Splitcoaststampers.com - the world's #1 papercrafting community
You're currently viewing Splitcoaststampers as a GUEST. We pride ourselves on being great hosts, but guests have limited access to some of our incredible artwork, our lively forums and other super cool features of the site! You can join our incredible papercrafting community at NO COST. So what are you waiting for?
I'm a member of another board. We all come on here and enjoy SCS a lot! Anyway, we had a card swap and it only involved 4 of us. We made shaker cards. I got all of them on time and they were great. I mailed the swaps back out and one lady emailed me and said that her envelope was ripped. Another lady said her envelope was ripped too. Then, our last participant never got her cards. We were all trying to figure out what happened to them. About 2 days later, she got her cards wrapped in a clear plastic bag with a label that had to be scanned at every stop. The USPS searched our card swap! Anyone else have a similar story?
I bet that it was because they "made noise" when they shook them. the scan would have shown small little things moving back and forth in an unstable fashion.
I don't think we ever had swap cards searched, but have had a few take the scenic route, Oh one with some naughty stamps was searched, guess they were disappointed!
The most interesting search story was a package I got from Canada which was decorated with a wheel of fish and shells. I got it with notices "Open for inspection by department of fish and wildlife" The funniest thing is they left all the packages wrapped up! So they opened the box, and saw "oh birthday present" and didn't mess with it.
I asked the post office when selling an ebay item, how they know a magazine is media rate, meaning no advertisement in magazine, media rate is for books. they said " they can open any package and check it out" The post office is
getting as bad as the gas station with greed for extra postage also, and if you stick clear tape over a postage stamp, they can cancel the item, in other words throw it, I assume.
__________________ Carolyn
my avatar: (such desparation), Dear God, if you can't make me thin; make my
friends fat"
I asked the post office when selling an ebay item, how they know a magazine is media rate, meaning no advertisement in magazine, media rate is for books. they said " they can open any package and check it out" .
This happened to a package I sent a couple months ago and you will never believe what happened after the PO opened it to inspect it! I had sent a Stampin' Up! catalog to a friend and I sent it as "Bound Printed Matter". I took it into the post office counter, told them what was in the envelope, and paid for it. And catalogs fall under the description for Bound Printed Matter (promotional material, catalogs, directories, etc) given on the PO website so there should have been no problem.
Well, a good 10 days after I sent this, my friend e-mailed me and says she just got my envelope and said it looked like I meant to send this to someone else and laughed how hectic life can make us have silly mixups. So then I was really curious why she thought I had meant to send the catalog to someone else when she knew I was sending it to her (and then I had the fear that she got something really bad like porno or something since she didn't say what it was). After I e-mailed back to ask what in the world did she get, she tells me she got my envelope (and later noticed it had been opened) but it had a Shazam CD and a Grand Theft Auto playstation game in it and they were wrapped as a gift!
So apparently the post office opened several packages to inspect at the same time and then got the contents switched! There was no documentation with the package to show they inspected it (they are supposed to do that if they open it) and no way to trace where my stuff went or who the stuff my friend got belonged to!
I called to file a complaint and a nearby Post Master informed me there was nothing they could do and they are not liable for "incompetence, negligence, or even theft" by their employees - and she quoted the bill passed by Congress to this effect!
Amazing what happens at the post office. I sent a package to my friend in France. I mailed it about November 15. Well she never got it and so I contacted the post office on January 4. They did a trace but could not find it. So I said I would wait another month and file to get my Insurance Money. They did say it was sitting in customs but had been send out mid December. After I talked to customs I did find out that a couple of the things I send should not have been sent. I did not know that you are not suppose to send perfume or jewelry! Well I sent both plus I had a desk set with a letter opener (didn't even think of that) And the items were listed on the custom form. Well anyway my friend finally got the box in February. I sent her a list of what was in it and she said everything was there and it did not even look like it was opened! It did not even have a notice that it even went to customs. Also all the items even the letter opener! This was Christmas 2006. Anyway I was surprised. And I did have handmade cards in there as well!
I think that they just want to check out our pretty cards! LOL Congress might pass a bill that papercrafters can no longer mal items since it takes so much of the Postal Workers' time to search the packages!
...
I called to file a complaint and a nearby Post Master informed me there was nothing they could do and they are not liable for "incompetence, negligence, or even theft" by their employees - and she quoted the bill passed by Congress to this effect!
Surely by you using their service you have entered into a tacit and legal agreement that they will treat your post well.
Maybe that is the law Congress passed for themselves and any elected official :rolleyes: and the Post Office just falls under that category :lol:
Surely by you using their service you have entered into a tacit and legal agreement that they will treat your post well.
