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Pushing the Envelope Blog

Not Quite Seamless

Date: 11/22/21 | Category: Mail Processing & Transportation

You’ve likely gone to a post office to mail a parcel to a friend or family member. Sometimes the postal clerk simply weighs the package, and other times the clerk also measures the dimensions. Or perhaps you have used the U.S. Postal Service’s flat-rate boxes and paid the flat fee. Did you ever wonder how this process works for large mailers who give the Postal Service thousands of different-sized packages daily?

The Postal Service used to manually process packages to check postage, but in recent years it has moved toward a less manual, more data-driven method called Seamless Acceptance. With this new process, mailers provide USPS with detailed electronic documentation about all the parcels they are mailing and the postage they expect to pay. The Postal Service then uses census and sampling verification to validate postage and assess mail quality to ensure it meets all requirements to qualify for the various postal rates. When it finds errors, USPS works with mailers to correct them and improve mail quality.

So, how well does Seamless Acceptance work in identifying errors and problems with mail quality? That question was the topic of our recent audit. We found a few opportunities for USPS to improve Seamless Acceptance.  For example, the verification process could be improved by ensuring postal employees consistently follow sampling procedures. In addition, in five of the six sites we visited, postal personnel told us there were problems with the scanners, including sudden malfunctions and failures. And when scanners don’t work, sampling doesn’t work.

Does your organization or another one you know use Seamless Acceptance?  If so, tell us how it worked.

Leave a Comment

Your Name
Lauren B
Feb 4, 2022
Your Comment
I run an online shop, shipping out of Los Angeles to all 50 states, and about 95% of the packages I've sent out since 1/1/22 do not get scanned until they reach the final destination post office distribution center . This is extremely frustrating. Last year everything was scanned and now only a few are being scanned...this applies to both Priority and First Class packages. This is absolutely unacceptable when you're paying for tracking.
Your Name
Richard L Kolbek
Jan 9, 2022
Your Comment
Mail has consistently gotten slower and slower domestic and international packages until it's almost reached a grinding halt here in January 2022. Packages cannot be tracked accurately online and seems to being shipped in obscure places. Personal mail sometimes is not delivered until the following day according to online tracking. Seems as though the mail service is becoming increasingly bogged down to a point of a standstill. I don't know maybe there are weather issues, transportation issues, covid restrictions or personnel shortages, but it just seems like the USPS is falling apart?
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Donald L. Wolverton
Nov 27, 2021
Your Comment
The mail is always late. It comes like someone ripped it up, or it is all bent up too. This year has been the worst yet. It is not the mailman either it is the postal office workers that handle the mail like crap anymore. I get important papers sent to me and they are always bent and crinkled up. What the hell is going on in the postal office..
Your Name
Ty Collins
Nov 26, 2021
Your Comment
I'm having numerous issues, missing mail, missing packages, wrong mail. All of this seems to stem from the fact that your employees are skipping out on the scanning phase of your glorious system, therefore since there is no proof YOU receive it, there's nothing I can do to complain. I have attempted to file a formal complaint, however apparently I've been using an illegal email address for more than 20 years, or at least that's what your useless site is telling me. Yes i know this is not the right place for complainants, but I no where else to complain, so I'm doing this on EVERY GOVERNMENT SITE FIND!!!!
Your Name
Jordan
Nov 25, 2021
Your Comment
My USPS person leaves my mailbox door and others on my street open. Rain ruins our mail. They bend official documents clearly labeled do not bend. They have ruined hundreds of dollars of degrees and certificates in the mail. I have been to the post office 3 times to try to explain and the say that they will stop the issue. They have not fixed anything. Please help!
Your Name
Virginia Lorraine Murray
Nov 24, 2021
Your Comment
My mail is delivered to the wrong mailbox almost daily. My neighbor has to bring me my mail and even packages a lot. This has happened 3 times this week and last week. I don’t feel my mail even my identity is secure anymore. I have true concerns about receiving my mail and packages at my home right now.
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John Benfatti
Nov 23, 2021
Your Comment
Why is my account disabled
Your Name
Kathryn L Guillaum
Nov 22, 2021
Your Comment
Why did you get rid of the sorting machines in the first place.
I do not trust the Post Master General.
Your Name
Gary Raymond
Nov 22, 2021
Your Comment
Scanners and the USPS. Signatures and the USPS. Push buttons to answer questions and the USPS. Your processes are no longer efficient. They have become cumbersome and redundant. Your customers must jump through hoops like trained dogs. And still, items are placed into the incorrect receptacles.