Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBS Costin's new radio.
Speaker 2: All right, welcome back everyone. So I'm aware of what
Speaker 2: is going on in different places. And if you go
Speaker 2: to any of the websites, put into your browser forever Stamps,
Speaker 2: and you will see that there's a bunch of companies
Speaker 2: that are selling roles of what purport to be US
Speaker 2: stamps at much reduced prices. And it's almost unbelievable. So,
Speaker 2: for example, if you were to buy one hundred currently
Speaker 2: at the post office US first class postage stamps, there's
Speaker 2: sixty seven cents apiece. So if you're going to buy,
Speaker 2: let's say a roll of one hundred, it works out
Speaker 2: the sixty seven dollars. Pretty simple, man. Just going to
Speaker 2: buy a little book of twenty of those stamps works
Speaker 2: out to I think it's fourteen dollars and sixty cents.
Speaker 2: I bought a book of stamps yesterday at my post office.
Speaker 2: But I was intrigued by some of these offers that
Speaker 2: I see on the internet. Pretty simple, just put in
Speaker 2: forever stamps and they're offering a roll of one hundred
Speaker 2: stamps for thirty two dollars and ninety nine cents a
Speaker 2: role of it's deeply discounted, about fifty percent for the
Speaker 2: most part. So that caused me to call an acquaintance
Speaker 2: from about a year ago, Danielle Scrogi of the US
Speaker 2: Postal Inspection Service. What exactly, Danielle, is your title with
Speaker 2: the Postal Department? Is it inspector or are you up
Speaker 2: there in the administration if you know.
Speaker 3: What I'm saying, Yes, no, how you darn I'm a
Speaker 3: postal inspector, so I must relation with the Postal Inspection.
Speaker 2: Service, gotcha? So I know that you're pretty skeptical about
Speaker 2: the legitimacy legitimacy of these stamps, and we had a
Speaker 2: great conversation this morning about this. So how concerned should
Speaker 2: people be? This is? This is kind of complicated because
Speaker 2: I guess theoretically some of these sites might be legitimate,
Speaker 2: but most of them are not. And how does an
Speaker 2: average person who's looking to save a few dollars navigate
Speaker 2: these sites? It's overwhelming, to be honest with you, all
Speaker 2: these different sites and you don't want to, you know,
Speaker 2: buy counterfeit stamps. How do you avoid it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great question. You know, we definitely want
Speaker 3: our customers and people to know that there are a
Speaker 3: ton of counterfeit stamps out there, unfortunately, and so I
Speaker 3: understand that people are looking online for a good deal,
Speaker 3: and you know, you might see blocks or bricks of
Speaker 3: stamps as we call them, significantly discounted, and usually I'm
Speaker 3: talking anywhere from twenty to fifty percent off the face value,
Speaker 3: a very big discount, you know, being sold out in
Speaker 3: social media marketplaces, econmas sites or even third parties and
Speaker 3: websites all over the place. And that's usually a tailtale sign,
Speaker 3: not in and of itself, of the deep steep discounts,
Speaker 3: that what you're purchasing isn't legitimate. You know, the Postal
Speaker 3: Service we have forever stamps, right, we have a set value,
Speaker 3: and so you know, we don't have stamps go on
Speaker 3: sale on Black Friday. You don't see that, you know.
Speaker 3: So when you see that, as a consumer, you need
Speaker 3: to be very skeptical that you might be purchasing something
Speaker 3: that's completely counterfeit. And so though again that's probably the
Speaker 3: biggest red flag is the price in itself.
Speaker 2: So I'm on the US Postal Service website, which I
Speaker 2: believe is legitimate USPS dot com, and it has, for example,
Speaker 2: some really interesting stamps. This one here Hank Aaron stamps
Speaker 2: and it says forever seventy three cents. I thought that
Speaker 2: the further stamps were sixty seven cents. Are they going
Speaker 2: up to seventy three cents soon?
Speaker 3: They're currently seventy three cents right now. They're probably we
Speaker 3: just the Postal Service just announced in July of twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five it will be going up another five cents
Speaker 3: if the board governors approved that. I believe that's in
Speaker 3: the work, so they will be getting more expensive. But
Speaker 3: to your point, this is another reason why, you know,
Speaker 3: I mean, times are tough for a lot of people,
Speaker 3: and so you know everyone's looking to save a buck.
Speaker 3: But I'm here to tell you that this is not
Speaker 3: the way to do it. The only way that you
Speaker 3: can definitely know that you're buying legitimate stamp sock is
Speaker 3: when you do buy your stamps from USPS dot com
Speaker 3: or from you know, one of the approved postal providers.
Speaker 3: And there are some legitimate big box or warehouse retailers
Speaker 3: that you can purchase stamps at and get a very
Speaker 3: slight discount. But again, they're not going to be anywhere
Speaker 3: in the twenty to fifty percent off range. That's just
Speaker 3: again a huge red flag.
