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I have had a couple of friends tell me that when they received cards from me, they arrived postage due. I use either one small brad or a ribbon with a small tie in it, and I always like to use the clear envelopes. Has anyone else had this trouble? My SU Demo used to work in a post office, and she says it is crazy. They should not be charging me extra, (or the recipients of my cards) just for that. Do you think it makes a difference if I use a plain envelope rather than the clear one?
I don't know about the diff between plain and clear envelopes because I never mail cards in clear envelopes. However, I you might want to think about how many layers of paper are on the card. Paper is pretty heavy.
I bought a little postage scale at either Costco or Sams. It was only $20 and so far I haven't had any cards due extra postage than what I put on the card. The scale is also a great help when you are doing a mass mailing like Christmas cards or invitations. Before I settle on the design I weigh the draft card. If it's over standard postage I may remake the card. I don't want the postage to be more than the cost of card.
I know that my postal lady today charged me $1.30 per envelope for a standard sized card that had a bump in the envelope because of a ribbon. I thought it was 17 cents extra if it didn't fit through that little slot, but she measured and weighed it . . . I think I got ripped off, but how do you prove that at the post office?
I know how you feel. That is what I am talking about. I know a little ribbon or brad is NOT 1/4 inch thick, but that is, I think, why they are charging extra. I know it has been a random amount too...depends on who is manning the postal desk. It would be interesting to hear from a postal clerk on this one, wouldn't it? Then we would know what is true and what is their personal preference. Next month postage goes up AGAIN, which means we will pay even more to send our lovely creations!:confused:
The most a 1 ounce card that might have a bump in it should cost is $1.13. Once an envelope is no longer "flat", it moves into the package category. It's quite a racket. The last time the rates went up, they really went up.
If you were charged $1.30, the card needed to weigh 2 ounces and be considered a package. However, one little bump should not make a package out of a card!
Your best bet, do not mail through your post office. Put the stamps on and send your card on its merry way. Chances are slim that they will make your recipient pay or that they will return it (but either could happen).
Some of the time they charge an extra $0.17 for a clear envelope. In all the years I've used them they have only done this on one card...unless I bring them to the post office to check.
My postman told me that if the card is larger then a standard envelope and has lumps or bumps it can be bumped up into the package category. But if the card was standard size and didn't weigh more then 1 ounce it should have only had and additional 17 cents charged. What size were the cards.
I have had a couple of friends tell me that when they received cards from me, they arrived postage due. I use either one small brad or a ribbon with a small tie in it, and I always like to use the clear envelopes. Has anyone else had this trouble? My SU Demo used to work in a post office, and she says it is crazy. They should not be charging me extra, (or the recipients of my cards) just for that. Do you think it makes a difference if I use a plain envelope rather than the clear one?
If your card is thicking than 1/4 inch then the postage for a normal card is .58 not .41. Also if you use a clear envelope its .58 cause they have to hand stamp it. Same thing as a square envelope.
I have had a couple of friends tell me that when they received cards from me, they arrived postage due. I use either one small brad or a ribbon with a small tie in it, and I always like to use the clear envelopes. Has anyone else had this trouble? My SU Demo used to work in a post office, and she says it is crazy. They should not be charging me extra, (or the recipients of my cards) just for that. Do you think it makes a difference if I use a plain envelope rather than the clear one?
It does indeed make a difference whether you choose paper or plastic for mailing your cards! Post offices are not consistent across the country, but there is a "nonmachinable surcharge" that applies to clear envelopes. The reflectivity of the plastic can interfere with the automatic scanner's ability to read the ZIP code, which is what they use to properly sort mail and send it to the correct postal hub. I've also had clerks tell me stories about the clear envies messing up the system because they don't feed through the sorting equipment like they should, so they have to stop the line, fish out the offending piece of mail, and hand cancel it.
__________________ Rachel Proud SU! demo and Sci-Fi Geek!
My Stampin' Up! blog "I'm a time traveler -- I point and laugh at archaeologists." 10th Doctor, "Silence in the Library"
I have yet to add extra postage ...knock on wood... I place a piece of cardstock over the embellished side of the card before placing it in the envelope...facing the back. If it's still too bumpy then I put packing tape (clear) across it on the envelope. I asked at Christmas time if some needed more postage as they were thicker than the others...the postmaster put them through a slot and they were fine...also were in regulation weight, so paid only reg stamp cost to mail them....Good luck to all with problems. MaggieSt
I bought a little postage scale to use for things I sell on eBay and I use that to weigh embellished cards to see how much more postage I need. I hate the idea that someone might not get their card. Kreat-a-lope sells a cardstock measuring guide that has the 1/4 in opening on it and the markings for the standard size mailings. For $1 it is a little tool that has paid for itself many times over.
