Last night I flipped through my mail to find an “Invitation” to a special event at a fancy shoe store on Madison Ave. Okay, my wife received it, but I opened it…
Error #1 – The fancy 6 x 8 linen envelope weighed in at 2.1 ounces. With a slightly lighter card stock, the mail piece would have weighed less than 2 ounces, and saving $0.17 in postage.
Error #2 – The card stock was in fact so heavy, it made the envelope rigid. The USPS requires that mail pieces be flexible. If not, the mail piece is classified as a parcel, no matter the size or weight. The USPS rate for parcels is $0.78 greater than that of flats. That hurts.
Error #3 – To make maters worse, they simply put too much postage on the envelope! If this mailing was in fact a parcel at 2.1 ounces, the postage should have been $1.56, not $2 as posted. The USPS certainly appreciates the $0.44 charitable contribution.
All told, the mailing is quite catchy, but the postal errors add up fast. With a slightly lighter weight card stock, this mailing should have been sent as a 2.0 ounce letter for $0.61. A $1.39 savings. That’s $1390 savings for every 1000 cards sent.
And here I thought companies were trying to stretch their marketing dollars to the limit.
by Bob Makofsky bmakofsky@conformer.com
