Do any of you have any problems getting your post office to hand-cancel your seed envelopes? My post office refuses to hand cancel regular envelopes. Evidently I have to use those big yellow envelopes for each seed trade I send out, even if it's only 1 packet of seeds! If they feel the slightest big of bulge from padding in a regular envelope, the stupid thing comes right back to me, sometimes a week or so after I mailed it!!! Is this the way all post offices work or is it just a problem with mine? I get seeds from people all the time in regular envelopes, and sometimes they're so bulged out that I can't believe they got away with sending it thru the mail. What gives here?
Hand cancelling seed envelopes
Aunty, i think there are two different things going on. My post office wants an extra 11cents, then they don't care if there is a bulge. Also at my post office, they will hand cancel for me but assure me this doesn't mean it won't go through a machine later.
It's not that I don't provide enough postage. I'm good at over-postaging. I only have the 34 cent stamps, so instead of the 44 cents postage (or whatever it is) that everyone wants with a sase, I always do two 34 cent stamps. I'm wondering if the people who work in my post office aren't just lazy or something.
Hi Aunty,
My one branch does hand cancel anything, even a basic letter, if you hand it at the front desk. I personally think the guys there like using the rubber stamp..lol. All I say is that "I'm mailing these and these need postage". Anything handled at the counter, even with a reg stamp on it, is hand cancelled. They are the most efficient and nicest branch I've ever been in (they even have scented candles and candy dishes out!).
If I go to another branch closer to me, there is so much tension and grumpiness that patrons are afraid someone will go Postal! They almost yell if you hand them stamped letters for mailing (you're supposed to put them in the slotted bins). I guess it depends where you go.
Trish
AuntyB: I've taken all sizes of envelopes to the p.o. at the same time. My postmaster knows when she sees me coming through the door, I've got seed trades to hand cancel. She asks me, what ya got going out today. She thinks it is fascinating to be trading seeds over the internet. Sounds like your postal workers are just trying to deter you from seed trading. They are being picky and problably lazy, like you said. I'm glad I've got a good postmaster.
AuntyB,
I don't go to my local post office they were ruining too many of my trades I was sending out. I go to a post office that is over 60 miles away, I live in the sticks. I take my husband to the doctor in that town once a week. If I don't take him that week I don't send the seeds that week. I am sure that some folks consider me a slow trader because of this. BUT I would rather send the seeds once and be "pretty" sure they get there safely on the first try.
I don't like to complain but I have been trading for rose of sharon seeds, they are pretty tough seeds. Anyway I have received them from folks that did not use bubble wrap and all of the seeds were fine. I have received them from folks that used bubble wrap and all of the seeds were ground to flower. I even received some in a padded yellow envelope that were crushed. Go figure!
I went to a post office south of me to mail about 20 trades a few weeks ago. The post office closed at 5pm I got to the desk at 4pm. I had 20 or so envelopes, 4 or 5 were for over-seas and about 12 were large envelopes that had to be weighed. He told me in the future that if I want to send that much mail that I would have to come earlier. He said "We are busiest from about 4-5pm and we only have one person working the counter. The rest of the day isn't as busy and we also have 2 people working the counter the rest of the day." As that government logic or what!?!?!?
I'm lucky enough to have to go get the mail in Jamestown every day for work. That is the central post office for our county. They are so familiar with my needs, they pretty much hand cancel anything I bring up to the counter, no matter what the package. And they never send anything back to me either. Maybe it just is your PO... who knows...
AuntyB, I think the problem is your lazy postal workers! But having said that I have received seeds from all over Canada & USA, and the envelopes say "Hand Cancel Please". Obviously that is a waste of time as all the envelopes had been through the postage machines.
I live on an Island and all mail has to go to the mainland, so I asked my local Post Mistress about the 'hand cancel' bit. She told me that even if she put the cancel stamp on my envelope, when it got to the mainland it would go through the sorting machines. That is what ruins the seeds!
She said nothing could be done, bar putting the seeds between two pieces of steel! So I will just keep on using my bubble wrap and not bother wasting my time writing 'hand cancel', because that is an invitation to the idiots at the PO to jump on my letter, like writing 'fragile' on a parcel, guaranteed to be used for football practice, in the sorting shed!
My sister is on a soapers list and other things for handcrafted soaps and stuff. They have talked a lot about sending out packages that they don't write anything on for months or years and no problems, then as soon as they write fragile on it they get a high breakage rate. I am not going to bother writing hand cancel on my seeds. I padd them accordingly and those big seeds such as sunlowers and beans I roll up into a tube shape with the bubblewrap around it so it won't make it through the machine. I am a newbie though so we will see what happens. But if I didn't do it this way then it is sure to crush the peas I just sent.
Angel