Speaker 2: So right now, I was mistaken. A single first class
Speaker 2: stamp today costs seventy three cents correct, Okay, And so
Speaker 2: that's when I bought my Oh I see that's where
Speaker 2: it comes out to fourteen sixty okay, gotcha. So so
Speaker 2: I thought I was buying stamps at sixty seven cents
Speaker 2: at the post office. No, I was spaying. And they're
Speaker 2: going up in July to what seventy eight.
Speaker 3: Seventy eight cents?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: The Postal Service announced earlier this year that they were
Speaker 3: thinking to increase that and it's going to the Bard
Speaker 3: of Governors and once it gets approved that it'll go
Speaker 3: through in July.
Speaker 2: So here's a dumb question. Why is the price of
Speaker 2: Why has the price of stamps gone up so dramatically?
Speaker 2: And if I'm asking an area that puts you into
Speaker 2: thin ice, you can tell me that's a thin ice area.
Speaker 2: It seems to me that it wasn't too long ago
Speaker 2: that stamps were more Forever stamps were like twenty five cents,
Speaker 2: thirty cents or am I having a mind block? And
Speaker 2: if we're twenty thirty cent forever stamps not only back
Speaker 2: in the last century, but well back in the last century.
Speaker 2: If you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I'm a law enforcement officer. It's a little
Speaker 3: out of my lane. However, I will say that, you know,
Speaker 3: I feel your pain there. You know, I feel like
Speaker 3: everything is getting a bit more expensive. But I want
Speaker 3: to remind people that the postal Service is completely self funded.
Speaker 3: We are an entity that only takes money from our
Speaker 3: revenue and our products. You know, we are not taxpayer
Speaker 3: funded like other agencies are. And you know, I always
Speaker 3: tell people if you travel internationally, not if you go
Speaker 3: up to Canada and you ask one of your neighbors
Speaker 3: to the north how much it costs to mail something
Speaker 3: across the street, it's north of a dollar fifty at
Speaker 3: this point up there. So again I understand that it
Speaker 3: can be sticker shock for people and to see these increases,
Speaker 3: but by and large, you know, our postal service keeps things,
Speaker 3: as you know, low prices. We possibly can to stay
Speaker 3: competitive and so you know, but the times are what
Speaker 3: the times are, and so the increase I guess was necessary.
Speaker 2: Well, I know that a lot more people the idea
Speaker 2: of actually getting getting a handwritten letter. I remember someone
Speaker 2: once told me that they received a nice thank you
Speaker 2: note from George Herbert Walker Bush Bush forty one and
Speaker 2: they were thrilled that. You know, he would write handwritten notes,
Speaker 2: and I sometimes still write handwritten notes. But obviously the
Speaker 2: days of people writing letters have been overtaken. But it's
Speaker 2: easier to do emails now. All of that which is fine,
Speaker 2: has so I guess the amount of mail that gets
Speaker 2: dropped into the post office boxes is diminishing. It's not
Speaker 2: becoming even though we have more people, it's diminishing. A
Speaker 2: lot more people now are sending Christmas card greetings. I
Speaker 2: had more friends of mine who always would send a
Speaker 2: Christmas card that that's going away. So that's putting a
Speaker 2: lot of pressure on any company, including the post office. Now,
Speaker 2: you did say that there are some legitimate big box
Speaker 2: stores who maybe stockpiled stamps at some point in the
Speaker 2: past and they can sell those. Do you know, off
Speaker 2: the top of your head from my listeners, which ones
Speaker 2: a legitimate that they can go to if they can
Speaker 2: get a little bit of a price break legitimately, or
Speaker 2: are you not in a position where you could disclose that.
Speaker 3: No, the best way they can do is navigate through
Speaker 3: the USPS dot DOUG site and go to Approved Postal Providers.
Speaker 3: I believe you can type in your zip code too,
Speaker 3: and see locally what approved vendors can sell you books
Speaker 3: of stamps at a flight discount. So that might be
Speaker 3: the best way that people could go and find that information.
Speaker 2: Are those those places that you have to visit? You
Speaker 2: can't order them? I guess that's why you're putting your
Speaker 2: zip code in.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, so this would be if you're like a
Speaker 3: costco or someplace and you want to pick up stamps
Speaker 3: while you're there. I believe they're one of the approved places.
Speaker 3: So again, these are going to be places that you
Speaker 3: are already walking into to purchase other things. But the
Speaker 3: list again, it's under the Approved Postal Providers tab under
Speaker 3: the Postal Services website.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm looking for it and having a little bit
Speaker 2: of a difficult difficult finding it. There's a shop here,
Speaker 2: I see there's a shop dropped down. Nope, I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't see that, So I'll have to navigate that more.
Speaker 2: Let me do this. Let's take a break and we'll
Speaker 2: come back and I yeah, we can't. Yeah, just I
Speaker 2: put into the us PS. It was the search button
Speaker 2: to proved postal stamp providers that came back no results
Speaker 2: were found. But that's okay. I'm sure it's here somewhere.
