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 These days, mailing a letter can get complicated Around the first of the year, a neighbor was surprised to discover in her mailbox a batch of the holiday cards she had sent out to friends and family just a few days before. Each envelope bore a rubber-stamped announcement that it was being returned for additional postage in the amount of 11 cents. She hefted one of the envelopes. It didn’t seem too heavy. And it was addressed to a U.S. location. Why, then, the extra charge? The clerk at her local United States Postal Service (USPS) office had the answer. The holiday cards were square, the kind of odd-ball shape that is routinely rejected by mail sorting machines and returned to sender for a “nonstandard surcharge.” “I never knew that,” my friend told the friendly mail clerk, who declared it was news to her, too, until she got a job at the post office. The rules had changed sometime during the many decades when she was mailing only rectangular letters. To find out what else she was missing, the postal patron went on a voyage of discovery, just a few computer keystrokes away at USPS. The complexities of the mail system She discovered that mailing a letter or package isn’t so simple anymore. The USPS offers an expanded array of products and services these days – from the top-of-the-line Express Mail to the economical media rate (formerly book rate). The website offers guidelines to ease postal transactions for both consumers and business owners, and will send the special envelopes for Express Mail and Priority Mail free of charge. Perhaps the site's most valuable resource is the “simplified” rate book – printed out it fills 13 pages. Rates generally reflect the size and weight of the mailed item, the location of the addressee, the speed of delivery and the type of receipt or confirmation provided to the sender – the more features a certain service has, the more it costs. On the thirteenth page, a short section details the acceptable dimensions of a postcard, mailed letter or package. Elsewhere, guidelines are included to ensure the consumer addresses the envelope in all capital letters. Shopping by e-mail or at the post office In recent years, the USPS has begun to expand its marketing activities. Many branches offer sturdy cardboard cartons in several sizes and strong sticky tape to facilitate package preparation on site. For the online shopper, there are sheets, books or rolls of 100. There is also a section on stamp collecting for the beginner or the experienced philatelist. The post office accepts major credit cards over the Internet, as well as at its retail outlets. January 24, 2002
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