USPS Priority Mail Service Is Not A "ripoff", It Is A Fraud USPS charges extra for Priority Mail but the service does not exist. Washington District of Columbia

After reading this report on the USPS I want to share a experience I had with a UPS Store in Pilgrim Gardens Pa  a couple years ago. Rather that to carry and pay the airlines to bring some purchases home to Tampa Fl I shipped them via UPS. I went to the store and after the clerk did everything he quoted me the price of around 55 dollars and said it will be there on Wednesday which was 2 days. He never mentioned it was via there 2nd day air. I did know what he was pulling and said I wanted the regular ground shipping which was like 20 dollars. So beware of the UPS stores also, some do try to trick you in the higher rate. I believe there franchises so they do make commisions on sales. 

You miss the point of priority mail. It can be insured and you can pay for tracking thus ensuring proof of delivery. If you don't need insurance or tracking then go first class mail. It's that simple.

I use priority mail for international shipments, it is no faster than first class mainly because customs in foreign countries could care less about how much you paid for postage. I cannot track international priority parcels but I do have insurance which keeps everyone honest.

So don't rant at the USPS, you paid for something you did not need and USPS has always  been upfront that it was not guaranteed delivery. 

When priority mail states the time accepted, it is NOT the time the customer handed over the package to the USPS Postal Clerk. It is the time the shipping department received it in the MAIN FACILITY which is MILES AWAY from the post office you mailed it at! This "time accepted" is a nuisance and untrue because if you sell on ebay, the buyer may be mad at you, thinking you sent it later than you really did!
Priority mail is a rip off! Do NOT use it, if you can avoid it.

Here is another expamly of the federal government rip off of the citizens.  Do not under any cercumstances send an Express Mail package to the White House.  It is a waste of money.  The post office does not deliver to the White House for security reasons.  They send a courier to get the mail about once a week.  I had a package sit there for 7 days before they picked it up.  It is another example of the USPS charging for a service that they know by design that they cannot deliver.  It is a fraud and a lie.  The USPS may be wondering why they loose so much money and customers are migrating away from using snail mail.  I will not be dupped by this practice again.  Hopefully this will save our citizens money also and hasten the demise of the USPS for the out of touch organization that they are.

People seem to love to slam bureaucracy...particularly government bureaucracy...and I have certainly done my fair share of whining in that regard, but the assertion that the USPS is deliberately "fraudulant" and should be "prosecuted" is...well...absurd.

It's unreasonable to expect postal clerks who stand at a counter for hours on end reciting the same information not to be definitive automatons. They work for a huge agency...the second largest civilian employer in the U.S. behind guess who? It's simply a functional reality that an operation of that size has to standardize policy, and it must be a challenging job, dealing with lines of impatient ("irked") consumers who are more inclined to feel entitled than appreciative, and often seem to feel compelled to literally argue with the messengers of information they certainly didn't invent. I mean, imagine how ludicrous it would be to argue with a supermarket cashier about the price of oranges. Maybe that explains why "going postal" is a uniquely American catch-phrase.

In my opinion the USPS is the best deal going. The flat-rate boxes are a stroke of genius. Try to get a deal like that from the other guys. Try to Fedex a package general delivery to a homeless person. Try to get the other guys to forward your mail, for free, or hold it for extended periods of time. Try to get comparable media mail rates. Try to survive in the nonprofit world without bulk mail rates.

I have sold books online for many years. I worked in the publishing industry, where we relied exclusively on Fedex. I've worked for wholesalers who relied exclusively on UPS. All three have their advantages, and if you negotiate a volume contract the private carriers are often a better deal. Since USPS (sadly) ceased international ground (sea) delivery, the other carriers are commercially essential. However, bottom line, in all my years of business the USPS has been the the most reliable, the most versatile, and the most economical service available, and in my opinion we have the best postal system in the world.

I have one major complaint about the USPS...the way it has been used to suppress free speech...but I believe that evil is politically systemic, and a different debate. An invention of the blacksmith, not the fault of the tool.

