<p>Some post office areas are notorious for theft – Philadelphia was one. Dealers mailing higher value small packages travel outside the area to mail those packages so that they don’t go through the Philadelphia area processing facilities. NYC was considered much less risky.</p>
<p>Personally, I like FedEx. I’m sure they have problems, but we seem to have a lot fewer of them with either ground or air service than we ever had with the USPS. (Though I mailed Express Mail to my folks for free for close to a year at one point because USPS was never able to meet their delivery commitment.)</p>
<p>I had an interesting conversation at our post office last week regarding tape. I was mailing a flat rate envelope. Usually I use the self serve machine, but this day I went thru the regular line. The clerk informed me they were now enforcing “an existing policy” that absolutely no tape would be allowed on flat rate boxes or envelopes. If it wouldn’t seal with the self sealing strip, it could not go flat rate. She said people were routinely overstuffing the boxes. I pointed out that I wasn’t overstuffing the box, but I never trust the quality of those little adhesive strips. I always add an extra strip of tape on the main seams. She said, “Not anymore.” I mentioned I usually use the self serve option and she stated that what they are doing is charging the recipient for the postage due above the flat box rate if there is tape on the box. Just bizarre! I plan to keep taping the boxes and go to a different post office!</p>
<p>The large flat rate boxes that I’ve been mailing to D do not come with any self-sealing adhesive strips. How would one mail them without any tape? </p>
<p>The flat rate boxes that I use (12 x 12 x 5) are the kind that you would send 75 pounds of stuff in and don’t come with a sticky strip like the flat rate envelopes, thank goodness. So I’ll still be able to tape.</p>
<p>Great news–D’s student ID & keys have been received by her university. The nails are probably disposed of somewhere (hopefully they didn’t jam the machine). D is happy and grateful to have received notice of it! She’ll have her room mate retrieve it on Tuesday when she’s back in LA.</p>
<p>The USPS in HI has been good at trying to follow up with this. I’m very pleased at how promptly they have tried to help.</p>
<p>Nice coworker you have! I think I’d be rather protective around such a person who actually watched someone repeatedly commit a crime and fro the sounds of it, did nothing about it.</p>
<p>It’s actually a serious federal crime–would be very concerned about it happening at all & certainly regularly over a long period of time. Does make you wonder about her not doing anything about it.</p>
<p>A couple of years ago my SIL sent my D & S Christmas cards with $50.00 cash inside. (Stupid, I know.) D’s card arrived fine but the envelope of S’s was torn down the side and the cash was missing. didn’t report it since I figured it would be useless. (Plus the head of our local Post Office is the wicked witch in disguise!)</p>
<p>In Texas, all foreclosure notices have to go via certified mail. The statute says that. Over a period of months we sent six notioces to the same address. We have the post office receipts. The letters didn’t come back as refused. The green cards didn’t come back as signed for. The electronic trail ended at the post office. I don’t know if the letters will turn up in a landfill someday, or in the closet of some mail carrier when he dies or what. I just know that we spent thousands of dollars fighting the borrower’s charge that we didnt’ send him notice. (We always send things via regular mail, too. And we knew he got the letters by the phone calls he made.) But gee thanks, USPS.</p>
<p>There was a big internal mail theft case in Canada recently. The two postal thieves targeted mail that seemed to have gift cards in them (stealing upwards of half a million!). Most of us know about not sending money in the mail and to avoid sending card envelopes, but I hadn’t thought of the risk of sending gift cards in the mail.</p>
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She’ll have her room mate retrieve it on Tuesday when she’s back in LA.</p>