eBay envelopes

[dbar-chuck]

I'm getting a little flak at the post office. A clerk is telling me not to place eBay envelopes in the regular collection box but to instead hand them to him because they are non-machinable. I agree that they are non-machinable and may jam up the sorting machine, but I think an eBay envelope should be able to be handled in a regular (drive-through) collection box. Does anyone have an answer (and a source to quote to him)?

[kds99]

Are you talking about a plain white  envelope or a firm flat mailer? eBay Standard Envelopes are intended to be machinable. A tennis ball in a padded envelope is not machinable. Let's start there.

[1786davycrockett]

The eBay Standard Envelope is treated as metered mail, and not stamped mail.

If you simply drop the eBay Standard Envelope into a USPS collection box, it will be mixed with other unsorted stamped envelopes, metered envelopes, post cards, packages, litter, garbage, and so on, thus requiring extra time to be re-sorted properly into the individual categories.  

By handing your eBay Standard Envelope directly to a USPS counter person (or dropping the eBay Standard Envelope directly into a "Metered Mail Only" letter slot), you are saving USPS additional time, as well as moving your mail one step closer to its destination.

If you've ever seen the contents of a USPS collection box as it is being emptied, I think you'd be quite surprised -- and even upset.  Another reason that postal rates continue to be on the rise.

[dirk12955]

I ship as many as 20 of the ebay standard envelopes every day.    All are dropped in 

the slot in the lobby of my local PO mixed in with "Regular" mail and the occasional

priority mail and International stuff.

This is done Without issue.    Nobody at my PO has said anything.

[1786davycrockett]

"This is done Without issue.    Nobody at my PO has said anything."

Apparently the post office used by the OP is acting differently.

As many others have previously posted, postal behavior around the United States is not consistent.

My local post office handles eBay Standard Envelopes differently than does yours, obviously.

[dirk12955]

I believe that all mail posted at my PO (Elkhart, Indiana)  goes to either South Bend or Fort Wayne to

be sorted and forwarded.

There are large cloth bins (Baskets)  on wheels behind the counter.    You hand the clerk 

a stack of mail and the mail is tossed into these bins.      It's my impression that the bins are forwarded to SB or FW and that then 

at that point the mail begins to get sorted.     

I'm guessing that the issue of ebay send mail and regular mail is not an issue until that point.

If I mail my next door neighbor a Birthday card and drop it off at Elkhart,    It's going to go to South Bend 

and then sent back to Elkhart for eventual delivery.

[1786davycrockett]

@dirk12955 

At many of the lobbies in the post offices in the Twin Cities, there are designated slots clearly marked "Stamped Letters" and "Metered Letters."  Since the eBay Standard Envelope clearly is affixed with a metered stamp, it gets dropped into the "Metered Letters" slot.  This obviously saves time in sorting, before they are sent along to the next distribution center.  

Additionally at my local post office, letters dropped off at the counter to a postal employee are handled differently -- I don't know if my local USPS counter employees take the time to sort the loose mail that they receive; but it seems that the OP has been told by his local USPS counter employees that that is the procedure that is requested at the OP's post office. 

I don't know how your post office differs from mine; but obviously my local USPS procedures are handled differently from yours -- and, as I had stated previously, we have had numerous past threads reporting about individual post offices that seem to have its own set of "rules" that may not be in effect elsewhere.

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

When the postal workers go postal, just do what they say, or find a new PO.

I have 3 POs around me, the closest one is my favorite because they are the nicest, the other two... let's just say I think I'll opt for the self service kiosks go avoid the PO workers...