In general, and in short, the history and logistics of the USPS are fascinating, and in my opinion, unfairly maligned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service

Rev Billy
Portland, OR

Seth CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

Packages under 13oz can go either first class or priority.  Priority will always arrive at least 1 day faster.  I routinely ship using both services on a daily basis.  I print all my labels online through PayPal.  The packages shipped with first class mail take 2-4 days depending on location.  Some take upto 5 days.  

I have read the comments in this post and it has been my experience that USPS priority service almost never arrives in 2 to 3 days as they suggest , unless it is shipped within a state or a border state to the final destination. There is also the issue of safety. I purchased an item on Ebay and the seller shipped by priority USPS service in my home state of NC. After about four days I began to wonder where the package was and contacted the seller. He had taken the package to his local post office in Raleigh and it was transferred to a Post Office in Charlotte and that was the last anyone saw it except for a thief who apparently worked at the post office.

A complaint was filed with a postal inspector, but that is a joke as is their tracking number system, which only identifies when a package has been delivered. Even this is not 100% as I once had a package sent to me with the correct address on it, but somehow the barcode was misread by the scanner and it was delivered to a business hundreds of miles from my location, in spite of the fact the actual address on the package was not the same as where they delivered it to.So buyer beware. USPS does not provide a service comparable to UPS or FEDEX.

I personally would not ship large, valuable, or one of a kind items by USPS. They lack accountability.
While it would not be fair to stereotype all USPS workers , I can say they have a lot of employees that do not serve their customers well. As a former government employee "not USPS", I can say that USPS like other government agencies suffer from the same problem. Poor Management.

I have read the comments in this post and it has been my experience that USPS priority service almost never arrives in 2 to 3 days as they suggest , unless it is shipped within a state or a border state to the final destination. There is also the issue of safety. I purchased an item on Ebay and the seller shipped by priority USPS service in my home state of NC. After about four days I began to wonder where the package was and contacted the seller. He had taken the package to his local post office in Raleigh and it was transferred to a Post Office in Charlotte and that was the last anyone saw it except for a thief who apparently worked at the post office.

A complaint was filed with a postal inspector, but that is a joke as is their tracking number system, which only identifies when a package has been delivered. Even this is not 100% as I once had a package sent to me with the correct address on it, but somehow the barcode was misread by the scanner and it was delivered to a business hundreds of miles from my location, in spite of the fact the actual address on the package was not the same as where they delivered it to.So buyer beware. USPS does not provide a service comparable to UPS or FEDEX.

I personally would not ship large, valuable, or one of a kind items by USPS. They lack accountability.
While it would not be fair to stereotype all USPS workers , I can say they have a lot of employees that do not serve their customers well. As a former government employee "not USPS", I can say that USPS like other government agencies suffer from the same problem. Poor Management.

I have read the comments in this post and it has been my experience that USPS priority service almost never arrives in 2 to 3 days as they suggest , unless it is shipped within a state or a border state to the final destination. There is also the issue of safety. I purchased an item on Ebay and the seller shipped by priority USPS service in my home state of NC. After about four days I began to wonder where the package was and contacted the seller. He had taken the package to his local post office in Raleigh and it was transferred to a Post Office in Charlotte and that was the last anyone saw it except for a thief who apparently worked at the post office.

A complaint was filed with a postal inspector, but that is a joke as is their tracking number system, which only identifies when a package has been delivered. Even this is not 100% as I once had a package sent to me with the correct address on it, but somehow the barcode was misread by the scanner and it was delivered to a business hundreds of miles from my location, in spite of the fact the actual address on the package was not the same as where they delivered it to.So buyer beware. USPS does not provide a service comparable to UPS or FEDEX.

I personally would not ship large, valuable, or one of a kind items by USPS. They lack accountability.
While it would not be fair to stereotype all USPS workers , I can say they have a lot of employees that do not serve their customers well. As a former government employee "not USPS", I can say that USPS like other government agencies suffer from the same problem. Poor Management.

