Abusing USPS mailing supplies

[Superduper]

Was wondering if any one else has observed an increased prevalence of abuse of postal mailing supplies? It used to be priority mailing shipping boxes. People used to flip them insid out, cover them with paper (ala book covers), etc. But now, it's the padded mailers. You know, those large padded envelopes that are like bubble wrap. The last few shipments I received.... the sellers used them. Not like one of them, but like dozens of them, all taped together in such a way that they could never be used again. Too cheap to buy bubble wrap so they use these by sticking them together with the self stick flaps to make their own bubble wrap. If anyone has ever purchased these large padded mailers, you know they are not cheap... like $2 each. So to use dozens of them, (obtained free from the post office to be used for USPS priority shipping only), then finally packing the contents into a carton for mailing by FedEx, it seems soooo very wrong to me. That I've seen this practice so often now disturbs me a bit.

I'm very happy I received my shipment in proper order, but I just wish people would just do the right thing, and to me, this isn't it. It can't be all that hard to just purchase a proper roll of bubble wrap for a few bucks nor could it affect their bottom line all that much, could it? Just venting I guess. After all, it's no skin off my nose I guess, but nevertheless, it bothers me just thinking about how much $$$ just went down the tube. No wonder USPS shipping costs keep going up.

 

[Radio-Active]

I go to the furniture store. They are happy to give away the good big bubble wrap for free.

 

[floyd]

Every place you go is a life sucking black hole.
I have to stand behind slow old mother fukers every time , and the employees suck ass. Its like wtf do you have to do to just do your business without ****ing stress inducing rotten mother fukers of the world doing everything they can to be annoying. **** USPS I hope the rot in hell.**** FedEx and ups.
Their all rotten to the core.

 

[restocat]

Good point Super. I have observed this as well. It might be that USPS has determined that the amount of time spent ringing up a small purchase exceeds the vaue of the item. Government logic at its finest.

A solution might be to add an electronic security tag. When a package is scanned, it picks up every envelope in the package and immediately charges a non-refundable fee accordingly.

"That was 938$ for your package, sir. We detected 90 envelopes inside. And.. Good news! ...your visa payment went through just fine."

 

[trippy1313]

It's funny you mention this Norm. Not sure if anyone else got this, but I got an email the other day from usps about a policy update. They are cracking down on "discrepancies" i.e.: people using medium priority mail labels, with large boxes, or items with different weight and sizes than noted on the labels. I think it was to the point of the item being returned, and possibly no postage being refunded. So if you either screwed up or tried to cheat, you'd pay twice.

I know that's not what you're saying. You're talking about people essentially stealing. That's not cool either.

Honestly I have used a small priority mail to send something, but I ended up reshaping the box to my needs, and then paid more,than the priority rate anyways.

 

[Styleking]

I've been a manager for the USPS for going on 18 years. and can factually report that the problem Norm brings up is a very common issue. People often order free postal boxes to use them for such things such as: moving boxes, home personal use(i.e.to keep them as record holders) and for additional package protection while shipping. At the associate office level there is no cost for the supplies to us, so we gladly provide them for customers never knowing what their intended purpose is. Another issue we have is that people take USPS tubs, pallets, trays and rolling stock to use personally or for private business use. The USPIS (United States Postal Inspection Service) does crack down on the corporate aspect of stolen equipment but at the consumer level it's just to hard to keep up.

Additionally, as Trippy has pointed out, the USPS has also rolled out new program called Automated Package Verification where we will now weigh and size parcels as they go through the automation process. Then we can cross check the postage that was paid and if necessary, bill the sender for the additional postage necessary. Which is something that always had to be done at the local level and was only caught if the distribution clerk noticed the insufficient postage, which typically was about 10-20% of the time. It's good news for the buyer since you will not be called in to pay the postage due anymore. The sender will just have the responsibility to be more accurate when mailing.

