Milton FL Post Office holds customer appreciation day

Milton FL Sales and Service Associate Sherry James stands ready to answer
customer questions at a recent Customer Appreciation Day.

The Milton FL Post Office hosted a Customer Appreciation Day on September 14.

Customers were invited to drop by the Post Office to enjoy some light refreshments and meet the staff, according to Postmaster Steve Seagraves.

"We work to please our customers, so I think it's important to recognize and thank them for their loyal business and support," said Seagraves.

Information on convenient options for purchasing stamps and shipping packages such as the use of the usps.com website, Priority Mail, Express Mail, Post Office boxes and the new Every Door Direct Mail product were available.

"We want our customers to know we appreciate them and are working hard to continue to earn their business," said Seagraves.

Postal employees reminded of Hatch Act guidelines

South Carolina BME All-Stars

 

Hilton Head Island SC BMEU Clerk, Shani Green, has been with the USPS for 11 years with four spent in the BME.  Her best practices are good communication and customer service.

  Lema Adams works in Trenton, SC at the Urban Outfitters DMU, where she passed a Headquarters SOX audit three weeks ago.  Great Job Lema!

Rural Carrier recognized for returning customer's wallet

 

This letter was received from a customer in Fitzgerald, GA in regards to Townsend GA Rural Carrier, Sheila Bacon. She found a customer’s wallet and returned it to the owner after hours. The photo shown is a copy of the customer’s letter.

Valdosta PO matches baseball stamps with local All-Star championship team

Valdosta Postmaster Bill Spangler recently overheard his 204B Supervisor Doyle Rogers (pictured with team) talking about his son Jacob's (pictured front row on left) All-Star baseball team and their recent travels.

Bill thought what a great opportunity to not only recognize the team, but to promote the Major League Baseball All-Star stamps.

The team was made up boys between the ages of 9 and 11 that participated in the Dizzy Dean World Series in South Haven, Mississippi.

Despite being set back with a few injuries to a couple of the boys who suffered broken arms in their bid for the championship, they proved teamwork does pay off.

The Team finished 2nd in the state of Georgia and 6th overall in a 6 state region that had approximately 25-30 teams playing for the championship.

The Valdosta Postmaster and staff recognized the team for their efforts with cake, goodie bags and a Mickey Mantle card.

Postmaster Bill Spangler displayed some of his baseball memorabilia throughout the lobby during the month.

Alert Valdosta clerk uncovers 270 USPS pallets at warehouse

With a tip from a customer, Valdosta Clerk James Carnegie Jr. alerted Valdosta Postmaster Bill Spangler of some empty mail transport equipment (MTE) in a local warehouse.

Spangler followed up with local warehouse distributor and found that they had approximately 270 USPS pallets.

The company was very cooperative in coordinating the pickup of these pallets, saying they had accumulated them over the years.

The Postal Service spends millions of dollars every year on MTE to replenish inventory and make sure ourcustomers and our business can function effectively.

Many times this equipment is being used for pur­poses other than its intended mission: holding the mail.

MTE is not disposable. We will spend more than $100,000,000 this year (FY12) to replace all of our missing and damaged MTE.

The average cost of MTE is much more than you may think:

Flat Tubs = $5.00

Plastic Pallets = $20.00

Presswood Pallets = $8.00

Wood Slat Pallets = $7.00

Although there may appear to be an unlimited supply of wood pallets, we need every single one of them. Never trash or recycle any pallets locally. Send good and bad pallets back to the MTESC.

All letter trays, flat tubs, sacks, and tray sleeves must also be sent to the MTESC. Never trash or recycle trays, tubs, sacks, or sleeves locally.

Keep MTE alive and flowing! MTE is needed at every level of our organization and by our mail­ers. MTE must not be recycled locally.

Crestview FL Post Office honored for Passport services

Pictured left to right are Crestview OIC Jamie Cassidy, Passport Specialist
David Strawser, and Passport Specialist Debbie Pruett.

The U.S. State Department has presented a Certificate of Achievement to the Crestview Florida Post Office for "exemplary service to the community through the conscientious execution of passport applications, excellence in customer service and commitment to measures that ensure the integrity of the U.S. passport."

Crestiview PO is one of only seven Passport Application Acceptance Facilities throughout Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to receive a perfect score on their 2012 Acceptance Facility Oversight Program review report.

The recognition is based on a site visit, one-on-one interviews, inspections of facility space/security features, as well as real-time observations of employees accepting and executing passport applications from customers.

