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No more 44 cent PWE's?

The clerk at the Post Office tried to take two PWE's with card savers and slim cardboard and add .20 cents on to them. I explained I have been sending many of them for years like this and they always went through. Today I got a personal letter from my postmaster today explaining a "rigid" envelope is non-machinable and is subject to additional .20 surcharge. Guess the clerk had nothing better to do than rat me out to her boss. Nice to know

Comments

  • judgebuckjudgebuck Posts: 989 ✭✭✭
    I've had the same thing happen at my p.o. I was first alerted to it when a dissatisfied eBay customer complained that he had to pay the p.o. $0.20 due to insufficient postage when he received a card from me. The postal clerk later told me that based on thickness or rigidity, the letter might not pass through the machine.

    Always looking for Mantle cards such as Stahl Meyer, 1954 Dan Dee, 1959 Bazooka, 1960 Post, 1952 Star Cal Decal, 1952 Tip Top Bread Labels, 1953-54 Briggs Meat, and other Topps, Bowman, and oddball Mantles.

  • yankeeno7yankeeno7 Posts: 9,242 ✭✭✭
    used to be if it was over an ounce, it was an extra 17 cents. maybe they raised that too.
  • RipublicaninMassRipublicaninMass Posts: 10,051 ✭✭✭
    I did send two top loaders and cardboard a few times and they all came back to ME postage due, never had an issue with postage due on the other end..maybe nobody mentioned it
  • If you ever send anything in the envelops with the little metal clasp thing on them they add the .20 on those also as being non-machinable.
  • packCollectorpackCollector Posts: 2,786 ✭✭✭
    never sent a card in an envelope but may consider as I am adding a lot of cheap stuff to my ebay listings, how do you guys send it to pass through with a stamp?
  • BoopottsBoopotts Posts: 6,784 ✭✭


    << <i>never sent a card in an envelope but may consider as I am adding a lot of cheap stuff to my ebay listings, how do you guys send it to pass through with a stamp? >>



    PWE, a card saver I, and a stamp. I've never had an issue.
  • They got me on my first time... Tried to send an envelope and I got hit with non-machinable... FIRST TIME
  • wrestlingcardkingwrestlingcardking Posts: 4,555 ✭✭✭✭
    I have been charged for years with the additional 17 cents for non-machineable if I send a card in a top loader or a card saver with cardboard. This is nothing new.
    BUYING Frank Gotch T229 Kopec
    Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
  • mtcardsmtcards Posts: 3,342 ✭✭✭
    Honestly, they have changed what they charge so often at the PO, I can take a PWE, a small bubble mailer, a jiffy mailer or whatever and on different days get different prices for each of them. I have never had a PWE returned with postage due, but I used to be able to send bubble mailers with one card for 64 cents when they classified it a "large envelope", now they classify it as a "package" which means $1.22. This was done when they supposedly "reduced" the price of packages. Oh well, more cut for ebay. Maybe eBay will buy the USPS next, so they can triple dip what is sold
    IT IS ALWAYS CHEAPER TO NOT SELL ON EBAY


  • << <i>Honestly, they have changed what they charge so often at the PO, I can take a PWE, a small bubble mailer, a jiffy mailer or whatever and on different days get different prices for each of them. I have never had a PWE returned with postage due, but I used to be able to send bubble mailers with one card for 64 cents when they classified it a "large envelope", now they classify it as a "package" which means $1.22. This was done when they supposedly "reduced" the price of packages. Oh well, more cut for ebay. Maybe eBay will buy the USPS next, so they can triple dip what is sold >>



    Just kidding postage hike 1.71!
  • So if my post office accepts it with a stamp and postmarks it, will the person on the other end still get charged a fee?
  • scashaggyscashaggy Posts: 1,107 ✭✭✭
    If the envelope is rigid, the clerk may add $.20 due to the fact that it has to be hand sorted.

    I have had this happen to me several times, it depends on the clerk.

    I have not however, ever had one returned to me or with PD.

