This month we have been receiving letters from customers who completed the assembly of their invitations and then went to the Post Office to get them weighed and priced. We are hearing that tellers seem to be confused about how to handle the special charge the Post Office levies on “non-machinable” mail. Mail is considered “non-machinable” when it is in a square envelope, which means that a human has to touch the piece and be sure it is oriented properly on the conveyor belt so that the bar code machine can stick its thing on there.
One teller informed an InviteSite customer that her piece would cost 97 cents to mail. The piece is only 1.2 ounces and this information has to be incorrect. If you log onto the USPS web site, you can use an online calculator to determine the proper postage for your piece. The calculator even takes into account whether you are mailing a square or a rectangle. The general rule of thumb is that the non-machinable levy is currently 17 cents, so our customer’s 1.2 ounce piece should have cost 75 cents.
Because of the apparent confusion at the teller window, we recommend using the post office web site as a first or second opinion on the cost of mailing your invitations, in addition to your personal visit.