[Boatanchors] Medial Mail

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

Mac,

I had a dispute with postal officials as to whether a CD or DVD was a "hard" 
or a "soft" object! If I enclosed the "soft" CD/DVD in cardboard to protect 
it, then it constituted a "hard" object. Hence a higher postal rate. 
Ridiculous!

The people at the post office do not even know the differences between most 
of these ambiguous packaging regulations, classifications of contents etc.

I had one overnight express letter that I sent to California with guaranteed 
next morning delivery that took forty-eight hours! Did I get my money back 
as advertised if they failed? No! I was told that every state "except" 
California the guarantee included. Naturally I was told this when my letter 
failed to be delivered on time and was returned all the way back to 
Michigan! I told the manager publically that I thought their advertising was 
intentionally untruthful and the government should once again take back 
control of the postal system. As it was quite obvious they could not manage 
themselves!

Every single year they ran in the red and increased postal rates. They could 
not, or did not, deliver what they advertised to do. They were not 
accountable to anyone or any agency, and with that type of mismanagement 
they certainly should be!

As those in the post office cheered, I was ordered to leave! Darn sham ethe 
Guide Dog for the blind I was using had a momentary lapse of manners and 
nipped the post office manager on the seat of his britches!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "mac" <w7qho at aol.com>
To: "Bill Cotter" <n4lg at qx.net>
Cc: "boatanchors List" <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>; 
<milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2011 2:12 PM
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Medial Mail


> Bill, et-al,
>
> Interesting and makes sense but the manager's statement may or may not
> reflect official USPO policy. I regularly mail out DVDs in the
> standard DVD/CD cardboard mailers but every time it's a crapshoot as
> to whether it's a small package, letter, oversize letter or something
> else.  The definition varies PO to PO and window to window within
> POs.  I've been asked "what did you pay last time?" by some clerks,
> but whatever I had been told before by somebody else is usually
> dismissed out of hand.  Don't know if going back to USPO headquarters
> for an authoritative judgement would do any good or not.  :^(
>
> Dennis D.  W7QHO
> Glendale, CA
>
> ******************
> On Jul 16, 2011, at 10:31 AM, Bill Cotter wrote:
>
>> I just returned from our local Post Office. The manager stated that
>> "The intent of the Media Mail restriction on advertisements refers
>> strictly to the bulk shipping of flyers, handbills, printed
>> advertisements, catalogs, graphic art advertising and other
>> print-shop jobs." In other words, media to be used to promote
>> selling (present tense).
>>
>> He also said "Magazines, manuals, CD's, DVD's, publications,
>> journals, digests, etc are considered books or bound materials, and
>> are shippable as media mail." He went on to say ".....The fact that
>> a historical document contains an advertisement does not make it
>> the dominant characteristic of the material......" It is a
>> magazine, not a catalog.
>>
>> He suggested printing on the package "Media Mail - Bound matter."
>>
>> With respect to Pete's cry of "lying", it is clearly wrong to call
>> a radio in a box "media mail", and truthful to call a bunch of QSTs
>> a "books or bound matter."
>>
>> 73 Bill N4LG
>
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