Sorry to resurrect this thread...lol. Some insider information.
First of all, the Post Office receives no tax payer dollars, she is completely funded by product sales (stamps, postage, supplies) and as mentioned in an earlier post, the USPS is a 1 Billion dollar+ company without the retirement prefund mandate.
Sounds like the seller/shipper of this roll of wrap used the wrong label (cubic pricing) but likely paid the correct amount based on weight and distance. It's an easy mistake to make if you sell a lot of cubic pricing packages. Without knowing the weight of the roll, one can only guess but it seems about right.
The USPS has arrangements with many high volume shippers. One example: The USPS allows a well known large company to ship thousands of packages at the Parcel Select Light Weight Tier (13 ounces and under). In order to curb processing time, the USPS allows them to ship up to 5 pounds at this very low rate BUT, every single one of those over 13 ounces goes to the Postage Due unit at the Processing Plants and the difference gets charged back. It's a completely automated system. The seller in question may have this arrangement. That may be why the Postal Clerk told you that he was aware of it.
The USPS has a Drop Ship program, it's very complicated to explain in detail but this is another way shippers can save. This program involves UPS, FedEx, DHL and others. Wait for it....we carry each others mail! It's not uncommon to select UPS as your shipper only to have it delivered by the USPS and vice versa.
Here's another interesting bit of info: The USPS uses large containers at the Processing Facilities to ship Priority Mail. If a container isn't full and there's no more Priority Mail available to top it off, lower classes of mail will be "upgraded" and sent with the Priority. This explains some examples of receiving packages earlier than expected.
The "if it fits, it ships" doesn't apply to Priority Flat Rate envelopes. It's expected that these should seal properly, usually 1/4" thickness max. The USPS is very lax on this one, rarely enforcing the requirement, matter of fact, I don't think most Window Clerks even know. This is where "beating the system" bites back. Those envelopes over 1/4 thick are very susceptible to being opened accidentally in the processing phase. Edges and corners of other packages will "grab" that open space at the seal.
Sure, the Post Office gets beat out of revenue honestly and dishonestly but here's something to ponder. The USPS makes millions of dollars on shippers that overpay for services and they sure as hell won't let you know about it nor issue refunds! Most commonly seen, two or more stamps on a first class letter, that's a real money maker. Another example is paying the Parcel Post rate (third class) when 99.9 percent of the time Priority Mail is cheaper (and faster).
As a Postal Employee (I'm non-scheduled today by the way...lol), I appreciate the OP's care and concern. As a group, we are diligent in protecting revenue, most offices have an internal, non-official contest to see who can catch the most. For those that think this post is much to do about nothing....would you hire the OP if you owned a business or have employees under you in charge of financial matters? I would!
