I bought these “forever stamps” from the post office about a year ago. I don’t mail much so I’m only half way through my only roll. So I use one to send in my tax return check to the IRS and they returned my envelope indicating that I’m one cent short on my postage. But these stamps are supposed to be good for first class mail regardless of the postage rate. That’s why they don’t have a price on them.
So how is it that they decide the stamp has any specific price and that I’m short. I think the post office owes America an explanation because their whole forever stamp program looks like a scam to me. It’s not like this is a trivial letter either. This is my 2008 tax payment and they took my letter and rather than delivering it to the IRS, they sent it all the way back to my house which is more expensive… and at a time when the post office is crying that they need more money. I suppose they thought it was funny to screw me on my IRS payment letter.
I just knew that was going to happen. So now you have a choice: add a penny each time until the rate goes up again, or get in your car and drive to the post office, stand in line, and have your letter approved with the forever stamp on it.
hahahahahahahahah. Government lies again.
Going to the local post office wouldn’t have made a difference. It wasn’t the local post office that rejected it. It was the San Francisco post office.
forever stamps picture the liberty bell !
That is a 41 cent first class stamp not a forever stamp.
Here is a picture of a forever stamp:
http://usps.com/communications/newsroom/2007/sr07_011.htm
[Please drop the WWW from URLs as WordPress doesn’t display it properly. – ed.]
Not a forever stamp
Gee Mark–drive to the post office, stand in line, and the clerk will mark the envelope as “First Class Postage Paid.” Do you need your food chewed?
or–get the right stamp. Even Better!!
pwned.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/the-allure-of-the-forever-stamp/
So, the stamp has to say “forever” on it. I missed that when I sped-read the site.
One more time, just in case we aren’t clear on this:
That’s not a forever stamp.
When you control the mail you control information!
That’s not a “Forever” stamp, they have a liberty bell and the word “Forever”.
To find out stamp values, take a look at
http://pe.usps.com/cpim/ftp/manuals/qsg300/q604a.pdf
It shows your flag stamp as the second image, first row w/ a value of 41 cents. The forever stamp is right next to it.
–Mark
I hate to laugh at you Dvorak but you just pw3d yourself.
As others have indicated the stamp you used was NOT a forever stamp, if you think it is try and find some documentation to that effect. For the past several years there have been many first class stamps which do not have the actual value on them, this does NOT make them forever stamps. What it does is allow the post office to print the stamps in advance of a rate increase without knowing how much the rate increase will be. The stamps all have a fixed value unless they are specifically marked as “Forever” stamps.
An inaccurate or misleading story on Dvorak.org/blog? What? That’s umpossible!
They probably charge extra for Hillary supporters.
It’s really quite simple.
You put zip code 94120-7704, however, there is no zip code 86416.
I have specifically asked for the “forever” stamp and received some of the non-denominational stamps. How is a person to know? The Post Office advertises they sell them. They shouldn’t do an end run and give out other stamps.
I understand that Marc got ripped off. Looking at the book of stamps here on my desk, I’m pissed off too.
Forever stamps are only sold in “books” of 20, not “rolls” or “coils”.
I’m more upset that they return the mail to the sender. Isn’t this a net loss to the sender, the recipient, and the postal service? It has got to cost more than a cent to manually stamp the envelope, write 1¢, and return it all the way to the sender. Why can’t they just take the mail to the intended destination and then bill the sender? (I know that billing the sender for 1¢ sounds like just as much trouble, but at least then the recipent gets the mail on time.)
And what’s with the cartoony hand pointing? Can’t they use a more serious stamp?
if they sent him a bill for a cent he’d shrug it off, it would go to collections, and it would probably cost more for them to try and collect it later than just sending it back.
That’s a forever stamp. That is what was handed out to me at the post office also and I asked the clerk “Are you sure this is a forever stamp?” and the answer was yes. Now, go look at the USPS website 604a which says, it’s a non-denominational stamp valued at $.41. OMG. Looking over this page it’s clear that many stamps were made without the price on them, for example the “LOVE” stamp was $.34 and the price was not placed on the stamp.
http://pe.usps.com/search/jsp/search/vv_docread.jsp?k2dockey=http%3A%2F%2Fpe.usps.com%2Ftext%2Fqsg300%2FQ604a.htm%40PE_QSG300_HTML_5&serverSpec=56.0.145.56:9920&QueryParser=Simple&querytext=%28604a%29&dtype=2#hit0
Aren’t the ‘forever stamps’ good for the first one ounce only?
