Don't like the rules, ship via first class or priority mail.
I didn't ship the packages, they were shipped to me. While I could clamor for my retailers of choice to ship via a different means, that would be onerous (and more costly) and not possible in the case of larger retailers.
However, I feel that I shouldn't have to in principle. If I'm ordering media, and the USPS provides a special shipping option specifically for that class of mail, it should be used and arrive unmolested.
If the item was sealed after the clerk had seen that it was indeed media (a quarto), which I am assured it was, then there was no reason for the USPS to rip open my package for no reason and then tape it back up with a ridiculous amount of tape. It looks like they let a kid go hog wild with the tape dispenser. Glad the shipper took packaging seriously.
BTW, KL... Mail inspection is nothing new. It's been going on for decades and used to be done MUCH more often than it is today.
True, but when it isn't being done to me it's easy to forget. :boohoo: When I think mail inspection, I think old cold war movies or warrants, and occasionally probable-cause drug dogs. Not the bankrupt USPS ravaging my package to make sure that my seller didn't scam them out of under a dollar for shipping.
I guess I learned something. At least media mail was timely--it only took USPS 6 days to ship an item from Lansing, MI to Baltimore, MD. (One of those days was a Sunday)
An object I ordered from Canada came today, partially crushed. I complained to USPS, but they maintain that it was in the border crossing process that the damage was incurred to the box. Luckily my product is fine.
Not a good day for USPS in my book.