Originally Posted by ljfox
I am a Postmaster and if your post office clerk is telling you that you can only ship documents in the flat rate envelopes then I would ask to talk with the Postmaster. There is no such rule. As long as your envelope can seal on its own before you tape it then it costs the flat rate of 4.95. It can be lumpy, lopsided, whatever, as long as you can close it properly and you didn't open the sides of the envelope to make it bigger. If you don't get satisfaction from the postmaster, then go to USPS.com and file a complaint and ask for it to be excalated to consumer affairs since you already spoke to the postmaster. The new padded envelopes are available on the webside also. Sorry for your bad experience, you shouldn't be treated that way.
I am relieved to read this- I was getting a really bad impression of the US postal service before I read that, although it was making a certain amount of sense as I know lots of US websites refuse to ship internationally with post, and it just seemed so odd to me, having grown up trusting the post office.
It is frustrating for those of us in other countries when US sellers insist on using courier to send us stuff (ie when we have to pay for it). If you buy from, say, British websites they use the postal system to send stuff and it is so much cheaper and easier. It puts me off buying from US websites to be honest.