.

 

I can see why people wondered about BPM because it wasn't curiously omitted from the materials we saw from the USPS.

 

Marc

[Postal]

Thanks for that Tec27. I guess thats my point. Different people have different experiences. The ones that have the negative experiences just are more vocal.

Again, I understand that. Every place of business has the good and the bad.

Don't lump us all together and don't attack my job. It's what allows me the few nice comics I get.

 

[Postal]

What that means to me is that you can still ship BPM, you just need to prepare the label and postage yourself.

 

Thanks! I'm sure my updated mailing software will still have the BPM option then.

 

I can see why people wondered about BPM because it wasn't curiously omitted from the materials we saw from the USPS.

 

Marc

 

That's because the powers that be don't want to sell you the cheaper option. In fact, some places in the country have threatened to issue discipline to employees who mention the lower priced options.

[DaveRhodeIsland]

In response to the postal workers who I've managed to tick off, I have to say that your fellow postal workers have earned their reputations as surly, unpleasant and uncaring. I live in Rhode Island and without exception every branch of the USPS I've had to deal with has been staffed by people who foster such stereotypes.

 

In Warwick, for example, the branch I used to frequent was staffed by two of the nastiest women you'd ever have the misfortune to meet. Just buying stamps was a problem as they'd make it seem like you were causing them the greatest inconvenience by asking to purchase something. In the East Greenwich branch, you could expect long lines at any given time as they would have only one sloth-like employee working the window, even though there were four other windows and a line out the door of customers.

 

This is not how a good company treats its patrons. I understand that you who work for the USPS feel the need to defend your brethren, but it does not change the fact or the perception that postal workers are uncaring. The term "going Postal" exists for a reason.

 

Maybe it's better in other parts of the country, but this has been my first hand experience and no amount of defending it on your part will change that.

 

You, dear sir, just may be the problem. Imagine, every clerk you deal with causes you problems. I think you may be the cause of it.

The term "going postal" may exist for a reason but working for the Postal Service is one of the 5 safest places to work in America.

Again, what's your line of work.

 

Underdog, I am not the problem. I'm one of the few people that still says "hello", "please" and "thank you" when I interact with others and I always give people the benefit of the doubt. Not every clerk I deal with causes me problems - but most of those who do have been USPS clerks. Again, this may be the nature of cranky Northeasterners, or it may be that the post office branches I live near are extremely understaffed for the size of the city.

 

The fact remains that *my* opinion of the USPS is not the greatest. I am sorry that my lumping of all USPS employees has insulted the good people that work for the USPS. You're right of course that there are good and bad, and it was not right of me to generalize.

 

As for my line of work, I'm a manager in a graphics production company. I'm not in the service industries, so we don't deal directly with customers/patrons. Our salespeople handle that.

[NSPhillips]

We deliver more mail in one day then UPS and FED Ex does for a year combined.

 

 

Well, to be fair, that's because it's illegal for them to compete with the post office on most types of delivery. Every company would do more business if the government prohibited competition. And their overall level of service would drop considerably as well.

[Underdog]

NSPhillips, I agree with you 100% on that statement.

One day the Postal Service will be privatized. When that happens, be prepared for even larger hikes in postage. Certain areas will find they will have to go to the nearest towns to get their mail because it won't be profitable to deliver to them out in the country. It will happen, sooner or later.

 

The Postal Service is set up to NOT show a profit. We are basically on three year cycles (at least supposed to be) to break even. Year one, lose money, year two make money and year three to break even. Rarely works like that but is supposed to.

[Underdog]

Also, I should point out Detective27Kid didn't give me a tec27 (tho I'm willing to accept one!), I was just abreviating his name and thanking him for the post. My bad. Hell, I'm a product of the Kentucky public education school system, it's why I'm in the position I'm in today!

[G.A.tor]

Also, I should point out Detective27Kid didn't give me a tec27 (tho I'm willing to accept one!), I was just abreviating his name and thanking him for the post. My bad. Hell, I'm a product of the Kentucky public education school system, it's why I'm in the position I'm in today!

how about an Oreo reprint

[Underdog]

Heh, you're too kind!

[ShoNuff-migration]

hello all....

My company ships about 50,000 parcels a year...we use UPS for 90% of the shipments, but at least 10% (mostly international), we run through our local PO. This did not use to be the case, but unfortunately, the PO has had to raise rates to the point that it is more cost effective for our customers for us to use UPS (after all, the customer foots the shipping cost bill). That said, I know every employee in our PO, from the carriers, to the window clerks, to the Maint. gal. The postmaster personally greets me and shakes my hand every time I am there. He has gone so far as to give me the last 2 University of Florida commemorative Gator championship art works, and thanks me for my business every time I see him...even if I only have a letter to mail.

Each and every window clerk always have a warm greeting for me, and over the past 10 years, we have all become friends. I am invited to Xmas and Thanksgiving type lunches, etc, etc. True, we are their largest customer, but that really only matters to the Postmaster (he has thanked me more than once for his bonus). Every clerk in there is an outstanding example of a customer service employee. Maybe it is because we are in a small town, maybe we just have great folks that work here locally, maybe I get special treatment at my local PO....but I will say that I received the same treatment in Miami, back in the 90's, too.

Underdog has even gone so far as to drive 100 miles round trip to another post office to pick me up a postal print I was wanting. Maybe these are exceptional examples, but I have never had a negative experience at any PO I have visited.

Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in.

gator

 

 

I think it's safe to say that most peoples post office experience probably mirror this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lookwhoitis]

hello all....

My company ships about 50,000 parcels a year...we use UPS for 90% of the shipments, but at least 10% (mostly international), we run through our local PO. This did not use to be the case, but unfortunately, the PO has had to raise rates to the point that it is more cost effective for our customers for us to use UPS (after all, the customer foots the shipping cost bill). That said, I know every employee in our PO, from the carriers, to the window clerks, to the Maint. gal. The postmaster personally greets me and shakes my hand every time I am there. He has gone so far as to give me the last 2 University of Florida commemorative Gator championship art works , and thanks me for my business every time I see him...even if I only have a letter to mail.

Each and every window clerk always have a warm greeting for me, and over the past 10 years, we have all become friends. I am invited to Xmas and Thanksgiving type lunches, etc, etc. True, we are their largest customer, but that really only matters to the Postmaster (he has thanked me more than once for his bonus). Every clerk in there is an outstanding example of a customer service employee. Maybe it is because we are in a small town, maybe we just have great folks that work here locally, maybe I get special treatment at my local PO....but I will say that I received the same treatment in Miami, back in the 90's, too.

Underdog has even gone so far as to drive 100 miles round trip to another post office to pick me up a postal print I was wanting. Maybe these are exceptional examples, but I have never had a negative experience at any PO I have visited.

Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in.

gator

 

dang I had to pay $20 bucks apiece for these! (worth it )

 

GO GATORS!

 

I'd like to echo that my local PO in Orlando, FL is all about customer service too. I always have a good experience there.

 

One time a clerk even went and rooked the Batman stamp artwork off of his bosse's wall to sell me. (I wanted one that matched the artwork and stamp and many of the Batman's had plastic man stamps for some reason...)

[comicdonna]

Also, I should point out Detective27Kid didn't give me a tec27 (tho I'm willing to accept one!), I was just abreviating his name and thanking him for the post. My bad. Hell, I'm a product of the Kentucky public education school system, it's why I'm in the position I'm in today!

I know. That's why I used the graemlin.