USPS Refused To Hand Cancel

I'm a collector. It's a hobby and not for personal gain. I have been creating covers, some for keeps and others for exchange with fellow hobbyist and collectors. Our local post office started to refused hand cancellations both for outgoing and for non-mail streaming covers for myself. I reported it to main postmaster but didn't go anywhere. What should be my next course of action? Other post office in the area has no problem doing it.

Stop wasting time and frustrating yourself; go to one of the other POs that will do it for you.

Some USPS counters have clerks who are instructed to not do hand-cancelling even when asked by a patron, as that is what the cancelling centers are for.

To move on.

Some clerks are just jerks who use their one inkling of power to lord over people. Just don't ever ask the same clerk or post office again and find one who will oblige. Most post offices refuse to give me the top sheet off new bricks of forever stamps but one doesn't care so that's the one I go to for my needs. Do what you need to do

I would go to the other post offices who are agreeable as mentioned by others.

An internet search on the subject led to Postal Operations Manual issue 9 updated July 2020 (provided by one of the unions). This section below is in there. I know of a Postcrossing collector who politely asks the postmaster of an objectionable post office if they would review the 231.4 section and inform the clerks before his/her return to the PO, and if the PM balks, simply asks for the name and mailing address of the Regional District manager the PM reports to, then he/she writes a letter to that manager describing the complaint and requesting a reply outlining what the manager has done to resolve it.

231.4 Hand-Back and Mail-Back Service
Postmarks should be used to provide the following philatelic services
whenever they are available:
a. Hand-back Service
(1) When a customer personally presents an addressed or
unaddressed envelope, postal card, or other item described in
section 231.63 to a Postal Service employee for postmarking, the
Postal Service employee must examine the item to ensure that it
is clearly intended for philatelic purposes. Bill payments, tax
returns, applications, and/or other date-sensitive mail cannot be
handed back. Only after careful examination should a philatelic
item be postmarked and handed back to the customer/collector.

(2) The envelope, card, or other item does not enter the mailstream.
All such materials requesting postmarking must bear uncanceled
postage at the applicable First-Class Mail® rate. If the customer
wants to mail the postmarked item, it must be trayed or bagged
separately, and flagged "nonmachinable" to avoid being overpostmarked in processing.
- - -

On 2 occasions, I went (by email) about "philatelic hand-back and philatelic mail-back" all the way up to the then-Postmaster General.
Guess what?
I was surprised to see that I was quickly given total satisfaction by the PG (2 different people, years apart), and the local postmasters have been instructed to comply.
I obtained what I wanted (like 50 mail-back postmarks from one office in NYC), as specified in their own POM (Postal Operations Manual).

Why not just mail them to yourself?
I did that with most of the Celebrate the Century stamps, when they came out.
I just put them on a regular envelope, placed a card stiffener inside and addressed them to my own home. I mailed them from my moms house a few miles away. They all arrived in my mailbox, with postal cancels.

For a very simple reason, spain_1850!
I needed postmarks from a specific city, like NYC, to have concordance of place for my maxicards related to "9/11".

In other occasions, I DID send to myself from nearby locations, when it served my philatelic purposes.

There are many other simple reasons to do it, such as you don't want yo risk losing it in transit.

Don't forget the big reason, spain_1850 -- wanting the local post office (town) name on a circular handstamp, not the fuzzy sometimes sloppy inkjet printed machine cancel that can wind up even on hand-canceled items turned in at the PO counter for mailing.

As another poster noted, when one wants particular stamps postmarked without regard to cancel type, then mailing to yourself gets you there. Note the approaches differ based on what one is focusing on - on the "stamp" getting postmarked, versus OP who focused on the "postmark" being applied to the stamps.

Good points.

"Some clerks are just jerks who use their one inkling of power to lord over people." Yup that is it. Some people's self-esteem is so low that they act like this. This comment or assessment was spot on.

"I'm a collector. It's a hobby and not for personal gain. " It's not necessary to cite "not for personal gain" Really people would not care either way. There is no need to virtue signal here. Your post person is a real piece of work. The others are right. Don't give them the satisfaction and just move on. That will make your life easier.

In August 2023, I went to Virginia Beach, Post Office in 23451, to create some maxicards through PHILATELIC HAND-BACK.
First step: As expected, the postal associate said NO.

Last step:I moved on with my life.

But here's the kicker: I moved on ONLY AFTER I got what I wanted. I gave satisfaction to me, not to them.

Step 2: I showed her the paragraph from POM (I uploaded it in this thread, a few posts back).
She silently channeled Shania Twain: " that don't impress me much".

Step 3: I asked her to call her supervisor/postmaster. I had to call him, too, with voicemail. When he finally answered, off-site, he said NO.

Step 4: I refrained from telling him how to do his job, but I told him the paragraph number. Eventually, he CAVED in, and he told her to comply.
See? No biggie! I paid for the stamps to get a philatelic/courtesy cancel, and I DIDN'T ask USPS to do the work of actually delivering those mail pieces.
"It's so simple, a CAVE(D) man can do it". Or a woman, or what have you under gender identification.