I have read the comments in this post and it has been my experience that USPS priority service almost never arrives in 2 to 3 days as they suggest , unless it is shipped within a state or a border state to the final destination. There is also the issue of safety. I purchased an item on Ebay and the seller shipped by priority USPS service in my home state of NC. After about four days I began to wonder where the package was and contacted the seller. He had taken the package to his local post office in Raleigh and it was transferred to a Post Office in Charlotte and that was the last anyone saw it except for a thief who apparently worked at the post office.

A complaint was filed with a postal inspector, but that is a joke as is their tracking number system, which only identifies when a package has been delivered. Even this is not 100% as I once had a package sent to me with the correct address on it, but somehow the barcode was misread by the scanner and it was delivered to a business hundreds of miles from my location, in spite of the fact the actual address on the package was not the same as where they delivered it to.So buyer beware. USPS does not provide a service comparable to UPS or FEDEX.

I personally would not ship large, valuable, or one of a kind items by USPS. They lack accountability.
While it would not be fair to stereotype all USPS workers , I can say they have a lot of employees that do not serve their customers well. As a former government employee "not USPS", I can say that USPS like other government agencies suffer from the same problem. Poor Management.

The post office stood to make way more money by sending it insured mail instead of registered. Sadly, it has become all about getting the customer to spend as much money as possible and not about what they really want. I am ashamed to say I have been there and done that. They are trying to run the post office like big business. And I guess that is the world we live in today. The post office used to be a place a person trusted, where you ran into friends, and lots of towns the center of the community. Not anymore, nobody enjoys the experience any longer.

Posted about this before but sense it shows how crooked the post office can be, I'll do it again. Couple years ago I sent Dad who was 74 to the post office with a package valued at $5,000 that I had wrapped and told him to send REGISTERED WITH POSTAL INSURANCE. You have to wrap the package in a special way. It should have cost around $11. When he gets home he calls me and tells me it cost FIFTY ONE DOLLARS. I'm pissed as hell.

The next day he brings in the receipt and I find that the package has been sent plain INSURED. I asked him why he sent it that way and he tells me the clerk said it was BETTER to send it that way, it would get there faster. Now I'm really pissed. I could care less had fast it got there, only that it did get there. I paid almost FIVE times the amount for less coverage. The reason they charge five times the postage is because they "lose" so many "insured" packages cause no one is held responsible for the loss. With REGISTER WITH INSURANCE packages, someone signs all the way down the line and is held accountable so they don't "lose" very many of those package cause their job's on the line. After FOUR trips to the post office and NEVER being able to meet with the station manager, his stand-in went ahead and refunded my money. This was after the clerk who had done the transaction with my father admitted he had asked for registered with postal ins. The same clerk gave me the refund but complained that he had never given a refund before. The stand-in was smart enough to understand I was ready to go to the local TV stations and contact AARP about how the post office was screwing over older folks. Smart man.

It is just a sticker, you somehow pay a premium for a sticker over stamps, just so they say they can take "extra care" of your package...tragic. I started selling baseball cards on Ebay, and for my shipping I put I would ship USPS...even though you could just put stamps on them and send them regular mail. I put them in a little bubble envelope and took them to the PO. They each had a differant price, even though they were the same exact thing. I never did say anything, I just didn't get it. It ranged from $1.45 to $1.75. I then shipped the next package regular mail, I weighed it and it came out to approximetly $.75. These blind fees that the USPS uses is not cool.

I posted information and comments on this website yesterday. They were posted yesterday and now are gone. What is going on? They were truthful and not negative. I did however state many facts about the USPS's practices. Comments may have been something the post office would not want the public to know.

First of all I am not here to tear down the USPS. I am here to let you the consumers know what I learnt while working for the USPS.
The clerks are under a lot of pressure to up sell. So much so they are not supposed to mention any classes of mail except for priority mail or express mail. They call these services their premier services and they are the most expensive services. And sometimes they aren't all that great. The clerks are not to mention parcel post, this is the slowest traveling mail for merchandise and is cheaper than priority or express mail, it travels by truck and usually takes about 8 to 10 days to travel across the country.