Speaker 2: We'll figure it out. Let's uh, let let's see if
Speaker 2: folks want to ask you some questions. Not often we
Speaker 2: don't get a postal respect. I think what I want
Speaker 2: to follow up on is, okay, if people do have
Speaker 2: these stamps, you're telling me that you folks have machines,
Speaker 2: have abilities, as I understand it, too, discern whether or
Speaker 2: not the stamp is a legitimate stamp or whether it's
Speaker 2: a counterfeit stamp. And you told me also that a
Speaker 2: lot of these are coming from overseas. So I want
Speaker 2: to talk a little bit about those things. And then
Speaker 2: if you want to take some phone calls and people
Speaker 2: want to call, we'll take some phone call. Not we'll
Speaker 2: We'll let you go. But I just want I don't
Speaker 2: want my listeners to be scammed out of anything. It's
Speaker 2: as simple as that. We'll take a break. My guest
Speaker 2: is US Postal Inspector Danielle Scrogie. Six seven two five
Speaker 2: ten thirty is the number six one seven thirty. If
Speaker 2: you have a question of common if you've ever bought
Speaker 2: postal stamps. We're not going to take numbers or names
Speaker 2: or anything like that. But uh, and if you want
Speaker 2: to ask a question, you're more than welcome to do
Speaker 2: that as well. We'll be back on Nightside. Not often
Speaker 2: do we get someone from the US Postal Inspector Inspection
Speaker 2: Division to join us. Ben Danielle has joined us now twice.
Speaker 2: Last year when we were talking about the postal mail carriers,
Speaker 2: the mail carriers who were being robbed and their keys
Speaker 2: were being taken from them. We'll get to all of that.
Speaker 2: I promise. We're coming right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: My guest is Daniel Scrogie. Daniel Danielle has Danielle, I
Speaker 2: think you've intimidated people here. The phones are quiet.
Speaker 3: You tell you have found out the answer to your
Speaker 3: I found out the answer to your question too. Where
Speaker 3: people can go so on USPS dot com. When you
Speaker 3: go in there, you can use one of the tools
Speaker 3: for locations to find a postal facility, and you can
Speaker 3: actually narrow it down by different parameters, and one of
Speaker 3: them is a national retailer. So if you type in
Speaker 3: your zip code and you kind of you know, tailor
Speaker 3: it to what you're looking for. If you want something
Speaker 3: outside of a post office, you can go ahead and
Speaker 3: do that, and then you can see there. I see
Speaker 3: stop in shops and Walgreens and those types of places
Speaker 3: are popping up.
Speaker 2: So people can they sell stamps the same price as
Speaker 2: the post office?
Speaker 3: Right, I don't know that off the top of my head.
Speaker 3: I know that that people can definitely get them there though.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, no, I know that most of those retailers.
Speaker 2: But again just in terms of trying to get people
Speaker 2: somewhere where they can get a little bit of a
Speaker 2: break on these stamps. So you told me that if
Speaker 2: people do go out and buy these, I don't call
Speaker 2: them black market stamps, but stamps that are not through
Speaker 2: the US Postal Service, that your postal machines have the
Speaker 2: ability to detect fake stamps, counterfeit stamps from actual post
Speaker 2: office stamps. Correct.
Speaker 3: There's a variety of ways that we can use to
Speaker 3: detect counterfeit stamps. Our machines are also have the capability
Speaker 3: built into them. So again, and what I wanted to
Speaker 3: make sure people know is you wouldn't know it by
Speaker 3: looking at these they become very sophisticated and very very
Speaker 3: good that it's very difficult for somebody that doesn't know
Speaker 3: what they're looking for, and even quite frankly somebody who
Speaker 3: does to with the naked eye determine what is real
Speaker 3: versus what is counterfeit. That's how good they've gotten.
Speaker 2: So if the machine kicks out the letter with the
Speaker 2: stamp attached and says it's a counterfeit stamp, does that
Speaker 2: get returned to the center. If I happen to make
Speaker 2: a mistake and drop my letter to you in the
Speaker 2: mail and I forget to put a stamp on it,
Speaker 2: which I'm done, occasionally it comes back it says, you know,
Speaker 2: inadequate postage, and I you know, So what do you
Speaker 2: do when you find What do you think the post
Speaker 2: office is likely to do? Because I think what you
Speaker 2: said to me was that you don't have an obligation
Speaker 2: to return that to the person and tried to use
Speaker 2: a counterfeit stamp. Correct?
Speaker 3: Correct, So yeah, so you're absolutely right. In July of
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three, there was a change to the Domestic
Speaker 3: Mail Manual, which is our postal bible, so to speak,
Speaker 3: and within it it lays out all the regulations that
Speaker 3: the Postal Service holds themselves to and again in July
Speaker 3: of twenty twenty three, they change those regulations to say
Speaker 3: that mail with counterfeit postage would be considered abandoned and
Speaker 3: disposed of at the discretion of the Postal Service, so
Speaker 3: the item would no longer be returned to the sender
Speaker 3: as they once were. So if that happens, you know,
Speaker 3: consumers will have to seek recourse from the vendor that
Speaker 3: they purchased their counterfeit postage for because the Postal Service
Speaker 3: won't give them relief.
