Re: [MOPO] random inspection of a persons mail

[JR]

Some clarification from someone who used to work for the Post Office:   While regular postal workers are not supposed to open mail, official "postal inspectors" can and do open and inspect mail on a random basis all the time.   As for insured packages -- yes, the carrier who delivers it is *supposed* to hand it to a person at the delivery address and get a signature. The reality is often very different. Here at my house we get insured packages all the time. Most of the time they are just left on the front porch, with no signature ever having been acquired. Other people tell me similar stories.   Still, you do get what you pay for -- and with media mail you are paying for absolutely nothing. At one time, long ago, media mail was a decent service. But that has all changed since 9/11. After several lost and mangled packages a few years back, I started refusing to ship medial mail any longer. If I buy from a seller who wants to ship media mail, I always insist they upgrade me to Priority Mail and pay the few extra bucks it costs to do so. Media Mail is a sucker bet. No one should ship anything of value using Media Mail.   The difference in cost between Media Mail and Priority Mail is never much more than a couple of dollars, anyway. And the service of Priority Mail is so far beyond Medial Mail that it's hard to even measure.  It's just not worth the few bucks you save to use Media Mail and take the risk.   -- JR   ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU Sent: Friday, September 16, 2005 9:10 Subject: Re: [MOPO] random inspection of a persons mail Why I am even commenting on this I don't know because I will regret it.  I talked to the postmaster person here in Lansing where all mail for the state (except Detroit) is collected and routed.  He said post offices are not allowed to randomly open peoples mail to check for proper postal class of mailing. Neither are insured items delivered to a neighbor if it was the type of insurance where the mailer received a numbered receipt.  The person to whom it is addressed or their representative has to sign for it and show id.  This is for the post office's and the recipients protection.   I believe you get what you pay for at the post office.  Handling is by hand or by machine depending on the service you select.  ie: how much you pay. Picking the cheapest service gets the lowest level of care in handling. In a message dated 9/14/2005 11:29:37 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: << SHIT happens. I just found out TODAY that the post office here is TAMPA has been randomly opening my mail because they wanted to see if it was sent UNDER THE RIGHT CLASS. I sent some items out the other day and received a letter with some photo copies that the items I had sent as media mail was in fact not media mail because it was vintage comic books and they sent the items with POSTAGE due to the people I had sent them to. This of course pissed them off and I received a neg on ebay for it. So now I have found out that for the last 6 months my mail has been tampered with by the post office. Thats just great. I recently sent out a spiderman 1 and the person I sent it to said they did not receive it.  David sent me back a poster and I did not receive it. Now I find out the POST OFFICE has been opening my mail.  >>          Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com    ___________________________________________________________________               How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List        Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]             In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L     The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.