April 15, 2025 • 37 mins
Over the last couple of years, the U.S. Postal Service has been warning the public about an increase in counterfeit stamps being sold online. While in this digital age you might think that emails and texts have primarily replaced snail mail, many citizens still send greeting cards, especially during holidays and for special occasions. Roughly over one billion Christmas cards are sent each year. With that being said, scammers have gotten very crafty printing and selling counterfeit stamps online for heavily discounted prices. Danielle Schrage with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service joined us to discuss the concerns over counterfeit stamps.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBS Costin's new radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
All right, welcome back everyone. So I'm aware of what
is going on in different places. And if you go
to any of the websites, put into your browser forever Stamps,
and you will see that there's a bunch of companies
(00:29):
that are selling roles of what purport to be US
stamps at much reduced prices. And it's almost unbelievable. So,
for example, if you were to buy one hundred currently
at the post office US first class postage stamps, there's
(00:51):
sixty seven cents apiece. So if you're going to buy,
let's say a roll of one hundred, it works out
the sixty seven dollars. Pretty simple, man. Just going to
buy a little book of twenty of those stamps works
out to I think it's fourteen dollars and sixty cents.
I bought a book of stamps yesterday at my post office.
(01:11):
But I was intrigued by some of these offers that
I see on the internet. Pretty simple, just put in
forever stamps and they're offering a roll of one hundred
stamps for thirty two dollars and ninety nine cents a
role of it's deeply discounted, about fifty percent for the
(01:33):
most part. So that caused me to call an acquaintance
from about a year ago, Danielle Scrogi of the US
Postal Inspection Service. What exactly, Danielle, is your title with
the Postal Department? Is it inspector or are you up
there in the administration if you know.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
What I'm saying, Yes, no, how you darn I'm a
postal inspector, so I must relation with the Postal Inspection.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Service, gotcha? So I know that you're pretty skeptical about
the legitimacy legitimacy of these stamps, and we had a
great conversation this morning about this. So how concerned should
people be? This is? This is kind of complicated because
(02:24):
I guess theoretically some of these sites might be legitimate,
but most of them are not. And how does an
average person who's looking to save a few dollars navigate
these sites? It's overwhelming, to be honest with you, all
these different sites and you don't want to, you know,
(02:45):
buy counterfeit stamps. How do you avoid it?
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, that's a great question. You know, we definitely want
our customers and people to know that there are a
ton of counterfeit stamps out there, unfortunately, and so I
understand that people are looking online for a good deal,
and you know, you might see blocks or bricks of
stamps as we call them, significantly discounted, and usually I'm
talking anywhere from twenty to fifty percent off the face value,
(03:13):
a very big discount, you know, being sold out in
social media marketplaces, econmas sites or even third parties and
websites all over the place. And that's usually a tailtale sign,
not in and of itself, of the deep steep discounts,
that what you're purchasing isn't legitimate. You know, the Postal
Service we have forever stamps, right, we have a set value,
(03:35):
and so you know, we don't have stamps go on
sale on Black Friday. You don't see that, you know.
So when you see that, as a consumer, you need
to be very skeptical that you might be purchasing something
that's completely counterfeit. And so though again that's probably the
biggest red flag is the price in itself.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
So I'm on the US Postal Service website, which I
believe is legitimate USPS dot com, and it has, for example,
some really interesting stamps. This one here Hank Aaron stamps
and it says forever seventy three cents. I thought that
(04:13):
the further stamps were sixty seven cents. Are they going
up to seventy three cents soon?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
They're currently seventy three cents right now. They're probably we
just the Postal Service just announced in July of twenty
twenty five it will be going up another five cents
if the board governors approved that. I believe that's in
the work, so they will be getting more expensive. But
to your point, this is another reason why, you know,
I mean, times are tough for a lot of people,
(04:39):
and so you know everyone's looking to save a buck.
But I'm here to tell you that this is not
the way to do it. The only way that you
can definitely know that you're buying legitimate stamp sock is
when you do buy your stamps from USPS dot com
or from you know, one of the approved postal providers.
And there are some legitimate big box or warehouse retailers
(05:01):
that you can purchase stamps at and get a very
slight discount. But again, they're not going to be anywhere
in the twenty to fifty percent off range. That's just
again a huge red flag.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So right now, I was mistaken. A single first class
stamp today costs seventy three cents correct, Okay, And so
that's when I bought my Oh I see that's where
it comes out to fourteen sixty okay, gotcha. So so
I thought I was buying stamps at sixty seven cents
(05:35):
at the post office. No, I was spaying. And they're
going up in July to what seventy eight.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Seventy eight cents?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
The Postal Service announced earlier this year that they were
thinking to increase that and it's going to the Bard
of Governors and once it gets approved that it'll go
through in July.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
So here's a dumb question. Why is the price of
Why has the price of stamps gone up so dramatically?
And if I'm asking an area that puts you into
thin ice, you can tell me that's a thin ice area.
It seems to me that it wasn't too long ago
that stamps were more Forever stamps were like twenty five cents,
(06:17):
thirty cents or am I having a mind block? And
if we're twenty thirty cent forever stamps not only back
in the last century, but well back in the last century.
If you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Yeah, no, I'm a law enforcement officer. It's a little
out of my lane. However, I will say that, you know,
I feel your pain there. You know, I feel like
everything is getting a bit more expensive. But I want
to remind people that the postal Service is completely self funded.
We are an entity that only takes money from our
revenue and our products. You know, we are not taxpayer
(06:53):
funded like other agencies are. And you know, I always
tell people if you travel internationally, not if you go
up to Canada and you ask one of your neighbors
to the north how much it costs to mail something
across the street, it's north of a dollar fifty at
this point up there. So again I understand that it
can be sticker shock for people and to see these increases,
(07:14):
but by and large, you know, our postal service keeps things,
as you know, low prices. We possibly can to stay
competitive and so you know, but the times are what
the times are, and so the increase I guess was necessary.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Well, I know that a lot more people the idea
of actually getting getting a handwritten letter. I remember someone
once told me that they received a nice thank you
note from George Herbert Walker Bush Bush forty one and
they were thrilled that. You know, he would write handwritten notes,
and I sometimes still write handwritten notes. But obviously the
(07:54):
days of people writing letters have been overtaken. But it's
easier to do emails now. All of that which is fine,
has so I guess the amount of mail that gets
dropped into the post office boxes is diminishing. It's not
becoming even though we have more people, it's diminishing. A
(08:15):
lot more people now are sending Christmas card greetings. I
had more friends of mine who always would send a
Christmas card that that's going away. So that's putting a
lot of pressure on any company, including the post office. Now,
you did say that there are some legitimate big box
(08:35):
stores who maybe stockpiled stamps at some point in the
past and they can sell those. Do you know, off
the top of your head from my listeners, which ones
a legitimate that they can go to if they can
get a little bit of a price break legitimately, or
(08:57):
are you not in a position where you could disclose that.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
No, the best way they can do is navigate through
the USPS dot DOUG site and go to Approved Postal Providers.
I believe you can type in your zip code too,
and see locally what approved vendors can sell you books
of stamps at a flight discount. So that might be
the best way that people could go and find that information.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Are those those places that you have to visit? You
can't order them? I guess that's why you're putting your
zip code in.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Yes, yeah, so this would be if you're like a
costco or someplace and you want to pick up stamps
while you're there. I believe they're one of the approved places.
So again, these are going to be places that you
are already walking into to purchase other things. But the
list again, it's under the Approved Postal Providers tab under
the Postal Services website.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah. I'm looking for it and having a little bit
of a difficult difficult finding it. There's a shop here,
I see there's a shop dropped down. Nope, I don't.
