When I recently tried to send some old DVD's and VHS tapes using Media Mail, the postal clerk at our post office said that those things don't count. He got out his guide which had the same language that appears on the USPS website and from the way it reads videos are covered. However, he said that since I didn't record them myself and that they were manufactured they didn't count as "recordings." Anyone ever have this happen before? Who is right, him or me? On the USPS site where it lists eligibility Part 173, Section 4.1, paragraph e reads "Sound recordings, including incidental announcements of recordings and guides or scripts prepared solely for use with such recordings. Video recordings and player piano rolls are classified as sound recordings. " Pretty clear to me but the postal clerk seems hell bent on giving me a hard time.
Some Post Offices have a policy of inspecting every item that is presented to them for shipping via Media Mail. This clerk is completely wrong of course. If a clerk has a suspect judgment, ask for a second opinion, preferably from their Postmaster.
Videotapes and dvd's are eligible for media mail. Blank ones are not.
Go to liteblue.usps.gov/news/link/2013/04apr/Media-Mail-Guidelines.htm and print it and take it back to that PO and request the Postmaster. Ask that they retrain their clerks.
Videotapes and dvd's are eligible for media mail. Blank ones are not.
Go to liteblue.usps.gov/news/link/2013/04apr/Media-Mail-Guidelines.htm and print it and take it back to that PO and request the Postmaster. Ask that they retrain their clerks.
That chart is a great resource that I often link to, but it might not persuade this particular clerk because it doesn't address their prerecorded-vs-self-recorded distinction.
That chart is a great resource that I often link to, but it might not persuade this particular clerk because it doesn't address their prerecorded-vs-self-recorded distinction.
If anything, the clerk in this case has his understanding even more bass-ackwards than usual, since the OP has commercially-recorded videotapes, not even ones of his own recorded on what originated as blank media. I would just pack up the box and ship it via a different clerk, or buy the label on-line and drop it in the lobby box.
P.S. Enjoy this blast from the past, one of the all-time classics of misunderstood Media Mail requirements: 😉
