More Problems
The recent changes enacted by the Postal Service weren’t simply an increase in the price of stamps. There were other changes in the package that is shifting costs from large corporations to the people at the bottom. Many of you have heard of the large increases for small periodicals as compared to the big guys, but there are also changes that affect the individual.
A big change is that almost anything that isn’t a standard #10 envelope is going to cost you more to mail. Sinfonian at Blast Off! has a prime example of this: absentee ballots. The Palm Beach county absentee ballot will cost 91¢ to mail back, not a single first class stamp, because it is not a standard sized envelope.
The optimal solution would be for the elections office to supply business reply envelopes with absentee ballots, because if you mail it with a single stamp and it gets returned for insufficient postage, that stamp is canceled and can’t be reused. The Palm Beach example requires you to either go to the post office to get the proper postage or to use three first class stamps [$1.23] to mail it. Sinfonian notes that the postage problem isn’t mentioned in the materials you receive.
The odd-size penalty is also in force for the really funny card you are trying to send – if it isn’t a standard size, you are going to pay a lot more for it. This reflects the further movement of the Postal Service to the vaulted business model by cutting costs and screwing customers, just like every other large corporation.
5 comments
Just wait until they decide they can’t take the envelopes if they have too many stamps all over them….
[…] Why Now? – More Problems: “The recent changes enacted by the Postal Service weren’t simply an increase in the price of stamps. There were other changes in the package that is shifting costs from large corporations to the people at the bottom. Many of you have heard of the large increases for small periodicals as compared to the big guys, but there are also changes that affect the individual. A big change is that almost anything that isn’t a standard #10 envelope is going to cost you more to mail. Sinfonian at Blast Off! has a prime example of this: absentee ballots. The Palm Beach county absentee ballot will cost 91¢ to mail back, not a single first class stamp, because it is not a standard sized envelope.” […]
The cost increased was based on the “special handling” required, and too many stamps means hand canceling, so there may be another fee.
People shouldn’t be required to pay for voting, but that’s what is happening.
Pardon my rude vocabulary, but it should be fucking free to vote, for everyone, period, no exceptions. This postal anomaly is no better than a poll tax, which was ruled unconstitutional decades ago.
Business reply envelops insure prompt delivery through the bar coding and they are postage due, not pre-paid, which means you only pay postage on those returned and you establish an account with the Post Office to cover the cost.
Ballots and tax forms should both be free of charge.