I don't see that, So I'll have to navigate that more.
Let me do this. Let's take a break and we'll
come back and I yeah, we can't. Yeah, just I
(10:11):
put into the us PS. It was the search button
to proved postal stamp providers that came back no results
were found. But that's okay. I'm sure it's here somewhere.
We'll figure it out. Let's uh, let let's see if
folks want to ask you some questions. Not often we
don't get a postal respect. I think what I want
to follow up on is, okay, if people do have
(10:32):
these stamps, you're telling me that you folks have machines,
have abilities, as I understand it, too, discern whether or
not the stamp is a legitimate stamp or whether it's
a counterfeit stamp. And you told me also that a
lot of these are coming from overseas. So I want
(10:54):
to talk a little bit about those things. And then
if you want to take some phone calls and people
want to call, we'll take some phone call. Not we'll
We'll let you go. But I just want I don't
want my listeners to be scammed out of anything. It's
as simple as that. We'll take a break. My guest
is US Postal Inspector Danielle Scrogie. Six seven two five
ten thirty is the number six one seven thirty. If
(11:17):
you have a question of common if you've ever bought
postal stamps. We're not going to take numbers or names
or anything like that. But uh, and if you want
to ask a question, you're more than welcome to do
that as well. We'll be back on Nightside. Not often
do we get someone from the US Postal Inspector Inspection
Division to join us. Ben Danielle has joined us now twice.
Last year when we were talking about the postal mail carriers,
(11:41):
the mail carriers who were being robbed and their keys
were being taken from them. We'll get to all of that.
I promise. We're coming right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
My guest is Daniel Scrogie. Daniel Danielle has Danielle, I
think you've intimidated people here. The phones are quiet.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
You tell you have found out the answer to your
I found out the answer to your question too. Where
people can go so on USPS dot com. When you
go in there, you can use one of the tools
for locations to find a postal facility, and you can
actually narrow it down by different parameters, and one of
them is a national retailer. So if you type in
(12:25):
your zip code and you kind of you know, tailor
it to what you're looking for. If you want something
outside of a post office, you can go ahead and
do that, and then you can see there. I see
stop in shops and Walgreens and those types of places
are popping up.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
So people can they sell stamps the same price as
the post office?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Right, I don't know that off the top of my head.
I know that that people can definitely get them there though.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah, right, no, I know that most of those retailers.
But again just in terms of trying to get people
somewhere where they can get a little bit of a
break on these stamps. So you told me that if
people do go out and buy these, I don't call
them black market stamps, but stamps that are not through
the US Postal Service, that your postal machines have the
(13:17):
ability to detect fake stamps, counterfeit stamps from actual post
office stamps. Correct.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
There's a variety of ways that we can use to
detect counterfeit stamps. Our machines are also have the capability
built into them. So again, and what I wanted to
make sure people know is you wouldn't know it by
looking at these they become very sophisticated and very very
good that it's very difficult for somebody that doesn't know
what they're looking for, and even quite frankly somebody who
(13:48):
does to with the naked eye determine what is real
versus what is counterfeit. That's how good they've gotten.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
So if the machine kicks out the letter with the
stamp attached and says it's a counterfeit stamp, does that
get returned to the center. If I happen to make
a mistake and drop my letter to you in the
mail and I forget to put a stamp on it,
which I'm done, occasionally it comes back it says, you know,
inadequate postage, and I you know, So what do you
(14:17):
do when you find What do you think the post
office is likely to do? Because I think what you
said to me was that you don't have an obligation
to return that to the person and tried to use
a counterfeit stamp. Correct?
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Correct, So yeah, so you're absolutely right. In July of
twenty twenty three, there was a change to the Domestic
Mail Manual, which is our postal bible, so to speak,
and within it it lays out all the regulations that
the Postal Service holds themselves to and again in July
of twenty twenty three, they change those regulations to say
(14:52):
that mail with counterfeit postage would be considered abandoned and
disposed of at the discretion of the Postal Service, so
the item would no longer be returned to the sender
as they once were. So if that happens, you know,
consumers will have to seek recourse from the vendor that
they purchased their counterfeit postage for because the Postal Service
won't give them relief.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
For that right. But what I'm saying is, if let's
say someone uses I don't know five counter counterfeit stamps
to pay five bills, if it's it's conceivable that all
of those bills, instead of being returned to the to
the sender who has used the counterfeit stamps, if the
machine kicks those those letters out and those letters, those
(15:35):
those letters are disposed of or I assume shredded. Uh,
you're going to all of us realize that some of
the people that you had intended to send your payments
to they're not going to get their payments. So you're
going to get double charged the next month and and
that's going to cause more complications in your life. So
this this the word of advice that you give here
(15:56):
is to is to be careful. I do have one
caller and I'd like to take her. If you'll stick
with me, we'll see if we get a couple more
on the other side of the news. Can you hang
with me for a little bit, Danielle sure? Okay? Danielle
Scrogie Scroggy excuse me. Sproggy is a US Postal inspector,
(16:18):
And again, I don't want people to get ripped off.
At the same time, I went into this to try
to find out what information and if it was true
that there are ways in which you could save some money. Look,
I still mail letters and I put stamps on letters.
This might force me to as the price goes up,
(16:40):
might force me to change my attitude toward it, but
at least for now, I'm still a stamp guy. We'll
be back on night's side right after the news break.
Feel free to ask a question, make a comment, and
if you've been successful and use some of these stamps
and you'd like to, we're not tracing numbers or anything
like that, so don't worry about that. Six one, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty six, one seven, one, ten thirty Back on
(17:01):
night Side right after.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
This night Side with Dan Ray. I'm w BZY Boston's
news Radio.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Thank you very much. Eric with me is Danielle Scrogi
shrogy Again. I'm getting better on this pronunciation. Yeah, I
apologize us postal inspector. So we'll get some phone calls
here and again I ask you to be polite, as
you always are. My listeners are always polite. We'll start
it off with Janice in Lynn. Hey, Janis welcome. You're
(17:34):
on night Side. You're on with Danielle Scrogie.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
Go right ahead, Yes, good evening, Dan and Danielle. I
My father used to collect stamps back in the age
and nineties, and once he passed in the two thousand,
he you know, left him and so the family we're
all like, well, who's gonna take them? So I did,
and very interesting ones, but they're you know, old, and
they're like, you know, twenty two cents, thirty two cents,
(17:59):
twenty five and then I gave everybody in the family
a hole pile each of them and we've been using
them for years and I hope that's still Okay, I
mean these are not used ones. They're you know, the
big sheets, and then I just break them up and
use them. But they have to put a lot on
an envelope.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Well, so they have a value that they have a
number on the stamp. So let's say it was twenty
two cents when it was purchased. And so what you're
saying is, can you use three of those stamps today?
Three times twenty two would be sixty six plus a
penny stamp? I assume you could, Danielle.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Again, this is a question mostly for a postal employee.
I am a law enforcement officer, but so but I
mean again, I would imagine as long as they are legitimate,
and are you are fixing the correct amount of postage
to it, and you're all set as far as I.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Don't think, let me jump in here and try to
help you out here, Danielle, I don't think, Jennet. You're
not saying, can you take a twenty two sense stamp
that was bought thirty years ago and slap that on
a regular envelope and they would you would have that
twenty two cents would not cover what the charge is today.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
You understand that, right, Yeah? I put like four of
them on there.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, no, I think that's I think that's fine. If
you know they were purchased legally, they have a value
on them twenty two cents. If you go to the
post office and you you know, there's different denominations. If
you have to send a package, and you know, of
course a lot of them know, they just meeter it.
