[pbs] Fwd: PIS mail services situation
Lee Poulsen
wpoulsen at pacbell.net
Fri Oct 20 20:00:20 EDT 2006
Since I was so bothered by the response Richard Wagner got from the
USDA/APHIS/PPQ officer about having to send additional postage to the
Plant Inspection Station to get a seed shipment delivered to the final
address (namely us), I sent a (nice) letter of complaint wherein I
detailed my efforts early on to find out from the US Postal Service
(USPS) how I might be able to set up an account that the USDA could
charge to so I could get my imported seeds delivered on the final leg
of its journey to me. After sending the USPS all the information and
Federal Register text describing the new seed importation method, as
they requested, a USPS official actually called me to tell me basically
that there was no method for a private individual, but he gave me some
(not very good) work-around solutions. I was relieved to hear later
that there wouldn't be a need to provide the extra postage and
successfully and easily imported some seeds from South Africa this past
summer. Anyway, I finally, just now, received the following in response
to my complaint and it sounds much more promising than what Richard was
told. I don't belong to all the lists Richard originally sent his email
to (except I do know Rachel via email), so he is free to forward this
to them as well if he wants to.
--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USDA Zone 10a
Begin forwarded message:
> From: "Jose.R.Ceballos at usda.gov" <Jose.R.Ceballos at usda.gov>
> Date: October 20, 2006 3:12:45 PM PDT
> To: "wpoulsen at pacbell.net" <wpoulsen at pacbell.net>
> Cc: "Bud.Petitdemange at usda.gov" <Bud.Petitdemange at usda.gov>
> Subject: Re: PIS mail services situation
>
> I am pleased to hear your shipment from South Africa was received
> without any problems, but also want to acknowledge that there have
> been incidents in which the importer was charged additional postage
> after clearance by USDA. Because the USPS policy appears to be unclear
> in this area, PPQ has been working with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS)
> officials seeking a solution to the postage issue.
>
> We hope to obtain a written USPS national policy that allows our plant
> inspection stations to forward cleared packages to the importers
> without incurring additional postage fees. If we are able to obtain
> that policy, we plan to distribute it to all of our plant inspection
> stations so it can be presented to any local Post Office that has
> issues with forwarding packages under the same international postage
> after clearance by USDA.
>
> As soon as we get a final response from the USPS headquarters, we will
> make it available to you and other customers. We recognize that there
> have been inconsistent interpretations of USPS policies in different
> locations and we are sorry for any inconvenience to our customers. We
> will continue to strive to provide the service that our importers
> expect from the USDA.
>
> Should you have further questions, please do not hesitate to call or
> e-mail me or Bud Petit de Mange.
>
>
> Jose Ceballos
> Acting Plant inspection Station Coordinator
> Plant Safeguarding and Pest Identification
> USDA - APHIS - PPQ - PHP
> Riverdale - Beltsville, MD
>
> Tels. 301/504 - 8141 Ext. 1
> Fax 301/504 - 8539
>
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