acceptance scan requirement

[evry1nositswindy]

My mail carrier is also my neighbor, so he texted me last night with a heads up that he is going on vacation next week.  He wanted to let me know that his sub may not scan my packages and that I should take them to the PO.   I haven’t been to the PO in years because I was denied a scan.

The lady at the counter said she wasn’t going to scan it because she doesn’t ‘get credit for it’.   Maybe because my zip code is not the same as the zip code of the post office closest to me?  I have had to drive to the next town where they are quite happy to scan for me. 

Why is this?  Purchasing postage through the USPS, be it in store or online, should make any postal employee happy.    Aren’t they all on the same team??

My main questions have to do with eBay.  My zip code of origin would not match my first acceptance scan.  Is that a big deal?  Also, how many items without acceptance scans can I handle without ruining my top rated seller status?  How long do those stay on my seller dashboard?

I have never, ever had a late shipment with my 1-day handling time and I want to keep it that way.  My mail carrier is talking about retiring…uh oh!

If an acceptance scan is not required (or offered) by the USPS, how can eBay require it of sellers?    

[oldwestgold]

I am a retired Postmaster of 33 years. I find your statement regarding what the clerk told you hard to believe. Sorry, I don't mean to imply anything.  Clerks do not get credit for anything. They just do their job. Maybe the clerk doesn't under his or her job? Possibly they are using a handheld scanner to accept items over the window and not the POS system.  Clerks were told years ago to run everything through the POS or point of sale system and NOT use their handheld or finger scanners. As for your neighbor going on vaca, you should expect nothing less than the service you pay for with the substitute carrier. As for getting an acceptance scan from any carrier, it is not a wise idea to skip this process. If your item is insured, the insurance part does not start until the delivery service accepts it via a receipt or scan. Always, always, get an acceptance scan, whether from the clerk or from your carrier when they do a pick-up as you will avoid any potential problems in the future. Don't be afraid to hold these Postal people accountable.  The sooner you do the better you and others will be. Go up the food chain if necessary. "No" should not be acceptable anytime.  Good luck!

[ms.rodriguez*]

Tipping someone like your mail carrier or your garbagemen goes a long way. My brother is a mail carrier for more than 20 years.   He overlooks certain things from the folks that tip him. For example , if they block the mailbox , he will get out of the Jeep and put the mail in the mailbox. If you don't, then he marks it can't be delivered because mailbox is blocked and he continues to the next stop.   I tip my garbagemen and it doesn't matter what I put outside, they always pick it up.  My neighbor puts out 6 bags and they only pick up a few bags.  So tip your carriers.   Bring a plate of cookies or candies to the post office. Little gestures like this can help you in the future.   Make these employees feel appreciated.

[oldwestgold]

That's silly. I use pickup service almost daily and I am rural.  Having a large route doesn't matter. Being rural doesn't matter.  Rural carriers are paid by many factors and are audited every year. They WANT to get extra deliveries, etc. This translates to MONEY all year round for them. I use to audit them as a Postmaster. You do not have to use a scan sheet either if you only have a one to a couple items for pickup. There is no law that states you do. It is nice to have if you have a dozen or more packages. Very easy to do either way. Click a button print the scan form. My carrier picks up at my front door and not my mailbox. You have a dozen different areas on the online schedule a pickup form to choose from. I simply do not understand why sellers and others fail to use this free service rather than get in your car, drive to the PO and stand in line. Makes no sense.  Even retired I have better things to do with my time.

[oldwestgold]

It is not a wise idea to not get one though for many reasons.

[soh.maryl]

A long time ago, there was some information here about a particular PO facility only "getting credit" for handling a piece of mail if the zip of the sender matched that of that particular branch.  Was that true or false? And thank you so much for "don't be afraid to hold those Postal people accountable." That amounts to the logical expectation that an employee will be trained to do his/her job and will do it.  

Am within a few months of my 90th birthday.  Was fortunate enough to be able to work at a job I loved until I was within a few months of my 80th.  There were some aspects of my duties that I did not like as well as others; however, it would never have occurred to me that those aspects were optional.  

