Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with usps

International postage stamps from a domestic source

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:45:19 -0800

I have a bunch of postcards I'm mailing out from within the US to people in the US, UK and Switzerland. I can put domestic stamps on the cards sent from within the US to our US address, so that the recipients can just drop it in a mailbox. Does the USPS or another entity within the US sell stamps that I can put on the postcards sent from the UK and Switzerland, such that the recipients don't need to buy their own stamps?

What can I do about my post office's failure to deliver mail?

Navelgazer — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:27:10 -0800

My local post office doesn't deliver mail, or on the rare occasion that it does, it comes horribly late. What can I do to rectify the situation? Several times now packages that had been sent USPS have been marked as "delivered" through their tracking, but not actually delivered. Fed-Ex and UPS have no such problems, though my latest package (shipped through UPS because this is so predictable) used USPS for the "last mile" and so of course the package was lost, marked as "delivered."

Aside from this, much of my mail and my roommates' mail has gone missing. Important tax paperwork has had to be sent and resent because it simply never arrives. Things like checks and save-the-date cards and whatnot will arrive a month or so later than they arrive to my coworkers/friends.

In taking this up at the post office in person, I was one of a line of people with the exact same complaint, all of whom were greeted by a supervisor who, while courteous and professional in demeanor, acted as if this problem made no sense and had to be on our end.

I am livid. The post office has essentially stolen a great deal of money's worth of packages from me, as well as important mail that I need in order to keep my affairs in order, and they will do nothing about it. What can I do myself to both recompense for my lost mail and make sure it doesn't happen again in the future?

Addressing an Envelope When the Recipient's Name is Unknown to You?

Buddy-Rey — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 21:15:11 -0800

Hi everyone. I recently visited an online map where people who share a very unusual niche hobby place a pin where they live, voluntarily including an address or name if they'd like, and I found to my pleasant shock that a fellow enthusiast lives only a few blocks from me. He/she left a contact address but not a name, and I'd really love to write to this person, but I have no idea what the normal etiquette is for addressing a personal envelope to an unnamed recipient (to be clear, I don't mean the letter itself, but the envelope). I'd hate to have to use something as dispassionately impersonal as "Occupant." I could live with "Resident", but another consideration is any possible regulatory guideline that might get something without a clearly indicated recipient thrown into the United States Postal System's La-La Land.

Any suggestions for a way to come across effectively and *cordially* without making the envelope too vague to be deliverable would be helpful, as would any clarification on the law surrounding the finer points of addressing personal correspondence by snail mail. Thanks in advance, and have a good day!

YANAMC, YANMMC, but maybe you can answer this anyway

thetortoise — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:08:48 -0800

Why would a letter come back "not deliverable as addressed" when the address is correct? I got a letter returned today that I mailed a couple of weeks ago, and it has a yellow USPS sticker reading "return to sender, not deliverable as addressed, unable to forward." The address was correct; I checked with the intended recipient today, just in case he'd moved or something. He lives at a house and has lived there for many years. The postage was correct. The handwriting is reasonably easy to read and no part of the address is ambiguous. I'm going to ask the post office when they're open, but since I'm unlikely to find out the answer, I'd like to hear your theories.

What is the safest method to ship to Hong Kong?

Vaike — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:42:44 -0800

I have a $2,000 piece of artwork that needs to get to Hong Kong. I am not sure what carrier I should go with and would love insight. I am pretty nervous about this, but also don't want to spend a fortune if I can help it. It will be coming from the U.S., metal and wood, so not very breakable, and will fit about a 12"x12"x12" box.

Right now I am between USPS and FedEx, but I have no experience with Hong Kong at all. I just really want to get it there safe, so I can breathe again.

Thanks!

How do I send these perfumes?

ohmy — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 12:23:42 -0800

Can I ship bottles of perfume from Canada to the US? Can I ship them within Canada? I can't stand perfume, but I received three expensive fragrance box sets as Christmas gifts. I'd like to list them on ebay, but Google tells me that perfumes are considered flammable, hazardous materials and are often refused by postal services, or only shipped via ground service. I know this applies to USPS and am almost 100% sure that it also applies to Canada Post.

So I'm pretty sure that shipping to the US would be a real problem because I don't think any Canada to US shipments are ground shipments, but I just read on the Canada Post website that perfume is a non-mailable item... period? I think? So... how do fragrance vendors do it? Can I actually sell this stuff on ebay and mail it out - even if it's only within Canada? Or will I have to rely on the unreliable and hostile crazies on Craigslist to offload this stuff? (I listed these items on Craigslist and have only received ridiculous offers and responses from random anonymous aggressive trolls)

Do any of you guys have experience with this? I'm especially interested in hearing from Canadians.

