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Topic: Today is Sunday - can I print my PBS postage labels today
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This may be a dumb question, but I have a bunch of books to send out and I won't have time tomorrow to do the packaging. Can I print the PBS postage lables today and still mail them on Monday or Tueday? I think I read on a thread somewhere that you have to mail the same day as the date indicated on the postage. If so, does PBS have a way to set the date?
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you can print it out, it doesn't have to match the date you mail it. I sometimes print out extra postage from APC and it doesn't match when I mail it. although I wouldn't wait a week to mail it if you print it today, but mailed in the next few days shouldn't be a problem |
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What about Paypal. I think I read that you have to use it the same day, but I'd like to print it out the night before I mail it. |
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When you print a PayPal label it will ask you what day you are going to mail your item. |
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If you use the preprinted postage through PBS you have 72 hours after you print to mail packages, so yes, you can print and wrap to day and mail Monday or Tuesday. |
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Tom, your printing date and mailing date are supposed to match. The APC label date is different--it's a date of sale, not a postmark. You do not have 72 hours to put your PBS book in the mail system. I know that's what we've been told, but that is just not true. I will edit my posting to include the information from the DMM and from Endicia.com's guidelines from their website. I also mentioned this during the beta testing of purchasing postage from PBS. Ok, so this is opening up a whole new can of worms, but I cannot let this mis-information go any further. This has to be addressed and dealt with. Since this is the USPS forum, I believe it starts right here. From www.endicia.com/USPSguidelines: Mailing Date The above quote is from the endicia.com website and the DAZzle (software) reference is intended for endicia customers. PBSers do not have to download anything extra in order to be able to print postage. Just click the 'Print Wrapper' button and follow the instructions. ET clear up some confusion! Sorry! Last Edited on: 9/23/07 8:08 AM ET - Total times edited: 1 |
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Connie -- does the definition of "deposit" include "dropping in a blue box where it won't get picked up for several days"? I've been mailing on Saturday afternoons with postage printed on Saturday, but I know these packages aren't getting picked up until Monday (or Tuesday in the case of Labor Day weekend). So far everything has arrived, but I just wondered if I'm breaking any rules. |
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Cathy, you're okay. USPS understands missing the collection schedule for the blue boxes, etc. And I know most of you are mailing from your own home mailboxes with no problems--your carriers are taking them without even questioning the dates on them. (If any of you had experienced any problems, you'd have posted here, right?)
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I hope the formatting comes out on this, it’s a cut and paste post.
I’m going to explain to some extent why articles mailed after the day of their postmark is such an issue with the PO. Anyone who has been reading this forum for awhile may remember this has already come up in some cases when clerks mistake a purchase date on APC postage as a postmark and inform members that they can’t accept it. Although they are wrong it shows how much of an issue this can be.
There are several reasons why postmarks are important (my instructor many years ago referred to them as “legal entities”) but there are two main ones, legal issues and quality control.
Many organizations use postmarks as legal proof that something was mailed on or by a certain date. Among these are taxing authorities, insurance companies, companies offering rebates, and other government agencies such as school systems in some cases. In order to protect the integrity of postmarks the PO has to do all that is reasonable to insure their accuracy.
When a company gets a postage meter part of the licensing requirement is they will follow the rules on this. When we catch mail being mailed on a date other then the postmark we return it to the mailer as a “stale meter date”. A company caught violating this in excess can have their license revoked and lose the privilege of using a postage meter.
The issue of quality control is another biggie. The PO has service standards it tries to meet. Our performance against these standards is monitored by outside agencies and sometimes other governmental agencies. I get a report daily via email at work breaking down and detailing our performance. It is broken down as far as individual processing centers. These figures come into play in different ways but I’ve been told one of them is in making rate cases. If the PO’s performance is lousy and they are going to the PRC for a rate increase poor figures can be used against them. Various segments of management are also held accountable for these figures.
Companies using postage meters have the ability to change the date of the postmark. This is so if they are running a mailing and they know it won’t go out until the next day they can advance the date. People using on-line postage from companies such as indica.com and stamps.com also have that ability and responsibility. If you mail something using Click n Ship or Pay Pal you can also change the date.
The fact that members using PBS’s postage system can’t do this was a concern to some of the other Postal employees on here and myself. I wasn’t in on the beta testing, in fact I knew nothing about it until it was released. I don’t know why this feature hasn’t been included in the software but it is my guess it soon will be or I imagine the postage feature will be discontinued.
I’m glad this question came up, we really expected it to hit when someone’s book was returned for a stale meter date. Maybe this will prevent that from happening.
Does the PO inspect every postmark to see if it is correct? No, that would be impossible. I also suspect with more and more automation more stale metered mail is getting through. What I don’t want to see happen is for fellow members and PBS to have problems with this. To avoid that make sure you mail them on the day you print out the postage included label.
Hopefully to cut off protests that this is a “silly”, “stupid”, or new rule, it has been there as long as postage meters have been around which even at my age probably predates me. If there are problems with it they aren’t the cause of the USPS, they are due to problems with either PBS’s method of using it or Indica’s integration of it into the PBS system. Edit, the first try came out all ran together. Hopefully this will work.... Last Edited on: 9/17/07 7:55 PM ET - Total times edited: 1 |
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Sorry for the large gaps above, the first try had no paragraph spacing and now there is too much :-( |
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Now I am stumped, the other day I dropped 2 pieses of first-class mail (for SwapaCD) in the blue box, one was postmarked six days later than the other (obviously at the destination PO).
I actually got a email that my CD was mailed later than the agreed date, which it was
not.