But if you have to send a letter and it's
you know, eighty seven cents because it has some extra
(19:38):
weight on it, they'll give you a they'll sell you
a sixty seven cent stamp and then find a couple
a twenty cents stamp of some sort. Yeah, they'll they'll
do that.
Speaker 6 (19:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:47):
The other problem I have is every time I send
like a cod, especially when my nieces and nephews were
in college, I send a birthday cod with cash and
if on them they never would get it. It was
like every time I mail one up, they never got them.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Why would you send a card with cash? How long
ago was this Janet?
Speaker 5 (20:06):
This is back in the like O six seven around there.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
But now, yeah, this this Danielle might be able to
talk about. Go ahead, Danielle.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yeah, again, I'm always trying to do my due diligence
to protect everybody. And I really cannot stress enough. How
do not mail cash? I have to tell my own
father not to mail my children cash, so I feel
the pain there. Do not mail cash. It's just you know,
you know, somebody gets sticky fingers and they take the
year out that money. It's just not worth the risk.
Speaker 7 (20:41):
Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
I don't mail my things in wind anymore. I usually
mail them in Peabody or Evily or somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
So you have better success.
Speaker 8 (20:49):
Well.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
The other thing too, is that they're also by the way,
you have to be careful when you send a check.
And Danielle and I have talked about this before in
the year, and I think she remembers it very well
that there are check washing schemes out there where they
literally they were stealing keys from postal workers, uh, and
they were going in and as much as many envelopes
(21:12):
as they could and then if they found a check.
Whenever I send a check to anyone, I always wrap
it up inside a piece of paper because I think
the easiest thing in the world for someone to look
at a at an envelope, hold it up to the
light and say, hey, that's just a check. Now. It
might be five five dollars or might be worth five
hundred dollars, so you got to be careful about that.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
I use them.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
I use special envelopes that you can't really see it.
And I do still send out checks because I have
to send them like the city for like XI tax
and things only pay one. I do make sure you
can't see through.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
All right, Jennet.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
Okay, Jenne, Well, thank.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
You very much for calling. Very nice call.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
Thanks, Okay, have a good evening you too.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Let me go to Patricia in Brighton.
Speaker 8 (21:56):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Patricia, you're on with Danielle of the US Postal Inspection Division.
Speaker 6 (22:03):
Yes, thank you for taking my call.
Speaker 8 (22:05):
Welcome.
Speaker 6 (22:06):
I would like to relay as briefly as I can
an unfortunate experience I've just had in March. On March first,
I mailed four pieces of mail which were payments, one
to Verizon, one to National Grid going to different states,
one to the IRS, and one to the Massachusetts Department
(22:29):
of Revenue. Both of those governmental payments were I paid
certified mail. All four of those envelopes were returned to
me about March twenty six, with a yellow sticker on
each one. I think it was National Grid and Verizon
(22:50):
came together, and then the certified mail pieces were returned
to me, all with the same curious sticker it said
not deliverable as addressed, unable to forward, and all the
addresses were absolutely correct, So I notified. I looked online
(23:11):
the USPS Investigation Emergency Department and spoke to someone there
who took all the information. I don't know if it
was ever investigated. I do buy my stamps at the
post office. And shortly after I spoke to that individual,
my local post office supervisor called me and I re
(23:36):
explained everything and subsequently wrote a summary like a letter
to him, and then I brought him the actual envelopes
to show him, and he said, this was bizarre, That's
what he said. And he and another supervisor had no
explanation at all, and they actually repaid me for the
(23:58):
certified meil. So uh, it caused with my vendors.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
That's good service. But let me ask you, did you
did you get I assumed that those were tax checks?
Did you when the when the mail came back to you,
the checks that you had sent in in the envelopes?
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Right?
Speaker 6 (24:17):
They weren't all the checks and the four envelopes were
all there.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
It was but fair. Now were you able to send those?
Have you resent those? You know?
Speaker 6 (24:29):
The governmental you know, tax payments? I didn't want to,
but I I paid them online, which is totally not
what I want to do, but I did that, and
then I had the postal. My local post office supervisor
said she really wanted to try sending the national grid
(24:51):
to see if it went through. And it took a while,
but it did arrive.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
But Danielle, this makes no s sense to me. Could
have it been could have it been some person in
the post office that didn't know what they were doing?
Speaker 3 (25:05):
I mean, yes, I don't know. This would be a
delivery issue, so I'm not not my wheelhouse. But definitely
seems curious. I've never heard of something I haven't done before.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I am glad, Patricia that you said you did. You
did speak to the to the supervisor at your post
office and he was willing to uh resend the materials
for you at no no additional cost, which is the
least he could do. But it was the kind that
that at leasia got to him. You made a friend
at the post office.
Speaker 6 (25:35):
Right, I guess just that one National grid was payment
was sent, but I paid the Verizon bill at the
Verizon store, which you can do, but the certified mail, no,
we did not send them.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
What are you going to do on future bills? You're
still going to get your Verizon bill in your National
Grid bill? What are you going to do? Are you
going to continue to send a check or I'm going.
Speaker 6 (25:58):
To Yes, I'm going to do there.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Well, I hope you have better luck with it this time.
It's a pain of the neck. I don't like to
give my my authority to any of these companies to
automatically withdraw money from my credit card because I know
I don't either credit credit card number. Danielle, you, I
hope you understand what we're saying that you know this
is not a post office problem, but you give your
(26:23):
credit card to all these companies and gives them authority
to to hit your credit card on a monthly basis,
you know, it's it. It troubles me.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I don't know how it sounds like you try to
do the right thing.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
You know.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
One of the things I do recommend if people want
to do just what you did, you know, send it
in a higher class of mail. This this case, it
says you sounded like you sounded certified, so you can
track it or you know where it goes, and so
you can kind of keep eyeballs on it. But yeah,
we also recommend you.
Speaker 6 (26:53):
It never left Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Yeah, yeah, and again I apologize that happened, and that
would definitely be a delivery issue on their end. And
it is curious. I'm at that, you know, I'd.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Like to make Patricia was a pretty good investigator and
she got to the bottom of this and she got
something to act on. And so Patricia, I congratulations. Keep
me posted. You know, you call the show any night
and you can say, hey, Dan, remember this, Patricia Brighton,
I sent that check and it got through. Yeah, no problem.
And Rob will give you my direct line if you
want to hold on. You call me during the day
and bring me up to data or any of this,
(27:25):
because I'm I'm interested in you know, what happens to
my listeners. You listen to my show. I want to
make sure that you're not taking advantage of anyone. So
hang on. Rob will give you my direct line and
give me a call back and let me know if
this male situation has got straightened out for you.
Speaker 6 (27:41):
Okay, okay, thanks very much.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Hang on, Patricia Robill give you my direct line, and
that goes to any listener here on Nightside, particularly folks
who have a problem like this. Danielle, I got a
bunch of lines here. I promise I'll let you go
at ten o'clock. You're a great sport. Let's see what
people have to have to ask. I got Phil, Mike
and Paul coming up right after this break on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
You're on Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
All right, let's get back to the calls. My guest
is Danielle Scroggie, US postal inspector. Let me go to
Mike in Florida. Mike, did you and two or three
others in here? Go ahead?
Speaker 9 (28:21):
Mike, Okay, Hi, first time cailer. I've been a listener
of WBZ back when they were the Spirit of New England.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I was still the Spirit of New England. There's a
lot of applause from our virtual studio audience. What's your
question about it? Mike? Thank you?
