This also has happened to me, usually after the local rural PO hires new employees, or their monthly make-work projects. Pulling out the cylinders, with their boxes stating "Edison RECORD" seems to help, and they then reverse the extra charges. Once I had to have them pull their own manual and read what Media Mail entails:
Media Mail - Content 373.2.0 "Generally used for books (at least eight pages), film (16 mm or narrower), printed music, printed test materials, video and SOUND RECORDINGS, playscripts, printed educational charts, loose-leaf pages and binders consisting of medical information, and computer-readable media. Sound recordings may include incidental announcements of recordings and guides or scripts prepared solely for use with such recordings. Books may contain no advertising other than incidental announcements of other books." I also kept the receipt showing the reversal for any future problems too. Trying to convince a few sellers/shippers to send via Media Mail instead of Parcel Post is a whole other ballgame though... Cheers, Patrick ----- Original Message ---- From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, August 6, 2009 10:58:54 PM Subject: [Phono-L] Media Mail... For those of us who have battled the US Postal Service there came a new challenge today. I won a lot of Blue Amberols on eBay and they arrived yesterday with a postcard note from my carrier to go to the main post office as there was postage due. That seemed odd since the seller had gone to great lengths to calculate and charge correctly. When I arrived at the post office I presented the young guy at the counter with my postcard. He went in back and retrieved the box then told me I owed another $18.75 because they had opended the box after X-raying it and there were no records inside so it could not be MEDIA MAIL. So, I told him they were Edison cylinder records. I asked if I could show him. He called over his supervisor. They allowed me to reach into the box and retrieve a cylinder record. Both agreed that it was not a CD and not a record. I asked for the next higher up supervisor. They went and brought back the postmaster. I showed him the Edison box labeled Edison Blue Amberol Record. He was unmoved and somewhat uncaring. Just when I thought all was lost, an elderly postal worker getting ready to open his window next to us, looked over, and said, "I used to play records like that on my grandfather's grammyphone (sic)!" SAVED... and then it only took 30 minutes to undo the extra charges so the box would be once again just media mail. And people wonder why our confidence in the government bureaucracies is flagging? Regards to all, Al _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org __________________________________________________________________ Connect with friends from any web browser - no download required. Try the new Yahoo! Canada Messenger for the Web BETA at http://ca.messenger.yahoo.com/webmessengerpromo.php _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