What is the biggest box I can fit into a USPS drop box?

enn — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 06:49:09 -0800

What are the maximum dimensions (in each direction) of a box that will fit in a standard USPS blue drop box of the sort that you find on a city street corner? I am ordering some boxes to use for mailing and although I usually take packages to the post office while it is open, I'd like to order the largest size that will give me the option of using USPS drop boxes after hours.

The maximum width is easy enough to measure and seems to about around 14" but the maximum height and depth are trickier due to the curved top and pivoting mail drawer.

Buying one of each of various sizes and trying them is not an option, since the type of boxes I am looking at are generally only sold in bundles of 25 or 50.

I'm looking for an answer from an authoritative source, not speculation—I can speculate myself.

I'm aware of the weight limits for stamped packages in drop boxes, but they do not apply to packages with printed labels from services like Endicia, so they are not relevant here.

I expected this information to be easy to find but I have not had much luck with Google or the USPS web site.

It shouldn't be this hard when Toronto is barely 100 miles from Buffalo, OK?

SMPA — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 10:47:25 -0800

I want to change the world. Or at least make it easier/faster/cheaper to send my niece and nephew, currently living less than 500 miles from where I live, a flipping Christmas package. Who should I bother to help get this done? (the first two paragraphs consist of a rant with illustration; you can skip to the first bolded line for the actual questions.)

Okay, fine. We live in a stupid bureaucratic nightmare world, where lines on maps create major hassles. I accept that mailing stuff internationally is a royal pain, as a general concept. Languages, treaties, blah blah blah, whatever.

But this is Canada and the United States. We speak the same language, and have a VERY long mostly-undefended border (and nearly everyone in Canada lives really close to that border,) and we signed a treaty (way back when Bill Clinton was less than halfway through his first term,) saying that commerce should be significantly easier in North America already. These are post-industrial countries! You can drive to Toronto from here in less than two days, and bring all kinds of gifts with you! So, why is it still so flipping hard to mail the junior members of my family some stickers and fake tattoos and Christmas cards - let alone books and toys?

This is the question part - What I want to know is, who do I bother to get some progress on this specific issue?

Should I set up a petition on WhiteHouse.gov? Send emails to members of the Senate and House foreign relations committees/Western hemisphere subcommittees? Write to the Postmaster General? Harass the Universal Postal Union? File some kind of statement with the State Department? Rail about this in public and hope the media notices?

What I really want is for it to be much easier/faster/cheaper for a normal human being in the United States, Canada, or Mexico to send a package with not-dangerous stuff in it to other normal human beings in one of the other two countries.

I'm not even sure exactly who makes things this way, where the problem(s) is/are, or who could change the way it all works. Does the President of the United States even have any power over this at all? The US Postal Service is a relic of a bygone era mixed up with bizarre early twentieth century standard operating procedures, and apparently everyone and no one is in charge of this kind of policy stuff. I don't know a thing about Canada Post, and I had to go look up who does mail in Mexico just to finish this sentence (Correos de México is apparently the answer, and the article listing postal entities by country needs a lot of expanding.)

Anyway, again: I want to take some constructive action, and vent my spleen to persons in authority, and maybe help in actually improving this situation. Who do I turn to in my hour of need? I am prepared to devote at least 10 hours of my time this year to the effort, BTW, and spend upwards of 20 first-class stamps on a letter-writing campaign, if necessary.

(If there is an advocacy organization already devoted to this issue, I will quite possibly espouse you for sharing it with me, unless that disturbs you or I decide it's too creepy once I calm down. I'll heart you forever no matter what though.)

PO Box closed. What now?

liketitanic — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 18:38:59 -0800

What happens to your mail when the PO closes your box for nonpayment? Forgot to pay my PO Box bill. The box has been closed. This is just in the past week or so. But what will happen to my mail? Are they holding it? Sending it all back to the original senders? Yes, I will call the PO tomorrow, but I will sleep better tonight if I know what's happening to my clients' checks, even if I can't fix the problem right now.