Depending on how far you are shipping sometimes it may only be a few cents less than priority mail, but if you are shipping across the country there is a big difference in price as parcel shipping costs are now determined by weight, size, and zone. Media mail is only for books, dvd's, cd's, or vhs cassettes. It is very cheap but has very slow travel times. Media mail is often opened for inspection because so many people abuse this service. I believe in 2006 the post office caught 24 million dollars in revenue by inspecting media mail packages. Bound printed matter is available for catalogs, but you must open an account on USPS.com and print off your postage there to use this service. I think the post office is trying to make it harder for people to use the cheaper services. Trying to force the public to use the more expensive services even when that is not what the customer wants or needs.

Don't go into the post office and say I want to send this the cheapest way, because most of the time the clerk will go ahead and send it priority mail anyway, this is the cheapest of the premier services. Every office is tracked for its premier services sales. Goal I think is to sell premier services 88% of the time. If a clerk doesn't reach those numbers they at some point will be called into the supervisor's office and be asked why aren't they meeting the unit goals and how can the supervisors help them meet goal? To me I think, "what kind of question is that?" It always seemed like a veiled threat to me.

The post office is big on the GIST concept. This is greet, inquire, suggest, and thank. Many questions go along with this concept. They are to inquire about the contents; is there anything fragile, liquid, perishable, or potentially hazardous. Push the premier services, priority and express mail. They are to suggest and explain 2 extra services, such as delivery confirmation so a customer can go online and find out when an item arrives, or insurance to protect against loss or damage. They are then to suggest you buy at least two extra items such as, stamps, stamped envelopes, or postcards. So the next time you go to the post office and are being asked all these questions know that the clerks are required to do this and probably aren't enjoying it anymore than you are.

At all costs the clerks are supposed to upsell. Management has even passed out bulletins saying how much money the post office makes per express mail piece, priority mail piece, parcel post piece, or media mail piece. I was being auditted once (this is when a supervisor stands behind you and makes sure you are asking all of the required questions) a sweet little old lady stepped up to my window and said I need this letter to get there no later than day after tomorrow. The letter was going to a town about 15 miles away. I started with my sales pitch and she bit on express mail for a whopping $16.45. I felt so bad, that letter would have made it to its destination the next day with just a stamp because it was so close by. The supervisor was okay with this.

All I can say about special services is know what you really need. Certified mail does not speed a mail piece up. It has be signed for and is scanned in when it is accepted by the USPS, scanned when it is attempted, and scanned as delivered when it is delivered. This is the best proof of mailing evidence available. The government uses this service, as does the IRS, most other government agencies, courts, and most businesses. Even if for some reason it does not arrive if you keep this stub it is usually proof enough you sent the item and in a timely manner. Delivery confirmation will get you an acceptance scan and a delivery scan and nothing else. You can prove it was delivered somewhere but not to whom or even if it was delivered to the correct address.

Registered mail in my experience has been a great service. It is slowed up a lot because it is so secure. It is logged in by hand wherever it goes. It will do you no good to upgrade to a faster mail service with registered mail. Because of the high security you cannot speed registered mail up. Insured mail can be a good service. This is the only service besides registered mail that will get a customer any type of reimbursement if the items being shipped were lost or damaged. The tricky thing is items have to be properly packaged. A good rule of thumb is that if you are mailing something breakable stuff it so tightly with bubble wrap or popcorn that when you shake the box the items inside do not move. Also if contents are damaged or broken if there is no visible damage to the outside of the box the post office will not pay the claim.

If you do file a claim you do have to provide proof of value, such as a detailed receipt, invoice, or credit card statement. Express mail is the only service that has full time tracking and a guaranteed delivery time and date. If it is late you get a full refund. It is scanned in at every distribution point it hits. It is also signed for and has $100.00 of insurance, you can purchase more insurance if you need too. If you use this service be sure to track it over the internet. In my experience there are lots of express mail failures that people don't know about. I could go on but these are the most commonly used services.