Speaker 2: For that right. But what I'm saying is, if let's
Speaker 2: say someone uses I don't know five counter counterfeit stamps
Speaker 2: to pay five bills, if it's it's conceivable that all
Speaker 2: of those bills, instead of being returned to the to
Speaker 2: the sender who has used the counterfeit stamps, if the
Speaker 2: machine kicks those those letters out and those letters, those
Speaker 2: those letters are disposed of or I assume shredded. Uh,
Speaker 2: you're going to all of us realize that some of
Speaker 2: the people that you had intended to send your payments
Speaker 2: to they're not going to get their payments. So you're
Speaker 2: going to get double charged the next month and and
Speaker 2: that's going to cause more complications in your life. So
Speaker 2: this this the word of advice that you give here
Speaker 2: is to is to be careful. I do have one
Speaker 2: caller and I'd like to take her. If you'll stick
Speaker 2: with me, we'll see if we get a couple more
Speaker 2: on the other side of the news. Can you hang
Speaker 2: with me for a little bit, Danielle sure? Okay? Danielle
Speaker 2: Scrogie Scroggy excuse me. Sproggy is a US Postal inspector,
Speaker 2: And again, I don't want people to get ripped off.
Speaker 2: At the same time, I went into this to try
Speaker 2: to find out what information and if it was true
Speaker 2: that there are ways in which you could save some money. Look,
Speaker 2: I still mail letters and I put stamps on letters.
Speaker 2: This might force me to as the price goes up,
Speaker 2: might force me to change my attitude toward it, but
Speaker 2: at least for now, I'm still a stamp guy. We'll
Speaker 2: be back on night's side right after the news break.
Speaker 2: Feel free to ask a question, make a comment, and
Speaker 2: if you've been successful and use some of these stamps
Speaker 2: and you'd like to, we're not tracing numbers or anything
Speaker 2: like that, so don't worry about that. Six one, seven, two, five, four,
Speaker 2: ten thirty six, one seven, one, ten thirty Back on
Speaker 2: night Side right after.
Speaker 1: This night Side with Dan Ray. I'm w BZY Boston's
Speaker 1: news Radio.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Eric with me is Danielle Scrogi
Speaker 2: shrogy Again. I'm getting better on this pronunciation. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: apologize us postal inspector. So we'll get some phone calls
Speaker 2: here and again I ask you to be polite, as
Speaker 2: you always are. My listeners are always polite. We'll start
Speaker 2: it off with Janice in Lynn. Hey, Janis welcome. You're
Speaker 2: on night Side. You're on with Danielle Scrogie.
Speaker 5: Go right ahead, Yes, good evening, Dan and Danielle. I
Speaker 5: My father used to collect stamps back in the age
Speaker 5: and nineties, and once he passed in the two thousand,
Speaker 5: he you know, left him and so the family we're
Speaker 5: all like, well, who's gonna take them? So I did,
Speaker 5: and very interesting ones, but they're you know, old, and
Speaker 5: they're like, you know, twenty two cents, thirty two cents,
Speaker 5: twenty five and then I gave everybody in the family
Speaker 5: a hole pile each of them and we've been using
Speaker 5: them for years and I hope that's still Okay, I
Speaker 5: mean these are not used ones. They're you know, the
Speaker 5: big sheets, and then I just break them up and
Speaker 5: use them. But they have to put a lot on
Speaker 5: an envelope.
Speaker 2: Well, so they have a value that they have a
Speaker 2: number on the stamp. So let's say it was twenty
Speaker 2: two cents when it was purchased. And so what you're
Speaker 2: saying is, can you use three of those stamps today?
Speaker 2: Three times twenty two would be sixty six plus a
Speaker 2: penny stamp? I assume you could, Danielle.
Speaker 3: Again, this is a question mostly for a postal employee.
Speaker 3: I am a law enforcement officer, but so but I
Speaker 3: mean again, I would imagine as long as they are legitimate,
Speaker 3: and are you are fixing the correct amount of postage
Speaker 3: to it, and you're all set as far as I.
Speaker 2: Don't think, let me jump in here and try to
Speaker 2: help you out here, Danielle, I don't think, Jennet. You're
Speaker 2: not saying, can you take a twenty two sense stamp
Speaker 2: that was bought thirty years ago and slap that on
Speaker 2: a regular envelope and they would you would have that
Speaker 2: twenty two cents would not cover what the charge is today.
Speaker 5: You understand that, right, Yeah? I put like four of
Speaker 5: them on there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I think that's I think that's fine. If
Speaker 2: you know they were purchased legally, they have a value
Speaker 2: on them twenty two cents. If you go to the
Speaker 2: post office and you you know, there's different denominations. If
Speaker 2: you have to send a package, and you know, of
Speaker 2: course a lot of them know, they just meeter it.