Need help easily mailing 100 DVDs overseas

arniec — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:25:43 -0800

I need to ship almost 100 DVDs, many going overseas. How do I do this the easiest way possible? I know I have to fill out customs forms, determine postage to each country, etc. but is there an easy way to do this online? I have all the data of the people to whom I'm mailing discs in a spreadsheet.

The discs are uniform in size and weight so I have exact information on those.

Tracking would be preferred domestically, not sure if it's available internationally.

My ideal situation would be a site where I could either (a) reformat and upload my spreadsheet or (b) copy and paste my information (even if field by field) and then have it print out postage and all necessary customs forms.

I've been poking around the USPS site but what I'm finding does one at a time and this appears like it will take hours. I'm feeling like my situation is not unique, but I just don't know where to look having not done this before.

shipping Internationally = help.

KogeLiz — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 22:12:22 -0800

Please help me mail stuff internationally via USPS. I'm having trouble understanding the USPS site regarding customs forms.
I need to mail one tourist map to the Netherlands and another to Indonesia.
Would these be considered documents and therefore mailed without customs forms?
I would like to avoid my inconvenient and swamped P.O. if possible.

Don't want to return to sender...

zsazsa — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 19:15:59 -0800

In the US, can you still forward USPS mail for free by writing the forwarding address on the front? If I obviously cross out the original address and remove/obliterate any delivery barcodes, will the USPS still forward a piece of First Class mail? I remember this working 10+ years ago, but I'm not sure if it's still ok.

To Dream The Impossible Mailbox Dream

hollisimo — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 11:18:46 -0800

I moved my mailbox from the street to my front porch. This, according to my mail carrier, is "not possible", and my mail is no longer being delivered. What, if anything, is my recourse? I called the post office that services my neighborhood and was told that this cannot be done, the reason being that once a mailbox is installed in one place, it has to stay there. I pressed for details and the response was basically, "because we said so." There are no regulations in place. Finally the dude I talked to said he'd talk to my mail carrier and get back to me.

Other houses on my street have their mailboxes mounted in a variety of locations, including my next-door neighbor who has hers on her front porch. The reason I moved mine was for both security and aesthetic reasons-- the new box locks and is visible to me from the house, unlike the old mailbox. The new box is easily accessible by the mail carrier and would add, at most, 10 seconds to his route.

Anyone have any advice on how I can convince the local USPS office and my mail carrier to let me use my new mailbox?

What is this weird little card?

cosmic.osmo — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:08:00 -0800

What is this weird little card that I got in the mail? I found it stuck to a letter, but it has not obvious connection to any of my mail. The top and bottom have perforations, like it was torn off a larger strip.

I blacked out some areas that contained general address information.

Is the USPS exempt from parking tickets?

hafehd — Sun, 06 May 2012 17:03:48 -0800

Idle curiosity: Are USPS delivery cars/trucks legally exempt from parking tickets and violations, or do parking checkers just ignore them because, well, it's the government?

When did the American "Business Reply Mail" concept begin?

Quarter Pincher — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:27:41 -0800

What is the general history of the US postal "business reply mail" ? When did it begin? I understand the concept as most articles I've found explain, but none of them offer details about when it was first employed. I have been collecting them for a while with intent of using the characteristic "no postage necessary" box and dark black bars there-under for a collage-style art project, and just lately I was reading a 1938 issue of Coronet (a Reader's Digest style magazine) and inside was one such Business Reply Mail card still attached to the spine on the inside front cover. Is there any indication who might have the oldest Business Reply Mail card?

Return address, nah, that's just for show.

RolandOfEld — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 08:05:17 -0800

What's the best recourse when USPS loses a package (espicially when things may not actually be their fault)? tl;dr at the bottom, but really only looking for answers that are 'official' or have worked for someone in the past, also caveats are included, so anyway.

So, I'm getting married soon and should have asked this question weeks ago. Our budget is such that we're doing things on a bit of a shoestring and we're doing alot of stuff on our own.

My fiance's sister is of the crafty sort and made our invitations for us. By made I mean she did everything but cut down the trees and process the pulp. She made the paper by hand, printed them, did some designs/stamping/calligraphy, everything basically. She packaged them up and sent them to us for the final wax sealing and signatures.

The sad thing is that they never showed up. We started checking and it turns out the receipt from the post office shows an incorrect TO zip code {the incorrect zip is for Atlanta of all places...}. The rest of the address is fine/valid, as is the return address.

