United States Post Office Post Office Bait and Switch Flat Rate Box Program Washington, District of Columbia

The U S Post Office aggressively advertises USPS Priority Mail FLAT RATE SHIPPING.  (If it Fits it Ships).  However, when you go to pay you find out you are shipping regular USPS Priority Mail and paying $2 to $3 more than advertised for FLAT RATE. 

1. The Post Office uses almost identical boxes for the two services (Flat Rate web site: https://www.usps.com/ship/priority-mail-flat.htm   Priority Mail web site: https://www.usps.com/ship/priority-mail.htm). 

2. The Post Offices load the lobby displays with regular priority mail boxes even though sample Flat Rate Boxes are displayed.  It is hard to find Flat Rate Shipping boxes and when i ask at the coutner they are usually out of stock.

3. The casual shipper will probably not notice any of this until its time to pay and they find out the price is a few dollars more than expected.  Rather than starting from scratch they pay and the USPS has baited them with Flat Prices and switched to regular Priority Mail Rates.

I am a casual shipper and this has happened on the last two items i shipped.  On the second item, I was looking out for and they still got me (it was the almost identical boxes and the Post Office iwas in said they were out of the appropriate Flat Rate Boxes). so i paid the extra 3 bucks.

I think this happens quite a bit with the post office because its easier just to pay the extra and get done.  I also think the Post Office knows this and thats why the boxes are so similar and they push the regular priority boxes.      BAIT AND SWITCH.