With the new regulations, I'll have to go to the Post Office to mail most of my books. Can I still use the PBS delivery confirmation? Does the US Postal Service recognize this delivery confirmation or will they charge me again for anm additional USPS delivery confirmation?

Thanks!

.

My postal clerk (and Steve and Sherry in the USPS Postal regulations discussion forum) explained that the 18 cents is a discount rate based on the premise that they will not have to scan it at the post office.  It will be scanned later when it goes to an automated center, or, at the latest, on delivery.  (It's delivery confirmation, not mailing confirmation.)  So I weigh it at home (or in the lobby of my post office) and put my own stamps on.

However, as Allie said, if you have not put your own stamps on the package, the clerks pretty much have to scan it for you for you to get the 18 cent rate.

Here is a thread from the above mentioned forum that discusses the issue.

Also the USPS "Track & Confirm" service will not work with PBS DC numbers.  You must track or confirm delivery on PBS.

I've had a problem with people at the PO being unwilling to scan to add the $.18.  When that happens, I just make them sell me $.18 in stamps for each book, add it to each metered strip, and hold up the line, and hand it back to them.  All the while politely explaining that "I understand they don't have to scan it but it needs the $.18 postage so it won't be delivered postage due or sent back postage due and the new rules require metered postage on anything over 13 oz and everything over a pound has to be handed to them and if we had an APC ANYWHERE nearby I could use it but this was the same post office that refused my books with APC postage from a different zip code (NOT against the rules BTW) and I'm really, really sorry to hold everything up so much  but if this is the way it has to be, then this is the way it has to be..." 

They usually scan the second book  ; -)

I've been using  PBS delivery confirmation since it was offered here.  Using stamps which I order from the PO, I put the postage on the book in the amount indicated on the PBS label.  I then take my book to the PO and hand it to the person at the counter.  I have been told countless times that I don't have to wait in line if the postage is already on the book.  

I am probably strange but I don't expect the DC to provide an instant credit because that's not what it was intended to do (at least the way I understand it).  And I would rather pay a few cents more in  postage (if I can't get it exactly right), than stand in line at the PO for 10 or 15 minutes.  My time is worth more than that to me. 

You can buy a bunch of custom-denomination stamps from the APC machine and never have to wait in line again! They're metered, so packages using them can be dropped in any box regardless of weight!

Maybe ours are different, but our APCs don't let me choose Media Mail or a custom postage amount. I learned the hard way, 'cause I got to the PO minutes after they closed the full-serve area on a Saturday. To meet the 48 hour mailing commitment I made, I had to use First Class postage. No one at my PO has refused to scan my packages, but they have asked me whether I want to use the DC on the label or print another one, before they did scan it.

There should be on the first menu three options, the bottom of which is 'buy a stamp in some other amount'. If that's not there, I don't know what you do, but I've never seen one that didn't have it?

MJ,

You are right. The APC does not have media mail a an option - just first class and priority, and overnight, etc. The way I use the APC is I go the the "buy stamps" option and type in the amt I need. For example, the mail a hardcover book that usually weighs between 1-2 lbs with PBS DC, the cost is $2.65. I tell the machine I want a $2.65 stamp and it dispenses it to me.

If you use the "mail a package" option, you have to weigh it, and then you will only have the choice of mailing it first class or 3 day or whatever the other choices are and it is much more expensive. I learned that one the hard way.

Kristin

They scan dc at the PO?  I've had the mailman come to my door when I have had a bunch of books come in all at once and he has used a handheld scanner and has scanned the dc books before handing them to me.

Sometimes they do; not necessarily often. Most of my first-scans on DC come at the regional bulk-mail-handling facility; I guess our local one has automated scanners that scan everything that goes through the sorters, because that fits the pattern of when I see my credits coming in (and where they were first scanned).

If it doesn't pass through any interim automatic-scanning-facilities between the sender and you (or you and the destination), then its first scan will be when the carrier scans it at your doorstep -- or in areas where the carriers don't carry hammerhead scanners, at the postal station when they pick up the mail to take it out to be delivered.

The clerks at our post office always add in the DC postage and scan the barcode.  No problems.

Peggy D,

     Also the USPS "Track & Confirm" service will not work with PBS DC numbers.  You must track or confirm delivery on PBS

I use PBS-DC on 99% of my books I send out.  I track them on PBS by clicking on Shipping Details.  But.........I also track them using USPS Tracking & Confirming.    It does work.  I ask for and receive  e-mails to be sent to me  every time the package is scanned.  I will get info from USPS quite some length of time before I ever get it through PBS Shipping Details.  Of course,  USPS is where it originates and is then transmitted to PBS.