next »

[phoodie]

Hello,

I'm in the midst of sending out job applications and have been doing so for the past week and a half now.  The first time I took a stack of applications to be mailed, the student worker (this was at an on-campus post office) told me I only needed to use two stamps to mail the very lightweight envelopes.  I was naive and assumed that what a postal worker told me would be correct, and I continued to send several (I estimate between 10-12) more job applications using this postage.  Yesterday I went to mail a new set, and the SAME GUY told me I needed more postage, that all the others I had already sent were insufficient postage.  I asked him (trying not to be furious) why he had told me I only needed two stamps, if I actually needed three.  He said he didn't know; he was very confused about the whole thing.  Let's just say I will not be using that post office from now on.

My question is, what usually happens to applications sent with insufficient postage?  Do they get returned to me?  How long does it take?  Should I be concerned that these applications will end up in postal limbo, and never make it to the departments?  I am kind of freaked since most of these applications were to big-time, R1 schools I was really excited about.  Anyone else ever had the same trouble?

Thanks
phoodie

[christly_crutch]

Hello,

I'm in the midst of sending out job applications and have been doing so for the past week and a half now.  The first time I took a stack of applications to be mailed, the student worker (this was at an on-campus post office) told me I only needed to use two stamps to mail the very lightweight envelopes.  I was naive and assumed that what a postal worker told me would be correct, and I continued to send several (I estimate between 10-12) more job applications using this postage.  Yesterday I went to mail a new set, and the SAME GUY told me I needed more postage, that all the others I had already sent were insufficient postage.  I asked him (trying not to be furious) why he had told me I only needed two stamps, if I actually needed three.  He said he didn't know; he was very confused about the whole thing.  Let's just say I will not be using that post office from now on.

My question is, what usually happens to applications sent with insufficient postage?  Do they get returned to me?  How long does it take?  Should I be concerned that these applications will end up in postal limbo, and never make it to the departments?  I am kind of freaked since most of these applications were to big-time, R1 schools I was really excited about.  Anyone else ever had the same trouble?

Thanks
phoodie

Did you ask the post office clerk?  They'd be the ones that know for sure.

[dr_crankypants]

Large envelopes that are pretty light (just a letter and CV) should NOT need three stamps.  My recollection from my time on the market was that the envelopes needed one stamp, plus a booster stamp of some sort, which didn't even add up to two whole stamps.  Usually the way I did it was going straight to the counter, having them weigh it, and then print the postage (instead of buying stamps), so it was definitely the right one.  I suspect--strongly--that it was the second postal worker who was confused.  But, to ease your mind, can you weigh the envelopes, and then look at the postoffice website?  USPS.com, I think.  

Oh, and I have mailed stuff with insufficient postage.  Every now and then it gets returned.  But it often gets delivered because nobody checked closely.

[zharkov]

I asked a friend of a friend who worked at the post office how they determine which letters get returned for insufficient postage.  Her response:  If the people at the post office don't like you. (She worked in a smallish town.)

Realistically, some will get delivered, some won't.

FWIW, I usually used the stiff priority mail envelopes, or the priority tyvecks is more material was required.

[dr_zack]

Yikes!

Well, I'm somewhat of a postage expert - most of the time items mailed without proper postage will come back to you - though, on occasion, one or two may make it through, or end up at their destination with postage due.

You should NEVER just put stamps on items like this - all kinds of things can change the postage rate (weight, size, packaging, non-machinable status, etc) - UNLESS you are mailing the EXACT same thing in the EXACT same way and know from past experience that the amount of postage you are attaching is correct.  In many cases, what you send with job applications can change quite a bit, and so I'd always have them weighed at the post office; I've sent applications that were just a few pages, and applications that were in small boxes or padded envelopes!

[zharkov]

Yikes!

Well, I'm somewhat of a postage expert - most of the time items mailed without proper postage will come back to you - though, on occasion, one or two may make it through, or end up at their destination with postage due.

