Postal Issues???

[skymccready]

Have any of you ever had your packages 'rerouted' by the Post Office? I checked on some that I sent out last week and got this notice from the tracking department: 'Your item has been rerouted due to an error within our system. We are working to fix this problem as soon as possible.' So what does that mean? The truck delived packages to the wrong homes? It broke down? went the wrong way? hijacked? I've never had that happen before, but it doesn't sound good. I've emailed a lot of my buyers from last week and asked if they had received their cards because I hadn't heard any fb from them. I'm starting to think ebay runs the post office too!!! or vica versa. skyM

[evansonart]

I've worked in logistics (shipping, receiving, vendoring) for over 10 years and yes, things get rerouted all the time by all of the carriers. If there's a natural disaster that wipes out an area, your item may have to go on a different path to the desination. If your item was supposed to ship to that area, it might be returned to you (if it just happened) or you might not be able to ship there until later. -Valerie

[photosbyrose4u]

Sher, they charged her for a flat-rate envelope! that's $4.05, so the diff was $3.+...i was mortified! now I know to padd up the envelopes!

[artbydeniseevery]

Sher, What the post office does is charge the customer the flat priority rate of $4.05, they deduct the postage you already paid for first class mail and charge the customer the balance. I had a customer to whom I sent art in a CD mailer and used peanuts to bulk it up. She has had an ongoing feud with her local post office for some time (after she objected to some very shabby mail handling practices). The package arrived at her home squashed flat and a postage due of several dollars. It seems to me the local postal people deliberately squashed those peanuts so they could stick it to her one more time. The solution to that is the customer should refuse the package, it will be delivered back to you free of charge (one of the benefits of first class mail), and then you can resend it... you're still out the extra postage to remail it, but it's much less than paying the highway robbers the priority rate. Of course the dilemma is most customers wouldn't know to refuse it, they would just pay it and tell you after the fact... but since this had happened to this person before she got wise to their ways. And just remember with the new rates coming up, the thickness is going to need to be 1 inch, not 3/4 inch as it is now. And hope that somewhere along the line someone doesn't squash yer peanuts flat. Denise

[quilt4138]

A seller got my package back. I thought it was a strange joke. Not fat enough.