    Just put a stamp and throw it in the drop box at the PO.
  • Those postal machines can easily rip an envelope, so your better off paying the extra. As far as postage due, they get the money from the receiver of the mail, not the sender.
  • WinPitcherWinPitcher Posts: 27,726 ✭✭✭


    << <i>As far as postage due, they get the money from the receiver of the mail, not the sender. >>




    If the receiver accepts it. If he does not it goes back to the sender, who can add the appropriate postage or

    in the case we are talking about refund the buyer and possibly get a neg.


    Good for you.
  • WinPitcherWinPitcher Posts: 27,726 ✭✭✭


    << <i>So if my post office accepts it with a stamp and postmarks it, will the person on the other end still get charged a fee? >>




    If it's also stamped 'postage due' he might. Anywhere along the line the 'postage due' stamp can be applied.


    Steve
    Good for you.


  • << <i>Those postal machines can easily rip an envelope, so your better off paying the extra. >>



    Oh, I wish it was that simple. My problem with the whole "non-machinable" charge is that whether you pay it or not, they machine everything. I send cards out with SASE for autographs and they're constantly mangled upon return. I've told my postal clerks that I don't mind paying the fee (prefer it, in fact), as long as they don't machine my stuff.

    Never works image

    Take it easy,
    Jared
    "You consider me the young apprentice,
    Caught between the Scylla and Charibdes,
    Hypnotized by you if I should linger,
    Staring at the ring around your finger" - Sting

    Ray Thiel (1964-2007) - the man who showed me more wonderful games & gaming sessions than I ever dreamed possible... you ran out of hit points too young, my friend.


  • << <i>

    << <i>Those postal machines can easily rip an envelope, so your better off paying the extra. >>



    Oh, I wish it was that simple. My problem with the whole "non-machinable" charge is that whether you pay it or not, they machine everything. I send cards out with SASE for autographs and they're constantly mangled upon return. I've told my postal clerks that I don't mind paying the fee (prefer it, in fact), as long as they don't machine my stuff.

    Never works image

    Take it easy,
    Jared >>



    Did you ever try and write please hand cancel on the envelope? Don't know if it would help, but worth a shot.
  • RipublicaninMassRipublicaninMass Posts: 10,051 ✭✭✭
    update: ALL envelopes were delivered fine with 44 cent stamp
  • mtcardsmtcards Posts: 3,342 ✭✭✭


    << <i>So if my post office accepts it with a stamp and postmarks it, will the person on the other end still get charged a fee? >>




    I had this problem to some degree. As I said, sometimes, I would get charged the parcel rate and sometimes the large envelope rate. I just started putting the right amount of stamps on it for the envelope rate, but around the first week of Feb this year, they started adding postage due on them. After two years and about 500 bubble mailers, they started charging full rates and it pissed a few people off that had postage due. I asked the clerk if they would add postage due if it was paid for at the counter and they said NO, since they accepted the payment for mailing. I just think it wont be possible to get that anymore.

    From 64 cents to 1.71 in less than 2 years for a 1 oz bubble mailer, what a joke. Now, just the postage part will cost you $1.90 since ebay and paypal take their cut. More complaining from the "I got overcharged for shipping" crybabies
    IT IS ALWAYS CHEAPER TO NOT SELL ON EBAY
  • MCMLVToppsMCMLVTopps Posts: 4,580 ✭✭✭✭✭
    my 2 cents...

    Is 20 cents really a big deal? If you haven't been to a major postal facility which is fed by a bunch of smaller post offices and witnessed what an envelope goes through before it is delivered, I suspect you'd pony up the 20 cents without complaint. In my previous life as an employee, I had the wonderful task of managing the mail for a LARGE IRS facility which fed into the Atlanta postal system. We're talking many, many 10s of thousands of pieces of mail. Those envelopes get processed at a high rate of speed and go through God knows how many twists and turns like a go-kart track before it reaches the addressee.

    The USPS is losing tons of money and will continue to bump up costs to slow down the bleeding...people email, don't send cards, fewer and fewer greeting cards, blah, blah, thus their cash flow has been severely dinged. Odd that the Posmaster General is paid more than the President!!

    I say they almost have a monopoly (unless you send bulk via FedEx, UPS, etc) and might as well pay the piper and be done with it. You just gotta factor the cost into the sale price of your item. Kinda like gas, what can you do, walk, or pony up the coin.
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