Speaker 9 (28:36):
I enjoy yourself. I was wondering are they gonna I
hope they don't take away the free matter for the
blind where blind people like myself can order can mail stuff,
whether it be in braille or talking books or anything
like that, for free. They are they thinking of cutting
that out? Do you know?
Speaker 3 (28:59):
I do not. That would be probably a question for
a postal employee that works of that stuff. I don't. Unfortunately,
I'm the law enforcement arm so I only know really
the criminality and use of the mail, and I can
talk on those topics, but I don't. I know what
you're talking about, and it is a great service. I
don't have any information on.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
That though, I think, Mike, I would have known that
we have a lot of callers like yourself who are
either non cited, blind, whatever word you prefer, and I
kind of imagine that they would shop that sort of
mail from going through. I hope not, and if they
ever do, I'll do I'll do a I will not
(29:39):
be as friendly as the post office as have been
with Danielle Tonight.
Speaker 9 (29:41):
Let me put it like that, Okay, okay, thank you
very much.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
About whereabouts in Florida? Do you live east coast, west coast? Whereabouts?
Speaker 9 (29:49):
I live in the east coast. I used to live
in Aventura, but now I live in Pembroke Pines, which
is near Fort Lauderdale. I'm more sure when they're broadcasting myself.
I keep up with what's happening in radio all the time.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Well, thanks Mike, and thanks for keeping up with night Side.
Keep in touch. Okay, okay, thanks Mikes. You good night.
Let me go next to phill in Boston. Fill you
next on Nightside, Danielle SCROGI, you go ahead, Phil.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
I don't know the lad the sense of mail, the
national grid. I had similar problems, but I don't I
agree with I'm impressed that you said you don't like
the autopay because I don't like it either. I'm kind
of scared of it. But the bottom line is I
call up and they have an option where you could
call the number and you could pay that month because
I was getting sick of going to the post office,
(30:35):
and you pay that month and even confirmation number, and
so far it's worked out at that end. But unfortunately
I've had trouble getting my mail in a PO box
on my addresses I have both. The bottom line is
I didn't get two tax bills on two different quarters,
and I just obviously I didn't know I hadn't coming
(30:57):
you did, Bill, I teamalized that money. And I'm not
huming about her now, but I was at the time
one more thing the old box. Every one of the
six months or a year, I buy him for a year.
My year was up. I have not known that you're
supposed to put a yellow god into the p O
box to let you know, hello, yeah, whatever. And I
(31:21):
didn't get it, so I didn't pay it. Then when
I walked up to the post, I said, excuse me,
I said, well, that box of souls of somebody else?
Speaker 7 (31:30):
What are you talking about?
Speaker 10 (31:31):
I said, so, So I was going for a pretty
I think I think, Phil, in all honesty, I think
that you got to take that up with the local,
you know, manager in your whatever.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
My luck. This gentleman, he's a real good guy and
he's been there front. He helped me out. He called up.
He sold my box with some other guys the day before.
He called it guy. This is a time sense that
very important to me.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
With all Right, Phil, we're a little off topic todight,
and I to other calls, we might want to be
on topic. So I'm going to let you go. But
it sounds as if you have successfully navigated that issue.
As I have every faith every faith and confidence you'd
be able to do. Thank you. Yeah, have a great one.
Good night. Let me get too more in you're going
to go to Paul and andover Paul, you're with Danielle Scroge.
(32:18):
Go ahead, Paul, Hi.
Speaker 7 (32:20):
Dan, thanks a lot for your program. I really enjoy
it and have listened to it for years. Thank you, Mike.
My question for Danielle is I don't know if this
is their area of expertise, but is this service delivery
service objective. I'm out here in Middlesex County and use
(32:41):
the Middlesex Post Office a lot, and lately, not lately,
but for the past few years, the service seems to
be about two days locally in Massachusetts. But then on
the other hand, times I get things from California in
(33:02):
a matter of three or four days. So it's really
the post office we have here in the United States
is the best in the world. But I like to
know officially, though, if you if you know it, what
the service objective is? Uh? And in terms of distance
(33:22):
from the post office, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
I don't know that. There's a rule of thumb here.
Go ahead, Danielle, go ahead.
Speaker 7 (33:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
And it's still bad because a lot of your callers
are calling in by delivery issues and that's not my area. Yeah,
so I unfortunately I can't. I can't answer that for you,
and I apologize.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Yeah, I think, I think, Paul. What you got to
do is just go down to your post office and
find out. I realized that there seems to be a
turnover in some of the local post offices. But find
someone down there who is pleasant enough to talk to.
Uh and uh and and take that issue up. I'm
amazed too. I can send a letter and it can
take a week to go uh, you know from where
(34:04):
I live, ten miles away. Uh And Yet I can
send a letter to someone in California and two days
later they'll call me up and say, hey, I got
your letter. It's it's one of those mysteries of life, Paul.
Speaker 7 (34:17):
Reliably, if I mailed something out here in Massachusetts that
gets there in two days, I know, yep, Okay, that's I.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Mean, that's the good news. Let's let's let's let's.
Speaker 7 (34:28):
Me one day.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
But now two days, yeah, well it's slowed down a
little bit. Hey, Paul, I got to run wanting it
one morement. Thank you much, appreciate your call, good night,
Thanks for your comments. Michael in Boston, Michael got room
for you. Maybe one more, but I got room for you.
Go ahead, Michael.
Speaker 8 (34:42):
No, I don't think Danielle is going to be able
to answer my question is related to this last gentleman
in terms of the service.
Speaker 7 (34:53):
Uh.
Speaker 8 (34:54):
I think the government announced about a month and a
half ago that, uh, they recognize the problem of the
post office and they're going to restructure the system. Didn't
we hear that about a month and a half two
months ago? Dan?
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Uh? Yeah, I think that the Postmaster General has been relieved.
I think he was appointed by Trump back during his
first administration, and I think that that was an indicator
that maybe there's some the changes coming. Let me put
it like that.
Speaker 8 (35:24):
You know, well, I hope it's going to mean better service.
I really don't like mail that doesn't show up but
will show up six weeks later. I'm wondering, where is
that letter at the post office that it's not delivered
for six weeks?
Speaker 2 (35:44):
You know what, I can only describe to you. I
don't think Danielle is able to answer that. I can
only tipscribe to you. It's one of the mysteries of life.
And hope, hopefully we can get rid of some of
the mysteries of our lives.
Speaker 8 (35:57):
Okay, well, I hope they straightened themselves. Okay, I do too.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I like the post office. I want them to be
in business. I think it's important. Michael. Appreciate you, Carl,
thank you.
Speaker 8 (36:07):
Very much, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
All right, We're going to try one more. Mary Lou.
You've called very late. I can give you about a minute.
What do you got.
Speaker 11 (36:14):
Just wanted to know why I would have to pay
the postage against for an envelope too. Actually that was
sent with the proper address return address, hold on yads,
and then when I bring it back to the post office,
they recharge me and it was their mistake.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Here's what I got to do, Mary Lou. I'm going
to get another gentleman by the name of Steve Doherty,
who Danielle knows very well. He will be able to
provide us with someone who can answer some of these
delivery questions and frustrations. And I promise you will get
that scheduled in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 11 (36:47):
Fair enough, Oi, Doki, Thanks all right.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Thanks Thanks Mary, very appreciate it. Danielle, you're a great sport.
I think you have given people up some caution and
advice tonight on these these these these stamps, like your
mother's mother's told us, if a deal looks like it's
too good to be true, it probably is. Thanks so
much for joining us, and whenever there's another postal inspection
(37:12):
issue of any consequence, feel free to call me because
you are always a great guest. Thank you so much for tonight.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Awesome, Thanks much, dam.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Thanks talk soon. Okay, we will get that post office
person for some of the more general questions a little
a little bit later on in the next couple of weeks.