[oldwestgold]

That's making a bad assumption against Postal employees.  Most are dedicated to serving THEIR country and THEIR customers. You have no idea, or at least you should have. YOU chose to "bribe your carrier" when in fact he or she didn't ask for it nor needed anything to do their job. Yet from that you state they have no work ethic. That's pretty lame at best and not a nice thing to say. You realize you have free will which includes using a different delivery service if you honestly believe in what you just stated about USPS employees. I am a retired Postmaster of 33 years and can speak on the thousands of USPS employees that I worked with or managed over those years. The fact is USPS employees are some of the hardest-working people on the planet. I invite anyone to walk in their shoes just for an hour. We had an 85% turnover rate in new hires because they couldn't handle the workload and responsibilities. Factory workers to teachers came and left stating it was too much work for them and quit a few days after their 2-week training. They all went back to their easier jobs.

[evry1nositswindy]

@oldwestgold  Let me put it this way--I have no need to schedule a pick up because he comes here every day.  I NEVER got to the post office anymore.  That was when I first started selling and I wanted to ship my item after my mail had already gone.  I don't do that anymore.

Yes, the lady told me that and it was a few years back.  I have not returned to that PO again, even to buy stamps.  I have never forgotten what she said to me because I was baffled.  I did all the work and all she had to do was scan and that was too hard for her.  I talked to my carrier about it and he said that it would be faster service to just put it out the following day.  His items go directly to a hub (? think that was what he said) and the items at the other PO have a later pick up.  I don't pretend to understand the logistics of it!  

As for the same service whether it is my regular mail carrier or a sub, it was my mail carrier who texted me as a heads up.   He said I might want to go to the PO to get scans.    I got good service, but if I didn't, I don't know who I would call as I don't have a post master in my zip code.   In the past, one of his other subs didn't scan for me, I texted him, and he took care of it.

[sapphire_studio]

I've always tried to tip my mail carriers $20 once or twice a year (since I started selling on eBay a few years ago) because I really do appreciate everything they do (I don't have a car and so they're pick up requests are I must for me). Most of them have taken it but one of them wouldn't.

[oldwestgold]

As a retired Postmaster, you DO NOT have to tip USPS employees. If your brother is providing "favors" to people that tip him, he can risk being disciplined or removed. Few people like cookies or homemade items. This went out with the 90's. I know, as I carried also for years and heard it from other carriers. All USPS employees are also limited by law as to how much they can receive. It use to be $5. Again, they know they can be fired for accepting anything more. I have seen even high-level managers get removed for accepting a pair of free baseball tickets. If you want to get your carrier fired, then have at it. The world today is consumed by tipping, for people just doing what is expected of them. It is not required, especially for USPS employees.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@oldwestgold wrote: .... All USPS employees are also limited by law as to how much they can receive. It use to be $5. ....

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Apparently it was raised to  $20 per event, with an annual $50 limit:

"All postal employees, including carriers, must comply with the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Exec­utive Branch. Under these federal regulations, carriers are permitted to accept a gift worth $20 or less from a customer per occasion, such as Christmas. However, cash and cash equivalents, such as checks or gift cards that can be exchanged for cash, must never be accepted in any amount. Furthermore, no employee may accept more than $50 worth of gifts from any one customer in any one calendar year period."

https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2012/pb22349/html/cover_025.htm

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@oldwestgold wrote:

I am a retired Postmaster of 33 years. I find your statement regarding what the clerk told you hard to believe. Sorry, I don't mean to imply anything.  Clerks do not get credit for anything. They just do their job. Maybe the clerk doesn't under his or her job? ...

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There have been many posts over the years in which Sellers report that their local PO clerk refused packages which did not bear that PO's ZIP Code as the "shipping from" ZIP Code. Clerks explained that the PO needs to "get credit" for the volume of sales.  This doesn't make sense to me; I thought that the "shipping from" ZIP Code was there to ensure that the proper postage was paid, and that credit for volume would be based on actual scans.

