Does anyone else have this problem?

[Guest norme]

Here's a photo of a recent newsletter I received from a club we exchange newsletters from. It is from the St. Augustine AACA chapter. It was not from a staple because the paper tab is still on the piece I received in the center. And to think the post office just raised their postage rates! I understand anthrax scanning is important but this is pretty bad!.....Hope you all don't have the same problem....<BR><A HREF="http://home.ix.netcom.com/~norme/pictures/chewed-news.jpg" TARGET=_blank>Destroyed Newsletter</A>

[fordee9r (Ron Springstead)]

Hey Norm,<BR>If the newsletter you received is the common, folded & stapled type, the problem could still be the staple. Several years ago, I talked with a postal employee about how sometimes my newsletters were received mangled. Most went through OK but a few were occasionaly eaten by the machinery. I was told to reformat the mailing page of my stapled newsletter so that when the address was viewed by the sorting machines, the staple was at the top. I made that change and haven't lost an issue since.

[Guest norme]

Our club never does staples at all - even with a 12 page tabloid print we just fold it and tape it....some people say they never got them but I never had them returned...they must be lost in the machines somewhere....staples should be avoided .....I'll be contacting the club that sent it to let them know what happened....<BR>Another tip is don't have your return address directly left of the sending address. I had one sent to me....it scanned my return address instead of the sending one...they need to be in the upper left corner of the page or fold....<BR>weird thing was it was only one and 130 were the same....oh well, life goes on....

[R W Burgess]

Our newsletter is stapled at the top right corner also and have not had any problems with the 130 pieces we mail each month. I have had a problem with Street Rod Builder from their machines in California. They were aware of the postal problems. I finally changed my address to my wife's name and cured the problem? Go figure! Wayne

[Peter J.Heizmann]

Hello, folks.<P>I would like to interject my personal experiences with the "Mass Mailing Machines" that process mail, advertisements, and, so on, for what it is worth.<P>Possibly, what I post will help in your mailing problems.<P>1. I had an account that manufactured "Mass Mailing/Sorting machines. My company produces Grey & Ductile Iron castings, to include, full machining & coating if so desired. We supplied frame parts, assembled units to include satellite parts, and, so on.<P>2. We supplied the manufacturer with Fe parts. <P>3. To simplify this scenario, the "Mass Mailing Machines" used by banks, advertisers, postal facilities, etc., are "Old" and re-furbished, to, "New" state of the art sorters.<P>4. The manufacturer has a re-furbishing division, and, a new machine division.<P>The old machines may be located at a small postal sorting office. The new high speed machines may be at larger facilities. If you mail an item, it may cross through the old and new machines, which, obviously, could cause a problem, depending on the machine.<P>5. Sorting/Mass Mailing Machinery capabilities:<P> a. How they work: If I still owe 17 payments on my car, and, Ron Springstead just made his final payment, the machines, at roughly 10,000 to 18,000 mailings-per-minute, will stuff Ron's envelope with an advertisement to take out another loan based on his outstanding customer status.<P>I have watched these in operation, and, the process cannot be caught by the naked eye. It's incredibly fast.<P>Bottom line, picture the staple going through a highly complex, computer controlled machine.<P>The machines do jamb. They have a percentage of down-time anticipated by the processor of your mail.<P>"Contact your local Post Office" and show them how you plan to secure your item for mailing. This, hopefully, will give you a greater percentage of success.<P>By the way, the machine mentioned above that could do 18,000 per minute was designed to eliminate "people". Turns out, it was so fast that the supplier of envelopes, stuffing material could not keep up with the machine. It was corrected I am told.<BR>Sorry for rambling, but, it may give the reader a little insight.<P>Regards, Peter J. <BR> <P>[ 07-31-2002: Message edited by: Peter J Heizmann ]<p>[ 08-01-2002: Message edited by: Peter J Heizmann ]

[John N. Packard]

SOMETIMES!<P>jnp