Silly us, we figured the post office would A) figure out the mistake and get it to our mailbox or B) use the RETURN address to, ya'know, return the package. We waited, waited, waited. Weeks passed. Her aunt called the dead letter office in ATL and they 'asked people via intercom to look for the package' and we went to our local offices and got nowhere.

No dice. So we've already remade them and are sending them out this weekend but they're not as cool as they could have been. I figured I'd go ahead and posit this in hopes of saving someone from this same situation.

I'm not interested in purchasing insurance/confirmation/tracking as that's obviously the trivial, proactive fix to the situation. We weren't on that side of the equation. For better or for worse, this package shipped without those things and crying over spilt milk is of no help here.

tl;dr version: If the post office doesn't deliver a plain-jane, package*, what can you do help to find/claim it?

*plain-jane package in this case is defined by no insurance/tracking/confirmation with known INCORRECT zip code but proper return address.

I want to be a good online seller. How casually should I give a refund?

Infinity_8 — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:45:02 -0800

What's my responsibility to a buyer who I shipped to in good faith, but he claims he didn't receive his item? I sold a book on Amazon and shipped it with all due speed and care. The buyer claims the book never arrived, but instead he received a damaged package with a "WE CARE" sticker on it from the USPS and a case number; supposedly the package was damaged in shipping sufficiently to cause the book to escape, and another book was in its place.

I am certain I shipped the correct book, and furthermore the book he is claiming to have received -- with my packing slip enclosed -- is a book I never heard of, much less owned.

What's my obligation here? It's only 15 bucks so I could probably just eat it, but I'm wary of being scammed.

Mea Culpa Filter: I didn't ship the book insured. If I had, this would all have been a non issue, right? Does that qualify as sufficient negligence for me to simply eat the 15 bucks?

Regardless, if I'd bought the book, I wouldn't be coming after the seller in this instance. And my buyer is certainly being cool about it -- when it happened over 4 weeks ago, he sent a buyer communication that was politely worded informing me of the situation, and just now he started a "where's my stuff" query with Amazon.

(I responded politely and non-defensively except insofar as to say I know I shipped the right stuff, to his initial inquiry and gave my phone number with encouragement for the case worker at the USPS to call. I haven't heard from the buyer or the USPS case worker.)

Is this a known scam type behavior? Should I just give this guy a refund and hope something nice will happen to me later on down the road? Should I just let Amazon justice take its course and go along with whatever they decide?

Return to sender, address unknown. No such number, no such zone.

avoision — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:43:42 -0800

I want to receive letters at my personal residence that are addressed to an art project of mine, and will not have my name on them. Will these letters be delivered, or do I need to take extra steps to ensure they won't get returned to the original senders? I'm starting up an art project in April, to coincide with National Poetry Month. Long story short, I'm going to get a ton of stickers printed up... and then give them away to anyone who sends me a SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope).

Rather than use my own name, I'd like to use the name of the project. So people would use this as the "To" address:

Art Project Name
123 Fake Street, Apartment 2
Chicago, IL 60647

Do I need to be registered officially as a business or non-profit, for this to work? Or does the US Post Office not care, so long as the address itself is a valid one? Again, I'm doing this as a personal project and am not selling anything or taking donations or whatnot. You send me a SASE, I send back some stickers.

It dawns on me now that I could just send myself a letter titled in this way, and see if it works. Just curious if anyone's done this before, and could add a little insight.

Mail carrier is committing mail fraud

sockpuppet plots an escape — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:57:46 -0800

my postal carrier has been stealing, losing and holding back my packages for several months. he's under investigation by USPS and has been reprimanded. but he's still on my route and has started screwing with my packages again. it's all documented, but the USPS investigation is going at a snail's pace. this is mail fraud - but i have no idea where to turn next. attorney general? private lawyer? what kind of private lawyer? no particular special snowflake business here - though i can provide it if anyone thinks it's relevant. i'm not the only person it's happening to and i don't think it's malicious. he's old and it seems this is a mental health issue.

but i'm tired of not knowing if packages are getting to me and i'm tired of calling and tracking things down all the time.

i just want him off my route - but have no idea who to contact.

Lost in Transiliteration

bad grammar — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:34:03 -0800

Help my package not get lost in transliteration! How do I address (Roman or Cyrillic) a package to Moscow? I've handled preparing USPS international packages before (to Prague), and know about the customs forms and how expensive this can get. It's a small package, 1 lb., but too large for the USPS Priority Mail International Small Flat Rate Box and probably too small for the Medium. I am using my own box.

