posted on September 5, 2000 08:30:48 PM newWell, one of the reasons might very well be the losses the post office is taking on stolen cardboard boxes
Wrong
You can safely assume that if the postal service was not making money from the box incentive they would, or will, stop giving them without hesitation.
The boxes have nothing whatever to do with a rate increase. You have created your own rate increase by buying so completely into the priority program. In sum, now that you're hooked, they know that you can be reeled in to higher rates. They're smarter than you think in the infant plaza (La Infante Plaza, USPS Headquarters, D.C.)
Kinda' the same way ebay knows that raising fees won't make the bulk of users go anywhere except deeper into their pockets.
posted on September 5, 2000 08:34:43 PM new
"Okay, I bought a product from an auction the person sent it to me, bookrate wrapped in a brown piece of paper over a priority box. I am getting tired of this. "
So am I, because they charged me the DIFFERENCe between the book rate and the Priority (new clerk, in a vile mood) postage today. So I'm going to rat out ALL sellers who do it from now on.
And before you tell me that I should be reporting drug dealers and thieves ... I already do that.
posted on September 5, 2000 08:48:47 PM new
This is a very interesting thread. I see some themes that give me pause for thought.
One theme is the use of do-gooder as a pejorative term. Have the popular values of our society degenerated to the point where we consider someone following their conscious and adhering to their ethics to be a bad thing? Is it wrong to do good? Or are we simply dealing with a misuse of the term? Applying do-gooder to a nosy person as opposed to someone that actually does good.
Another theme is that of an acceptable threshold for action. How much theft is okay? How is the trip point for reporting a crime determined? For some it seems to be the requirement for a victim. If there is no easy identifiable victim then there can’t be a crime. If it benefits you then it isn’t truly a crime (i.e. no victim). Corporations can’t be victims? Others feel that the theft of a few pennies isn’t enough to require action. All of these have been advanced in one form or another.
A third theme is the classic “us versus them” positioning. The authority figure (them) is on the opposite side of the fence from us. Reporting a crime or misuse of resources provided for an explicit purpose to “them” is betraying “us”. Thus the person that makes the report is an informer, or more colloquially, a rat.
Really makes you think.
I don’t think I would report this person to the USPS. I would e-mail them and inform them that what they did was wrong and give them a URL pointing the USPS web site where the rules for use of Priority mailing supplies are stated. I wouldn’t make the assumption that they weren’t operating out of ignorance.
But I also have no problem if someone else feels that reporting the mis-mailer is the right thing to do. I respect their desire to follow their ethical code. I do have a problem with a number of reasons that were stated as to why they shouldn’t be reported. In my opinion there is no such thing as a victimless crime. Though I will grant that sometimes the victim is only someone’s ethics. They get eroded a little further every time we find some convenient rationalization for doing what we want rather than what is right.
posted on September 5, 2000 09:09:29 PM new
very intersting indeed.....
When rules are set up for a program that really doesn't effect folks, some turn a cheek and look the other way. I wonder how those same people react when the rules of Ebay are not followed, something that does effect them.
posted on September 5, 2000 09:13:45 PM new
I really doubt that the USPS wants us to let them know every time we receive an item that was sent Book Rate in a Priority Box. If they want their clerks to be on the lookout that's one thing but I really don't think they expect the public reporting Priority Box use offenders. I think they would consider it a waste of their time.
posted on September 5, 2000 09:36:53 PM new
If you're referring to our neighborhood do-gooder, DoctorBeetle, yes, he was nosy. But the "crimes" he felt so compelled to report were, in fact, violations of the law. Obviously minute infractions, but infractions nonetheless, and analgous to the priority box scenario.
Is it any more "good" to report violations of federal law than muncipal law? Does one's motivation (plain old nosiness/genuine concern/mean-spiritedness) make one infraction less legitimate than another? Are those who report such infractions really "adhering to their ethics," or are they driven by other, less lofty, reasons? And, if so, are they any less a "do-gooder"?
FWIW, I wouldn't turn the seller in, either. For one thing, I have more important things requiring my attention. For another, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and hope they cut me some slack when I do something stupid (which is, unfortunately, happening more often these days )
posted on September 5, 2000 09:37:42 PM new
In spite of the claim made by the originator of the thread, the Inspection Service would only turn this situation off to the sending office as a management problem.
Not only do they lack the manpower for such as this, it's hardly the type of activity that they get involved with. They are charged with the investigation of both internal and external crimes which involve violations of the sanctity of the mails and with being the internal independent auditing arm of the service. They are very much like the FBI.
posted on September 5, 2000 09:40:01 PM new
Call me stupid, but it would have never occured to me in a million years that re-using any box was illegal! I am new to selling and I haven't done it, luckily, but I have saved all the good boxes that were used to ship items to me. My plan was to recycle them rather than having to buy a new box when I have something to ship. I thought I would be saving a tree as well as saving myself a few cents! Thank goodness I saw this in time! I can just see the headlines of our weekly paper!!! "Local Woman Arrested for Illegal Recycling of Boxes!" Oh the shame!!
posted on September 5, 2000 11:25:53 PM new
Tracyg sez: " I live with a Marine whos past time is hunting bear, gators and the like"
I've lived with a Marine for 33 yrs, known and respected many of them, but, as Maui would say, nearly wee-weed in fear many a time over some of the stunts they would pull. Unless the Corps has changed drastically, No Marine would turn someone in over something like this...or condone it. It would be settled on a personal basis.
cariad....Semper Fi
Noah's last words: "damn woodpeckers"
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