Sadly, by making things so difficult, secretive, and I feel dishonest the USPS is losing the trust of the public.

I hope this helps someone.

First of all I am not here to tear down the USPS. I am here to let you the consumers know what I learnt while working for the USPS.
The clerks are under a lot of pressure to up sell. So much so they are not supposed to mention any classes of mail except for priority mail or express mail. They call these services their premier services and they are the most expensive services. And sometimes they aren't all that great. The clerks are not to mention parcel post, this is the slowest traveling mail for merchandise and is cheaper than priority or express mail, it travels by truck and usually takes about 8 to 10 days to travel across the country.

Depending on how far you are shipping sometimes it may only be a few cents less than priority mail, but if you are shipping across the country there is a big difference in price as parcel shipping costs are now determined by weight, size, and zone. Media mail is only for books, dvd's, cd's, or vhs cassettes. It is very cheap but has very slow travel times. Media mail is often opened for inspection because so many people abuse this service. I believe in 2006 the post office caught 24 million dollars in revenue by inspecting media mail packages. Bound printed matter is available for catalogs, but you must open an account on USPS.com and print off your postage there to use this service. I think the post office is trying to make it harder for people to use the cheaper services. Trying to force the public to use the more expensive services even when that is not what the customer wants or needs.

Don't go into the post office and say I want to send this the cheapest way, because most of the time the clerk will go ahead and send it priority mail anyway, this is the cheapest of the premier services. Every office is tracked for its premier services sales. Goal I think is to sell premier services 88% of the time. If a clerk doesn't reach those numbers they at some point will be called into the supervisor's office and be asked why aren't they meeting the unit goals and how can the supervisors help them meet goal? To me I think, "what kind of question is that?" It always seemed like a veiled threat to me.

The post office is big on the GIST concept. This is greet, inquire, suggest, and thank. Many questions go along with this concept. They are to inquire about the contents; is there anything fragile, liquid, perishable, or potentially hazardous. Push the premier services, priority and express mail. They are to suggest and explain 2 extra services, such as delivery confirmation so a customer can go online and find out when an item arrives, or insurance to protect against loss or damage. They are then to suggest you buy at least two extra items such as, stamps, stamped envelopes, or postcards. So the next time you go to the post office and are being asked all these questions know that the clerks are required to do this and probably aren't enjoying it anymore than you are.

At all costs the clerks are supposed to upsell. Management has even passed out bulletins saying how much money the post office makes per express mail piece, priority mail piece, parcel post piece, or media mail piece. I was being auditted once (this is when a supervisor stands behind you and makes sure you are asking all of the required questions) a sweet little old lady stepped up to my window and said I need this letter to get there no later than day after tomorrow. The letter was going to a town about 15 miles away. I started with my sales pitch and she bit on express mail for a whopping $16.45. I felt so bad, that letter would have made it to its destination the next day with just a stamp because it was so close by. The supervisor was okay with this.

All I can say about special services is know what you really need. Certified mail does not speed a mail piece up. It has be signed for and is scanned in when it is accepted by the USPS, scanned when it is attempted, and scanned as delivered when it is delivered. This is the best proof of mailing evidence available. The government uses this service, as does the IRS, most other government agencies, courts, and most businesses. Even if for some reason it does not arrive if you keep this stub it is usually proof enough you sent the item and in a timely manner. Delivery confirmation will get you an acceptance scan and a delivery scan and nothing else. You can prove it was delivered somewhere but not to whom or even if it was delivered to the correct address.

Registered mail in my experience has been a great service. It is slowed up a lot because it is so secure. It is logged in by hand wherever it goes. It will do you no good to upgrade to a faster mail service with registered mail. Because of the high security you cannot speed registered mail up. Insured mail can be a good service. This is the only service besides registered mail that will get a customer any type of reimbursement if the items being shipped were lost or damaged. The tricky thing is items have to be properly packaged. A good rule of thumb is that if you are mailing something breakable stuff it so tightly with bubble wrap or popcorn that when you shake the box the items inside do not move. Also if contents are damaged or broken if there is no visible damage to the outside of the box the post office will not pay the claim.