I bought a little postage scale to use for things I sell on eBay and I use that to weigh embellished cards to see how much more postage I need. I hate the idea that someone might not get their card. Kreat-a-lope sells a cardstock measuring guide that has the 1/4 in opening on it and the markings for the standard size mailings. For $1 it is a little tool that has paid for itself many times over.
Thanks for the tip i need to get myself one of them tools. I have a scale but i always guess how think it is.
The post office told me that anything that is not totally flat requires extra postage. It costs me .17 extra for the bumps. I never knew the cards I was sending out cost more, and people never even got all those cool cards I made, or got dinged.... oops!
I got slammed at Valentines Day this year. I made these cards with little lambs and put liquid applique on it and heated it, you know to make wool for the lambies. Anyway, first I tested by sending one to myself in a regular envelope and the liquid applique got smushed, so I thought I'd put them in small padded envelopes and would probably have to pay slightly extra. Well that liquid applique made it heavy, plus being in a padded envleope I guess made it a package, anyway I had to pay around $1.30 for every valentine I mailed! I think I mailed around a dozen. Expensive lesson. Oh well, at least it wasn't my Christmas cards!
__________________ Debbie
I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end. - Margaret Thatcher
It's the embellishments. We've had many problems at work (I'm a secretary in a high school office). My most unbelievable (but true, I promise!) was the one that was two pages of paper with a staple in the upper corner. Returned for extra postage b/c it wasn't completely flat!!
I've also had cards that just never arrived, yet weren't returned either. Very annoying.
I recently made birth announcements for someone. I carried them unsealed to my PO and purchased $.58 postage that I was told they needed. The Postal Clerk proceeded to open the envelope and started untieing the bow telling me that if I just untied it, the cost would only be a regular stamp. Of course I wasn't about to untie it because I had spent mucho time making the bows because I am bow challenged. Then I sent them to the Mom and she carried them to her PO to mail and they charge and extra $.30. You just never know what the charge will be.
My postal worker goes by the 1/4 inch rule... so now I check my cards with my fiskars trimmer because the guide for the blade is a quarter inch if the card doesn't fit then I know to add more postage...
I guess I'nm not understanding why a white envelope should make a difference, most envelopes sent are white envelopes, everyone would have to pay for a bill paying envelope then. Are you sure it wasn't a square envelope, they are extra postage? I have decided to save more of my embellished cards for hand giving with a gift. Post office is getting so fussy. Carolyn
Quote:
Originally Posted by ozzystamper
For me to mail cards with a white envelope I always pay .17 cents extra!
__________________ Carolyn
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Your best bet, do not mail through your post office. Put the stamps on and send your card on its merry way. Chances are slim that they will make your recipient pay or that they will return it (but either could happen).
That's what I do, and I think in six years only two cards have come back to me. Both were square, and it was before I knew to put extra postage on those. No one has ever told me that they had postage due, either. If a card is extra lumpy, I just put the extra 17 cent stamp on it.
Not sure the official policy on clear envies, though.
My postal worker goes by the 1/4 inch rule... so now I check my cards with my fiskars trimmer because the guide for the blade is a quarter inch if the card doesn't fit then I know to add more postage...
Great idea for a guage!
__________________ Cindy blog,
Design Team for Provo Craft Cricut Circle
Thanks Verda for the link to the postal site . . . I was seriously overcharged. Should have been .58 and not !.30. I know its only a dollar and thirty cents, but imagine if everywhere you went the shopkeeper charged you more than double the price of the item.
Well I just got back from the Post Office and paid $1.80 to send my brad embellished (stamped but originally white enveloped) card, with bubble wrap to cover the card because of the brad. This was an overseas card but it just seems that I get charged double instead of $.90 plus $.17 and even being charged doubled I'm still never convinced that Royal Mail will deliver it on their end:rolleyes: luckily I "speak" to the recipient quite often over the net and she will let me know.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 7kidscollegefund
The most a 1 ounce card that might have a bump in it should cost is $1.13. Once an envelope is no longer "flat", it moves into the package category. It's quite a racket. The last time the rates went up, they really went up.
