Online Sellers (Mis)using Priority Mail Packaging

Each time this happens, I'm not sure if I'm overreacting...

but I bought two stamps on ebay the other day, and they showed up yesterday. Stamps as described, tucked in a new glassine, arrived on time, no problem there.

But the tiny glassine was inserted inside the end quarter of a USPS Priority Mail envelope. I appreciate the paperboard stiffener, but get ticked off each time this happens.

To my mind, it's a wasteful practice that destroys perfectly good packaging when two strips of a cereal box (as other sellers have used) would perfectly suffice.

Not to mention the financial hit the USPS takes from such folks. I mean, they must calculate the loss (theft?) of these envelopes into the price, and there's presumably a good reason they keep these out in the open. Lowering the activation energy required to use a Priority Mail service, probably - it's nice to not have to wait in a long line when you're just there to pick up a flat rate shipping box. Every time rates increase, I can't help but hold it against these folks a little bit...

(As an aside, I feel bad tossing the paperboard pouch, and feel like I ought to reuse it in sales of my own - but then I don't want a buyer on the receiving end to think that I was the one to take scissors to a priority mail envelope!)

The seller included a few slips of paper thanking me for my purchase and guaranteeing my satisfaction, and included an email contact for questions or concerns. I feel like reaching out and politely asking to knock off this practice of misusing packaging - or am I turning molehills into mountains?

I wonder whether any other postal service gives away packaging in this way? Seems bizarre.

Maybe the USPS envelope had been previously been used?


Peter

It's unfortunate there is mis-use, but in the grand scheme of things, USPS likely has minimal resources to police the matter and enforce consequences. There would likely have to be a large operation mis-using to raise an eyebrow. I have not seen where they state limitations on how much materials an individual or company can obtain. On the stamps.com site, they mention up to 500 pieces, but it doesn't say if that is per order, day, week, etc...

https://www.stamps.com/usps/free-sh...0you%20order.

Peter, I covered up the address space with the glassine, but it's blank. No trace of adhesive where the closure would be affixed, either - another sign it hasn't been used.

I don't actually anticipate USPS cracking down on the practice; I'm just wondering if I ought to try and shame the sellers out of doing this. (Leaving neutral ebay feedback would probably go a bit far...)

I typically do not fuss at sellers with what I feel is bad behavior, I simply 'vote' with my dollars. Plenty of sellers who act professionally and without hanging the cost of their packaging on the rest of us.
Don

I think you're right to be concerned. While the USPS doesn't get regular funding from the federal government, they did get a 50 billion relief package last summer to help offset their losses and it seems to me we all have a stake in their survival.

So maybe ask the seller first if this is what they're doing and let them know you're not leaving feedback but "may" bring it to ebay's and the USPS's attention, etc., etc. That may be enough to discourage future stealing of "free" stuff.

If I were the seller, I'd be rather aggrieved to receive criticism of something unrelated to the purchase. The real logic is for USPS to charge for the material, is it not?

The problems found in the first world.



That said, yes the USPS does not want their packaging misused.

Have you stopped purchasing items for your household that are commonly stolen in retail shoplifting theft to avoid looking like it was you who shoplifted the item? Or just attach a copy of the receipt to each item in your house. Come on, you are really overthinking this. Reusing is better than recycling.


Edit to add a non-recycled 'r' above.

This sort of misuse used to be much more widespread. I see a lot less of it now (there are sporadic reports of USPS charging postage due if the use is caught), but I do still see it occasionally in my incoming ebay purchases.

As a seller, I use office file folders (usually from Office Max, which is cheaper than Amazon on this product) as stiffeners, which wind up costing a few cents apiece per stiffener (you can get 3 #10 envelope size pieces from a letter size file folder) and seems to provide a very good mix of protection and flexibility in the mailstream. Or, if I have used folders that have previously done office duty and would otherwise be recycled, still free....

Would a used glassine be a problem?

John

Not at all.



Glad to hear it's hopefully on the downswing.



At the very least, will shop elsewhere next time. That's a better way of putting it, Don - "hanging the cost of their packaging on the rest of us". That's the part that grinds my gears.

Life's too short to get one's panties in a wad over someone else's behavior. I'm looking at whether sellers have what I want at a price I want to pay.

I have a box filled with stiffener boards saved from incoming mail to re-use on future shipments. Some of them are USPS envelopes which I will re-send elsewhere.

If you are truly determined to do something, it takes communication either to the seller to encourage your viewpoint or to the USPS to "turn him in". Adding the seller to your "do not buy from" list accomplishes nothing. The lot will be sold to someone else.

I don't think you're overreacting,
You are just acting on your perception of "let right be done"

I encounter it on a near daily occurrence, Plastic straws, bags, polystyrene,
I see Turtles at the vets, disgorging huge wads of plastic.

Take a visit to your local tip, to see what we throw away.
I'ts mind boggling.

Do what you can, and with respect, encourage good behaviour.
That's all we can do.

We are regarded as a civilised species
I think not.

Tip = dumpster

Paper straws =