USPS employee asked me to change the zip code?

[jmr1068215]

I do Ebay sales on the side of a regular job. I went to the local post office that is near to me (about 3 miles away), but it is in another city. I print my labels off from Ebay and the to/from addresses are already filled in, of course. When I went the other day, they were open and I asked the lady for a receipt for dropping them off. Her reply was that I "didn't need a receipt because when you print the label, it shows up the tracking information." The receipt that I wanted was to make sure that the USPS is actually scanning them in and not making them disappear, so yes, I DO need a receipt. She said, "See this zip code at the top? Can you change that to our zip code so that we get credit for it?" That zip code is MY zip code. Ebay puts that at the top of the label just to the left of the large P (Priority Mail) saying "From zip code xxxxx". It gets it from my address, so if I changed that to the post office zip code like she's asking, the zip code would be wrong if it needed to return to sender. I don't understand what "credit" she's talking about, either.

I honestly wonder if that isn't the Postmaster. She had the other guy out there cleaning windows and nobody else was in there. I remember going in there asking for a receipt a couple of years ago and a lady that looked like her kind of laughed and scoffed when I asked for a receipt and say, "Booooy, I'll tell ya what..." as if saying that to another coworker and complaining about me asking for a receipt. I also get mistake for being in my late teens or early twenties, but I'm actually in my mid-30's and just look really young. Is this fraud? Should I report this?

[pargran3]

I wanna do what I wanna do is a disease.

There is a difference. Ship from zip IS important. A few miles CAN put you in a different zone. So what really is the problem? And as has been pointed out the volume of mail from a zip can result in upsizing or downsizing.

Just do it correctly. How many seconds out of your day would that take since you are already driving and wasting gas to take your package to a post office.

Incredible.

Radine

[johnrj1226]

Take a moment and read berserkerplant's post #23.  It seems that USPS DMM manual has stated they  Prefer some mail (like flate rate priority, priority, first class, etc to be sent  from the  home zip code but  not necessarily but has a definite requirement to ship from the home zip for shipments via Parcel Select Ground, etc.

In rare cases would a few miles  will make a significant difference in a postal zone change - unless one live along the border line.  There are a total of 9 postal zones that cover from the east coast to Hawaii & beyond like Guam.  The  lower  48 states  is about 3000 miles from east to west.   Here is what a zone chart looks like

[nobody*s_perfect]

@johnrj1226

Your map is not a Zone chart. It shows the distribution of ZIP Codes according to their first digit, which only remotely related  to the USPS Zone system.  (There is no Zone 0, and Zone 9 consists of just a few remote Pacific islands.)

USPS Zones are constructed like a target, with your home ZIP Code at the center bullseye.  Everybody lives in their own Zone 1.  If you're in New York, then Los Angeles is in Zone 8; if you're in LA, then NYC is Zone 8.  

This page from Endicia has a useful discussion and a relevant map:

https://www.endicia.com/tools-resources/newsletter/2015-october/new-dynamic-usps-zone-map

The Zone charts are based only on the first 3 digits of the ZIP Code.  You can create your own one-page reference list here:

https://postcalc.usps.com/DomesticZoneChart

[johnrj1226]

Thanks  for the correction.  Grabbed the  wrong map example to insert.  Should have double checked my work.  My bad.

[berserkerplanet]

Correction:
The excerpt I posted above (post #23) and incorrectly labeled as DMM Section 602.4.6.3 is actually 2018 DMM 604.4.6.3