If you were charged $1.30, the card needed to weigh 2 ounces and be considered a package. However, one little bump should not make a package out of a card!
Your best bet, do not mail through your post office. Put the stamps on and send your card on its merry way. Chances are slim that they will make your recipient pay or that they will return it (but either could happen).
I agree with this idea.
I have mailed things that are 4 layers of cs thick with ribbon all over it (that I weighed and was less than 1 oz.), put a .41 stamp on it and dropped it in the mail box outside for the PO or left it in my mailbox at home and have never had to pay more than that and I even sent myself one of my Xmas cards just to be sure and it arrived fine and it was thick.
I have even sent things to Canada and Australia that were fat and just put the exact postage amount and they all got there fine.
When you put your mail in the postman's hand is when it gets scrutinized so I would try to avoid that.
Wow...It is so amazing the different responses from the different post offices....YIKES...I have used exclusively clear envelopes for mailing for the last 4 years. If it is a standard size card I ONLY put the .41 on the cards. So far (gotta find a piece of REAL wood to knock on) NONE of mine have been returned or landed with postage due. (wheres that real wood). I ONLY use an additional .17 if I feel I have excessive embellishments that stick up pretty high (I try to be fair) or if I use one of my 6 x 6 clear envelopes for a card. It amazes me what some people go thru. I do have a small postage scale (they are FREE with a stamps.com account) and I do weigh anything to see if I am over an ounce. I DO NOT go to the post office but mail all my cards right in the mailbox outside my house. I wonder if going to the post office is actually causes all the comotion? They seem to be there to stick it to you for as much as they can get.....this is JMHO. I sell the clear envelopes to support my project of sending cards to the soldiers so that is ALL I use for my hand made cards. Blessings to each of you. I wish there was an easier solution.
Wow...It is so amazing the different responses from the different post offices....YIKES...I have used exclusively clear envelopes for mailing for the last 4 years. If it is a standard size card I ONLY put the .41 on the cards. ..... I do have a small postage scale (they are FREE with a stamps.com account) and I do weigh anything to see if I am over an ounce. ....
Do you put actual stamps on your envelopes or print label type stamps from Stamps.com? If its printed postage, that may look 'official' and not get questioned.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aimee30
My postal worker goes by the 1/4 inch rule... so now I check my cards with my fiskars trimmer because the guide for the blade is a quarter inch if the card doesn't fit then I know to add more postage...
all my postage is printed at home with stamps.com....but my hubby also brings me books of stamps and I use them up too. I dont think it matters what postage I use just that I dont take them into a postal person. The funny thing is that my lady mail carrier always looks over my cards...she has commented on how much she likes to look at them. So I know she is noticing that they are in clear envelopes....lol.
I think a lot of it does depend on your individual post office. I can't tell you the number of cards that people have sent me that I have had to pay extra postage . . . just the other day I received a card from someone who had put a few trinkets, brads and such inside as a mini gift and I had to pay an extra 72 cents to receive it. And it didn't have a stamp on it, but a postal label . . . maybe the solution is to move!
Its not just postage on an envelope; I often receive different answers from different postal employess. I was mailing a package to Canada and the label didn't have the emblem in the top corner. The postal worker said that it couldn't be mailed that way. I filled out another customs form and was going to pay for postage there and cancel my label. I went to a different worker and they said it wasn't necessary, that it would mail just fine?
I'm also confused about overseas mailing with postage bought online. The web site says that it "must" be presented to a postal worker and that it can't be put in a mail receptacle. I've had two workers say that I can just put it in the mail receptacle. If that's true, why is the information on the web page still different?
Someone posted that it's the post office on the delivery end that might be the problem for cards delivered with postage due. That is, just because your p.o. accepts it without extra postage required doesn't mean that the p.o. at the other end doesn't re-check it and mark it postage due. The "rules" just are not equitably applied.
You know, with all the stories about how email and electronic distribution of documents (or anything digital) has really cut into the business of the USPS, the p.o. should really be thanking us stampers for giving them a lot of business rather than giving us such a hard time. We should be getting a bulk-rate discount! (Yeah, I know, I'm dreaming - - or maybe hallucinating.)