Today at the PO I asked the clerk if the items I drop off at the inside PO box-drop (not the outside blue box) would get scanned the same day, I was told no (only those that are taken to the clerk are scanned by the clerk). He said the main facility does the pick-up and they are scanned at another location (he actually said when they were delivered, but I didn't buy that argument).
As, I said, I am confused.
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Are you talking about electronic Delivery Confirmation? If so, the only time a clerk will scan them is if you are paying the postage at the window and they have to scan it to charge for it. If you are prepaying the postage and dropping them into a drop box then they probably won't get scanned untill they are delivered. Delivery Confirmation means just that, confirmation of delivery. The only required scan is at time of delivery. It's not intended to be used as proof of mailing or a tracking method. The exception is if it passes through automated sorting equipment with scanners attached then you will get an enroute scan. The PO is getting ready to launch this feature as part of Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation, it's currently in the test phase. It will not be included with other services. |
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Mine aren't being scanned when delivered either, having to wait for them to be marked received to get my credits. |
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I think I am begining to understand, maybe. Today, the clerk (two windows over from the one who gave me thie previous info)told me that they only get scanned on delivery. Then this brings up the question again why does it matter what date we print the label vs when we drop it in the mail if it does not get scanned until it is delivered, in other words how will they know how many days after the lable is printed that it was dropped in the mail.
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The problem with the date being wrong is the perception of how long it takes to get where it is going. If you print postage with a date on it, then mail it a week later, it looks like the Post Office took an additional week to get it to it's destination. The "meter date" and the scanning of any special services are totally unrelated issues. There are actuallly companies who periodically monitor delivery times for various mail services and also drop seed mail to see how long it actually takes for various delivery services. USPS does not need to have days and/or weeks added to their actual delivery time. |
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From www.endicia.com/USPSguidelines: Mailing Date You must deposit your mail from DAZzle on the day of the postage date printed on the mail-piece. DAZzle Post allows you to post-date your mail-piece by up to 7 days. If you do not send your mail on the printed date, you must print a date-correction using DAZzle. whats dazzle do I have to download something if I'm going to use the PBS "stamp" I thought I heard that you can print postage from the PBS with DC is that correct but then what is dazzle then? or did I misunderstand?
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Mark, this is the information found on the endicia website. Dazzle is the name of the software they use. I copied the whole quote from their USPS guidelines to show that Endicia says you must depost your mail on the date you've printed the postage. |
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but to use the PBS printed postage do i have do download dazzle? (I dont like to download somethiong I never heard of)
or can I just print the postage? |
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Sorry, Mark! No, you don't have to download Dazzle. Just go click on 'Print Wrapper' and you'll be able to choose whether you'd like to print and pay for postage thru PBS. I'll edit my original post to try to clear up the confusion I seem to be causing with that Dazzle reference. Sorry, everyone! Last Edited on: 9/23/07 8:09 AM ET - Total times edited: 1 |
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Steve, I should have read this before I sent my husband to the Post Office. He says the woman there was beside herself for two reasons: one, as you stated, the printed postage was dated 48 hours ago; and two, the postal code is from my home (Rural Delivery) address, not the Post Office he mailed from. This is serious for me because the P.O. that matches my address is a 40-minute round trip from my home; two other Post Offices are much closer. Also the clerk says that they are not required to accept postage that is dated wrong and that if my husband had put it in the blue box, it could have been returned to me. I guess I'll use stamps for 13-ounces and under. As for heavier packages, they'll have to wait until the one or two days a week I get out of work before the Post Office closes. And I was so happy to think I finally had a simplified way to mail my books. Barb |
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I know what you mean Barb. We have a customer who mails out tons of books daily. It took me over three years to get her to start using online postage so she could just drop them off instead of tying one of us up for 20+ minutes everyday. She mostly uses PayPal and gets the DC discount, and sometimes Click n Ship. Then the PO starts offering to scan a print out, the orriginal intention was for carrier pick up but now it has been expanded to when a customer brings them in also, so the mailer has proof that they did mail them instead of just printed the labels on a particular day. Now she brings them all in again and somehow for her own records has several scan sheets and piles of books broken down to match. We're not quite back to the 20+ minutes per her visits but it's working it's way back up there........... I told the other clerk today after she left, "It took all this time to get her to quit tying us up and the PO comes along and messes it all up for us!" Go figure.... |
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Oh No, ...20+ minutes and I can just see everyone in the line in back of her grumbling! I don't tie up the line at the P.O. for that long...yet. I know the lady in the local post office cringes when she sees me coming with all of my PBS packages, though; then I add a couple going to Iraq that require customs forms too. I still get mixed up with what I'm supposed to fill in on them. It doesn't help that thy changed the forms a couple of times to confuse me further. Weren't computers and automation supposed to make things easier? ;o) Or am I just showing my age?
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Ah yes, the paperless society. When I first started out in window service everything was done by hand. Hand written records, logs, receipts, reports, etc. We used scales, rate charts and a calculator. I can't particularly say life was good because a lot of clerks made mistakes and the money came out of their pocket. Sometimes huge sums. Now that we are on POS closing out takes longer, we get printed receipts along with the ones we still have to write by hand in some cases, and a ton of reports at the end of the day that replaced one sheet of paper when we were doing it by hand. Yep, that's progress....... |
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So to clarify - Using PBS postage, your book has to be mailed the same day you print the wrapper? I CANNOT print out and wrap a book with PBS postage in the evening, to put in the next days' mail? *boggle* This must be a bad dream! Last Edited on: 9/25/07 6:35 PM ET - Total times edited: 1 |
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That's correct, it must be mailed on the day of the postmark. |
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