I caught a mailer mailing a large home printer and he paid the rate for a Flat rate envelope. I immediately checked the pricing and the sender had short paid the parcel by over $80. I tracked the shipment and found they mailed out twenty printers to different locations using the same insufficient postage. I contacted the USPIS and let them know about the fraud, which seemed very intentional. They said that it wasn't large enough price discrepancy to launch an investigation. Even though we were shorted $1600, the time and expense of opening an investigation wasn't worth the cost it would take to recover the postage due. ( I did get the $80 from my customer who told me that the item he purchased was valued at about the cost of the shipping.

Oh and Floyd thanks for the kind words...

 

[floyd]

I'm not blaming you lol.
Just where I live every kind of service sucks .
figures the minute I say something there just has to be an employee of the place I insulted , I can't win lol

 

[Reli]

Very few people have any real sense of ethics. If you ask them what they would do if they found a valuable item on the street, most would say "finders keepers" or "if they really liked it they wouldn't have lost it"

Same thing with postal supplies. They think "Oh, well if they let that stuff sit around for the taking, I'm taking it"

 

[MyOhMy]

Very few people have any real sense of ethics. If you ask them what they would do if they found a valuable item on the street, most would say "finders keepers" or "if they really liked it they wouldn't have let it get lost"

Same thing with postal supplies. They think "Oh, well if they let that stuff sit around for the taking, I'm taking it"

This is all so true but life needn't be like this and attitudes like you've mentioned really do rile me. Those who race to the bottom will be the first casualties.

 

[Radio-Active]

Yeah,I just quit as a mail carrier of many years. Don't mention it here. Lol!

 

[redbenjoe]

Very few people have any real sense of ethics.

i do have an ethical friend ....and everybody takes advantage of him ... 24 / 7
...
but nothing can make him less ethical and
he is a happy person

 

[MyOhMy]

Very few people have any real sense of ethics.

i do have an ethical friend ....and everybody takes advantage of him ... 24 / 7
...
but nothing can make him less ethical and
he is a happy person

It's a sad state of affairs when the good guys stand out just for being the good guys.

 

[jimmyjimmy19702010]

Every place you go is a life sucking black hole.
I have to stand behind slow old mother fukers every time , and the employees suck ass. Its like wtf do you have to do to just do your business without farking stress inducing rotten mother fukers of the world doing everything they can to be annoying. fark USPS I hope the rot in hell.fark FedEx and ups.
Their all rotten to the core.

You've got to respect a guy who says it like it is. No politically correct BS to get in the way of the truth!

Keep up the good work Floyd.

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

I have seen the same :superduper: , I too find it very offensive that "doing the right thing" seems like it is so long ago.

I used to get free bubble wrap from a local surf shop. Their surf boards were delivered using gobs of the stuff. The owner couldn't bring himself to throw it away and send it to a land fill so he started putting it into a derelict van he had out back. Once the van was full he listed the bubble wrap for free on craigslist.

For 5 years I used his free bubble wrap to ship radio's to all four corners of the globe until I finally emptied his van!

 

[trippy1313]

For 5 years I used his free bubble wrap to ship radio's to all four corners of the globe until I finally emptied his van!

Umm..... Chris... Hate to be the one to break it to ya..... the earth is round.... It has no corners.

Lol.

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

For 5 years I used his free bubble wrap to ship radio's to all four corners of the globe until I finally emptied his van!

Umm..... Chris... Hate to be the one to break it to ya..... the earth is round.... It has no corners.

Lol.

Yeah, all I did was evenly distribute plastic too all regions

 

[trippy1313]

For 5 years I used his free bubble wrap to ship radio's to all four corners of the globe until I finally emptied his van!

Umm..... Chris... Hate to be the one to break it to ya..... the earth is round.... It has no corners.

Lol.

Yeah, all I did was evenly distribute plastic too all regions


Hahaha. I'm just messing with you. I always liked that phrase all corners of the globe. Or other oxymoron or contradicting phrases that are funny to say. Fun with words.

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

For 5 years I used his free bubble wrap to ship radio's to all four corners of the globe until I finally emptied his van!

Umm..... Chris... Hate to be the one to break it to ya..... the earth is round.... It has no corners.

Lol.

Yeah, all I did was evenly distribute plastic too all regions


Hahaha. I'm just messing with you. I always liked that phrase all corners of the globe. Or other oxymoron or contradicting phrases that are funny to say. Fun with words.