Idiots Guide to the Post Office

[diputs]

Am I the only person that needs one?

I went to the post office to mail a letter. It is a letter to open a financial account, so I wanted to make sure that it got where it was going.

So I looked at all the forms, and these seemed to be my choices.

Delivery Confirmation $ 0.45
Signature Confirmation $1.75
Certified Mail $2.30

So it seemed like an obvious choice to me, I would do delivery confirmation.

Not so fast. Turns out you can only do delivery confirmation with priority mail. So it isn't really $.45, it is actually $4.30.

OK, So I will do signiture confirmation.

Well, it turns out that you cannot get signature confirmation without getting certified mail. Not sure how the math works on this one, but it came out to $4.65.

So it turned out that the priority mail with delivery confirmation came out the cheepest.

So the question is, how was I supposed to figure that out on my own? Why don't they post the real prices and not the prices that do not mean anything.

 

[lynn]

Ah-ha, i had the same problem a while ago - except ours is Canada Post, which is probably way worse. I wanted to mail a letter with delivery cofirmation within Canada - turns out there's no such thing! I can only mail it via Xpresspost - basically priority mail and costs around $10 instead of $0.50 via regular mail! *sighs* - seems every single one of my post office trips is filled with not-so-happy surprises!

 

[saludas]

Heh, heh...

The USPS is brought to you by our US Government, the same one that awards contracts for projects that affect our security, freedom, and safety by giving it strictly to the LOWEST BIDDER.

Chances are the fellow who made the interface you have to deal with was not chosen for the quality of his work, but the price of it.

I for one easily pay the additional 20 percent to my local mailboxes place so that I avoid the 20 minutes in line behind Aunt Millie trying to decide how to ship a package, Uncle Joe buying stamps with his penny collection, and Cousin Mary trying to make up her mind what color stamps to buy.

 

[tanya_the_dancer]

Am I the only person that needs one?

I went to the post office to mail a letter. It is a letter to open a financial account, so I wanted to make sure that it got where it was going.

So I looked at all the forms, and these seemed to be my choices.

Delivery Confirmation $ 0.45
Signature Confirmation $1.75
Certified Mail $2.30

So it seemed like an obvious choice to me, I would do delivery confirmation.

Not so fast. Turns out you can only do delivery confirmation with priority mail. So it isn't really $.45, it is actually $4.30.

OK, So I will do signiture confirmation.

Well, it turns out that you cannot get signature confirmation without getting certified mail. Not sure how the math works on this one, but it came out to $4.65.

So it turned out that the priority mail with delivery confirmation came out the cheepest.

So the question is, how was I supposed to figure that out on my own? Why don't they post the real prices and not the prices that do not mean anything.

Is it something new? I have gotten a delivery confirmation with a first-class letter about a month ago or so. The total cost was about $1.

 

[lynn]

i sincerely think that if the instruction given by the post office were clearer, there wouldn't be an such a long line up every time i visit our local P.O.

But somehow i think the fact that consumers want added features do not help either. Sending a parcel to U.S. and we have several options: expedited, reg air, reg surface, xpresspost, priority - and if the package is small enough, there's an option of small packets! The # of selections are jaw-dropping!

Seriously, sometimes i feel the P.O. workers are ill-trained - i've had several different opinions regarding two identical parcels.....*sighs*....

Oh, whoever said private carriers are faster and have better service has never stand in line in their hour-long line-up waiting to pick up a parcel! And there was only *1* customer before me!!!

 

[saludas]

Oh, whoever said private carriers are faster and have better service has never stand in line in their hour-long line-up waiting to pick up a parcel! And there was only *1* customer before me!!!

I wasn't talking about private carriers, I was talking about private mail delivery services... those mailbox places in storefronts. They accept your packages, send them etc. They'll call you even, when a parcel has arrived. Picking up takes zero time...

 

[lynn]

oh, sorry, that sentence wasn't directed @ you - it was just some random comment i had. I was under the impression that private carriers such as UPS or FedEx would be much better in terms of service level but needless to say i was a little disappointed after my hour long wait .....

 

[saludas]

oh, sorry, that sentence wasn't directed @ you - it was just some random comment i had. I was under the impression that private carriers such as UPS or FedEx would be much better in terms of service level but needless to say i was a little disappointed after my hour long wait .....

k no prob... but, anyway, doesn't fedex and UPS DELIVER? Why not just have the packages delivered to you?

 

[lynn]

they do, but since they can't promise what time the delivery's going to be made (they can't even say whether it's morning or afternoon) - i'd rather pick up the package at the local depot rather than stay @ home all day and wait.

 

[cocodrilo]

We have a pretty decent (efficient) postal service in Japan but it is approximately twice as much as the states to send anything. I buy a $30 souvenir for my mom and it costs $35 to send the darn thing. An airmail letter is .94 cents- what is it- like .55 cents over there now?

 

[pygmalion]

Pretty much everything in the US (except local stuff) is airmail, these days, isn't it? First class postage is 37 cents for the first ounce. An international letter? Not sure. 60 cents for the first half ounce. A dollar for a full ounce ... I think.

 

[lynn]

my mom once sent a Christmas present to my aunt in Japan - that was maybe a few years ago. She sent it via surface mail (i'm guessing it went by sea!) it took about 3 months to arrive :shock: !! The next year she learned her lesson and sent it via Air Mail. The gift itself wasn't all that expensive - i think she sent those bubble bath balls, so... yep, they're extremely heavy! I would've guessed the total package cost less than $40 but the postage came close to $50 :shock:!!!

 

[cocodrilo]

Weight should have no bearing on the amount of time a package would take- 4 to 6 weeks on average for items sent surface. Maybe it was lost in the mail somewhere. For those of you sending items to the USA & Canada- I have had some reports from students sending items, mostly dried foodstuffs, to their relatives there and the items were removed form the boxes they sent and the relatives never received them. Postal folks here are now telling people not to send food (as if you can't find seaweed or miso in San Francisco, duh...).

 

[lynn]

my aunt once sent us some snacks (japanese cookies/candies...etc) and it arrived fine, the package wasn't opened. Sending packages to Japan can be horrendously long if send by surface (it seems as 3 months is the normal time frame, not sure why) - that's why we always send it via Air mail now.

 

[cocodrilo]

The opening of packages and subsequent confiscating of goods started happening around the time of the anthrax scares. I get, on average, 2 packages per month from abroad and they always arrive within 4-6 weeks. Same goes for when I send items to my relatives or freinds sea mail.