Speaker 2: But if you have to send a letter and it's
Speaker 2: you know, eighty seven cents because it has some extra
Speaker 2: weight on it, they'll give you a they'll sell you
Speaker 2: a sixty seven cent stamp and then find a couple
Speaker 2: a twenty cents stamp of some sort. Yeah, they'll they'll
Speaker 2: do that.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: The other problem I have is every time I send
Speaker 5: like a cod, especially when my nieces and nephews were
Speaker 5: in college, I send a birthday cod with cash and
Speaker 5: if on them they never would get it. It was
Speaker 5: like every time I mail one up, they never got them.
Speaker 2: Why would you send a card with cash? How long
Speaker 2: ago was this Janet?
Speaker 5: This is back in the like O six seven around there.
Speaker 2: But now, yeah, this this Danielle might be able to
Speaker 2: talk about. Go ahead, Danielle.
Speaker 3: Yeah, again, I'm always trying to do my due diligence
Speaker 3: to protect everybody. And I really cannot stress enough. How
Speaker 3: do not mail cash? I have to tell my own
Speaker 3: father not to mail my children cash, so I feel
Speaker 3: the pain there. Do not mail cash. It's just you know,
Speaker 3: you know, somebody gets sticky fingers and they take the
Speaker 3: year out that money. It's just not worth the risk.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 5: I don't mail my things in wind anymore. I usually
Speaker 5: mail them in Peabody or Evily or somewhere else.
Speaker 2: So you have better success.
Speaker 8: Well.
Speaker 2: The other thing too, is that they're also by the way,
Speaker 2: you have to be careful when you send a check.
Speaker 2: And Danielle and I have talked about this before in
Speaker 2: the year, and I think she remembers it very well
Speaker 2: that there are check washing schemes out there where they
Speaker 2: literally they were stealing keys from postal workers, uh, and
Speaker 2: they were going in and as much as many envelopes
Speaker 2: as they could and then if they found a check.
Speaker 2: Whenever I send a check to anyone, I always wrap
Speaker 2: it up inside a piece of paper because I think
Speaker 2: the easiest thing in the world for someone to look
Speaker 2: at a at an envelope, hold it up to the
Speaker 2: light and say, hey, that's just a check. Now. It
Speaker 2: might be five five dollars or might be worth five
Speaker 2: hundred dollars, so you got to be careful about that.
Speaker 3: I use them.
Speaker 5: I use special envelopes that you can't really see it.
Speaker 5: And I do still send out checks because I have
Speaker 5: to send them like the city for like XI tax
Speaker 5: and things only pay one. I do make sure you
Speaker 5: can't see through.
Speaker 2: All right, Jennet.
Speaker 5: Okay, Jenne, Well, thank.
Speaker 2: You very much for calling. Very nice call.
Speaker 5: Thanks, Okay, have a good evening you too.
Speaker 2: Let me go to Patricia in Brighton.
Speaker 8: Hi.
Speaker 2: Patricia, you're on with Danielle of the US Postal Inspection Division.
Speaker 6: Yes, thank you for taking my call.
Speaker 8: Welcome.
Speaker 6: I would like to relay as briefly as I can
Speaker 6: an unfortunate experience I've just had in March. On March first,
Speaker 6: I mailed four pieces of mail which were payments, one
Speaker 6: to Verizon, one to National Grid going to different states,
Speaker 6: one to the IRS, and one to the Massachusetts Department
Speaker 6: of Revenue. Both of those governmental payments were I paid
Speaker 6: certified mail. All four of those envelopes were returned to
Speaker 6: me about March twenty six, with a yellow sticker on
Speaker 6: each one. I think it was National Grid and Verizon
Speaker 6: came together, and then the certified mail pieces were returned
Speaker 6: to me, all with the same curious sticker it said
Speaker 6: not deliverable as addressed, unable to forward, and all the
Speaker 6: addresses were absolutely correct, So I notified. I looked online
Speaker 6: the USPS Investigation Emergency Department and spoke to someone there
Speaker 6: who took all the information. I don't know if it
Speaker 6: was ever investigated. I do buy my stamps at the
Speaker 6: post office. And shortly after I spoke to that individual,
Speaker 6: my local post office supervisor called me and I re
Speaker 6: explained everything and subsequently wrote a summary like a letter
Speaker 6: to him, and then I brought him the actual envelopes
Speaker 6: to show him, and he said, this was bizarre, That's
Speaker 6: what he said. And he and another supervisor had no
Speaker 6: explanation at all, and they actually repaid me for the
Speaker 6: certified meil. So uh, it caused with my vendors.
Speaker 2: That's good service. But let me ask you, did you
Speaker 2: did you get I assumed that those were tax checks?
Speaker 2: Did you when the when the mail came back to you,
Speaker 2: the checks that you had sent in in the envelopes?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 6: They weren't all the checks and the four envelopes were
Speaker 6: all there.
