Posted by afn03488 on 02/13/06 18:35

PC Medic wrote:
> Wrong...and I am quite aware of how the USPS works as my company
> uses them (and UPS) to ship thousands of items daily.

The fact that "your company" uses the USPS daily does not qualify
YOU as an expert on the operations and machinations of the USPS.
As to my own qualfications, I am a retired owner of a fullfillment
house who lost only one appeal to Memphis. Since I was on the
civilian side of the line, I will not go postal like the Royal
Fuckwad who litters this newsgroup, but will simply suggest you
seek out a qualified individual in your own mailroom to explain
to you just how anal BMEU and revenue protection personnel can be.

> 3 CD's in a single mailer would cause little IF any change in
> rate and what ever slight change there was would certainly be
> less costly than 3 seperate mailers (savings in both postage
> and materials).

That statement suggests Standard Mail is being used, not First
Class Mail. Standard Mail incurs no penalty for increased weight
until it exceeds 3.3 ounces. If you increase the weight of a
Standard Mail letter from 3.30 ounces to 3.31 ounces, the cost
of a thousand piece mailing at 5 digit automation rates without
destination level discounts increases by only $0.32. If you
increace the weight of First Class letter from 1.00 ounces to
1.01 ounces, the cost of a thousand piece mailing at 5 digit
automation rates increases by $240.00. The savings of putting
two DVDs in one envelope and mailing only 500 pieces would
be $40.50, although probably closer to $30 due to loss of
5 digit level discounts. The figures for three DVDs in an
envelope would be $133.19 and $122.20 respectively.

It is much simpler to print the appropriately barcoded mailers
for the day in title sequence, and have them filled with just
one stop at each inventory location for everyone getting that
title for the day and postal sorting the results on an internal
barcode sorter than it is to assemble the contents of an
individual three disk mailer for insertion. Balance your postage
savings above against the speed and labor cost with attendant
payroll taxes to accomplish it your way.

I admit I don't know how NetFlix elected to implement their
fulfillment, but I envision restocking as the major obstacle.
I wonder what kind of equipment they have for sorting returns?
Frankly I wouldn't credit you with a return until I could get
it in the appropriate location to be reshipped. I wonder if
that is part of the delay being observed.

> I do not agree totally with your figures and yes it MAY cost
> slightly more, but still would be less than 3 seperate mailers.

See above. While you are correct the postage charges would be less,
you are chosing to ignore the additional preparation costs and
opportunities to foul up. The last thing you want to do is have a
time sensitive mailing rejected for a preparation error. Non
identical weight mailings cannot use imprints and must have postage
affixed. Dividing the day's mail into separate one, two, three, etc
disk mailings to continue to use imprints cuts into the presort
discounts which depend on the fineness of the sort and the number
of pieces which qualify at each level not to mention the comparative
time and labor costs to assemble the contents of each order.

> I ship double packs of CD's every day (in the cardboard media
> mailers) and rarely does it take longer than 1-2 days for customers
> in the region to receive them.

I do not know what you mean by "in the region", but Standard Mail
is dumped into the First Class Mail stream at the destination level.
If delivered within the SCF of entry, it may be delivered the next
day, or it may be delayed depending on the First Class workload.
Standard Mail which leaves the SCF of entry moves at its own rate
and is not suitable for time sensitive mailings. Mixed AADC Standard
Mail moves as slow as maple syrup under the current weather
conditions in Maine. Not pissing off customers with Standard Mail
delays is one reason to use First Class; a second is how anal the
BMEU is about what constitutes an "identical mailing" for the
purposes of qualifying as Standard Mail.

> Now being someone that works in this very enviroment every day,
> I can disagree with some great certainty here.

What you are doing with certainty here, is demonstrating your
ignorance. Again, don't accept what I say at face value; talk
to the person in charge of your mailroom for an education.

> This is nothing unique to Netflix's operation and while it may
> take some simple retooling of their line it is nothing major
> and opening a single mailer and scanning in 2 or 3 items from
> its contents is no more (and done right would be less) time
> consuming than opening and scanning 3 different mailers with
> a single item inside.

Using non-identical weight letters outbound will require sorting
by weight as well as zip code, both complicating the documentation
required for mailing and reducing the available discounts.

> We do it every day and is one reason we can offer our customers
> savings on shipping if they order multiple items at the same time.

You also indicated you used UPS, and shipping of "multiple items"
implies parcels, not "letters". NetFlix has obviously elected to
minimize their costs and delivery times by relying on properly
automated and sorted First Class letters of the less than one ounce
variety.

For those who believe in ignoring NetFlix's instructions to return
each DVD in a separate mailer, you may in fact be increasing the
turn around time for everyone by encouraging the accounting section
of the USPS to weigh each returning piece to assess the proper
postage. What you mail back does not go directly to NetFlix, but
stops at the local PO for the determination and payment of postage.
The Mail Handlers Union relishes the opportunity to justify their
featherbedding by catching insignificant postage undercharges and
you are just abeting them in that effort by mailing two disks back
in one mailer. To further encourage return of different weight
class BRM material as you suggest will only increase that delay.

If you want to continue this discussion, please provide me a
functioning e-mail address, as this is really departing from
the topic of the newsgroup.

BTW Alpha, thank you for agreeing with me.

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