Back on Night's side, right after the ten Today is
the anniversary, the twelfth anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing.
I want to talk about it on the other side.
It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBS Costin's new radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
All right, welcome back everyone. So I'm aware of what
is going on in different places. And if you go
to any of the websites, put into your browser forever Stamps,
and you will see that there's a bunch of companies
(00:29):
that are selling roles of what purport to be US
stamps at much reduced prices. And it's almost unbelievable. So,
for example, if you were to buy one hundred currently
at the post office US first class postage stamps, there's
(00:51):
sixty seven cents apiece. So if you're going to buy,
let's say a roll of one hundred, it works out
the sixty seven dollars. Pretty simple, man. Just going to
buy a little book of twenty of those stamps works
out to I think it's fourteen dollars and sixty cents.
I bought a book of stamps yesterday at my post office.
(01:11):
But I was intrigued by some of these offers that
I see on the internet. Pretty simple, just put in
forever stamps and they're offering a roll of one hundred
stamps for thirty two dollars and ninety nine cents a
role of it's deeply discounted, about fifty percent for the
(01:33):
most part. So that caused me to call an acquaintance
from about a year ago, Danielle Scrogi of the US
Postal Inspection Service. What exactly, Danielle, is your title with
the Postal Department? Is it inspector or are you up
there in the administration if you know.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
What I'm saying, Yes, no, how you darn I'm a
postal inspector, so I must relation with the Postal Inspection.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Service, gotcha? So I know that you're pretty skeptical about
the legitimacy legitimacy of these stamps, and we had a
great conversation this morning about this. So how concerned should
people be? This is? This is kind of complicated because
(02:24):
I guess theoretically some of these sites might be legitimate,
but most of them are not. And how does an
average person who's looking to save a few dollars navigate
these sites? It's overwhelming, to be honest with you, all
these different sites and you don't want to, you know,
(02:45):
buy counterfeit stamps. How do you avoid it?
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, that's a great question. You know, we definitely want
our customers and people to know that there are a
ton of counterfeit stamps out there, unfortunately, and so I
understand that people are looking online for a good deal,
and you know, you might see blocks or bricks of
stamps as we call them, significantly discounted, and usually I'm
talking anywhere from twenty to fifty percent off the face value,
(03:13):
a very big discount, you know, being sold out in
social media marketplaces, econmas sites or even third parties and
websites all over the place. And that's usually a tailtale sign,
not in and of itself, of the deep steep discounts,
that what you're purchasing isn't legitimate. You know, the Postal
Service we have forever stamps, right, we have a set value,
(03:35):
and so you know, we don't have stamps go on
sale on Black Friday. You don't see that, you know.
So when you see that, as a consumer, you need
to be very skeptical that you might be purchasing something
that's completely counterfeit. And so though again that's probably the
biggest red flag is the price in itself.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
So I'm on the US Postal Service website, which I
believe is legitimate USPS dot com, and it has, for example,
some really interesting stamps. This one here Hank Aaron stamps
and it says forever seventy three cents. I thought that
(04:13):
the further stamps were sixty seven cents. Are they going
up to seventy three cents soon?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
They're currently seventy three cents right now. They're probably we
just the Postal Service just announced in July of twenty
twenty five it will be going up another five cents
if the board governors approved that. I believe that's in
the work, so they will be getting more expensive. But
to your point, this is another reason why, you know,
I mean, times are tough for a lot of people,
(04:39):
and so you know everyone's looking to save a buck.
But I'm here to tell you that this is not
the way to do it. The only way that you
can definitely know that you're buying legitimate stamp sock is
when you do buy your stamps from USPS dot com
or from you know, one of the approved postal providers.
And there are some legitimate big box or warehouse retailers
(05:01):
that you can purchase stamps at and get a very
slight discount. But again, they're not going to be anywhere
in the twenty to fifty percent off range. That's just
again a huge red flag.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So right now, I was mistaken. A single first class
stamp today costs seventy three cents correct, Okay, And so
that's when I bought my Oh I see that's where
it comes out to fourteen sixty okay, gotcha. So so
I thought I was buying stamps at sixty seven cents
(05:35):
at the post office. No, I was spaying. And they're
going up in July to what seventy eight.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Seventy eight cents?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
The Postal Service announced earlier this year that they were
thinking to increase that and it's going to the Bard
of Governors and once it gets approved that it'll go
through in July.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
So here's a dumb question. Why is the price of
Why has the price of stamps gone up so dramatically?
And if I'm asking an area that puts you into
thin ice, you can tell me that's a thin ice area.
It seems to me that it wasn't too long ago
that stamps were more Forever stamps were like twenty five cents,
(06:17):
thirty cents or am I having a mind block? And
if we're twenty thirty cent forever stamps not only back
in the last century, but well back in the last century.
If you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Yeah, no, I'm a law enforcement officer. It's a little
out of my lane. However, I will say that, you know,
I feel your pain there. You know, I feel like
everything is getting a bit more expensive. But I want
to remind people that the postal Service is completely self funded.
We are an entity that only takes money from our
revenue and our products. You know, we are not taxpayer
(06:53):
funded like other agencies are. And you know, I always
tell people if you travel internationally, not if you go
up to Canada and you ask one of your neighbors
to the north how much it costs to mail something
across the street, it's north of a dollar fifty at
this point up there. So again I understand that it
can be sticker shock for people and to see these increases,
(07:14):
but by and large, you know, our postal service keeps things,
as you know, low prices. We possibly can to stay
competitive and so you know, but the times are what
the times are, and so the increase I guess was necessary.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Well, I know that a lot more people the idea
of actually getting getting a handwritten letter. I remember someone
once told me that they received a nice thank you
note from George Herbert Walker Bush Bush forty one and
they were thrilled that. You know, he would write handwritten notes,
and I sometimes still write handwritten notes. But obviously the
(07:54):
days of people writing letters have been overtaken. But it's
easier to do emails now. All of that which is fine,
has so I guess the amount of mail that gets
dropped into the post office boxes is diminishing. It's not
becoming even though we have more people, it's diminishing. A
(08:15):
lot more people now are sending Christmas card greetings. I
had more friends of mine who always would send a
Christmas card that that's going away. So that's putting a
lot of pressure on any company, including the post office. Now,
you did say that there are some legitimate big box
(08:35):
stores who maybe stockpiled stamps at some point in the
past and they can sell those. Do you know, off
the top of your head from my listeners, which ones
a legitimate that they can go to if they can
get a little bit of a price break legitimately, or
(08:57):
are you not in a position where you could disclose that.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
No, the best way they can do is navigate through
the USPS dot DOUG site and go to Approved Postal Providers.
I believe you can type in your zip code too,
and see locally what approved vendors can sell you books
of stamps at a flight discount. So that might be
the best way that people could go and find that information.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Are those those places that you have to visit? You
can't order them? I guess that's why you're putting your
zip code in.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Yes, yeah, so this would be if you're like a
costco or someplace and you want to pick up stamps
while you're there. I believe they're one of the approved places.
So again, these are going to be places that you
are already walking into to purchase other things. But the
list again, it's under the Approved Postal Providers tab under
the Postal Services website.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah. I'm looking for it and having a little bit
of a difficult difficult finding it. There's a shop here,
I see there's a shop dropped down. Nope, I don't.
I don't see that, So I'll have to navigate that more.
Let me do this. Let's take a break and we'll
come back and I yeah, we can't. Yeah, just I
(10:11):
put into the us PS. It was the search button
to proved postal stamp providers that came back no results
were found. But that's okay. I'm sure it's here somewhere.