You should NEVER just put stamps on items like this - all kinds of things can change the postage rate (weight, size, packaging, non-machinable status, etc) - UNLESS you are mailing the EXACT same thing in the EXACT same way and know from past experience that the amount of postage you are attaching is correct.  In many cases, what you send with job applications can change quite a bit, and so I'd always have them weighed at the post office; I've sent applications that were just a few pages, and applications that were in small boxes or padded envelopes!

That reminded me of the other plus of the stiff priority envelopes: It is a flat rate deal, so if you have priority stamps, you don't need to worry about  the weight.

[_touchedbyanoodle_]

I always thought the rule for job apps was to use twice as many stamps as you know you need, and then to burn one in offering to the postal god. No?

Oh, how wasteful I have been.

[scheherazade]

You don't burn the extra.  You stick it on your forehead and wait for it to fall off on it's own.  When it falls off, you know they have received the application.  It goes without saying that showers and facewashing during this time period will cause your app to be lost in the mail.

[_touchedbyanoodle_]

Well, now you tell me. No wonder I'm a f***ing adjunct.

[helpful]

I don't understand the OP. It seems to me each application should be weighed and then you put the dollar amount of stamps based on the weight (and size). Why would someone say 'one' or 'two' or 'three' stamps? Doesn't this depend on the value of each stamp? (Each stamp has different denominations!)

[scheherazade]

And I just realized that I committed the cardinal sin of using "it's" in place of "its".  I have no idea how I managed that.

[phoodie]

I don't understand the OP. It seems to me each application should be weighed and then you put the dollar amount of stamps based on the weight (and size). Why would someone say 'one' or 'two' or 'three' stamps? Doesn't this depend on the value of each stamp? (Each stamp has different denominations!)

Helpful,
Yes, I know.  The situation doesn't make sense to me, either.  As I said, it wasn't my decision that these envelopes were mailed with 2 stamps, but my naive trust in a postal worker who looked me in the eye, told me that's what it said on his scale, and proceeded to put two stamps on each one of them for me.  His supervisor was watching this, too.

At the time it happened, I was so fried from putting together applications that it didn't sound like an unusual or illogical sort of thing.  I really didn't think twice about it.

Huh...now that I think about it, maybe the postal workers DON'T like me...maybe that's why this happened...

[pedanterast]

I was a letter carrier and my guess is two stamps will be enough.  If it's not, if detected which is probable, the outcome depends on whether the receiving party is willing to pay the postage due, which is probably not going to happen in this instance.  By the way, a "big" envelope costs more than a little one, but not twice as much.  You should have all this stuff weighed and metered.  BTW if it does get returned for insufficient postage, you have to make up the short-fall to get the item back, and then start all over again from zero (the existing stamps on the returned item cannot be re-used).

[sappho]

I would recommend using a self-serve machine at the post-office.  Several years ago I lived in a place where the post office was rarely open, but the machines were accessible and working almost 24-7.  You could weigh your own envelope or package, type in the zip code and print individual postage things.  I mailed more than a hundred job applications and I am not aware of anything getting lost that way.

[helpful]

I don't understand the OP. It seems to me each application should be weighed and then you put the dollar amount of stamps based on the weight (and size). Why would someone say 'one' or 'two' or 'three' stamps? Doesn't this depend on the value of each stamp? (Each stamp has different denominations!)

Helpful,
Yes, I know.  The situation doesn't make sense to me, either.  As I said, it wasn't my decision that these envelopes were mailed with 2 stamps, but my naive trust in a postal worker who looked me in the eye, told me that's what it said on his scale, and proceeded to put two stamps on each one of them for me.  His supervisor was watching this, too.

At the time it happened, I was so fried from putting together applications that it didn't sound like an unusual or illogical sort of thing.  I really didn't think twice about it.

Huh...now that I think about it, maybe the postal workers DON'T like me...maybe that's why this happened...

When you say "two" stamps, does that mean they are both of equal value? Or do they have different values? That was what my question about, because stamps all have different values. Didn't you see what they were weighed as?