If you do file a claim you do have to provide proof of value, such as a detailed receipt, invoice, or credit card statement. Express mail is the only service that has full time tracking and a guaranteed delivery time and date. If it is late you get a full refund. It is scanned in at every distribution point it hits. It is also signed for and has $100.00 of insurance, you can purchase more insurance if you need too. If you use this service be sure to track it over the internet. In my experience there are lots of express mail failures that people don't know about. I could go on but these are the most commonly used services.

Sadly, by making things so difficult, secretive, and I feel dishonest the USPS is losing the trust of the public.

I hope this helps someone.

First of all I am not here to tear down the USPS. I am here to let you the consumers know what I learnt while working for the USPS.
The clerks are under a lot of pressure to up sell. So much so they are not supposed to mention any classes of mail except for priority mail or express mail. They call these services their premier services and they are the most expensive services. And sometimes they aren't all that great. The clerks are not to mention parcel post, this is the slowest traveling mail for merchandise and is cheaper than priority or express mail, it travels by truck and usually takes about 8 to 10 days to travel across the country.

Depending on how far you are shipping sometimes it may only be a few cents less than priority mail, but if you are shipping across the country there is a big difference in price as parcel shipping costs are now determined by weight, size, and zone. Media mail is only for books, dvd's, cd's, or vhs cassettes. It is very cheap but has very slow travel times. Media mail is often opened for inspection because so many people abuse this service. I believe in 2006 the post office caught 24 million dollars in revenue by inspecting media mail packages. Bound printed matter is available for catalogs, but you must open an account on USPS.com and print off your postage there to use this service. I think the post office is trying to make it harder for people to use the cheaper services. Trying to force the public to use the more expensive services even when that is not what the customer wants or needs.

Don't go into the post office and say I want to send this the cheapest way, because most of the time the clerk will go ahead and send it priority mail anyway, this is the cheapest of the premier services. Every office is tracked for its premier services sales. Goal I think is to sell premier services 88% of the time. If a clerk doesn't reach those numbers they at some point will be called into the supervisor's office and be asked why aren't they meeting the unit goals and how can the supervisors help them meet goal? To me I think, "what kind of question is that?" It always seemed like a veiled threat to me.

The post office is big on the GIST concept. This is greet, inquire, suggest, and thank. Many questions go along with this concept. They are to inquire about the contents; is there anything fragile, liquid, perishable, or potentially hazardous. Push the premier services, priority and express mail. They are to suggest and explain 2 extra services, such as delivery confirmation so a customer can go online and find out when an item arrives, or insurance to protect against loss or damage. They are then to suggest you buy at least two extra items such as, stamps, stamped envelopes, or postcards. So the next time you go to the post office and are being asked all these questions know that the clerks are required to do this and probably aren't enjoying it anymore than you are.

At all costs the clerks are supposed to upsell. Management has even passed out bulletins saying how much money the post office makes per express mail piece, priority mail piece, parcel post piece, or media mail piece. I was being auditted once (this is when a supervisor stands behind you and makes sure you are asking all of the required questions) a sweet little old lady stepped up to my window and said I need this letter to get there no later than day after tomorrow. The letter was going to a town about 15 miles away. I started with my sales pitch and she bit on express mail for a whopping $16.45. I felt so bad, that letter would have made it to its destination the next day with just a stamp because it was so close by. The supervisor was okay with this.

All I can say about special services is know what you really need. Certified mail does not speed a mail piece up. It has be signed for and is scanned in when it is accepted by the USPS, scanned when it is attempted, and scanned as delivered when it is delivered. This is the best proof of mailing evidence available. The government uses this service, as does the IRS, most other government agencies, courts, and most businesses. Even if for some reason it does not arrive if you keep this stub it is usually proof enough you sent the item and in a timely manner. Delivery confirmation will get you an acceptance scan and a delivery scan and nothing else. You can prove it was delivered somewhere but not to whom or even if it was delivered to the correct address.