We'll figure it out. Let's uh, let let's see if
folks want to ask you some questions. Not often we
don't get a postal respect. I think what I want
to follow up on is, okay, if people do have
(10:32):
these stamps, you're telling me that you folks have machines,
have abilities, as I understand it, too, discern whether or
not the stamp is a legitimate stamp or whether it's
a counterfeit stamp. And you told me also that a
lot of these are coming from overseas. So I want
(10:54):
to talk a little bit about those things. And then
if you want to take some phone calls and people
want to call, we'll take some phone call. Not we'll
We'll let you go. But I just want I don't
want my listeners to be scammed out of anything. It's
as simple as that. We'll take a break. My guest
is US Postal Inspector Danielle Scrogie. Six seven two five
ten thirty is the number six one seven thirty. If
(11:17):
you have a question of common if you've ever bought
postal stamps. We're not going to take numbers or names
or anything like that. But uh, and if you want
to ask a question, you're more than welcome to do
that as well. We'll be back on Nightside. Not often
do we get someone from the US Postal Inspector Inspection
Division to join us. Ben Danielle has joined us now twice.
Last year when we were talking about the postal mail carriers,
(11:41):
the mail carriers who were being robbed and their keys
were being taken from them. We'll get to all of that.
I promise. We're coming right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
My guest is Daniel Scrogie. Daniel Danielle has Danielle, I
think you've intimidated people here. The phones are quiet.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
You tell you have found out the answer to your
I found out the answer to your question too. Where
people can go so on USPS dot com. When you
go in there, you can use one of the tools
for locations to find a postal facility, and you can
actually narrow it down by different parameters, and one of
them is a national retailer. So if you type in
(12:25):
your zip code and you kind of you know, tailor
it to what you're looking for. If you want something
outside of a post office, you can go ahead and
do that, and then you can see there. I see
stop in shops and Walgreens and those types of places
are popping up.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
So people can they sell stamps the same price as
the post office?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Right, I don't know that off the top of my head.
I know that that people can definitely get them there though.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah, right, no, I know that most of those retailers.
But again just in terms of trying to get people
somewhere where they can get a little bit of a
break on these stamps. So you told me that if
people do go out and buy these, I don't call
them black market stamps, but stamps that are not through
the US Postal Service, that your postal machines have the
(13:17):
ability to detect fake stamps, counterfeit stamps from actual post
office stamps. Correct.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
There's a variety of ways that we can use to
detect counterfeit stamps. Our machines are also have the capability
built into them. So again, and what I wanted to
make sure people know is you wouldn't know it by
looking at these they become very sophisticated and very very
good that it's very difficult for somebody that doesn't know
what they're looking for, and even quite frankly somebody who
(13:48):
does to with the naked eye determine what is real
versus what is counterfeit. That's how good they've gotten.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
So if the machine kicks out the letter with the
stamp attached and says it's a counterfeit stamp, does that
get returned to the center. If I happen to make
a mistake and drop my letter to you in the
mail and I forget to put a stamp on it,
which I'm done, occasionally it comes back it says, you know,
inadequate postage, and I you know, So what do you
(14:17):
do when you find What do you think the post
office is likely to do? Because I think what you
said to me was that you don't have an obligation
to return that to the person and tried to use
a counterfeit stamp. Correct?
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Correct, So yeah, so you're absolutely right. In July of
twenty twenty three, there was a change to the Domestic
Mail Manual, which is our postal bible, so to speak,
and within it it lays out all the regulations that
the Postal Service holds themselves to and again in July
of twenty twenty three, they change those regulations to say
(14:52):
that mail with counterfeit postage would be considered abandoned and
disposed of at the discretion of the Postal Service, so
the item would no longer be returned to the sender
as they once were. So if that happens, you know,
consumers will have to seek recourse from the vendor that
they purchased their counterfeit postage for because the Postal Service
won't give them relief.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
For that right. But what I'm saying is, if let's
say someone uses I don't know five counter counterfeit stamps
to pay five bills, if it's it's conceivable that all
of those bills, instead of being returned to the to
the sender who has used the counterfeit stamps, if the
machine kicks those those letters out and those letters, those
(15:35):
those letters are disposed of or I assume shredded. Uh,
you're going to all of us realize that some of
the people that you had intended to send your payments
to they're not going to get their payments. So you're
going to get double charged the next month and and
that's going to cause more complications in your life. So
this this the word of advice that you give here
(15:56):
is to is to be careful. I do have one
caller and I'd like to take her. If you'll stick
with me, we'll see if we get a couple more
on the other side of the news. Can you hang
with me for a little bit, Danielle sure? Okay? Danielle
Scrogie Scroggy excuse me. Sproggy is a US Postal inspector,
(16:18):
And again, I don't want people to get ripped off.
At the same time, I went into this to try
to find out what information and if it was true
that there are ways in which you could save some money. Look,
I still mail letters and I put stamps on letters.
This might force me to as the price goes up,
(16:40):
might force me to change my attitude toward it, but
at least for now, I'm still a stamp guy. We'll
be back on night's side right after the news break.
Feel free to ask a question, make a comment, and
if you've been successful and use some of these stamps
and you'd like to, we're not tracing numbers or anything
like that, so don't worry about that. Six one, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty six, one seven, one, ten thirty Back on
(17:01):
night Side right after.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
This night Side with Dan Ray. I'm w BZY Boston's
news Radio.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Thank you very much. Eric with me is Danielle Scrogi
shrogy Again. I'm getting better on this pronunciation. Yeah, I
apologize us postal inspector. So we'll get some phone calls
here and again I ask you to be polite, as
you always are. My listeners are always polite. We'll start
it off with Janice in Lynn. Hey, Janis welcome. You're
(17:34):
on night Side. You're on with Danielle Scrogie.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
Go right ahead, Yes, good evening, Dan and Danielle. I
My father used to collect stamps back in the age
and nineties, and once he passed in the two thousand,
he you know, left him and so the family we're
all like, well, who's gonna take them? So I did,
and very interesting ones, but they're you know, old, and
they're like, you know, twenty two cents, thirty two cents,
(17:59):
twenty five and then I gave everybody in the family
a hole pile each of them and we've been using
them for years and I hope that's still Okay, I
mean these are not used ones. They're you know, the
big sheets, and then I just break them up and
use them. But they have to put a lot on
an envelope.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Well, so they have a value that they have a
number on the stamp. So let's say it was twenty
two cents when it was purchased. And so what you're
saying is, can you use three of those stamps today?
Three times twenty two would be sixty six plus a
penny stamp? I assume you could, Danielle.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Again, this is a question mostly for a postal employee.
I am a law enforcement officer, but so but I
mean again, I would imagine as long as they are legitimate,
and are you are fixing the correct amount of postage
to it, and you're all set as far as I.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Don't think, let me jump in here and try to
help you out here, Danielle, I don't think, Jennet. You're
not saying, can you take a twenty two sense stamp
that was bought thirty years ago and slap that on
a regular envelope and they would you would have that
twenty two cents would not cover what the charge is today.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
You understand that, right, Yeah? I put like four of
them on there.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, no, I think that's I think that's fine. If
you know they were purchased legally, they have a value
on them twenty two cents. If you go to the
post office and you you know, there's different denominations. If
you have to send a package, and you know, of
course a lot of them know, they just meeter it.
But if you have to send a letter and it's
you know, eighty seven cents because it has some extra
(19:38):
weight on it, they'll give you a they'll sell you
a sixty seven cent stamp and then find a couple
a twenty cents stamp of some sort. Yeah, they'll they'll
do that.
