Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
jim_6b

New template to determine postage

jim_6b
14 years ago

I've designed my own template. It's a piece of plywood with a hole in it. What you do is take a postal worker and try to shove them through the hole. If they don't fit chances are you will be overcharged for postage.

jim_6b

Comments (10)

  • remy_gw
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    LOL! Where's sue?

  • jim_6b
    Original Author
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I don't know where Sue is. I just sent her an email.

    I would like everyone to know that my post above was me trying to be funny about a serious and ongoing problem we are having with postage rates.
    I'm not trying to be a troll.
    Also, no postal workers we harmed in the testing of my template.
    jim_6b

  • graanieb
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    LOL Jim, I like your idea on template,we need a comedian once in a while anyway, Sue will understand.

  • littleonefb
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Ah yes, humor when dealing with the postal workers or you will lose your mind.

    I'm betting this though, my letter carrier and postmaster are the dumbest postal workers in existence.

    Back in the spring, I was having a lot of trouble getting my mail delivered to the mailbox outside the front door.

    Now the post office is not pleased with my box still on the door and not at the end of the driveway, BUT. we've explained time and again that we are not millionaires in my home and we are not going to continue to put the box down at the end of the driveway and have it smashed over every other week by some idiot that is illiterate and can not read the sign that says DEAD END. Instead of turning around at the intersection, and go back the way they came, the continue to speed down the short road, around the bend and right into the our mailbox.

    Well after replacing the box, 8 times over 12 weeks, we told the post office where they could go with the box at the end of the driveway and put it back on the house.

    So back to the spring, the cold, cold spring in MA and no mail for several days.
    then I came home and found a mail carrier box full of mail with elastics around packets of mail and on the front envelope on every packet read a date and

    SWARMING HONEY BEES ON FRONT WALK.

    After the initial mouth falling open and you no what going through my mind, I'm thinking, it's not me that's crazy, it's the letter carrier.

    It's 55 degrees that day, warmest all week, not a flower in bloom anywhere in sight, not even the crocus where up, the snow had just finally gone the week before.

    This idiot letter carrier can't tell the difference between flying ants and honey bees and it was too cold for bees still and why in the world would honey bees be swarming around dirt and brown half dead looking grass?

    So call the postmaster and get, "well, if the letter carrier says there where swarming honey bees then there where swarming honey bees, the letter carrier knows what he is talking about, and half the town is not getting mail delivered because of swarming honey bees, and he hung up on me.

    I'm like OK, now they both are crazy. The town is infested with flying ants and they postal service says the are honey bees.

    So next few days temps go down to freezing and below at night, and 40's in the day and I still got those "swarming honey bees".

    Hubby catches a few of the "swarming honey bees" and takes them to a pest control place to identify them, gets the formal paper work as to what they are, along with pics of the flying ants, as well as what honey bees look like. Brings home all the paper work and the collected flying ants.

    I show all this to the letter carrier and he hits the roof, telling me that my paper work is fake and they are honey bees and he knows what he is talking about.
    Needless to say, there was no talking to this idiot.

    So down to the postmaster I go with the same stuff and what to I get told? Yup, same thing as the letter carrier says.
    So now I blew my stack and told him I was going up the ladder, the chain of command and he will find out who is really correct.

    By the time this was settled, "the swarming bee" problem was gone, I never got an apology for the treatment and absurdity from both the letter carrier and the postmaster and if I'm out in the yard, and the mail comes, I get dirty looks from the letter carrier but I do get my mail delivered.

    I guess it's until the "swarming honey bees" arrive again next spring and I'm back to square 1 again.

    Fran

  • medontdo
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    ya know what i hate?? men who treat woman like they are second rate. we get that here sometimes. especially when i go to lowes or one of those places. i have to tell them " i KNOW that you can do that and i have seen them do it so now i need the pieces for it" because since i am a female they tell me that it can't be done. in a heart beat i will call someone on the fact of treating me like a stupid female. and that i'm not. **although sometimes i feel like one, *grin* ** luckily our po is pretty good. except i can't get my hands on that dang s-5 thingi. draging their dang feet. ~Medo

  • leila hamaya
    9 years ago

    was looking for some additional info to print out, because the whole fiasco with my post office is getting bad again....and found this which gave me a needed giggle =)


    i know there is quite a few threads on this in garden web, since it is such an annoying thing to seed traders, as well as many small business people who use bubblies. i remember there were some old threads with other links, addresses to write higher ups and such. i am at the point where i have to keep addressing this, and i have to go higher up than my local people...my 4 complaints put in are completely ignored, and i have gotten no response either calling or online trying to get my local PO to stop putting postage due on my flats.

    though really perhaps it doesnt matter how much i print out.
    i have already printed out the -current prices for "large envelopes/ flats" as well as the Physical Standards for Flats... and presented it three times, discussed this with them at least 50 times now...and twice written them letters stating i refuse to pay more than i required to for postage, and that they need to get their prices in line with the official usps prices..... and stop bugging me for money i am not required to pay.