Registered mail in my experience has been a great service. It is slowed up a lot because it is so secure. It is logged in by hand wherever it goes. It will do you no good to upgrade to a faster mail service with registered mail. Because of the high security you cannot speed registered mail up. Insured mail can be a good service. This is the only service besides registered mail that will get a customer any type of reimbursement if the items being shipped were lost or damaged. The tricky thing is items have to be properly packaged. A good rule of thumb is that if you are mailing something breakable stuff it so tightly with bubble wrap or popcorn that when you shake the box the items inside do not move. Also if contents are damaged or broken if there is no visible damage to the outside of the box the post office will not pay the claim.

If you do file a claim you do have to provide proof of value, such as a detailed receipt, invoice, or credit card statement. Express mail is the only service that has full time tracking and a guaranteed delivery time and date. If it is late you get a full refund. It is scanned in at every distribution point it hits. It is also signed for and has $100.00 of insurance, you can purchase more insurance if you need too. If you use this service be sure to track it over the internet. In my experience there are lots of express mail failures that people don't know about. I could go on but these are the most commonly used services.

Sadly, by making things so difficult, secretive, and I feel dishonest the USPS is losing the trust of the public.

I hope this helps someone.

First of all I am not here to tear down the USPS. I am here to let you the consumers know what I learnt while working for the USPS.
The clerks are under a lot of pressure to up sell. So much so they are not supposed to mention any classes of mail except for priority mail or express mail. They call these services their premier services and they are the most expensive services. And sometimes they aren't all that great. The clerks are not to mention parcel post, this is the slowest traveling mail for merchandise and is cheaper than priority or express mail, it travels by truck and usually takes about 8 to 10 days to travel across the country.

Depending on how far you are shipping sometimes it may only be a few cents less than priority mail, but if you are shipping across the country there is a big difference in price as parcel shipping costs are now determined by weight, size, and zone. Media mail is only for books, dvd's, cd's, or vhs cassettes. It is very cheap but has very slow travel times. Media mail is often opened for inspection because so many people abuse this service. I believe in 2006 the post office caught 24 million dollars in revenue by inspecting media mail packages. Bound printed matter is available for catalogs, but you must open an account on USPS.com and print off your postage there to use this service. I think the post office is trying to make it harder for people to use the cheaper services. Trying to force the public to use the more expensive services even when that is not what the customer wants or needs.

Don't go into the post office and say I want to send this the cheapest way, because most of the time the clerk will go ahead and send it priority mail anyway, this is the cheapest of the premier services. Every office is tracked for its premier services sales. Goal I think is to sell premier services 88% of the time. If a clerk doesn't reach those numbers they at some point will be called into the supervisor's office and be asked why aren't they meeting the unit goals and how can the supervisors help them meet goal? To me I think, "what kind of question is that?" It always seemed like a veiled threat to me.

The post office is big on the GIST concept. This is greet, inquire, suggest, and thank. Many questions go along with this concept. They are to inquire about the contents; is there anything fragile, liquid, perishable, or potentially hazardous. Push the premier services, priority and express mail. They are to suggest and explain 2 extra services, such as delivery confirmation so a customer can go online and find out when an item arrives, or insurance to protect against loss or damage. They are then to suggest you buy at least two extra items such as, stamps, stamped envelopes, or postcards. So the next time you go to the post office and are being asked all these questions know that the clerks are required to do this and probably aren't enjoying it anymore than you are.

At all costs the clerks are supposed to upsell. Management has even passed out bulletins saying how much money the post office makes per express mail piece, priority mail piece, parcel post piece, or media mail piece. I was being auditted once (this is when a supervisor stands behind you and makes sure you are asking all of the required questions) a sweet little old lady stepped up to my window and said I need this letter to get there no later than day after tomorrow. The letter was going to a town about 15 miles away. I started with my sales pitch and she bit on express mail for a whopping $16.45. I felt so bad, that letter would have made it to its destination the next day with just a stamp because it was so close by. The supervisor was okay with this.

