Postal rates on bubble mailers

[cravenfan07]

Hey all,

Yesterday I got my first bubble mailer with a postage due notice - .82 postage in #000 bubble mailer and under 3/4 inch thick (.48 postage due - i.e. what it would have costs for 1.5 oz parcel). Now - if I understand it right - that qualifies as a large envelope. Well - the Lima post office through which it passed says that it is a parcel. Here is the reasoning I heard on this:

bubble mailers can not qualify as large envelopes if there is something hard in them because then they can't go through the sorting machine?!?

Yeah - I got a response - uh...what? I've sent gobs of these from post offices as large envelopes (i.e. I handed it to a pastal worker and they affixed the shipping sticker to it themselves!) with no problem! Now - if this package had been from some newbie (not knocking new traders) sending me something who was unfamiliar with the postal system rates, I wouldn't have been upset by it. This user (between here, other sites, and eBay) I would venture has done 1000+ transactions of this nature. I know he knows what he is doing, I know what I am doing - or at least I think I do
! Anyone here got any input on this? I seem to recall a thread of this nature sometime recently but can't find it. Does this all depend on the regional postmaster generals ruling or is the Lima post just all kinds of wrong? Thanks for reading my rant on this.

- Scott

[Bondsaway]

Scott

This happened to me 2 weeks ago. Got an envelope with .75 postage due.
So as I usually do went to the P.O. on a Friday to mail my trades and such off. But everyone at my P.O. knows me due to the large numbers of bubbler's I receive. So I asked the question there. The woman gave me their memo from the post master general with the new rules. They are open to interpretation from everyone. She also pointed out that people do not read the new rule correctly! Basically this new rule does and doesn't allow bubbler's to be categorized as a regular letter. Heres how its suppose to be read. Any bubbler under 3/4 inch thick should go regular mail postage should be around 60-75 cents depending on weight. If over 3/4 thick it becomes parcel and will run anywhere from .80-1.30. But if you ask all the workers at different times you will get 10 different answers!!!

[abnascar22]

If they put 'do not bed' on the envelope... that costs about $.25 more. I went through that with a new teller. I knew it was going to be like $.85 or whatever to mail one card in a #000 bubblemailer and he said "is there anything that can be bent?" Ofcourse I said "yes", so he put the red 'do not bend' stamp on it and told me the package would now cost over $1. If I had known that, I wouldn't have had him put the stamp on it.

[stewart20rulz]

My local PO just received guidance on the bubble envelops. When I mail now, they actually measure the thickness of the package with a template and those under 3/4" gets me the lower rate. However, another post office 2-3 miles away does not measure them and always charges me the parcel rate which costs me another $0.50 or more. The USPS needs to get their act together. As far as I'm concerned, if the PO labels it with the postage and stamps the date on it, it's good regardless of what another PO says.

Just my 39 cents....

[bret2]

Just my 39 cents....

Hey Don,
You have 2 cents postage due (.41 for a stamp now)

[stewart20rulz]

It's getting hard to keep up....it won't be long and the stamps will be $0.43 and bubble mailers will be $2 to mail.

Don

Hey Don,
You have 2 cents postage due (.41 for a stamp now)

[pezesu]

just my observations & opinions. i have about 5 local p.o that i do business with, depending on my travel for the day. i still get varying prices for the same items. a 000 bubble with 1 card as low as .59 to 1.30. the regulations were vague & left each p.o. to its on interpretation. i've dealt with post master to clerks & still get differant options. i try & go to the one i know i'll get the lowest price. as far as i know none ever went postage due. if & went it does i'm afraid i may blister the usps site. i in good faith take the package get it weighed & pay what they tell me, if a clerk in another office decides it needs more postage & undermines the mailing office, they are ripping off the receiver of the cards from their area & OF COURSE IT WOULD COME BACK TO BITE ME. the increase from .52 to 1.30 is totally ridiculous. however, since they do pay my retirement i should be easy on them, but they are completly mismaneged from the top on down & this really does'nt surprise me, hence the reason i left. well good luck to all, cause i don't think we will see any standardized rate on these. perry

[doniceage]

This is something that a massive campaign needs to be done to effectively charge the same price. As if you wanted to put stamps on them from home you never know what type of clerk your going to get. Thus you could have some come back and others not due to postage (just a big headache)!!

As others have said they have that template a enevelope that they can actually slide it thru. If it fits lower price if it does not then it the higher price. Of course I asked for one and they would not give it to me. As I wanted to be there with my trust guide in hand for the future. IF ANYONE EVER FINDS ONE AND WANTS TO TRADE IT LET ME KNOW. I WANT TO GO IN MY POST OFFICE WITH ONE OF THOSE EVERYTIME AS MY LETTER OF THE LAW!!!

p.s. Scott just type in bubble mailers in the search feature and will find a few more posts etc on this issue. The Search feature is a awesome tool to use when you know it been mentioned before and only takes a few seconds. Of course bubble mailer will give you 86 topics as many type in bubblemailer in their trade threads as well. But still 5 or 6 good topics on the cost, postal, etc. on bubble mailers. Just a FYI!!


DON

[cravenfan07]

This is something that a massive campaign needs to be done to effectively charge the same price. As if you wanted to put stamps on them from home you never know what type of clerk your going to get. Thus you could have some come back and others not due to postage (just a big headache)!!

.....

p.s. Scott just type in bubble mailers in the search feature and will find a few more posts etc on this issue. The Search feature is a awesome tool to use when you know it been mentioned before and only takes a few seconds. Of course bubble mailer will give you 86 topics as many type in bubblemailer in their trade threads as well. But still 5 or 6 good topics on the cost, postal, etc. on bubble mailers. Just a FYI!!


DON

Don,

On the first point - I whole heartedly agree! It may end up costing us (i.e. they go with bubble mailers are parcels regardless) but at least then the worry is gone and everyone is paying the same to get their cards there.

Thanks for the heads up on the search feature. I do use it regularly (mostly to keep track of old trades) - and tried to find the thread in question using Search before I posted this thread actually. I guess I used the wrong terms (I think I tried postal rates or postage) when I should have tried bubble mailers (funny thing is - that is the search term I used on the USPS site lol).

Thanks to all who responded. Hopefully the USPS steps up and addresses this issue sometime soon! Take care all!

- Scott

[doniceage]

Scott,
That cool let us know how things turn out. As it in concerns us all as we all ship bubble mailers (or most of us) LOL.

DON