Speaker 2: It was but fair. Now were you able to send those?
Speaker 2: Have you resent those? You know?
Speaker 6: The governmental you know, tax payments? I didn't want to,
Speaker 6: but I I paid them online, which is totally not
Speaker 6: what I want to do, but I did that, and
Speaker 6: then I had the postal. My local post office supervisor
Speaker 6: said she really wanted to try sending the national grid
Speaker 6: to see if it went through. And it took a while,
Speaker 6: but it did arrive.
Speaker 2: But Danielle, this makes no s sense to me. Could
Speaker 2: have it been could have it been some person in
Speaker 2: the post office that didn't know what they were doing?
Speaker 3: I mean, yes, I don't know. This would be a
Speaker 3: delivery issue, so I'm not not my wheelhouse. But definitely
Speaker 3: seems curious. I've never heard of something I haven't done before.
Speaker 2: I am glad, Patricia that you said you did. You
Speaker 2: did speak to the to the supervisor at your post
Speaker 2: office and he was willing to uh resend the materials
Speaker 2: for you at no no additional cost, which is the
Speaker 2: least he could do. But it was the kind that
Speaker 2: that at leasia got to him. You made a friend
Speaker 2: at the post office.
Speaker 6: Right, I guess just that one National grid was payment
Speaker 6: was sent, but I paid the Verizon bill at the
Speaker 6: Verizon store, which you can do, but the certified mail, no,
Speaker 6: we did not send them.
Speaker 2: What are you going to do on future bills? You're
Speaker 2: still going to get your Verizon bill in your National
Speaker 2: Grid bill? What are you going to do? Are you
Speaker 2: going to continue to send a check or I'm going.
Speaker 6: To Yes, I'm going to do there.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, I hope you have better luck with it this time.
Speaker 2: It's a pain of the neck. I don't like to
Speaker 2: give my my authority to any of these companies to
Speaker 2: automatically withdraw money from my credit card because I know
Speaker 2: I don't either credit credit card number. Danielle, you, I
Speaker 2: hope you understand what we're saying that you know this
Speaker 2: is not a post office problem, but you give your
Speaker 2: credit card to all these companies and gives them authority
Speaker 2: to to hit your credit card on a monthly basis,
Speaker 2: you know, it's it. It troubles me.
Speaker 3: I don't know how it sounds like you try to
Speaker 3: do the right thing.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: One of the things I do recommend if people want
Speaker 3: to do just what you did, you know, send it
Speaker 3: in a higher class of mail. This this case, it
Speaker 3: says you sounded like you sounded certified, so you can
Speaker 3: track it or you know where it goes, and so
Speaker 3: you can kind of keep eyeballs on it. But yeah,
Speaker 3: we also recommend you.
Speaker 6: It never left Massachusetts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and again I apologize that happened, and that
Speaker 3: would definitely be a delivery issue on their end. And
Speaker 3: it is curious. I'm at that, you know, I'd.
Speaker 2: Like to make Patricia was a pretty good investigator and
Speaker 2: she got to the bottom of this and she got
Speaker 2: something to act on. And so Patricia, I congratulations. Keep
Speaker 2: me posted. You know, you call the show any night
Speaker 2: and you can say, hey, Dan, remember this, Patricia Brighton,
Speaker 2: I sent that check and it got through. Yeah, no problem.
Speaker 2: And Rob will give you my direct line if you
Speaker 2: want to hold on. You call me during the day
Speaker 2: and bring me up to data or any of this,
Speaker 2: because I'm I'm interested in you know, what happens to
Speaker 2: my listeners. You listen to my show. I want to
Speaker 2: make sure that you're not taking advantage of anyone. So
Speaker 2: hang on. Rob will give you my direct line and
Speaker 2: give me a call back and let me know if
Speaker 2: this male situation has got straightened out for you.
Speaker 6: Okay, okay, thanks very much.
Speaker 2: Hang on, Patricia Robill give you my direct line, and
Speaker 2: that goes to any listener here on Nightside, particularly folks
Speaker 2: who have a problem like this. Danielle, I got a
Speaker 2: bunch of lines here. I promise I'll let you go
Speaker 2: at ten o'clock. You're a great sport. Let's see what
Speaker 2: people have to have to ask. I got Phil, Mike
Speaker 2: and Paul coming up right after this break on Nightside.
Speaker 1: You're on Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: All right, let's get back to the calls. My guest
Speaker 2: is Danielle Scroggie, US postal inspector. Let me go to
Speaker 2: Mike in Florida. Mike, did you and two or three
Speaker 2: others in here? Go ahead?
Speaker 9: Mike, Okay, Hi, first time cailer. I've been a listener
Speaker 9: of WBZ back when they were the Spirit of New England.
Speaker 2: I was still the Spirit of New England. There's a
Speaker 2: lot of applause from our virtual studio audience. What's your
Speaker 2: question about it? Mike? Thank you?
