God, I hate the USPS..

[EBR Works]

So I went down to the local USPS office with three separate AR pistols to ship via Priority Mail today. I have done this numerous times in the past few weeks with no issues. I hand the clerk my properly completed form 1508 and she asks me what it is. I tell her it is their form that is required for dealers to ship firearms. She pulls out a table of shipping restrictions and tells me that they cannot accept firearms. I ask her to talk to her supervisor about the 1508. She comes back and tells me he said no firearms allowed. She asks if this form is something that I created to try to fool her. I just stand there dumbfounded and at that point she pretty much throws the boxes at me and asks me to leave.

So now feeling pretty exasperated, I drive 5 miles to another post office only to have the same situation happen. They ask me to leave. At this point I'm ready to go POSTAL and I have 3 big boxes in my car with firearms and a full day of appointments to do in marginal areas so there is no way I can go about my business with this stuff in the car.

Feeling much like a door to door porn salesman canvassing the Vatican, I then drive to the main area post office about 20 miles away and encounter similar resistance from another female employee. I ask to talk directly to the supervisor and am told that I cannot. She then disappears and spends about 10 minutes with the supervisor and then tells me that they have never seen or heard of the form before, but they will accept the shipment pending a review of the regs with their higher ups.

Being relieved to simply get rid of the shipments, I later call the supervisor of the final post office and explain the scenario. Thankfully, he said that he found the pertinent regs on their website and now understood the purpose of the 1508.

Honestly, now I know why I use UPS and Fedex almost exclusively. It's no wonder the USPS is virtually bankrupt.

[ke6guj]

So I went down to the local USPS office with three separate AR pistols to ship via Priority Mail today. I have done this numerous times in the past few weeks with no issues. I hand the clerk my properly completed form 1508 and she asks me what it is. I tell her it is their form that is required for dealers to ship firearms. She pulls out a table of shipping restrictions and tells me that they cannot accept firearms. I ask her to talk to her supervisor about the 1508. She comes back and tells me he said no firearms allowed. She asks if this form is something that I created to try to fool her. I just stand there dumbfounded and at that point she pretty much throws the boxes at me and asks me to leave.

I'd laugh if it wasn't so sad.

Being relieved to simply get rid of the shipments, I later call the supervisor of the final post office and explain the scenario. Thankfully, he said that he found the pertinent regs on their website and now understood the purpose of the 1508.

now if he would only talk to the supervisors of the other post offices to get them up to speed. It might be worth finding the number to the postmaster for the LA area and talking to him to get HIS post offices up to speed, that they are chasing business away.

[Paper Boy]

Sounds about on par with EVERY experience I have had with them.

[Librarian]

Here's a link to the USPS Domestic Mail Manual, "601 Mailability"

http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/601.htm

Their manual says

12.1.6 Certificate of Manufacturers and Dealers

A licensed manufacturer or dealer need not file the affidavit under 12.1.4, but must file with the postmaster a statement on Form 1508 signed by the mailer that he or she is a licensed manufacturer or dealer of firearms, that the parcels containing handguns (or major component parts thereof) are customary trade shipments or contain such articles for repairing or replacing parts, and that to the best of his or her knowledge or belief the addressees are licensed manufacturers or dealers of firearms.

Perhaps it is still a requirement that postal counter employees are able to read English.

[DoomeD]

I guess they dont know how to use their search engine on their website.

PS Form 1508 (Statement by shipper of firearms)
PS Form 1508 is used by firearms manufacturers or dealers for shipping merchandise, parts, replacement parts of firearms. Once filled out, it is retained by the United States Postal Service for one year.

You can view the form online at: PS Form 1508 (PDF).

[kemasa]

I have never had a problem, although the reaction of new employees can be amusing. I do know that one FFL convinced the employees to give the 1508 back, after signing and stamping it, the original, not a copy. I laughed at that and told them that it is supposed to go to the postmaster and that if they wanted to give a copy, fine.

Oh, actually I did have one problem once. The person demanded that I include my address on the form. The form says "addresses on parcel" and this employee considered my address to be required, which I can see, but it has never been an issue before.

Where were the post offices that were used?

[BannedinBritain]

Guess you should print out a copy of the reg and carry it with you...lol

What do you expect from non-government, government employees?

[hill billy]

I have stopped telling them on advice from the Inspector general in my area. He says that if something comes up, the call will go to him or any other Inspector and they will look it up and find the form on file and not give it another thought.

[w55]

Arent they almost bankrupt? The amount of wage ratio was crazy high.