LostHiWay

I just got a knock on the door from my mail woman. She had 2 packages from BestBuy.com. Each had 1 DVD. Now Best Buy uses these plastic bubble mailers and they mail them 1st class with delivery confirmation.

Now both packages had postage due of $2.66. I looked at the mail women and pointed down to the "postage paid by Best Buy" part of the label. No go she said. She said that they have an old guy down at the post office that's really picky about packages and that postal regulations state that 1st class packages must be at least 3/4" thick in order to use delivery confirmation. If it's not it has to go Priority Mail. That's why postage is due.

This really sucks since I have about 5 other preorders through BestBuy.com. I can only imagine how confused the idiots at BestBuy.com CS are going to be when I call.

rich-y

I would have refused delivery and then called BestBuy to tell them again to reship them correctly.

siberianhusky

Thats Crazy, what the hell kind of rule is that. Man I would be calling best buy, even though the problem is with that old man at USPS. Good luck.

tomveil

When I sell dvd's or games on ebay I mail them in a bubble mailer first class with delivery confirmation. The bubble mailer should make it acceptable. Maybe I should add a little crumpled paper in the envelope to make sure.

RevLiver

I think I'd have a talk with your local postmaster. A DVD in a case inside a bubble-padded envelope is 3/4 of an inch thick.

Josh-da-man

Yep. I have one of Best Buy's bubble mailers right here on my desk -- one of those plastic white ones, right?

I put a keepcased DVD inside of it and it was actually a little over 3/4".

D-Ball

A keepcase is slightly over 1/2", so the only way that the entire package would be less than 3/4" is if the postal service crushed it. If I were you, I would go to the post office and get a refund.

Heat

Definately go down to the post office and ask to speak with the postmaster, tell him what happened and point out that the packages were 3/4" thick.

And besides, they were mailed as 1st class and were not treated as "priority" mail.

silentbob007

"HAHAHA! The Fools! They paid a higher rate for delivery confirmation on first class and now -- we really stick it to them!"

Easy

Shipping a single dvd first class is usually cheaper than media mail (depends on weight) and as at least as fast as priority mail. I wondered why more companies didn't use the USPS. Now I know.

El-Kabong

I would have said "Then go talk to Best Buy for your 3 bucks", snatched the discs out of her hand and slammed the door in her face. Problem solved.

LostHiWay

That's what I wanted to do..but next time I get a DVD she'll just happen to run over it before putting in my mailbox.

Trout

She probably already did that, so what do you have to lose?

sniper308

What's she look like? You could offer to hit it and call it even on the postage due...

dvde

That's the stupidest rule I've ever heard. What kills me is that if a package is over a 1/4 " thick it cannot be machinable. That's the thickness that should be, not 3/4". The USPS are the biggest bunch of idiots I've ever had to deal with.

RandyM

The rule is "over 3/4 of an inch thick or in a box." Best Buy knows (or should know) this. They mailed it. If they mailed something against the rules, it's their bad, not the person enforcing the rules. If you get something like this postage due, just refuse it and have your carrier return it to sender. Then Best Buy will have to do it right and send it back to you.

The ability to send something 1st class with Delivery Confirmation just started with the rate change last June. Before that you couldn't send ANYTHING 1st with Delivery Confirmation. Now you can send SOME things, but not ALL things. If you don't like it, don't use it.

diesteldorf

I hope you are joking It's not her fault. Don't kill the messenger.

The 3/4 inch rule is in place to prevent people from using
DC on 1st Class Letters. USPS has a very lucrative service called
REGISTERED MAIL which is geared primarily for letters and costs a couple bucks.
By comparison, DC is relatively cheap.

The USPS is trying to ensure that First Class DC doesn't interfere w/
Registered Mail revenue.

chanster

My post office has gotten anal about this too. They said they got a memo from headquarters telling them to refuse almost all First Class mail with Delivery Confirmation. No joke. I am in Chicago

RonG617

DVDE, even if the bubble wrapped package was 1/4 thick, it wouldn't be run through the letter sorting machine. The machine runs the mail along belts that slightly bend the letters several times. It would either jam the machine, or damage your item. The 3/4 rule is silly.
Registered mail is generally for extremely important things. It is expensive and is locked in a safe if it can not be delivered. It is not a big revenue source. Registered mail is either from overseas, money, diamonds or other gems being sent to a jewler, and several times it has been an urn of human ashes. That has been my experience for the past 9 years.

diesteldorf

Woops....Just realized I made a mistake with my USPS terminology. RonG617 is right regarding Registered Mail
being used primarily for overseas and not being a big money maker, I should have said
CERTIFIED MAIL which is a service that can be used for FIRST CLASS letters. It provides
proof of mailing and Delivery Confirmation. The fee is $2.30 which is higher than the fee for
plain delivery confirmation which runs around $0.50.

spyzdope

Delivery confirmation is only 13 cents if you use stamps.com or if you use the (free) USPS shipping assistant software to print out your shipping label. This is all the more reason for them to want to push people to use a more expensive service such as certified mail.

danicus007

A keepcase DVD in bubble mailer is easily 3/4 thick. I used to wrap my DVDs in brown paper bags to ship and they gave me grief about the 3/4 deal. I've since switched to bubble mailers and haven't had a problem from USPS since. Although one of my shipments got the crap kicked out of it. Broken case, spine totally ripped off it, package ripped apart. No insurance either. I can't believe they could trash something so horribly. It was mint when I dropped it off at the post office and it shows up destroyed...let's see, who's fault could that have been?

axolotls return

There is only Delivery Confirmation for Priority and Media Mail. The handout from USPS about First Class w/ Delivery Confirmation has never been adopted yet.

I am glad my post office isn't as anal as yours. They actually have something called customer service.

RandyM

Uh, yes it has. It started with the rate change last June.

CaptainMarvel

My local post office still gives me no problems about mailing dvds, but the one in Birmingham did. I'm halfway tempted to buy a pair of measuring calipers to show them that the package is well over 3/4".