Speaker 9: I enjoy yourself. I was wondering are they gonna I
Speaker 9: hope they don't take away the free matter for the
Speaker 9: blind where blind people like myself can order can mail stuff,
Speaker 9: whether it be in braille or talking books or anything
Speaker 9: like that, for free. They are they thinking of cutting
Speaker 9: that out? Do you know?
Speaker 3: I do not. That would be probably a question for
Speaker 3: a postal employee that works of that stuff. I don't. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: I'm the law enforcement arm so I only know really
Speaker 3: the criminality and use of the mail, and I can
Speaker 3: talk on those topics, but I don't. I know what
Speaker 3: you're talking about, and it is a great service. I
Speaker 3: don't have any information on.
Speaker 2: That though, I think, Mike, I would have known that
Speaker 2: we have a lot of callers like yourself who are
Speaker 2: either non cited, blind, whatever word you prefer, and I
Speaker 2: kind of imagine that they would shop that sort of
Speaker 2: mail from going through. I hope not, and if they
Speaker 2: ever do, I'll do I'll do a I will not
Speaker 2: be as friendly as the post office as have been
Speaker 2: with Danielle Tonight.
Speaker 9: Let me put it like that, Okay, okay, thank you
Speaker 9: very much.
Speaker 2: About whereabouts in Florida? Do you live east coast, west coast? Whereabouts?
Speaker 9: I live in the east coast. I used to live
Speaker 9: in Aventura, but now I live in Pembroke Pines, which
Speaker 9: is near Fort Lauderdale. I'm more sure when they're broadcasting myself.
Speaker 9: I keep up with what's happening in radio all the time.
Speaker 2: Well, thanks Mike, and thanks for keeping up with night Side.
Speaker 2: Keep in touch. Okay, okay, thanks Mikes. You good night.
Speaker 2: Let me go next to phill in Boston. Fill you
Speaker 2: next on Nightside, Danielle SCROGI, you go ahead, Phil.
Speaker 4: I don't know the lad the sense of mail, the
Speaker 4: national grid. I had similar problems, but I don't I
Speaker 4: agree with I'm impressed that you said you don't like
Speaker 4: the autopay because I don't like it either. I'm kind
Speaker 4: of scared of it. But the bottom line is I
Speaker 4: call up and they have an option where you could
Speaker 4: call the number and you could pay that month because
Speaker 4: I was getting sick of going to the post office,
Speaker 4: and you pay that month and even confirmation number, and
Speaker 4: so far it's worked out at that end. But unfortunately
Speaker 4: I've had trouble getting my mail in a PO box
Speaker 4: on my addresses I have both. The bottom line is
Speaker 4: I didn't get two tax bills on two different quarters,
Speaker 4: and I just obviously I didn't know I hadn't coming
Speaker 4: you did, Bill, I teamalized that money. And I'm not
Speaker 4: huming about her now, but I was at the time
Speaker 4: one more thing the old box. Every one of the
Speaker 4: six months or a year, I buy him for a year.
Speaker 4: My year was up. I have not known that you're
Speaker 4: supposed to put a yellow god into the p O
Speaker 4: box to let you know, hello, yeah, whatever. And I
Speaker 4: didn't get it, so I didn't pay it. Then when
Speaker 4: I walked up to the post, I said, excuse me,
Speaker 4: I said, well, that box of souls of somebody else?
Speaker 7: What are you talking about?
Speaker 10: I said, so, So I was going for a pretty
Speaker 10: I think I think, Phil, in all honesty, I think
Speaker 10: that you got to take that up with the local,
Speaker 10: you know, manager in your whatever.
Speaker 4: My luck. This gentleman, he's a real good guy and
Speaker 4: he's been there front. He helped me out. He called up.
Speaker 4: He sold my box with some other guys the day before.
Speaker 4: He called it guy. This is a time sense that
Speaker 4: very important to me.
Speaker 2: With all Right, Phil, we're a little off topic todight,
Speaker 2: and I to other calls, we might want to be
Speaker 2: on topic. So I'm going to let you go. But
Speaker 2: it sounds as if you have successfully navigated that issue.
Speaker 2: As I have every faith every faith and confidence you'd
Speaker 2: be able to do. Thank you. Yeah, have a great one.
Speaker 2: Good night. Let me get too more in you're going
Speaker 2: to go to Paul and andover Paul, you're with Danielle Scroge.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Paul, Hi.
Speaker 7: Dan, thanks a lot for your program. I really enjoy
Speaker 7: it and have listened to it for years. Thank you, Mike.
