recycling a box just cost me 50c

   Ok, so 50 cents isn't a lot of money, but it's still annoying.

  I got a package in the mail last week, and I put it up on the shelf,
intending to reuse it in the future.  I rarely have to buy a box because I
tend to reuse those that have been sent to me in the past.

  Anyway, this particular box was a priority mail box.  As I've been taught,
I used a black permanent marker to mark out all of the writing & such on the
box.  Then I logged in to Paypal, entered the address & such, and printed a
mailing label.  Total shipping cost was $5.90

  Since the box was too big for my mailbox, I took it to the downtown post
office to drop it off.  I wasn't sure if I could just walk up and leave it
on the counter, so I waited for the couple of folks in line.

  When I got up to the counter, I explained  was just dropping it off, and
it was prepaid.  She told me I would not be allowed to mail it parcel post,
because it was in a priority mail package.  I told her to look at it - it
was slightly beat up, and you could see the edge of the old address sticking
out - obviously it had been used before.

  Then I reasoned, "You are telling me that you are going to CHARGE me to
recycle a box instead of throwing it away?"  She said yes - their policy was
that priority mail boxes could only be used for priority mail, even if they
were obviously being reused, and even if all the writing on the box was
marked out.

  I ended up having to pay an extra half dollar to "upgrade" to priority
mail.

  What should I have done?  Should I have just left it there and walked out?

  I guess next time I'll paint the outside of the box white or something!

  On Fri, 29 Feb 2008, OhioGuy wrote:


You probably should have done what you did--pay the $.50 and chalk it
up to "live and learn".

 OhioGuy wrote:

Or turn it inside out and re-glue or re-tape it so it can't be
recognized as a priority mail box.

 

The PO has also cracked down on that practice. Priority boxes are free and
can only be used for Priority mail. You can't even use the free mailing
labels for anything but Priority.

Work within their system or pay the price. No pity here.

Melissa

 

That never stops you from complaining.



Recycle the box for some other purpose where the box design won't gum up an
assembly line system. There must be a dozen uses for old boxes.

Much as I hate USPS, this is simple common sense.