Local Post Office Issues

so apparently my local post office has been on a an intenal strike this past month and the mail on our neighborhood has been suffering big time
at our last local meeting the issue was brought up that people have had their mail stolen, lost, or sent to the wrong address
one of my uncles who works there has told us that our post office has cut 25% of its labor force and are continuing even more cuts and that the labor union isnt taking this sitting down
its a bit sad that things have gotten to such extremes

at the meeting last night we were told that they fired the 3 carriers that passed the mail out in our neighborhood and that they are issuing refunds and insurance returns on any mail, both incoming and outgoing

we order a lot of stuff on ebay and we have noticed that some of it never arrived (like our ariel anchor pin or our jumbo aurora pins)
were in the process of getting our money back


however my gf and i made a few trades this past week and as some of you may know we thought that we had written the wrong adresses and such on the envelopes but it turns out that it wasnt the case, we cleared our inbox so we have lost the address of some of the people who we made trades with, i already contacted a few of them but we had no idea of the situation

we are starting to send our mail through the neighbooring town as a way to try and bypass some of the hassle of our USPS office
we have shipped out the pins that are out of state or in NorCal
however the ones in southern california we either havent gotten the pins returned to us or are still in the process of being delivered
we didnt trade any of the pins that we did receive; however, there are a few pins that we havent gotten yet and there is a bit of concern

so please contact me if we made a trade and if i havent already spoken to you ASAP
so that we can figure out a new plan
like i said this only affected the people that we made trades with in SoCal (at least for now)

thank you and my apologies in advanced to those of you who my gf and I traded with
if you feel that you have to put negative feedback then do so because we understand how frustrating this is

My post office has an automated postal center. I can ship a half a bubble mailer there as a "large envelope" for $.90 and it goes out fine. If I stand in line for a person, they charge it as a Parcel and it costs $1.95. If I don't need delv. conf. I always use the automated one.

markheardjr said:

My post office has an automated postal center. I can ship a half a bubble mailer there as a "large envelope" for $.90 and it goes out fine. If I stand in line for a person, they charge it as a Parcel and it costs $1.95. If I don't need delv. conf. I always use the automated one.

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So is that why people cut the envelopes and tape them up. Not to reuse the same envelope over and over, but to have it be treated as a large envelope instead of a Parcel?

broncobilly83 said:

So is that why people cut the envelopes and tape them up. Not to reuse the same envelope over and over, but to have it be treated as a large envelope instead of a Parcel?

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I wouldn't recommend this option. I got stuck with a postal charge for $1.05 when someone (whom I shall not name, but it isn't markheardjr) decided on that option. Basically, a parcel is something that won't fit thru the post office's guide (it's the size of a ruler with a very thin opening thru it).

markheardjr said:

My post office has an automated postal center. I can ship a half a bubble mailer there as a "large envelope" for $.90 and it goes out fine. If I stand in line for a person, they charge it as a Parcel and it costs $1.95. If I don't need delv. conf. I always use the automated one.

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I don't recommend this. I always select parcel when using the automated machine, and pay the appropriate cost. Why, because I have received packages from people that have done your method and it has arrived on my end with "Postage Due." No, not every package gets caught, but why risk upsetting your fellow traders. There is nothing worse than having to go to the PO, wait in line and then fork over money for something the other person was supposed to cover.

No negative feedback for things you cannot control!!!!