RE: Post Office Special Mail Handling Regulation 703.5
One out of every five Americans, some 50 million individuals as well as all the organizations that support them are eligible to both send as well as receive eligible materials under Free Matter for the Blind or Handicapped and the Online Sales Marketplaces are no exception for these people asserting their Federally-Guaranteed Rights under the law.
As such, the chances of a Seller on any one or all of these OSP's encountering an eligible individual or organization is high.
Unfortunately, OSP's have yet to see fit to automate this Federally-mandated service, therefore in order to maintain compliance, Sellers must either store the above link on their phones or print out Section 703.5 and physically take it with them along with the package to the nearest Post Office to show employees at the Postal Service.
If Postal Service Employee compliance is not forthcoming, Sellers must escalate the interaction to the supervisor, manager or Director of Operations.
If Seller continues to get pushback, they must take down the badge numbers of the agents providing the pushback, travel to a larger Post Office in a larger city and report the previous interaction in order to get compliance.
If compliance is STILL not forthcoming, Sellers need to repeat the action to their Regional Administration for the Postal Service
A) Eligible people/organizations to use it are listed under Section 5.1.3
B) Eligible items are listed under Section 5.2.1
C) According to Congress, since the word ``SOLELY'' or its' equivalent is NOT part of Section 5.2.2 and since eligible individuals use, have used and will continue to use materials intended for ordinary individuals, any product listed under B) above is eligible.
1. Sellers are not required to be notified in advance of the necessity for utilizing Section 703.5 listed above.
2. Cancellation of order without Buyer consent upon being notified of the necessity of using Section 703.5 is a violation of eBay Policy.
3. Buyer payment cannot be processed until Seller complies with Section 703.5 by revising their invoice as instructed - eliminating the shipping charge other than two or three dollars that the Post Office charges for the Insurance and Tracking Number mandated by eBay.
4. Seller noncompliance with this policy falls under
A) violation of eBay Policy
B) discrimination on the basis of disability - a violation of Federal Law (ADA among others)
C) violation of Federal Law as it applies to Postal Regulations
all of which carry heavy and severe penalties.
5. If you have a problem or a question complying with this directive - pleae refer to the case(s) previously escalated
A) internally beyond the offshored third-party call, chat or correspondence processing centers Customer Service and Trust and Safety to eBay office of Government Relations
B) to the United States Postal Service which is required by Federal law to force eBay members into compliance.
C) the United States Postal Inspection Service which oversees the USPS and monitors its' compliance with both its' own laws and the remaining Federal laws to which it is subject.
D) to cases currently in progress at the ACLU, EFF and a number of other Class Action Service Organizations.
6. As all websites hosting such activities - whether headquartered in the U.S. or hosting operations in the country - are similarly mandated to require themselves and their members to maintain compliance with Section 703.5 - in order to avoid dealing with issues, Sellers may also voluntarily
A) refrain from selling items eligible under Section 5.2.1
B) remove themselves from the Online Sales Marketplace
We hope this information has been helpful.