Speaker 6 (19:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:47):
The other problem I have is every time I send
like a cod, especially when my nieces and nephews were
in college, I send a birthday cod with cash and
if on them they never would get it. It was
like every time I mail one up, they never got them.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Why would you send a card with cash? How long
ago was this Janet?
Speaker 5 (20:06):
This is back in the like O six seven around there.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
But now, yeah, this this Danielle might be able to
talk about. Go ahead, Danielle.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yeah, again, I'm always trying to do my due diligence
to protect everybody. And I really cannot stress enough. How
do not mail cash? I have to tell my own
father not to mail my children cash, so I feel
the pain there. Do not mail cash. It's just you know,
you know, somebody gets sticky fingers and they take the
year out that money. It's just not worth the risk.
Speaker 7 (20:41):
Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
I don't mail my things in wind anymore. I usually
mail them in Peabody or Evily or somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
So you have better success.
Speaker 8 (20:49):
Well.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
The other thing too, is that they're also by the way,
you have to be careful when you send a check.
And Danielle and I have talked about this before in
the year, and I think she remembers it very well
that there are check washing schemes out there where they
literally they were stealing keys from postal workers, uh, and
they were going in and as much as many envelopes
(21:12):
as they could and then if they found a check.
Whenever I send a check to anyone, I always wrap
it up inside a piece of paper because I think
the easiest thing in the world for someone to look
at a at an envelope, hold it up to the
light and say, hey, that's just a check. Now. It
might be five five dollars or might be worth five
hundred dollars, so you got to be careful about that.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
I use them.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
I use special envelopes that you can't really see it.
And I do still send out checks because I have
to send them like the city for like XI tax
and things only pay one. I do make sure you
can't see through.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
All right, Jennet.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
Okay, Jenne, Well, thank.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
You very much for calling. Very nice call.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
Thanks, Okay, have a good evening you too.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Let me go to Patricia in Brighton.
Speaker 8 (21:56):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Patricia, you're on with Danielle of the US Postal Inspection Division.
Speaker 6 (22:03):
Yes, thank you for taking my call.
Speaker 8 (22:05):
Welcome.
Speaker 6 (22:06):
I would like to relay as briefly as I can
an unfortunate experience I've just had in March. On March first,
I mailed four pieces of mail which were payments, one
to Verizon, one to National Grid going to different states,
one to the IRS, and one to the Massachusetts Department
(22:29):
of Revenue. Both of those governmental payments were I paid
certified mail. All four of those envelopes were returned to
me about March twenty six, with a yellow sticker on
each one. I think it was National Grid and Verizon
(22:50):
came together, and then the certified mail pieces were returned
to me, all with the same curious sticker it said
not deliverable as addressed, unable to forward, and all the
addresses were absolutely correct, So I notified. I looked online
(23:11):
the USPS Investigation Emergency Department and spoke to someone there
who took all the information. I don't know if it
was ever investigated. I do buy my stamps at the
post office. And shortly after I spoke to that individual,
my local post office supervisor called me and I re
(23:36):
explained everything and subsequently wrote a summary like a letter
to him, and then I brought him the actual envelopes
to show him, and he said, this was bizarre, That's
what he said. And he and another supervisor had no
explanation at all, and they actually repaid me for the
(23:58):
certified meil. So uh, it caused with my vendors.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
That's good service. But let me ask you, did you
did you get I assumed that those were tax checks?
Did you when the when the mail came back to you,
the checks that you had sent in in the envelopes?
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Right?
Speaker 6 (24:17):
They weren't all the checks and the four envelopes were
all there.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
It was but fair. Now were you able to send those?
Have you resent those? You know?
Speaker 6 (24:29):
The governmental you know, tax payments? I didn't want to,
but I I paid them online, which is totally not
what I want to do, but I did that, and
then I had the postal. My local post office supervisor
said she really wanted to try sending the national grid
(24:51):
to see if it went through. And it took a while,
but it did arrive.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
But Danielle, this makes no s sense to me. Could
have it been could have it been some person in
the post office that didn't know what they were doing?
Speaker 3 (25:05):
I mean, yes, I don't know. This would be a
delivery issue, so I'm not not my wheelhouse. But definitely
seems curious. I've never heard of something I haven't done before.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I am glad, Patricia that you said you did. You
did speak to the to the supervisor at your post
office and he was willing to uh resend the materials
for you at no no additional cost, which is the
least he could do. But it was the kind that
that at leasia got to him. You made a friend
at the post office.
Speaker 6 (25:35):
Right, I guess just that one National grid was payment
was sent, but I paid the Verizon bill at the
Verizon store, which you can do, but the certified mail, no,
we did not send them.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
What are you going to do on future bills? You're
still going to get your Verizon bill in your National
Grid bill? What are you going to do? Are you
going to continue to send a check or I'm going.
Speaker 6 (25:58):
To Yes, I'm going to do there.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Well, I hope you have better luck with it this time.
It's a pain of the neck. I don't like to
give my my authority to any of these companies to
automatically withdraw money from my credit card because I know
I don't either credit credit card number. Danielle, you, I
hope you understand what we're saying that you know this
is not a post office problem, but you give your
(26:23):
credit card to all these companies and gives them authority
to to hit your credit card on a monthly basis,
you know, it's it. It troubles me.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I don't know how it sounds like you try to
do the right thing.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
You know.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
One of the things I do recommend if people want
to do just what you did, you know, send it
in a higher class of mail. This this case, it
says you sounded like you sounded certified, so you can
track it or you know where it goes, and so
you can kind of keep eyeballs on it. But yeah,
we also recommend you.
Speaker 6 (26:53):
It never left Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Yeah, yeah, and again I apologize that happened, and that
would definitely be a delivery issue on their end. And
it is curious. I'm at that, you know, I'd.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Like to make Patricia was a pretty good investigator and
she got to the bottom of this and she got
something to act on. And so Patricia, I congratulations. Keep
me posted. You know, you call the show any night
and you can say, hey, Dan, remember this, Patricia Brighton,
I sent that check and it got through. Yeah, no problem.
And Rob will give you my direct line if you
want to hold on. You call me during the day
and bring me up to data or any of this,
(27:25):
because I'm I'm interested in you know, what happens to
my listeners. You listen to my show. I want to
make sure that you're not taking advantage of anyone. So
hang on. Rob will give you my direct line and
give me a call back and let me know if
this male situation has got straightened out for you.
Speaker 6 (27:41):
Okay, okay, thanks very much.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Hang on, Patricia Robill give you my direct line, and
that goes to any listener here on Nightside, particularly folks
who have a problem like this. Danielle, I got a
bunch of lines here. I promise I'll let you go
at ten o'clock. You're a great sport. Let's see what
people have to have to ask. I got Phil, Mike
and Paul coming up right after this break on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
You're on Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
All right, let's get back to the calls. My guest
is Danielle Scroggie, US postal inspector. Let me go to
Mike in Florida. Mike, did you and two or three
others in here? Go ahead?
Speaker 9 (28:21):
Mike, Okay, Hi, first time cailer. I've been a listener
of WBZ back when they were the Spirit of New England.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I was still the Spirit of New England. There's a
lot of applause from our virtual studio audience. What's your
question about it? Mike? Thank you?
Speaker 9 (28:36):
I enjoy yourself. I was wondering are they gonna I
hope they don't take away the free matter for the
blind where blind people like myself can order can mail stuff,
whether it be in braille or talking books or anything
like that, for free. They are they thinking of cutting
that out? Do you know?
