So today I went to mail all of my swap pkgs off. I put a few things in a flat rate envie to mail off, it completly shut and i had just taped it to be on the safe side. Well I get up there to pay, and the lady says "sorry you cant ship this" I was like huh?
She said they just changed some rules, and stuffing those flat rate envies is no longer acceptable. She said the envie has to be "flat" with no bumps etc, so pretty much media stuff, or papers to be in it. And she said no tape can be on it either.

So anyways, here i am thinking I was gonna save a few $'s and I ended up spending more :rolleyes: So just wanted to give everyone the heads up, we cant stuff em anymore :mad:

:rolleyes: Well, gee, we wouldn't try to stuff them if the priority rates wouldn't have gotten so ridiculous.

It might vary by post office, too. In the flat-rate swap awhile back, several people posted they got the no-no for using tape. Mine were WAY overstuffed and practically covered in tape. I go to a little P.O. substation run by an elderly man who is REALLY SLOW and never questions anything!

My post office will not allow me to ship soap in the flat rates anymore. They mailed (and showed us in person) the memo that doesn't allow it and we were not violating it. We pointed this out and and they supposedly agreed with us, but they still refuse to accept them.

They're also phasing out all the free packaging they can.......

boo hiss! :mad: guess sales will go down then, cause thats the way i try to ship alot of stuff, pple dont want to pay the high shipping costs for a market board item kwim?

oh well.. guess everything is changing :(

I was at the PO today and the woman said they were about to open a self service counter for packages....they'll have a scale, and it'll be like doing postage online- you just weigh your package, swipe your credit card, and it will print out the label. There will be a larger slot to put the packages in, just like they have for regular letters you drop off.

She said it would be open 24/7. So now they will "need" less people working at the PO than ever! And who's gonna tell you you can't put tape on something if its self-serve, ya know?

Originally posted by elsie
I was at the PO today and the woman said they were about to open a self service counter for packages....they'll have a scale, and it'll be like doing postage online- you just weigh your package, swipe your credit card, and it will print out the label. There will be a larger slot to put the packages in, just like they have for regular letters you drop off.

She said it would be open 24/7. So now they will "need" less people working at the PO than ever! And who's gonna tell you you can't put tape on something if its self-serve, ya know?

we have one of these at our p/o but i havent tried it yet. Scared of technology lol.
They have someone standing by to help incase you need it and probably watching to make sure you mail the right way.

If someone wasnt there, I suppose someone could get by with mailing/paying for teh item, but you have that chance of getting it sent back if someone wants to send it back in teh mailroom. Then you'd end up having to pay even more postage for it coming back to you :(

Originally posted by elsie
I was at the PO today and the woman said they were about to open a self service counter for packages....they'll have a scale, and it'll be like doing postage online- you just weigh your package, swipe your credit card, and it will print out the label. There will be a larger slot to put the packages in, just like they have for regular letters you drop off.

She said it would be open 24/7. So now they will "need" less people working at the PO than ever! And who's gonna tell you you can't put tape on something if its self-serve, ya know?

that would totally rock! i would love to have that at our PO (my dh would love it too, i make him go to the PO most of the time bc i have anxiety/panic issues and cant talk to people 97% of the time)

I think self-serve would be cool too! Like what they have at Home Depot :-) It would be nice to go any time of the day.

Originally posted by elsie
I was at the PO today and the woman said they were about to open a self service counter for packages....they'll have a scale, and it'll be like doing postage online- you just weigh your package, swipe your credit card, and it will print out the label. There will be a larger slot to put the packages in, just like they have for regular letters you drop off.

She said it would be open 24/7. So now they will "need" less people working at the PO than ever! And who's gonna tell you you can't put tape on something if its self-serve, ya know?

They have that in the Brookhaven post office! it was really convenient when I lived there!

i would love it if it was open 24/7! I am a night owl and actually have to hurry to get to the p.o. before it closes sometimes...:rolleyes:

I like the idea of a self-checkout for after hours. The problem I have with self checkouts in general though is that they are taking jobs away from people in a time when jobs are desperately needed. Even if they're crappy jobs, they're better than nothing. We don't have any at our PO yet (and admittedly I would rather deal with a machine than a couple of our PO employees), but these checkouts are starting to pop up at the discount stores here. It just makes me worry....

Mine said that you cannot put tape over the ENTIRE envelope. You put a piece across the top flap, but that's it.

Originally posted by *~Disney_Mom~*
So today I went to mail all of my swap pkgs off. I put a few things in a flat rate envie to mail off, it completly shut and i had just taped it to be on the safe side. Well I get up there to pay, and the lady says "sorry you cant ship this" I was like huh?
She said they just changed some rules, and stuffing those flat rate envies is no longer acceptable. She said the envie has to be "flat" with no bumps etc, so pretty much media stuff, or papers to be in it. And she said no tape can be on it either.

So anyways, here i am thinking I was gonna save a few $'s and I ended up spending more :rolleyes: So just wanted to give everyone the heads up, we cant stuff em anymore :mad:

Seriously? Well that just bites!

Funny, my post man didn't say anything to me today when he came to the front door to pick up the packages I had ready.

I wonder if this is something just at your PO of if this is going to be a rule nationwide.

Awww, heck... the PO is always out to blast it to us, aren't they?

I just managed to pack 3 yds. of PUL into a nice little ziploc baggie & flattened the excess air out of it. Then I put my ziploc into a flat-rate envelope and put tape over the top part of the envelope where it seals (I don't trust the itty-bitty glue strip...)

I printed out my priority label through paypal, choosing the flat-rate envelope choice & slapped the label on the envelope. It went from Virginia to Hawaii and I believe it made it safe & sound! Of course, I just popped it into the mailbox since I had a preprinted label on it... :D