Maybe that is the law Congress passed for themselves and any elected official :rolleyes: and the Post Office just falls under that category :lol:
I was told it was a law specifically to protect the postal service and their employees (not elected officials)- the postal service is a government agency so that explains that!
Now, if I had put insurance on my package I would have recovered some money for the contents. But the contents were not hugely valuable (at least to anyone other than a stamper!) and I told them I did not think I had to insure against them opening my package as well as other packages at the same time and them not paying enough attention to get the right contents back in the right package! So I lost out on the cost of a catalog (not that much but still has a cost) AND the postage that I paid to mail the darn thing! And I had to turn right around and send another catalog AND pay them again and hope that they got it there. They did manage to get it there the second time but I clearly marked all over the envelope "Stampin' Up! catalog!" just so they didn't have to open it to check!
I understand them not wanting people to take advantage of sending things that are not Printed Bound Matter or Media Mail (postage is about half what first class or priority costs), but in a thin envelope with obviously what feels like a catalog (or soft bound book), did they really need to open and check? What else feels and bends like a 9" x 12" 250 page catalog/book? Why would they need to open it?
They managed to lose my 11X8.5X5.5 priority post office box I mailed on 4-20. I had a Starbucks coffee container decorated and filled with Kissables - maybe that's illegal. Who knows. Everything else was handmade and/or SU accesories. I'm still ticked. I lost 48 swap cards in a parcel box a few years ago, and had another time I sent 20+ swaps that had been opened, cards removed, and a dirty t-shirt put in their place before arriving at the destination. The hostess was in shock! She was even afraid that something "poison" might have been on the shirt, so she took it in, filed a complaint, etc... Who knows what happened that time.
Maybe they will place an order with you for some personalized stamps that read: "I work for USPS and I can look thru your stuff and confuse it with someone else's stuff and there isn't a darn thing you can do about it" - oh well, life does throw some strange stuff at us, doesn't it?
They managed to lose my 11X8.5X5.5 priority post office box I mailed on 4-20. I had a Starbucks coffee container decorated and filled with Kissables - maybe that's illegal. Who knows. Everything else was handmade and/or SU accesories. I'm still ticked. I lost 48 swap cards in a parcel box a few years ago, and had another time I sent 20+ swaps that had been opened, cards removed, and a dirty t-shirt put in their place before arriving at the destination. The hostess was in shock! She was even afraid that something "poison" might have been on the shirt, so she took it in, filed a complaint, etc... Who knows what happened that time.
OMG! I should tell my friend she should feel lucky she didn't get a dirty t-shirt! There is no explanation for that one. You have had more than your fair share of postal mishaps!
I was also told by the PO that only media mail and bound printed matter is opened and inspected. Supposedly if it is sent priority or 1st class, they are not allowed to open it (maybe unless there is reason to believe it is dangerous or suspicious)?
Not a package opening story just a story about bad delivery service:
A couple of years ago my aunt sent my mother a package for Christmas. Two weeks went by and the package had not arrived. My aunt called our post office and went to the post office in her town several times to ask about the package. Finally the package was found. In the basement of the sending post office. The told her they didn�t know what to do with the package since they couldn�t locate anyone in the town with my mother�s name.
Huh? What they did was put the package in the incoming pile instead of the outgoing pile. Then when they noticed the package had been there for a while they only looked at the receiver�s name (not address NC vs. Maine) and told my aunt that they couldn�t find record of anyone in town with my mother�s name. Hello � check the rest of the address to see the different state.
While waiting for this package to be located my aunt sent my mother another package. This time she sent it by DHL. The package was delivered alright � to the neighbor three houses down the road (people we didn�t know). The package was left on a deck at a door the neighbors don�t use in the winter due to all the snow (Maine). The neighbors happened to find the package three days later and looked up my mother�s number in the phone book to call her to say they had the package. Good thing the neighbors are honest people.
Good Grief! I thought it was bad when I sent my sis a package (we live in the same state) and she got it 2 months later. The post office told her that the package got lost. It was probably sitting in a basement somewhere.
__________________ Joyce
Remember - never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly.
Fan Club Member
I had a pay check mailed to me from a town 20 minutes away! I waited and waited and didn't receive it...(so of course they wrote a new check)...4 months later (April) I received my check in perfect condition...It even had December stamped on it....It must have fallen in a crack or something!
I have used my glue sticks on a couple of stamps before. I wish you could take the un-canceled envelope and trade it in for new stamps....
Iuse Un-Du to remove uncancelled stamps!! and they are still sticky when you use the Un-Du that bottle has paid for itself many times over on just postage
Have you ever had your swaps searched?
