Activist claims USPS improperly stopped selling bound printed matter service
Douglas Carlson, who has been a frequent intervenor in Postal Rate/Regulatory Commission proceedings, has filed a complaint with the PRC alleging that the Postal Service has illegally made it difficult, if not impossible, for individual customers to mail packages at the bound printed matter rate, which is lower than the standard media mail rate. Carlson cites instances where he attempted to mail a dictionary, only to be told by window clerks that the rate was no longer available, that the book did not qualify for the rate, or, bizarrely, that it could only be accepted if it already had postage on it when he brought it to the window.
Carlson also notes that the USPS web site’s rate calculator no longer mentions the rate, and that it is not available from the Automated Postal Centers in post office lobbies.
Carlson’s complaint alleges that “When a customer presents items for mailing at a retail window and asks for the least-expensive shipping method and the window clerk knows or should know that the item would qualify for a Bound Printed Matter rate, Postal Service policy prohibits the window clerk from offering or suggesting Bound Printed Matter service to the customer, even if Bound Printed Matter service might or would fulfill the customer’s shipping needs at the lowest price of any service.”
He says this policy “unduly and unreasonably discriminates against individual and small business mailers, in a manner not specifically authorized by title 39. Compared to large mailers, individual and small-business mailers are less likely to know about services that window clerks do not offer, that Automated Postal Centers do not offer, and that the Postage Rate Calculator at www.usps.gov does not mention.”
January 6th, 2008 12:23
Oh, this poor deluded fool thinking that we exist to serve the delivery point inhabitants. No, no, no .. we exist to serve the mass mailing marketers.
January 7th, 2008 13:15
If the postal service has the service then the consumer is entitled to use it. The clerks are trained to not offer this service, which may or may not be correct, but if the customer knows about the service and asks specifically for it, they should recieve it. The issue about whether or not the item should be at a lower price (subsidized)is probably valid, but until they change it, the USPS should not deal in a form of bait and switch.
February 22nd, 2008 06:32
[...] January 3 of this year, postal activist Douglas Carlson filed a complaint alleging that the USPS had improperly stopped offering Bound Printed Matter rate to retail customers. On February 4, the Postal Service filed a motion requesting that the PRC [...]