    all of which shouldve been enough to get them to quit the nonsense of holding every flat i get for postage due...claiming in error i owe 1.40 or so...for each...because parcel prices start at 3 ounces...and the lowest parcel price is now 2.32(under 3 ounces). anywho they just....obfuscate or misdirect the conversation, do not answer my direct questions when i phrase it in such a way that it becomes obvious they are ripping me off....and just flat out ignore the printouts, even though they are from the exact manual they are supposed to be following.


    so i continue to get these postage due notices, and every time i print out the materials again, put it in the mailbox, with a note saying i refuse to pay more than i required to, and that the "flats" have proper postage and they need to recognize that, and stop holding my mail and refusing to deliver for NO REASON.


  • xiangirl zone 4/5 Nebraska
    9 years ago

    This was so funny. I've seen my nazi-like P.O. lady slide mail in and out of templates and so this is hysterical! Thank you for posting it. I've learned that the new millenniums don't have any sense of humor because they are too busy being politically correct. Haven't figured out the under par postal genetics...and the fact that I know postal workers who are great. Is it the training? The genetics? Smelling the glue from the stamps? Keep laughing!

  • Phylis
    9 years ago

    I was publicly shamed for standing in line and asked to buy stamps. (I had a trade to send that day). The P.O. clerk said she herself only buys stamps online, and I was wasting my gasoline and her time. She also insists that bubble mailers are automatically charged package rate. Thank God there's only one of her, and many other post offices that I can go to.

  • leila hamaya
    9 years ago

    i am waiting for a couple of trades to come in, and still gotten nowhere with my PO.


    over the weekend i wrote several postmasters, and wrote to the consumer affairs for the postal service. well it was basically the same letter, sent to the two offices which are direct supervisors of my post office, and then the consumer affairs. last week they were holding three of my mailpieces...then they started sending them back, return to sender! it sucks...they are trying to force me to pay postage for things that have no postage due, but they claim they do...most of them are "flats".

    when i refuse, write another letter, print out more documentation which proves what i am saying...they just ignore it and send another notice to pay postage due or they will return it. obviously the underhanded point of this plan is that few people care enough about the extra dollar or two that most people just pay it and shut up. the subtly of the theft bothers me almost as much as the theft...the way of counting on people to not want to deal with the hassle they dish out...and so they force this on people...then act like anyone who says anything other than thank you for ripping me off...then your a problem person or whatever...not that they are doing something...

    well here some links if any one is curious, and needs to file a complaint.
    if everyone started filing complaints when they did this, maybe something would change, though its hard to say if it would.

    a bulletin which clearly outlines the differences between flats and parcels , and also specifically mentions bubble envelopes " padded envelopes" as being flats, as long as they are under 3/4 inch.
    https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2007/html/pb22218/kit1_010.html

    the consumer affairs locator...this gives you an address and phone number of the "consumer affairs" people who handle your local post office...so you could file a complaint: https://ribbs.usps.gov/locators/find-cam.cfm


  • leila hamaya
    9 years ago

    anyway my PO only has a 1/4 inch slot on thier template. when this first started almost two years ago...when they would overcharge i would tell them...thats the incorrect amount...this is a large envelope and should be at that rate...they would attempt to push it through the 1/4 inch slot and then act like that settled it. when i told them it was 3/4 inch or less...it would be a back of forth of no it isnt, yes it is, no it isnt, they would just be obnoxious about it. unfortunately i let it work...cause i felt i had no choice...just as now...if i dont pay, what i KNOW IS INCORRECT, they are sending my "flats" back. well possibly the three letters i wrote over the weekend will work...as i directly wrote their supervisors. but it really sucks...and i wish i had just kept pushing it back two years ago...instead of enabling their scam, by giving in... maybe by now it wouldve been settled...but i did everything i could think of to make it completely clear, including printing out extra copies of the dimensions and prices of a "flat"...so that every time i get a (fake and innaccurate) postage due notice in the mailbox, i put in another printed copy of the dimensions of flats and pricing...but they just completely ignore it, they dont even acknowledge it with a response, nor the three letters i have written them, addressed to the postmaster and mailed off...they have not acknowledged or responded to that. so thats how ridiculously far they will take this...even when presented with proof of what i say, they just ignore it and keep putting postage due notices in my box like once or twice a week!!!!! seriously...about half of mail is now being held back...for incorrectly assessed "postage due". and this is a small town...so they can single out my mail and keep messing with me...this is so stupid...but i keep being determined to follow it through, and refuse to pay the extra charges...keep writing higher ups every single time it happens...till something hopefully changes.


Sponsored
Landscape Management Group
Average rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars28 Reviews
High Quality Landscaping Services in Columbus