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Question about hand canceling

fejesmkfejesmk
100 Comments
in Ohio-Cincinnati
What post office did you go to and did it cost you money for hand canceling?Back story...I went to post office and brought my finished invite in to see how much postage would be. Brought stamps and mailed. Received a lovely note from the post office that they were holding my invites hostage since I needed an additional .20 (thanks Hyde park waste of space employee!) Apparenlty they are not machinable and the .20 is for the hand canceling...I checked the USPS website which states the same. Is this always the case, or can I just go to the post office (as opposed to just putting them in the mailbox) and asking them to hand cancel?
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Re: Question about hand canceling

  • catbarnes09catbarnes09 member
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011
    My MOH's DH is a postal carrier, and that's the deal. I had FI drop mine off (I had taken one in before to ask how much postage), expecting them to ask for the additional .20. Well they didn't ask, and they apparently machine cancelled 'em even though they were thick, and the two I saw folks had received looked awful. Not torn, but ink smeared all over.
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  • catbarnes09catbarnes09 member
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Oh, and I went to Groesbeck.
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  • hrparkerhrparker
    500 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Where on the USPS website did you see that you have to pay .20 for hand cancelling?Because, officially, post offices are NOT permitted to charge for it.  Most do (illegally), but they're technically not permitted by USPS regs (unless they've changed the regs in the last 3 months or so).  In any case, .20 to hand cancel is ridiculous.That is INCREDIBLY shady that they're holding your invites hostage.  I would be calling someone at the national USPS office about that one...If you still want to get your invited hand-cancelled, I'd go and pick them up from the crappy post office you dropped them off at, and go to a different office.  A lot of them will tell you that they can't (meaning they won't) do it, so you might need to call around a bit to find a place willing to do it.In NYC, I had to pay .10 per invite over 50.  I had 100 invites go out, so I ended up paying $5.00 total to have all of mine hand cancelled. 
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  • fejesmkfejesmk
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011
    http://www.usps.com/prices/first-class-mail-prices.htmI guess it's the non-machinable issue??...your invites may have been machinable where as even if I did get mine hand cancelled they may still not have been able to go through the sorting machine??
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  • hollsmvhollsmv member
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    sqare envelopes have to be hand cancelled and therefore, more money. It's the ugly truth. You could try a different post office but I assume you'd get the same issue.
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  • fejesmkfejesmk
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011
    they aren't square, they are qualified as a letter.
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  • hrparkerhrparker
    500 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Was there something bulky in your envelope that would make it non-machinable?  If not, I'm still calling foul. 
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  • fejesmkfejesmk
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011
    I have a button thin cameo on them so it wasn't flat...I am just mad the first lady I gave the invite to didn't tell me about the lame machine they have!
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  • hrparkerhrparker
    500 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Hmmmm....I suppose that might do it, though I will say that my invitations were REALLY thick in the middle (pocketfolder, 5 layers of letterpress invite, grosgrain ribbon, and three layers of cardstock to make the bellyband label), and I didn't hear anything about it not being able to go through the machines...Honestly, if I were you, I'd go pick them up and find another post office. 
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  • stosha1stosha1 member
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011
    I think that the button is what did it. If you have something that isn't "BENDABLE" then it will need hand cancelled, which is considered an extra postage type thing (same as oversized envelope or weird sized), so you'll need to pay. Even if your invites are THICK but Bendable they can still go thru the machines. And as for your comment that the employee was a waste of space, at least they didn't try to send all of your invites, then you would get them all back a week and a half later with a huge RETURN TO SENDER stamp on every single one of them. That would suck more than going to the post office and paying the extra postage.
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  • fejesmkfejesmk
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011
    the waste of space employee was the one who looked at my invite and told me the wrong amount of postage. I went to the loveland post office when it was time to actually send them.
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