All I can say about special services is know what you really need. Certified mail does not speed a mail piece up. It has be signed for and is scanned in when it is accepted by the USPS, scanned when it is attempted, and scanned as delivered when it is delivered. This is the best proof of mailing evidence available. The government uses this service, as does the IRS, most other government agencies, courts, and most businesses. Even if for some reason it does not arrive if you keep this stub it is usually proof enough you sent the item and in a timely manner. Delivery confirmation will get you an acceptance scan and a delivery scan and nothing else. You can prove it was delivered somewhere but not to whom or even if it was delivered to the correct address.

Registered mail in my experience has been a great service. It is slowed up a lot because it is so secure. It is logged in by hand wherever it goes. It will do you no good to upgrade to a faster mail service with registered mail. Because of the high security you cannot speed registered mail up. Insured mail can be a good service. This is the only service besides registered mail that will get a customer any type of reimbursement if the items being shipped were lost or damaged. The tricky thing is items have to be properly packaged. A good rule of thumb is that if you are mailing something breakable stuff it so tightly with bubble wrap or popcorn that when you shake the box the items inside do not move. Also if contents are damaged or broken if there is no visible damage to the outside of the box the post office will not pay the claim.

If you do file a claim you do have to provide proof of value, such as a detailed receipt, invoice, or credit card statement. Express mail is the only service that has full time tracking and a guaranteed delivery time and date. If it is late you get a full refund. It is scanned in at every distribution point it hits. It is also signed for and has $100.00 of insurance, you can purchase more insurance if you need too. If you use this service be sure to track it over the internet. In my experience there are lots of express mail failures that people don't know about. I could go on but these are the most commonly used services.

Sadly, by making things so difficult, secretive, and I feel dishonest the USPS is losing the trust of the public.

I hope this helps someone.

I really don't want to turn this into a "thread" type of discussion, but there are so many issues with the post from Ember, that I must address them individually...



I am a former Christmas Casual USPS employee, and was involved with the Shipping industry in several capacities, including management for nearly 10 years. I am no longer involved with that industry, so I have no agenda or motive for gain other than sharing TRUTH in what I am saying here.




The above stands in stark contrast to what I was told flat out by a USPS window clerk a week ago, which confirmed my suspicions, and paraphrased is as follows...

Yes, First Class Mail/Parcels and Priority Mail do travel in separate containers, but IN THE SAME TRUCK, except for Christmas time. There is NO extra processing or expediting of Priority Mail, again, except for the Christmas season.




Please forward the PROOF that this is the case, especially since your own website makes NO distinction in expected delivery times. They are both listed as 3 days or less. Now, if one service is in fact faster, why isn't it listed as such? Also if USPS is so certain of this alleged expedited service, why is it no longer guaranteed?




Yes, a whopping $0.10 at the window, and $0.18 electronically. Meantime you charge a minimum of $2.00 more to send a parcel/letter under 13 oz via Priority Mail vs. First Class, and it will arrive to it's destination in the SAME time frame.





I never stated it was nationwide, however I am still wondering why the offices felt they were entitled to these early closings in a BUSY area where customers were being TURNED AWAY at 3pm by clerks who just couldn't wait to close. Honestly, I never saw the clerks at the station I was at on New Years Eve work so fast in all my years of going there. By the way, there was NO 1 week notice of this happening at any of the stations in my area.




Please forward me the information on how I can become one of these alleged "mystery shoppers", because at least this area needs a serious wake up call.




Many are as slow as molasses in January at the window, and as you are undoubtedly aware that has long been a common complaint of patrons, and a running joke for many years. Eight years into the 21st Century I personally haven't seen any change in that regard.




Your costs have gone up steadily like clockwork over the years, regardless of fuel rates, etc. I'd like to see the proof that your service levels have improved incrementally to match those price increases that have been passed on to the consumer. Feel free to forward those verifiable statistics.