As I said on Linda H."s thread above, I sent an email to the PO dept. in Washington about the problem she had in Baltimore.  She said that she sould send a letter to all of the Ppost offices in the baltimore area that the req. that packages be brought in open was indeed not appropriate.  It is somebody's invention, not included in the rules and regs of the PO.  MM is "subject to inspection" but it isn't to be inspected at the counter and it can't be dedmanded that it be brought in unsealed.  Anybody who gets more of this harrassment should stand their ground and insist on seeing the regulation in the the manual and tell them that they will be reposrted to Washington.  I hope this straightens things out for Baltimore, even if not for some other places.  The psople in Wisconsin who have been bugged by their PO with facetious regulations need to write to the USPS in Washington and straighten them out!!  Good luck

Winston

Thanks for doing that! Hopefully the madness does not spread :) 

TY Winston!

I drive by the Mt. Washington PO almost every day on my way to Mbrook.  This almost makes me want to mail a test package to see if they have their act together. 

I live in Beverly Hills, Fl and came up against this yesterday.  She didn't make me open my two packages but reminded me to leave them open for inspection in the future.  think I'll try a different post office.  It seems like harassment to those of us who use media mail frequently.  She insisted that if I was mailing a book of quilt patterns there would be paid advertisement included.  I assured her that it was a book without any paid advertisement as opposed to a magazine.  that all books mailed through paperbackswap have an ISBN number and are not magazines with paid advertisement.  Yikes!!  sewnsew

I have to bring in all my packages open, also.  If I don't she opens them and half the time they get wrecked, and I lose my credits because the books arrive damaged.  I've been doing this for well over a year already.

There is absolutely nothing in the USPS rules manual that requires (or even allows) clerks to perform package (Media Mail) searches at the counter...NOTHING.  If you are being harrassed and subjected to such behavior you should complain long and loud to your local postmaster, regional postmaster, and fill out complaints at USPS online.  PBS also has a postal liason that has been known to step in if local post offices are stubbornly stupid.

As your counter clerk to produce written authorization to inspect your packages at the counter, it does not exist.  USPS DMM (Domestic Mail Manuel) outlines specific procedures for mail inspection, and it does NOT include counter inspections or harassing customers.

Unfortunately, yours is not the first local post office(s) to attempt this procedure.  But when higher-ups in USPS become aware of the situation, they always make it stop (and often additional training is required).

They must be misunderstanding the "subject to inspection" rule. I would print out the response from the P.O. dept. in Washington explaining this and show them the policy. I haven't had this issue. I did, however, have a p.o. employee tell my husband there was "no such thing" as media mail and charge him first class on a pkg. he was mailing for me one time. I have handled my own mailing since!