Why do they hate Media Mail?
Deep_Sang
1,081 Posts
Ever notice how reluctantly usps will send something Media Mail?I use the service all the time and every single time the post office employees get real skeptical like I'm trying to get over on em with shipping. Asking stuff like "Are you sure it's only records? You know that we will open media mail to check."Makes me wonder why they offer the service to the public at all if it is such a thorn in their side.Anyone else have this experience? Anyone ever received a package that had been opened? Damaged from being opened?
Comments
it depends on the PO you use... some places were really lax about media and people were shipping RIDICULOUS stuff with MM... the example they offered was bricks!
I also think they said that it may be phased out in the future...
I recieved a record upwards of two months after shipment once, but almost everytime it is between 1-2 weeks. If it only goes a few states away it can just a few days.
Records are still made, bought, and sold. Thus it is a legitimate piece of media, but I also heard that a lot of people abuse the media mail rate with eBay and whatnot. I have no problem in opening packages if they want to be like that, as long as they tape it up the way I do it.
Book rate always works too, if "Media Mail" classification doesn't work. Usually takes a week from here to anywhere on the West Coast, about 10 days from here to anywhere pass Mrs. Hippie.
And yes, they are trying to phase out media mail because people are using it to send all sorts of shit that is NOT media. Such as toys, food, bricks, clothes, and other things. The USPS is discussing having everything being sent parcel post instead of media mail as an option. Parcel post sucks and is kind of expensive, so let's hope this doesn't happen.
Peace
T.N.
Book Rate= Media Mail. Book Rate was phased out quite a few years ago... the thing with the Post Office is that 50% of the people working there don't know the rules and you have to call them on it (the amount of times i've had people measure the 36" length x width x height thing wrong is insane...). i go the post office 3X a week at least for my job and i've gotten to know which clerks are asses and which know the rules...
...or in the crib by their victrola
the biggest problem ive had is tellers who sniff out inside out priority mail boxes. i shouldnt be doing that anyway though. some tellers get real ocd about taping an theyll make you tape everything over again, especially on international shit.
i also love when i ask them to throw a fragile stamp on the box and then i see them chucking it over their shoulder, no look pass style, into the big bin. YO!!!!!! THAS FRAGILE, BEEEAAACH!!!!!!!!
Hell yes. Back in the day when I was still doing a print zine, I used to get in hassles with the Post Office droids about postage/size of envelope. I knew it was the right size/postage (just inside the limit), but apparently some hump was just "eyeballing" it at the Post Office. I came home the next day to an entire mailing returned for "insufficient" postage. I went right to the Postmaster the next day, who acted as if he couldn't care less. Great customer service...
one time some lady wouldn't take a check from me even though i had paid by check for about 4 years at the same place.
another time i sent something insured and it never got there and when i tried to claim it they wouldn't let me claim it and started giving me mad attitude. i eventually spoke to the manager but she was giving me attitude too!
another time lady wouldn't let me pay with a check cause she said i needed a business card to pay with checks. the funny thing is i paid with checks all the time at this place. it was about 70 dollars in shipping. and she even went back and got all my parcels and started tearing off the postage stamp all dramatically.
the strange thing is all three incidents the employee was asian. wtf up with that ? this current place i am at is great. very rarely do i have to wait more than one or two people in line and they are very friendly, talk to me about thrift stores and records and whatnot. it's great! big cities suck in that regard.
dave
i was at usps last week and some "dude" in a wheelchair was yelling at the top of his lungs, screaming cuss words, talking shit to everyone next to him, fool thought the PO was out to get him. It was appalling.
I know the regulations better than a lot of clerks. I tell them, "to look it up. You should tell them that records are recorded media and thus allowable. Make them look it up in their regs.
Good suggestion to report slacker clerks who give you a hard time to the station manager, who they call the Post Master. If the Post Master cops an attitude, call the main area station and let that post master know.
One time I had a clerk who was so into telling me about his web site www.wehost.yoursite/stupidclerk/home.com, that he was paying no attention to what he was doing. I had to keep telling him, "stamp the customs form and keep a copy... remember to put postage on that one... you need to scan the insurance bar code...". As soon as I got back I let called the post master and said "I want it on the record that the clerk was not doing his job in case any of those goes missing".
Dan
Why does the USPS even care? They ship packages based on weight. Who cares if it's 10 pounds of bricks or 10 pounds of books?
I'm guessing it was favor to book publishing intrests. "My fellow Americans books are so important that I am introducing a bill to require lower postage rates for the brave men and women who are in the book publishing business and recently sent me and my family on a hawaiin vacation." Lots of special intrests get breaks from congress that are written into USPS code. Junk mailers are one, at my post office people are always shipping live chickens. There is a special live chicken rate at the post office.
Well, if you just got a steal on eBay and don't want to pay more on shipping than you did to win the thing, then...
Usually, for cheap $15 records that I can't readily find in my region, I don't like to pay (sometimes) $5 extra just to get it to my door. That negates the purpose of eBay in the first place for me. Especially with those bogus "handling" rates. I've seen folls in the States who want $7 or more to ship an LP Priority (no combined shipping), and that's without insurance, tracking, or the nasty hidden $2 PayPal surcharge.
THINK OUTSIDE THE CRATES!
I just copped Headless Heroes for $20. With the lyric sheet. My head is fully inside the crates right about now.
Good to know. I had the same encounter with the "consider yourself lucky" attitude.
Everyone should know that if the post office breaks the record, that insurance is not going to cover it. It is only insured against loss.
2.) for the longest time I was pondering WHY THE FUCK they didn't have media mail on there, it was so annoying to have to come back when they were "open". Within the last few days it's because they're so worried about people scamming them.
Seriously people have given me minor hassles about it - it's like, what the fuck. If they want to randomly inspect shit it's one thing, but you can't tell me even the MAJORITY of people scam them on that. It just doesn't make sense to treat everyone like shit. If it's that big of a problem, don't offer it.
That's true.
What I think he's referring to is "Bound, Printed Material," which is different than Media.