Oh My goodness...She is so clueless and doesn't know how to do her job and (imho) should be fired! If you mail a Bubble Envelope, regardless of the size or the thickness, it will be charged at the Parcel Rate of $1.22 and up. She said they don't use the device at the counter for measuring a Bubble envelope for thickness, it automatically gets charged the parcel rate. If the Bubble envelope of any size, even empty goes through their machines, it comes out ruined, so they have to put all the bubble envelopes through a different system. She is so wrong! She has been wrong ever since Shape Based pricing went into effect in May 2007...so those employees have ALL been OVERCHARGING now for going on to 4 YEARS! When will this madness end? In order to attempt to get her properly trained (isn't it sad the customers are trying to train USPS supervisors?) I suggest you print out this bulletin...First-Class Mail Fact Sheet At the bottom of it under First-Class Mail Quick Tips, it says"For padded bags (e.g., ReadyPost "cushion mailer"), when the thickness is 3/4" or less and the item is flat-size and somewhat flexible, the item should be classified and priced as a large envelope." Why is that so hard for postal employees to understand? I think even a caveman could understand that! She said that if you put the seeds in a long white envelope, with a small amount of padding in it, and if it is under an ounce, you can put a $.44 cent stamp on it and ask for the 'non machinable' rate. They would charge you another $.20 for that and so the total cost of your envelope would be $.64. hmmm...and we ALL know how well seeds do in regular envelopes with bubble wrap in them. The envelopes end up torn up and the seeds destroyed, if the envelope and seeds even make it to their destination and aren't totally destroyed. What about those who live in the rural and don't have the convenience of getting into the PO very often? What about those that get dropped into the blue mailboxes? Does she think that every envelope is read and sorted by hand so marking something Hand Stamp will be seen? Give me a break. I asked about the little gadget to measure the thickness of the envelope and she said they don't give them out, but they keep one at the counter, but they don't use it to measure bubble envelopes. It seems strange that some of were able to get them from our post offices without any problems. Would you mind posting her name and telephone number here along with her address? I will personally contact her superior from the list at the link below that lists all Vice Presidents and District Managers. It shows the zip code areas that are covered by each one. Imho, she needs to be reported littleonefb, Fran I really don't think anyone associated with the PO is reading this or is attempting to get anything done. I sure wish I could get NBC, CBS, or one of the major networks to pick up on this stealing that has been going on for almost 4 years. A lot of folks should be fired for not knowing how to do their job correctly. In the private sector, a lot of these employees would have been fired long ago. Here is a link that might be useful: USPS Management-it is an 11 page pdf file that will need to load

I also have had nothing but good experiences with my POs. I have kids (and gkids) in Chicago, St. Louis, and several small towns in the midwest and mail lots of notes and packages just because it's cheap and the gkids love getting mail! Nothing has ever been misplaced or taken more than three days from my rural mailbox to the kids' mailboxes. Once I neglected to put both the stamp and a return address on a bill. Two weeks later, I got it back from the PO telling me of my errant ways. They returned it to me because of the address on my check. Amazing! I always use the PO to mail or ship everything. Well, I pay most of our bills through email now, so I guess I'm part of the problem. 43 cents to mail a letter? I can't imagine how they do it. Cracks me up to hear complaints. I'm sure mistakes happen, but, sheesh, 43¢ to mail a letter? The rest of my life should be such a bargain!

I never ship USPS...they are unreliable, and take too long. I use DHL or FedEX....DHL is cheaper and faster. For $4-5, their ground service is a MAXIMUM of 3 days (except at Christmas, when it can stretch to 4). Their tracking system is the best, and they have real, human customer service people who will find the location of a package that has not been delivered and even refund charges if a package isn't delivered in time...things the USPS does not do. Try calling the USPS with a problem...and the best you get, if they answer the phone, is a bored voice telling you 'I dunno, nothing I can do". It costs nothing to open an account with FedEx or DHL, and you get free pre-printed waybills. The USPS, IMO, is the worst shipper.

Maire, yes, they give you a discount for ordering the postage online. If you use the USPS.com postage calculator, it'll give you two prices: one if you purchase shipping at the PO and a lower one if you purchase it online. You can also click a box to receive emailed tracking updates if you like. My Post Office is 10 miles away, so I'm glad I rarely need to go there. There's a closer one, but that Post Office doesn't have a computer. So you can't get any printed receipts. That makes the place pretty useless for me. The only time I use it is if I have a pre-paid package too big to fit in my mailbox. Then I can just drop it off at the PO. But my mailbox is quite large, so that rarely happens. I even ship internationally online now, filling out the customs form on the computer and then printing it out. No more filling out those dreadful little forms in triplicate at the Post Office. I recently shipped something to Saudi Arabia, and it didn't take much more time than shipping to New Jersey. I have a UPS account too, used for unusually large packages. I print that postage online too. Then UPS comes and picks it up from my house. Or, if the package isn't very heavy, I can drop it at one of their drop-off sites.