General Question

Jeruba's avatar

Is a Post Office(TM) a real post office or a mailing service?

Asked by Jeruba (55824points) June 7th, 2009

The USPS website lists locations that are Post Office™ sites. Doesn’t the™ mean that these are all commercial services that will handle postal mail and packages, UPS parcels, etc., and don’t they charge extra for it? The USPS website does not make it easy to find real United States post offices. I want to pay for the postage only and not some commercial rate, but I need to understand what I’m looking at when I see the listings.

Or am I wrong and these all do charge only standard USPS rates for packages without any surcharge?

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3 Answers

Resonantscythe's avatar

I don’t know for sure myself, but i checked the listing for the offices around my old neighborhood and it only listed actual United states post offices. So i take it the TM is some paranoid legal thing. But of course that’s just my take on it.

Resonantscythe (2395points)“Great Answer” (0points) Flag as…
Don917's avatar

“TM” stands for Trade marked, they are just protecting their right to the term otherwise someone else could possibly “TM” it.
Every location listed @ USPS.com locate a Post Office is either an actual Post Office or a “contract station”. Contract stations agree to sell Post Office products & services at the same price as a “real” Post Office and receive a percentage of the sales as their compensation. The hope is that by offering postal products they will get increased foot traffic into their business, and the Post Office hopes if they get less foot traffic into “real” Post Offices” they can cut expenses and eliminate jobs !!!!
This is seen as a “win win”..by Postal managers !!!

Don917 (180points)“Great Answer” (0points) Flag as…
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