Stolen DVD!?
Urban Spaceman on Flickr says “I have a good feeling that unlike other instances of misrouted or damaged mail, this DVD was stolen by a postal worker”.
Well, maybe, but I wouldn’t be so sure. In the first place, the damage is about what you’d expect from a flimsy piece of mail, open on two sides, with something rigid inside. When these pieces go through facer-canceller, bar code sorter, etc., they pass between a drive belt that pulls them in, and a rubber roller running in the opposite dirrection, whose purpose is to allow only one piece of mail to go through at a time. If there’s any imperfection on the leading edge of the mail piece, there’s a chance that the piece will be damaged in just the way this one is.
Netflix mailers run a very high risk of being damaged like this, because they’re so flimsy. And the discs are obviously at risk, given the lack of any padding. I was amazed the first time I saw a Netflix mailer- I was sure the damage rate would be too high for it to work, but obviously it isn’t.
Having said that, enough do get damaged to be a headache for the USPS. They are much more trouble than a regular letter, but they pay the same postage. Given that Netflix is one of the few businesses actually increasing it’s First Class mail usage, however, the post office doesn’t have much choice but to deal with them.
February 4th, 2007 23:58
NetFlix is the worst designed envelope I have seen in my 29+ years with the P.O. We have no less than 10 damaged every night in processing. The envelopes rigidity is reversed and the first end to enter the automated process is a flimsy flap that is doomed to tear, shred and then jam the equipment. Someone with more than a passing interest requires “mail processing” to tray and face every piece of NetFlix mail before sending it out to the return centers. This additional, time consuming and costly service is not provided to any other customer in our facilities and certainly reduces the value of the postage because the process requires ‘manual’ labor.
February 8th, 2007 22:36
Some of our Light Duty in colorado Springs face them and tray them. USPS has them doing this because they are sooooooooooo injured {at least at work}. more Light duty than anywhere in the world.
October 8th, 2007 15:01
I recently ordered an obscure Civil War DVD collection, and it never showed up. I’ve been checking Ebay, and there’s a guy selling movies from the same collection. The information he supplied as to where they came from is also sketchy. I’m going to bid on the item and get the guy’s address, so I can “mail him a money order.” That way I can find out if this jackass works for the USPS. If he does, he can kiss his job good-bye.