My local Post Office has decided to NOT honor the USPS Shipping Assistant delivery confirmation bar codes, with the discounted Delivery Confirmation rates.
They require customers to purchase the green retail labels and affix them over the Shipping Assistant bar code. After being informed of this new
'policy' I checked the DMM and all the recent Postal Bulletins and could find no information to that effect.
When I next questioned the clerk about the policy she handed me a local memo which states, in part....
"If a customer ... presents an online label you are to charge the customer FULL retail, both for the shipment and any extra services, such as DC, Signature Confirmation, etc.........
.....If they pay at the counter - do not scan any barcode on their mailing pieces that is an online barcode, if they want extra services YOU put our Dellivery Confirmation (green) label .... on it and put a line through their online barcode......
..... We are losing a lot of revenue in the City."
This is clearly a violation of policy, as much as if the local office decided to charge 50 cents for a First Class stamp.
However, numerous calls and emails with the Shipping Assistant customer service have done nothing to remedy the policy, only to affirm that it is not in accordance with the current SA regulations. I suspect that a change in forthcoming in the future, as the current SA home pages do not mention the DC discounts, but until and if this change is implemented this is nothing more than extorting an extra 70 or 80 cents from each SA customer.
I have recently filed a complaint the the national Consumer Affairs hotline and now have a case number.
I know some of the sellers on this board use SA and was wondering what their recent experience has been? Any problems?
And, yes, I do use Endicia for some of my shipments, but I prefer to use SA and get a printed postal receipt at the time of mailing with the date, time, DC, and destination all printed on the receipt..... My local Post Office is nearby, never crowded, and the clerks are friendly and knowledgeable. They don't understand this policy either, but stated that their daily transactions are reviewed and they are subject to reprimands for ignoring the policy.
When I next questioned the clerk about the policy she handed me a local memo which states, in part....
"If a customer ... presents an online label you are to charge the customer FULL retail, both for the shipment and any extra services, such as DC, Signature Confirmation, etc.........
.....If they pay at the counter - do not scan any barcode on their mailing pieces that is an online barcode, if they want extra services YOU put our Dellivery Confirmation (green) label .... on it and put a line through their online barcode......
..... We are losing a lot of revenue in the City."
This is clearly a violation of policy, as much as if the local office decided to charge 50 cents for a First Class stamp.
However, numerous calls and emails with the Shipping Assistant customer service have done nothing to remedy the policy, only to affirm that it is not in accordance with the current SA regulations. I suspect that a change in forthcoming in the future, as the current SA home pages do not mention the DC discounts, but until and if this change is implemented this is nothing more than extorting an extra 70 or 80 cents from each SA customer.
I have recently filed a complaint the the national Consumer Affairs hotline and now have a case number.
I know some of the sellers on this board use SA and was wondering what their recent experience has been? Any problems?
And, yes, I do use Endicia for some of my shipments, but I prefer to use SA and get a printed postal receipt at the time of mailing with the date, time, DC, and destination all printed on the receipt..... My local Post Office is nearby, never crowded, and the clerks are friendly and knowledgeable. They don't understand this policy either, but stated that their daily transactions are reviewed and they are subject to reprimands for ignoring the policy.
