"I sent my husband.."

Can't tell you how many times I read this exact same thing on the eBay Packing & Shipping discussion board.

That doesn't make it right, I'm not making excuses for the PO at all.  Just saying', something about sending our husbands. 

$7 is about $3.50 each/ did they add Tracking at a dollar something apiece?

If the packages weren't marked Media Mail and your husband didn't tell the clerk they were books, then most likely they were sent at the First Class Package rate instead.  We can't read the customer's mind.  If we aren't told that the contents qualify for Media Mail, it isn't a service that gets offered.

yep, he either said he wanted tracking (which is $1.05) or it went first class. If he just went up to the counter and told them to send them the "cheapest way" they would go first class, since the clerk would have no way of knowing they were books, and Media Mail is a class of mail that you have to specifically ask for to get. Sorry, but in no way did the post office "rip you off" 

What they said   especially the part about "I sent my husband..."   Bless his heart for being your helper, but this situation does seem to arise.

$7 each or combined?  Because with the rate increase could easily be First Class postage plus counter Tracking for both.  Even with postal clerks that know how to process pre-printed Tracking, my PBS labels occasionally scan in at the counter as First Class instead of Media Mail (even if Media Mail is printed on the label).  When this happens, I upgrade to First Class b/c the encoding cannot be changed at the counter with the current software.

Another thing:  the window clerk is supposed to say:  Does this article contain anything fragile, liquid, perishable or potentially hazardous succh as lithium batteries or perfume?  Usually at the point, the customer will say, no, it's just socks or books or cookies or whatever.

Except:  Just before I retired, I heard that in the POS offices they were putting that question on the signature pad for the customer to read and sign, and they probably just sign without actually reading it, is my guess.

I never sent my husband to mail book...mainly because I  joined 2 years before he died. I use the pre paid postage and "drop these books in the outside mailbox at the post office" is something even he could handle.

I mailed books today and was told there was an update to their system which now makes it more difficult to ship media mail.. The clerk had to do more steps than before and scanning my DC was the last step otherwise her system would go back to first class . what a pain, her response was "updates are supposed to make things easier".   It took her about 5 minutes to figure it out but we got it.

I never send my hubby cuz I feel it is my responsibility so I know that books have been mailed and  I NEVER mark a book mailed until i put it in the mail box or when I return from the post office. 

I almost always use PBS postage (and have a postal scale that's about twenty years old).

There was one day I didn't.  I asked my husband to run some packages to the post office.  He saw the little square up in the corner, but didn't look closely and just dropped it in the bin.  I got it back that afternoon.

Bless the hearts of the non-PBSers.

If you have a Paypal account and a scale it is great to print your labels and postage that way under Multiorder Shipping.  No extra fees at all.  I hand them to my SO, he says "are they prepaid?"  I answer "yes" and happily off he goes.

I mailed a book requested of me yesterday.  I chose to pay for the tracking option from paperbackswap.com, but not the postage since I didn't have enough in my account.  The suggested postage for First Class was $2.50. The clerk told me that the tracking id was old and that he had to put a newer one on. He charged me $2.50 for First Class and $1.05 for the new tracking number.  I thought tracking was included in a First Class rate.  Sometimes the First Class rate is cheaper and sometimes the Media Rate is cheaper.  Sometimes the clerk has suggested the cheaper rate than what is printed on the preprinted mailing label.  From now on, I will print the postage from paperbackswap.com and save myself a trip!

Go for it Ursula.  This has been an ongoing problem (and the subject of many discussion threads)...whereby local postal clerks are in error and have inadequate training for processing valid Tracking barcodes.  If printed in the last several weeks, your Tracking barcode was entirely current and valid and should have been charged at .30...the employee just didn't know how to process it properly and charged you full price for a new one.  Sucky b/c for several reasons, one of which is the loss of your credit assurance.

Here's the most informative discussion thread on this subject.
 

Tracking IS NOT included on First Class packages, only Priority and Standard Post have it included, any other class must pay the $1.05 fee to get retail tracking. 

Free tracking is included for First Class parcels with online generated labels.  Here is the price copied from Notice 123 price list.  Hope the formatting does not come out too weird.

my husband has done the same thing despite me telling him how much postage needed to go in it and that it was media mail.  unless I'm in a bind, I don't send him any more!