Dumbest postal editorial of the week…
… or maybe ever?
The Wheeling News Register apparently thinks its readers are too stupid to be trusted with “forever” stamps. The paper somehow comes to the conclusion that offering customers the option to buy a stamp that will always be good for the first class letter rate, regardless of how much that rate goes up, is a “sleazy strategy”.
Why? Good question. Apparently it has something to do with a roll of “clear tape” the editor bought on sale a long time ago, that he seems to have misplaced. Or something like that. See if you can figure it out.
March 2nd, 2007 22:57
I get it. We’ve all done it, bought something (clear tape just an example) because it was a great bargain at the time… might not have needed it at the time but, the seller got their money now! and your got what you thought you needed now and/or later. Now it’s later, and you: can’t find it; lost it; the dog ate it before you got to use it; etc., so you have to buy the item, again. Again the seller gets money, at the [now higher] current purchasing price, mainly because of your misplacings, not because you actually used it to receive a service (service as in delivery of mail with the stamp on it in this case).
You know the gift cards we all purchase/receive? Sorta the same idea… Store gets their money when they’re purchased… if you don’t use it, it loses value each year. Some expire completely if you don’t use it in a year. Easy to not get around to using it. Also, most are bound to purchase more at the store than the card value, so store gets money again.
March 3rd, 2007 07:57
Hmmm… I didn’t think my sarcasm was all that subtle, but I guess it was. Most amazing was the commenter on postalnews.com who took it upon himself to explain, at some length, what the editorial was getting at. That commenter decided that forever stamps are actually more like milk than “clear tape”.
But he did point out what must be the real reason that forever stamps are evil: “Brian, what the author is saying is that a forever stamp is of no value if it gets lost or damaged beyond use. You have bought something that gives no value if lost or damaged.”
Now I understand! If I buy a forever stamp, and then lose it, it’s no good to me any more! Sort of like what would happen if I bought a regular stamp and lost it. So the difference is… Tell me again??
(Note: that was sarcasm again.)
March 3rd, 2007 08:08
[...] just gets weirder. I thought I’d heard it all when that West Virginia newspaper editorialized that the ‘forever’ stamp was a ’sleazy strategy’ on the part of the USPS to hoodwink the innocent consumers of West Virginia. Now a letter to the [...]
March 7th, 2007 00:26
Wow! I agree this is wierd. Not a sales campaign that I would expect from the Post Office. I would suggest this is like the Lube Shop that sends sales people door to door to sell a package of 5 oil changes for the price of 2. The first question that comes to mind is how can they do this and still make money? If I had to take a stab in the dark I would say they may lose a few bucks on the people that actually use up the entire 5 oil change package but they probably make a big bucks on the people that never show up.
I vote to squash the Forever stamp idea!