Post Office bills family for placing Halloween invites in mail boxes

[The Straight Story]

Post Office bills family for placing Halloween invites in mail boxes

The U.S. Postal Service billed a Connecticut family $35.20 for placing 80 Halloween invitations inside mail boxes in their neighborhood. The bill charged 44 cents for each of the invitations.
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U.S. laws forbid placing anything inside mail boxes other than official mailed matter, even if the mail boxes were purchased by homeowners. Although the practice of placing unstamped mail is common in many U.S. neighborhoods, the post office has ignored it until recently.

Observers attribute the sudden strict implementation of U.S. postal laws to the tight finances of the agency. The Post Office has been financially hemorrhaging due to the shifting public preference for email and text messages over snail mail, which has caused the agency to close many branches and lay off employees.

The Post Office has even launched a campaign against email. The effort warned of emails carrying computer viruses, which would not happen with traditional mail service.

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/90062614?Post%20Office%20bills%20family%20for%20placing%20Halloween%20invites%20in%20mail%20boxes

[Shagbark Hickory]

1. I say good for them. Rules is rules and it's about time they enforced that particular one.

[Richardo]

2. I concur.

:patriot:

[Uben]

3. I like the rule....

...mainly because If you see someone other than a postal worker opening a mailbox you can report it. I live in a gated community where people do this all the time and it really ticks off the carrier. Maybe folks should put another little box under their mailbox for "all other" if they want to receive non-stamped materials.

[NV Whino]

4. No surprise there

The idiot FedEx Home Delivery guy put a box in my mailbox once. The mail carrier picked it up and I had to go to the post office to pick it up and pay postage on it.

The thing that pisses me off, though, is when the mailbox is vandalized. Suddenly it's your responsibility to call the sheriff. So the mailbox is fed property... until it's inconvenient.

[lbrtbell]

9. Someone's misinforming you, then

When that happened to us (some kids were going up and down the street, damaging curb mailboxes), we called the Post Office, and they took care of the problem. They even went to the local elementary school, to ensure that kids got the message that they would get in huge trouble for doing it again.

Even if local law enforcement is involved, it's still a federal matter because it's a mailbox. :)

[NV Whino]

12. Perhaps you could explain that to my local post office.

[leftyohiolib]

5. ridiculous and petty

that money is for maintaining the infrastructure necessary to deliver mail it's not an entry fee into the box. it's my box i put on my house and anyone can use it. if the post office wants a special box they can come install it and maintain it, like when the water company came to install a wireless meter reader.

[lbrtbell]

10. No, nobody but you and the USPS can use it

Why do you think people put up separate receptacles for the local paper, on the mailbox post? Because mailboxes are for mail only. That's why they're all stamped "U.S. Mail". If you want people to drop stuff off for you, you need to provide another receptacle.

[izquierdista]

6. Let's see, computer viruses vs. anthrax.....

Which one has killed more people? Hmmm...... gonna have to research that some more.....

[bullwinkle428]

7. 30+ years ago, I delivered newspapers, and learned very quickly

that you can't place newspapers into mail boxes. I can totally understand the reason why, so I have no problem with this law.

[lbrtbell]

8. The people are lucky they weren't heavily fined

The article is wrong about one point: The USPS has always enforced this rule. In fact, the Post Office was very kind just to bill them for postage, instead of slapping the fine that's supposed to be imposed on them.

When I was a little kid in the 1970's, helping my family sell Avon, even I knew it was against the rules to put catalogs in mailboxes. We learned the same thing in school, when we distributed flyers for various fundraisers or other events. So it's not like people don't know it's wrong. They just have that mindset (usually common among Republicans) that the rules don't apply to them.

I mean, come on...80 invitations?? What kind of nerve does that take? :mad:

[uppityperson]

11. Good for them. Think of it as a learning situation.