Speaker 7: My question for Danielle is I don't know if this
Speaker 7: is their area of expertise, but is this service delivery
Speaker 7: service objective. I'm out here in Middlesex County and use
Speaker 7: the Middlesex Post Office a lot, and lately, not lately,
Speaker 7: but for the past few years, the service seems to
Speaker 7: be about two days locally in Massachusetts. But then on
Speaker 7: the other hand, times I get things from California in
Speaker 7: a matter of three or four days. So it's really
Speaker 7: the post office we have here in the United States
Speaker 7: is the best in the world. But I like to
Speaker 7: know officially, though, if you if you know it, what
Speaker 7: the service objective is? Uh? And in terms of distance
Speaker 7: from the post office, yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't know that. There's a rule of thumb here.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Danielle, go ahead.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And it's still bad because a lot of your callers
Speaker 3: are calling in by delivery issues and that's not my area. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so I unfortunately I can't. I can't answer that for you,
Speaker 3: and I apologize.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, I think, Paul. What you got to
Speaker 2: do is just go down to your post office and
Speaker 2: find out. I realized that there seems to be a
Speaker 2: turnover in some of the local post offices. But find
Speaker 2: someone down there who is pleasant enough to talk to.
Speaker 2: Uh and uh and and take that issue up. I'm
Speaker 2: amazed too. I can send a letter and it can
Speaker 2: take a week to go uh, you know from where
Speaker 2: I live, ten miles away. Uh And Yet I can
Speaker 2: send a letter to someone in California and two days
Speaker 2: later they'll call me up and say, hey, I got
Speaker 2: your letter. It's it's one of those mysteries of life, Paul.
Speaker 7: Reliably, if I mailed something out here in Massachusetts that
Speaker 7: gets there in two days, I know, yep, Okay, that's I.
Speaker 2: Mean, that's the good news. Let's let's let's let's.
Speaker 7: Me one day.
Speaker 2: But now two days, yeah, well it's slowed down a
Speaker 2: little bit. Hey, Paul, I got to run wanting it
Speaker 2: one morement. Thank you much, appreciate your call, good night,
Speaker 2: Thanks for your comments. Michael in Boston, Michael got room
Speaker 2: for you. Maybe one more, but I got room for you.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Michael.
Speaker 8: No, I don't think Danielle is going to be able
Speaker 8: to answer my question is related to this last gentleman
Speaker 8: in terms of the service.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 8: I think the government announced about a month and a
Speaker 8: half ago that, uh, they recognize the problem of the
Speaker 8: post office and they're going to restructure the system. Didn't
Speaker 8: we hear that about a month and a half two
Speaker 8: months ago? Dan?
Speaker 2: Uh? Yeah, I think that the Postmaster General has been relieved.
Speaker 2: I think he was appointed by Trump back during his
Speaker 2: first administration, and I think that that was an indicator
Speaker 2: that maybe there's some the changes coming. Let me put
Speaker 2: it like that.
Speaker 8: You know, well, I hope it's going to mean better service.
Speaker 8: I really don't like mail that doesn't show up but
Speaker 8: will show up six weeks later. I'm wondering, where is
Speaker 8: that letter at the post office that it's not delivered
Speaker 8: for six weeks?
Speaker 2: You know what, I can only describe to you. I
Speaker 2: don't think Danielle is able to answer that. I can
Speaker 2: only tipscribe to you. It's one of the mysteries of life.
Speaker 2: And hope, hopefully we can get rid of some of
Speaker 2: the mysteries of our lives.
Speaker 8: Okay, well, I hope they straightened themselves. Okay, I do too.
Speaker 2: I like the post office. I want them to be
Speaker 2: in business. I think it's important. Michael. Appreciate you, Carl,
Speaker 2: thank you.
Speaker 8: Very much, Thank you.
Speaker 2: All right, We're going to try one more. Mary Lou.
Speaker 2: You've called very late. I can give you about a minute.
Speaker 2: What do you got.
Speaker 11: Just wanted to know why I would have to pay
Speaker 11: the postage against for an envelope too. Actually that was
Speaker 11: sent with the proper address return address, hold on yads,
Speaker 11: and then when I bring it back to the post office,
Speaker 11: they recharge me and it was their mistake.
Speaker 2: Here's what I got to do, Mary Lou. I'm going
Speaker 2: to get another gentleman by the name of Steve Doherty,
Speaker 2: who Danielle knows very well. He will be able to
Speaker 2: provide us with someone who can answer some of these
Speaker 2: delivery questions and frustrations. And I promise you will get
Speaker 2: that scheduled in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 11: Fair enough, Oi, Doki, Thanks all right.
Speaker 2: Thanks Thanks Mary, very appreciate it. Danielle, you're a great sport.
Speaker 2: I think you have given people up some caution and
Speaker 2: advice tonight on these these these these stamps, like your
Speaker 2: mother's mother's told us, if a deal looks like it's
Speaker 2: too good to be true, it probably is. Thanks so
Speaker 2: much for joining us, and whenever there's another postal inspection
Speaker 2: issue of any consequence, feel free to call me because
Speaker 2: you are always a great guest. Thank you so much for tonight.
Speaker 3: Awesome, Thanks much, dam.
Speaker 2: Thanks talk soon. Okay, we will get that post office
Speaker 2: person for some of the more general questions a little
Speaker 2: a little bit later on in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: Back on Night's side, right after the ten Today is
Speaker 2: the anniversary, the twelfth anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about it on the other side.