[mtgraves7984]

Few people like cookies or homemade items. This went out with the 90's.

@oldwestgold 

I worked live TV in the 90s and audience members would bring our Artists homemade cookies, etc., for the Green Room. They never made it past the trash can in my PR Dept. We didn't know what was in those 'special recipes'. I'm just sayin'...

[buyselljack2016]

Sometimes I think it is a case of not understanding, or improper training,

Any office can, and should accept a package with a prepaid label for mailings less than Express. I believe in the past the DMM made reference to the acceptance being allowed at any PO that was within the same region (other than Express). The cost would be the same for shipping. Now with the APV it probably doesn't matter as it would be expected that the system will flag any shortages and charge the sender.

Though it apparently does not matter I always try to use the "ship from" zip of the office that I will drop at. I do not know if that gives "financial credit" to that office, but I do it anyway. I asked at one office recently, but the individual there did not know. Some of mine are dropped at a "small office" that has only a handheld scanner.

My carriers, and all offices that I drop at are very good about 100% scanning, Never a whimper. (perhaps after the fact when I'm out of earshot). They all seem to understand that it is their job.

That brings me back to understanding/training. Back a while I had a "small office" clerk (no Postmaster there. my Zip) refuse to exchange damaged stamps. Just a few. They were not in horrible condition, but I thought they might get flagged along the way. Don;t want my bill payments delayed. When I asked I suggested that they could be used for a "local", that was going to be hand cancelled, and put in a PO box, or given to the carrier for local. She refused.  She said "Jim" (Postmaster now retired) never would take them. They all did what "Jim" said.

Keep in mind this was a small office not a bigger point of sale (POS) office, so there really was no reason not to take them. She suggested that perhaps I should go to such and such office as maybe they would do them. I have know her for years. Even before she started being sent to that office, and as that is where I get the mail I did not press the matter.

Now, to point out here that she also sometimes worked at "Jims" POS office. The fact of the matter is, there is a key selection process on the POS terminal for acceptance of stamps for exchange. Refunds are not given, but exchanges are acceptable. There in the work flow process the clerk is prompted to follow when doing the exchange to chose if the stamps being exchanged can be used, or if the can not (like damaged). So what it came down to is the workers at "Jim's" office were trained by the policies of "Jim".

What I think is that "Jim" did not want to be burdened by the process of accounting for, and the turn in for destruction of such stamps so his employees were not trained properly to do their job. It happens. Someone tells the employee that if the zip does not match it can't be shipped. Employee knows no better.

[oldwestgold]

As I stated - it use to be $5. I have been retired for 7 years and things change that I don't care about anymore. I surely wasn't going to waste my time looking it up, but thanks for the info. As a Postmaster I was offered all kinds of things by contractors and I always politely refused. Most of the time they would not understand even after I explained it to them. In my professional opinion, it just wasn't acceptable.  I guess that is why I would have never made a good politician. I do remember when I was still new to the USPS the Procurement Mgr took me down in the basement of the Plant one time to the large storage room he used. In there was a small mountain of gifts to the ceiling he had accumulated over the years, literally. Of course, that was 30 years ago and things have changed at least in the Post Office. When those things came up, I would always ask myself if it was worth my job and embarrassment to my family. That thought process seemed to keep me a by-the-book person. Have a good day!

[oldwestgold]

Not true. And not an excuse for anyone to accept. Mailing from a different zip code is different than what the OP stated. Postal employees are required to take any and all mail. They cannot refuse anything, unless for poor packaging or some other mailing regulation that the mailer hasn't followed. Of all my 33 years as a high-level Manager and Postmaster at multiple locations, big and small, I never once heard this. The clerks get credit through the POS systems by transaction numbers and not mail volume. Everything is by transactions which then translates to time. If a clerk scans 50 packages, that office, not the clerk, gets credits which translate to budget hours allocated. Volume comes into play on the delivery side of operations. I was an IT MGR, Finance Director, and Accounting and Budget Mgr. I know.