From USPS.gov
“As the name suggests, Forever Stamps can be used to mail a one-ounce letter regardless of when the stamps are purchased or used and no matter how prices may change in the future.”
The original forever stamps didn’t say forever. They just didn’t have a value on them. If you morons look closely you’ll see no amount on the stamp. It’s not a 41 cent stamp.
hahahahaha. Always amusing when intelligent people act like children. In fact, I have some of those very same stamps. I recall when I bought them I wanted the value printed on them but the office was out, so I got the blank ones and wrote the value on the booklet.
What should any rational person believe? Your representation of your memory, or what can be confirmed by multiple websites?
Are you a rational person Marc Perkel?
If it doesn’t say 41 cents on it – it’s not a 41 cent stamp. Unless you are going to try to tell me that all stamps with flags are 41 cent stamps.
#25–Well Markey Poo, by that logic If it doesn’t say “Forever” on it – it’s not a forever stamp.
Why don’t you accept that you and/or the postal clerk made a mistake or you got cheated? And knowing the PO as I do, I would assume a communication error from Postal Management to the Counter Personnel.
I didn’t know editors were allowed to troll so shamelessly. It would be “funny” if your position was plausible at all.
@Marc Perkel,
Seriously, you have to fess up and admit your mistake (or the minimum wager USPS worker). Every “Forever” stamp ive seen states “Forever” on it.
Take a look at the page that Mail Me posted. It shows YOUR stamp as .41 cents.
http://pe.usps.com/search/jsp/search/vv_docread.jsp?k2dockey=http%3A%2F%2Fpe.usps.com%2Ftext%2Fqsg300%2FQ604a.htm%40PE_QSG300_HTML_5&serverSpec=56.0.145.56:9920&QueryParser=Simple&querytext=%28604a%29&dtype=2#hit0
John Dvorak. You may want to screen your bloggers…
The P.O. give out all kinds of misinformation. Like excuses about how they can’t stop junk mail coming to your home, from the Contest people (PCH). But there is a form for it, for stopping offensive materials. They’re just reluctant to without non-sexual junk mail as something that’s offensive. But a judge (Federal?) decided that Postal employees don’t have the right to decide what you find offensive. So they’ll just give you the royal run around, make it too much trouble to file the form, or not even have them. And the Contest junk mailers don’t make it easy to block them, by changing what their envelopes look like. Different colors, sizes, labels. So your sample of what mail to block, will look different by the next month. What we really need is a DO-NOT-MAIL-TO-ME list. With fewer exceptions, like Congressman and Senators asking for money. And no charities either.
And BTW, isn’t it ridiculous that the P.O. wants to take another day off from delivering the mail, because it cost so much to do it six days a week. Well frankly, I wouldn’t miss the Saturday deliveries. But they propose stopping Tuesdays instead. I say they should stop Mondays deliveries, because that’s the day that is always effected by Government holidays. So cleverly, the P.O. declares Tuesdays as the “least busy”. That’s BS! They wouldn’t have so much junk mail to deliver if they didn’t have the Bulk and Presorted rates. Hey, I can presort my mail too. But I’m not going to get a special rate for it. Why should big business get it for sorting by Zipcode. The P.O. is just encouraging the overuse of system by junk mailers, by permitting these privileged rates. And so what if it doesn’t get delivered on Tuesdays. Junk mail doesn’t have a deadline. Our bill payments and paychecks do!! Maybe we shouldn’t have to pay taxes for one day of government, each week. Just let the work ride until the next day.
Ah, now I remember those stamps! They wanted to raise the rates, but hadn’t gotten approval from Congress yet, and it was uncertain how much Congress would let them raise the rates, but they had to start printing the new stamps, so they just printed them without a denomination and priced them at 41 cents once they got their Congressional approval.
Sorry, dude, you got rooked. Those are not the forever stamps. I thought there were some forever stamps before the current Liberty Bell design, but I may be wrong…
This is what happens when customer service types are unionized.