I don't know any Russian and I have never shipped to Russia before. This is an eBay sale and the buyer gives her address in Roman script. Should I address the package in Roman script or use Cyrillic script? Should I put both versions on the package? I've found Cyrillic converters and Google Translate online.

What about the customs form -- Roman or Cyrillic?

I live near Washington, DC. Is there a particular branch post office that you would go to for with this? (e.g. near the Department of State or Embassy Row or similar)

Can I share the (marshmallow) love?

RosiePosie — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:37:28 -0800

I have perfected homemade marshmallows and they are delicious! They are so delicious that I want to send some from San Francisco to a friend in England. The only trouble is that the marshmallows have a coating of white powder (confectioners' sugar and a little cornflour) to ensure they don't stick together and create one big mess. Am I asking for trouble by sending this stuff via USPS internationally? I am concerned that the white powder will be mistaken at customs for other illegal and/or lethal kinds of white powder. The marshmallows are great but I'm not confident they are worth trouble with USPS, customs or the police.

Would it be mad of me to pop them in the mail? Or is this not a big deal?

Package hasn't arrived. No tracking number. Lost cause?

Laura Macbeth — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 17:09:13 -0800

Sent package from MN to Toronto 3 weeks ago. It hasn't arrived. I have no way to track it. Is this a lost cause? I mailed a package via USPS from Minneapolis to Toronto on December 6th. I used whatever the lowest rate would be. Package had a single gift in it, and was medium-sized. My friend hasn't received it yet.

To my deep (deep!) regret, I didn't get a tracking number, confirmation/delivery receipt or insurance, and I no longer have the receipt for the transaction. I asked a clerk at the post office if there was anything I could do, and she said no. This sounds right to me, but I've received different answers from different people for the same question at this particular post office before.

The address was clearly marked and correct on the package, as was my return address. The only thing I can think of that was off was the customs amount - I hurriedly/accidentally wrote $20, while the item was actually $200, though I don't know how customs would know that (no receipt in box and gift was an ordinary-looking purse). I realized this after I had left the post office, and shrugged it off, but perhaps it's a bigger deal than I thought.

I've successfully sent an item to the same person/address before.

Is there anything I or my recipient can do to track down the package with these variables? My hunch is no, but I want to make sure there isn't something I'm not thinking of before we call it a lost cause and/or a cautionary tale to always, always get a tracking number and insurance.

Going postal over delivery failures.

gracedissolved — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:41:03 -0800

Here we go again: This is now multiple times that the wonderful USPS has, given a package sent to me through their service, made the tracking unavailable until after the date they supposedly delivered and then claimed that it's been delivered when I've had no sign of it. Where do I actually find out what the handling policies of the USPS are supposed to be, and who can I complain to that's higher than my local branch? The last time, the item somehow magically arrived at the shipper's again two weeks after they sent it, the tracking still claiming it had been delivered to me and the post office with no idea where it was the whole time. This time, it was supposedly delivered the 19th; I was home all day that day and the next, then went out of town for Christmas and told my neighbors to be watching my mailbox. They never saw anything.

It was not shipped with signature confirmation; this wasn't really my choice, sometimes when getting stuff online I'm sort of stuck with whatever the place offers. But again, I was home all day that day and saw no sign of a delivery. The only way I can think that they could have delivered it without anybody letting them in or just leaving me a pickup card would be essentially to just have dropped the thing on the sidewalk in front of my building, which seems like it would not constitute any reasonable definition of "delivery", but I have no idea what their actual rules are. We also (the previous seller and I) were never able to figure out last time what had happened or why it got sent back, but I suppose that's quite possible this time, too. Different seller now. I don't particularly think my local branch will do anything this time other than the same playing dumb that they did last time; they already refused to give me more direct information and claimed there was no way for them to know what had happened, which doesn't seem right somehow.

Clearly there is some real incompetence going on here. I've already started getting everything by UPS/Fedex when that's possible, but again, it isn't always. What can I really do to fix this situation and get the post office to stop treating delivery as optional?

Did we anger our letter carrier with our gift?

tkerugger — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:59:46 -0800

My wife and I moved into a new house this year, with a different mailman and a different UPS driver. Since we just had our first baby, all of our holiday shopping has been online. To express our thanks for their efforts, we bought some gourmet chocolates from a local chocolate shop for them, and left a nice card attached to both. Neither was accepted, just left sitting where we left them. Did we run afoul of some UPS and USPS regulation, or was it a crappy gift?