Back when the postage went up my postman was telling me that the postal service was going to start cracking down on all mail that had to be hand cancelled. He was telling everyone on his route that they needed to be sure of the postage on the Christmas cards because up until this last fee increase they had not taken a hard line and had let a lot of mail go through that shouldn't have but because of the economy they felt they needed to start pushing the issue. I noticed this last Christmas that a lot of the larger cards we got still only had one stamp on them so I guess they let it go then but are now starting to crack down. Plus the fact that more and more of us are making our own cards And we put more and more embellishments on them.
Its not just postage on an envelope; I often receive different answers from different postal employess. I was mailing a package to Canada and the label didn't have the emblem in the top corner. The postal worker said that it couldn't be mailed that way. I filled out another customs form and was going to pay for postage there and cancel my label. I went to a different worker and they said it wasn't necessary, that it would mail just fine?
I'm also confused about overseas mailing with postage bought online. The web site says that it "must" be presented to a postal worker and that it can't be put in a mail receptacle. I've had two workers say that I can just put it in the mail receptacle. If that's true, why is the information on the web page still different?
I know that is the problem, since I have sent the same type of card to different people. Some pay postage due, some don't. I think it depends on the postal workers as you said.
I also agree with the writer who said that with more people emailing, the PO should be happy to have stampers out there giving them business. I think this will eventually go the way of sewing....I used to be able to sew my own clothes much cheaper than buying them, but then fabric went skyhigh. Now I enjoy making my own cards with my own style for much less than buying one, and soon I will be paying more to mail my own than to buy one and mail it.
When I use the clear envelope, I always use white labels for the address, and return address, and put a stamp on it. What is the big difference if the envelope is clear or paper? And one little bow or brad should NOT make such a big deal either!
I'm also confused about overseas mailing with postage bought online. The web site says that it "must" be presented to a postal worker and that it can't be put in a mail receptacle. I've had two workers say that I can just put it in the mail receptacle. If that's true, why is the information on the web page still different?
With international mailing, you can put things in your mailbox or out for your post person to pick up because they "know" you. I believe it's based on the same principal as the over 16 ounce package rule that went into effect after the unibomber incidents. The idea is that you are less likely to mail a bomb or dangerous item if you have to look the postal employee in the eye and hand them the package. (But even if you're steely, postal employees have special powers to tell if you're up to no good when they are in your presence...)
Man this whole thing is really a headache! I went into my PO. Mind you it is a small country PO, but I asked the person in charge, not just a clerk. I asked if I needed to put extra postage on my handmade card if it is square and if it is in a clear envelope. She said no. She held up a plastic template, and said if it fits within the lines she does not charge extra, and as long as she can clearly read the addresses, the clear envelope is no problem. Ok, so now I just worry about the receiving PO's rules?
When using clear envelopes to mail cards that are bumpy due to ribbon or brads, I cut a piece of thick (clear) transparency sheet to fit the envelope. This presses down on the card, making it flatter, while still showing the pretty card through the clear envelope. I always add a 0.17 cent stamp for non-flat cards and no one has reported a postage due problem.
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What is the big difference if the envelope is clear or paper? And one little bow or brad should NOT make such a big deal either!
Sorry for the venting!
See my earlier post! The scanner beam reflects off of the plastic with the clear envies, making them difficult to sort by machine.
As far as the embellishments, I have gotten more than one handcrafted card where a single button or other small bump obviously got snagged in the machine, because the envelope tore in that exact spot and the "offending" embellishment was damaged. So yes, one little bow or brad unfortunately does make a difference! Postal sorting equipment is not delicate by any means, probably because millions of pieces of mail have to be processed at quite a clip and there's no time for gentleness.
__________________ Rachel Proud SU! demo and Sci-Fi Geek!
My Stampin' Up! blog "I'm a time traveler -- I point and laugh at archaeologists." 10th Doctor, "Silence in the Library"
I recently got a card back saying it needed .17 additional postage. The card wasn't very heavy - but it did have some brads on it that made it stick up. Unfortunately, I mailed the card back in ealy January and I never got the card back until the end of March - meaning it took about 3 months for the postal service to return my card to me. The really ironic part is that I sent it to a friend who lived about 5 miles away from me. I just wonder where the card sat for all those months before it was finally sent back to me.
I think I am going just purchase a bunch of additional stamps for the extra .17 - I would rather just have it on there and know that it gets to the intended recipient than to wait months and find out they never got it.
Postage due on cards???
