We have a lot to say about the postal service

Nothing strikes more fear into us when we hand over the invitations to a client and we tell them to go weigh them. Why you might ask?  Because the United States Postal Service seems to have inconsistent practices between post offices even in neighboring town when it comes to determining the proper weight of an envelope. Once a client who lives in Tenafly, New Jersey but works in Englewood, New Jeresy which are neighboring towns had her invitations weighed in Englewood but mailed them out from Tenafly.  What happened? They were all returned for insuffucient postage! Not only did this cause unnecessary delays but it ruined envelopes and invitations inside that she paid a lot of money for.  Of course we calligraphed her envelopes again  for her at no charge but why should she have had such an unnecesarry delay and inconveniece just because of inconsistent practices amongst post offices? We always suggest to our clients to add an ounce just to be on the safe side.

We also suggest to our clients to hand cancel their invitations. Hand canceling means your invitations will be processed by hand and should bypass the automated processing machines, avoiding damage. Wedding invitations are often thick, oddly shaped or oddly sized as a result of their enclosures or accessories, and run the risk of getting caught or damaged in these machines. You can also minimize the amount of automated printing and stamping the post office adds to your mailings (bar codes, for example), by requesting your invitations be hand canceled at a local Post Office. This is usually done at no extra cost - but our advice works only in an idyllic world! There are issues with hand canceling and one bride writes about  her hand cancelling experience. I think her fustration sums it up very well !  http://www.brides.com/forums/all-the-style-details/thread.jspa?threadID=44534 




Brian Lawerence, vp of Marketing at Encore Studios, sums up the fustration of hand cancelling on his blog http://weddingwiseguy.wordpress.com/   and writes about a solution:

 "Some post offices won’t hand cancel, others allow customers to come in by appointment and do it themselves which gives you most the control over the situation, others say they will and do it, and unfortunately some postal officials that said they would do it, did not follow through properly and the invitation were were machine processed. .........I (contacted) the Postmaster General, make him aware of this widespread problem and make a suggestion. I would suggest they establish a standardized policy that would make every branch mandated to do hand canceling. The most feasible way to do that would be to impose a charge for the service per invitation, just as if it were any other enhanced service the post office would provide such as accelerated shipping. The customer would be given a receipt reflective of the additional charge for hand canceling. If the post office did not fulfill the paid service, liability would be limited to a refund of the hand canceling charge and the postage for the quantity of invitations they were given to hand cancel as opposed to being vulnerable to be liable for the cost of the invitations."
He feels that everyone in the industry should write similar letters so that there might be a postive change:

John E Potter
Postmaster General
475 L’Enfant Plaza
Washington DC 20260

Telephone (202) 268 – 2000

The postal industry relies on a large part of its revenue from the invitation industry - you would think that they would cater to us!