Speaker 3 (28:59):
I do not. That would be probably a question for
a postal employee that works of that stuff. I don't. Unfortunately,
I'm the law enforcement arm so I only know really
the criminality and use of the mail, and I can
talk on those topics, but I don't. I know what
you're talking about, and it is a great service. I
don't have any information on.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
That though, I think, Mike, I would have known that
we have a lot of callers like yourself who are
either non cited, blind, whatever word you prefer, and I
kind of imagine that they would shop that sort of
mail from going through. I hope not, and if they
ever do, I'll do I'll do a I will not
(29:39):
be as friendly as the post office as have been
with Danielle Tonight.
Speaker 9 (29:41):
Let me put it like that, Okay, okay, thank you
very much.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
About whereabouts in Florida? Do you live east coast, west coast? Whereabouts?
Speaker 9 (29:49):
I live in the east coast. I used to live
in Aventura, but now I live in Pembroke Pines, which
is near Fort Lauderdale. I'm more sure when they're broadcasting myself.
I keep up with what's happening in radio all the time.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Well, thanks Mike, and thanks for keeping up with night Side.
Keep in touch. Okay, okay, thanks Mikes. You good night.
Let me go next to phill in Boston. Fill you
next on Nightside, Danielle SCROGI, you go ahead, Phil.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
I don't know the lad the sense of mail, the
national grid. I had similar problems, but I don't I
agree with I'm impressed that you said you don't like
the autopay because I don't like it either. I'm kind
of scared of it. But the bottom line is I
call up and they have an option where you could
call the number and you could pay that month because
I was getting sick of going to the post office,
(30:35):
and you pay that month and even confirmation number, and
so far it's worked out at that end. But unfortunately
I've had trouble getting my mail in a PO box
on my addresses I have both. The bottom line is
I didn't get two tax bills on two different quarters,
and I just obviously I didn't know I hadn't coming
(30:57):
you did, Bill, I teamalized that money. And I'm not
huming about her now, but I was at the time
one more thing the old box. Every one of the
six months or a year, I buy him for a year.
My year was up. I have not known that you're
supposed to put a yellow god into the p O
box to let you know, hello, yeah, whatever. And I
(31:21):
didn't get it, so I didn't pay it. Then when
I walked up to the post, I said, excuse me,
I said, well, that box of souls of somebody else?
Speaker 7 (31:30):
What are you talking about?
Speaker 10 (31:31):
I said, so, So I was going for a pretty
I think I think, Phil, in all honesty, I think
that you got to take that up with the local,
you know, manager in your whatever.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
My luck. This gentleman, he's a real good guy and
he's been there front. He helped me out. He called up.
He sold my box with some other guys the day before.
He called it guy. This is a time sense that
very important to me.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
With all Right, Phil, we're a little off topic todight,
and I to other calls, we might want to be
on topic. So I'm going to let you go. But
it sounds as if you have successfully navigated that issue.
As I have every faith every faith and confidence you'd
be able to do. Thank you. Yeah, have a great one.
Good night. Let me get too more in you're going
to go to Paul and andover Paul, you're with Danielle Scroge.
(32:18):
Go ahead, Paul, Hi.
Speaker 7 (32:20):
Dan, thanks a lot for your program. I really enjoy
it and have listened to it for years. Thank you, Mike.
My question for Danielle is I don't know if this
is their area of expertise, but is this service delivery
service objective. I'm out here in Middlesex County and use
(32:41):
the Middlesex Post Office a lot, and lately, not lately,
but for the past few years, the service seems to
be about two days locally in Massachusetts. But then on
the other hand, times I get things from California in
(33:02):
a matter of three or four days. So it's really
the post office we have here in the United States
is the best in the world. But I like to
know officially, though, if you if you know it, what
the service objective is? Uh? And in terms of distance
(33:22):
from the post office, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
I don't know that. There's a rule of thumb here.
Go ahead, Danielle, go ahead.
Speaker 7 (33:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
And it's still bad because a lot of your callers
are calling in by delivery issues and that's not my area. Yeah,
so I unfortunately I can't. I can't answer that for you,
and I apologize.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Yeah, I think, I think, Paul. What you got to
do is just go down to your post office and
find out. I realized that there seems to be a
turnover in some of the local post offices. But find
someone down there who is pleasant enough to talk to.
Uh and uh and and take that issue up. I'm
amazed too. I can send a letter and it can
take a week to go uh, you know from where
(34:04):
I live, ten miles away. Uh And Yet I can
send a letter to someone in California and two days
later they'll call me up and say, hey, I got
your letter. It's it's one of those mysteries of life, Paul.
Speaker 7 (34:17):
Reliably, if I mailed something out here in Massachusetts that
gets there in two days, I know, yep, Okay, that's I.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Mean, that's the good news. Let's let's let's let's.
Speaker 7 (34:28):
Me one day.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
But now two days, yeah, well it's slowed down a
little bit. Hey, Paul, I got to run wanting it
one morement. Thank you much, appreciate your call, good night,
Thanks for your comments. Michael in Boston, Michael got room
for you. Maybe one more, but I got room for you.
Go ahead, Michael.
Speaker 8 (34:42):
No, I don't think Danielle is going to be able
to answer my question is related to this last gentleman
in terms of the service.
Speaker 7 (34:53):
Uh.
Speaker 8 (34:54):
I think the government announced about a month and a
half ago that, uh, they recognize the problem of the
post office and they're going to restructure the system. Didn't
we hear that about a month and a half two
months ago? Dan?
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Uh? Yeah, I think that the Postmaster General has been relieved.
I think he was appointed by Trump back during his
first administration, and I think that that was an indicator
that maybe there's some the changes coming. Let me put
it like that.
Speaker 8 (35:24):
You know, well, I hope it's going to mean better service.
I really don't like mail that doesn't show up but
will show up six weeks later. I'm wondering, where is
that letter at the post office that it's not delivered
for six weeks?
Speaker 2 (35:44):
You know what, I can only describe to you. I
don't think Danielle is able to answer that. I can
only tipscribe to you. It's one of the mysteries of life.
And hope, hopefully we can get rid of some of
the mysteries of our lives.
Speaker 8 (35:57):
Okay, well, I hope they straightened themselves. Okay, I do too.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I like the post office. I want them to be
in business. I think it's important. Michael. Appreciate you, Carl,
thank you.
Speaker 8 (36:07):
Very much, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
All right, We're going to try one more. Mary Lou.
You've called very late. I can give you about a minute.
What do you got.
Speaker 11 (36:14):
Just wanted to know why I would have to pay
the postage against for an envelope too. Actually that was
sent with the proper address return address, hold on yads,
and then when I bring it back to the post office,
they recharge me and it was their mistake.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Here's what I got to do, Mary Lou. I'm going
to get another gentleman by the name of Steve Doherty,
who Danielle knows very well. He will be able to
provide us with someone who can answer some of these
delivery questions and frustrations. And I promise you will get
that scheduled in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 11 (36:47):
Fair enough, Oi, Doki, Thanks all right.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Thanks Thanks Mary, very appreciate it. Danielle, you're a great sport.
I think you have given people up some caution and
advice tonight on these these these these stamps, like your
mother's mother's told us, if a deal looks like it's
too good to be true, it probably is. Thanks so
much for joining us, and whenever there's another postal inspection
(37:12):
issue of any consequence, feel free to call me because
you are always a great guest. Thank you so much for tonight.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Awesome, Thanks much, dam.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Thanks talk soon. Okay, we will get that post office
person for some of the more general questions a little
a little bit later on in the next couple of weeks.
Back on Night's side, right after the ten Today is
the anniversary, the twelfth anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing.
I want to talk about it on the other side.
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