In a Post Office in Queens, NY, I noticed signs posted for customers mailing envelopes/packages by Media Mail. The signs are requiring that customers first show what they are putting into the envelopes/packages before sealing them. Media Mail is a cheaper form of mail for books, sound recordings, etc. (Relevant to the issue are postal regulations DMM E713.1.2 and DMM E610.)
1) Is the U.S.P.S. breaking any laws, or do you see this U.S.P.S. regulation as unconstitutional?
2) In such a Post Office, would you go through the public inspection and sealing process to mail (admittedly, more cheaply) some books to relatives and friends as, for example, holiday gifts?
3) Do you think that requiring, for example, publishers who mail let's say 300 books/day to stand in a Post Office and seal each envelope/package after inspection is a violation of any publisher rights?
Based on the reference of the postal regulation, I would say that the issue is loose enclosures in the package. There are specific guidelines that limit the "extra" enclosures in the mail. (E610 is the basic standard) So what does this mean in simple terms?
The post office doesn't want people mailing letters or other papers with the media mail that normally could be sent first class mail. It hurts their revenue. Many times people try to sneak extra mailings (letters, flyers, postcards etc..) inside the media mail to sort of "scam the system".
quote: 1) Is the U.S.P.S. breaking any laws, or do you see this U.S.P.S. regulation as unconstitutional?
The USPS isn't breaking any laws. They are not reading your mail. They are looking through the package to make sure there are not any "extra" mailings along with the media mail.
quote: 2) In such a Post Office, would you go through the public inspection and sealing process to mail (admittedly, more cheaply) some books to relatives and friends as, for example, holiday gifts?
Yes.
quote:3) Do you think that requiring, for example, publishers who mail let's say 300 books/day to stand in a Post Office and seal each envelope/package after inspection is a violation of any publisher rights?
A large mailer of books would not be required to seal their books at the post office. There are specific guidelines the post office follows. (E713) They would not violate publisher rights by looking at the contents in a box. If they were reading the book, that would be different.
There obviously is a problem with the media mail service being abused.
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clarebear: Yes, the abuse is also that some are trying to mail clothing and whatnot (even out of the country) at the reduced media mail rate.
In practice, one can go to a bigger Post Office than the small one about which I wrote and perhaps become better known by the special clerk at the special commercial window. In short, one may be able to submit to having this clerk randomly open one or two of a batch. I think that this would be acceptable, but I do not know if this would be allowable. Yet, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and where there is a will, there is a way. Currently, at a bigger Post Office, for personal mailings, I watch a clerk at any window do a squeeze of books in a sealed envelope and a shake of videos in a sealed package, no lie.
Your mention of the E713 is interesting, because the method of presorting (whether or not it avoids the inspection) reduces any nuisance, indignity, or whatever, as the method further reduces the costs.
I knew that my perception was too narrow. Thanks.
P.S. I also have a contact at the main Post Office who can tell me the pros and cons a lot better, but I wanted a less hostile attitude when calling The Contact. The old see what others are doing on the commercial window line is not a bad idea either. Otherwise, one can keep digging on the Internet for more regulations to read.