The award from Miami Passport Agency's Director Ryan Dooley states: " We thank you for your continued commitment to the Passport Application Acceptance Program and congratulate you on this outstanding achievement."

Great job Crestview!

Home show delivers 110 sales leads in Fort Walton Beach FL

The Emerald Coast Home Show in Ft. Walton Beach has become a regular stop for the North Florida District's revenue drivers. 

As she did last year, Santa Rosa Beach Manager of Customer Services Eileen Wittic contacted all the attending vendors and gave them information about Every Door Direct Mail.

This year's show resulted in 110 Business Connects leads!

One of the vendors, Total Laundry, has previously used EDDM and mailed 10,000 pieces. 

They are doing an additional mailing for 15,000 pieces and have their business information on one side of the card and a pizza place on the other side.   

"I believe that planting seeds at an event like this will reap monetary rewards for the Postal Service," said Wittic.  "We love to inform the community about the services the United States Postal Service has to offer."

Purple Heart Medal Forever Stamp Honors Veterans’ Sacrifices

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service continues to honor the sacrifices of the men and women who serve in the U.S. military with the issuance of the new Purple Heart Medal Forever stamp.

First issued as a 37-cent First-Class stamp in 2003, this new Forever Stamp differs from the 2011 Forever Stamp design displaying a slightly larger image of the Medal on a pure white background.

Available nationwide today in sheets of 20, the stamps can be purchased online at usps.com/shop or by calling 800-STAMP-24 (800-782-6724). The date and location of the special dedication ceremony will be announced at a later time.

“The Postal Service salutes America’s veterans for their selfless sacrifice in defending our great nation,” said Stamp Service Manager Stephen Kearney. “We hope Americans will buy and use these Forever stamps when corresponding with loved ones and friends to honor these courageous men and women, who in many cases gave the ultimate sacrifice.”

World’s Oldest Military Decoration
The Purple Heart is awarded in the name of the President of the United States to members of the U.S. military who have been wounded or killed in action. According to the Military Order of the Purple Heart, an organization for combat-wounded veterans, the medal is “the oldest military decoration in the world in present use and the first award made available to a common soldier.”

Established by General George Washington during the Revolutionary War, the badge of distinction for meritorious action — a heart made of purple cloth — was discontinued after the war. In 1932, on the 200th anniversary of Washington’s birth, the decoration was reinstated and redesigned as a purple heart of metal bordered by gold, suspended from a purple and white ribbon. In the center of the medal is a profile bust of George Washington beneath his family coat of arms.

Customers may view the Purple Heart Medal Forever Stamp, as well as many of this year’s other stamps, indicate which stamps they like and vote for their favorite stamp on Facebook at facebook.com/USPSStamps, through Twitter @USPSstamps or on the website Beyond the Perf at beyondtheperf.com/2012-preview. Beyond the Perf is the Postal Service’s online site for background information on upcoming stamp subjects, first-day-of-issue events and other philatelic news.

How to Obtain the First-Day-of-Issue Postmark
Customers have 60 days to obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail. They may purchase new stamps at a local Post Office, at The Postal Store website at usps.com/shop or by calling 800-STAMP-24. They should affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes to themselves or others and place them in larger envelopes addressed to:

Purple Heart Medal Stamp
Special Cancellations
PO Box 92282
Washington, DC 20090-2282

After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, the Postal Service will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for the postmark. All orders must be postmarked by Nov. 5, 2012.

Follow the Postal Service on www.twitter.com/USPSstamps and at www.facebook.com/USPSSTAMPS    

Message to all North Florida District Employees

Each of you will see an article about “Jacksonville missent mail hubs” in the Southern Area Update when it arrives at your home in the next day or so.

This is an article from an old North Florida Newsmaker Blog that was posted and should have been rescinded as it is not in place.

Let me reiterate that we should not have any missent mail hubs in place on a daily basis-anywhere. Our organization cannot afford to spend extra hours as a workaround to finalize daily errors that occur.

Instead, let’s identify the redundant errors, communicate with our Plant partners and put processes in place upstream to correct the error.

However, in the event there is a significant amount of missent mail received in an office for another office- then I encourage you to notify and discuss with your MPOO or Manager for proper finalization of the mail.

I realize that all of you are greatly concerned about ensuring that we provide the best service we can to our customers- we simply cannot afford to have permanent workarounds to achieve this service.

Thanks for all you do every day providing excellent service to our customers.

Eric D. Chavez
District Manager