It’s not news that the United States Postal Service is going through a rough stretch. The USPS lost $5 billion last year and doesn’t receive any U.S. taxpayer dollars. It has been cutting costs for the last several years and last week the price of stamps rose for the third consecutive year. Now, it costs 49 cents to mail a birthday card to Mom.
Some Milton residents are in a tizzy about the USPS, but their anger is not directed at the recent hike in stamp prices. Instead, they’re complaining about the costs of receiving mail.
“We keep getting envelopes from the post office saying we owe money for postage on things like Christmas cards … The other day we ordered something online, the package came but the post office also sent an envelope saying we owed another $3,” one Miltonian, Brandy Moulton, wrote on Front Porch Forum on January 27. “This is becoming rather annoying.”
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Why doesn’t the bill go to the sender? Seems odd to bill the receiver…
Don’t pay it, mail it back to the post office and tell them to take it up with whomever sent it. I’ve sent stuff twice that didn’t have the required postage, it came back both times???
Milton is the 9th largest jurisdiction in the state. Not a Very small town by Vermont standards. It wil probably soon be one of the few towns in the 10,000+ club.
I am one of those that complained on Front Porch Forum and had filed a complaint in 2013 about the amount of postage due packages I was receiving. Some were clear errors on the senders part but I would disagree with others where postage was due. Especially when the postage paid label was put on by another post office. I deal with a number of companies who send things all across the country and a number of them have stated that I am the only one they ever hear from that the package didn’t contain enough postage. If a company sends out 1000’s of the same item, why would only Milton find an error in the postage amount? I was informed by a substitute driver last fall, who subs for a number of post offices, that Milton, by far, has the greatest number of postage due packages. I didn’t realize how big of a problem it was until someone posted on FPF. I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one. My question is, what can we do as residents of Milton to keep this from happening? We could send the package back but for a few cents, it’s just not worth waiting for the item to go back and then be resent to you. If you work full time, you’re limited on when you can get to the post office to even pick up the item. I have an amazing mail carrier who will cover me from time to time and I just need to pay her back but there are times when she doesn’t have the extra funds to cover everyone on her route. Something needs to be done about this.
If the Post Office receives mail with any postage on it we are required to try and collect postage due from the addressee. This saves the cost of putting it back in the mail stream and being handled again. You can refuse any piece of mail, postage due or otherwise at which point we will gladly return it to sender and let them deal with the shortage. Please don’t blame your local Post Office. They are just following orders.
I work in the mail industry (not a PO). This isn’t a problem that originates with the Milton PO. It is the responsibility of the sender to put on the correct postage. If the package is short on postage, it is short. It isn’t as if Milton is charging extra or tacking on charges. The company I work with puts their own postage on their mail and it may appear as though from a post office but it is not. I see mail come in all the time short of postage from businesses, colleges, individuals and even from the post office. Amazing that some people think one stamp will do on a 9 by 12 envelope. Your beef needs to be with the sender of the shorted postage package, not the Post Office that happened to catch the shortage.