@Hushhushmans Ha! That makes way more sense. I've never heard of a vendor using media mail. Glad it's nothing to worry about and you can rest easier now. Take care.
I know this issue is resolved but it does appear in frequently and can be a surprise to see but isn’t necessarily a cause for concern. The same procedure applies if it is delivered as any other parcel, perhaps with more assurances passed some inquiry and didn’t arouse suspicion. This is longer than it needs to be so I apologize for the lengthy write up. I wanted to describe factual examples and probably fumbled with trying to translate into fictional ones that could properly illustrate my experience and why I believe it’s not as concerning this might seem. Here’s what they want and all they are looking for:
“Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM), Section 170, Media Mail packages must have a delivery address and the sender’s return address and are subject to inspection by the Postal Service™. Upon such inspection, matter not eligible for the Media Mail rate may be assessed at the proper price and sent to the recipient postage due, or the sender may be contacted for additional postage.”
This is an interesting question and one I’ve spoken with USPS about, given that was five years ago, but my takeaway - and having received media mail is IF the sender has a business address AND there is translucent wrapping on the item inside then there’s nothing to worry about. One requirement here is that it is subject to anybody opening it without reasonable suspicion of contents and, as always, to ensure safety of postal workers - it is only a waiver of the 4th as to the cost of mailing and sending a media item means they will or may open it to ensure it meets the criteria being an instructional or educational item or even a promotional item so long as that is incidental to the educational or instructional content. So, a brochure explaining the importance of hiring disabled people and a book on ADA and Rehab Act compliance for business owners probably still qualifies if the sender isn’t the publisher of the book or the book isn’t available in stores independently for value sold, but if it it’s still okay if sender is a disability rights group non-profit or a legal services organization that is offering this as part of their efforts under a grant to help employers who need to update their hiring practices or some such thing. It can’t be promotional of the Sender unless broadly promotional of their mission or purpose of articles of incorporation and services. It’s often a faster way to send things and though it’s subject to inspection it is only inspected to ensure it meets the postage cost requirements. They will contact sender for any additional postage or tariffs due. They won’t unwrap the plastic wrapping on a CD case if it’s obvious what the CD label shows. In that last situation it’s still risky but here’s a drastically altered and fictionalized example of something I can recall successfully receiving - fast as can be - marked by media mail. Note this isn’t in any way how it actually came but I’m making up the details and changing the format of the product to preserve the method as this one would make it through for the reason it would satisfy requirements and likely opening it wouldn’t arouse suspicion such that the media itself would get a close look:
A media mail envelope with a single item - feeling and appearing and weighing what a typical CD or DVD might. Inside is a flimsy, cheap DVD in a case with a obviously low production budget and not really of interest to me I suppose it could have been sold commercially; for our purposes it was like I had something to learn about a rainforest frog and what is being done to save it, from reading, listening, or watching this item. Crucially, there was a flimsy plastic container sealed in ordinary plastic wrapping. The sender was a prominent criminal defense firm with offices nationwide and this one happened to be in my state though not the nearest office location to me. The law firm could have been called but what for? It’s odd but unless you Google them it’s not obvious they are a traditional law firm nor what they practice and especially vague considering big firms with so many different locations usually don’t only have one practice area. This was obvious to any inspector there’s no attempt to skirt the postage due - the educational nature of the DVD or CD or booklet of slides, let’s say, was obvious. That it was simply sent courtesy of a sender that was not soliciting or fulfilling a paid order was obvious, too, in part just hard to see the connection between their ordinary matters of business or law or whatever private company approximately similar to a top-100 big name law firm and frogs. No receipt or insert with any reference to anything. It had been opened as a package - they actually make it easy to pop those media mail parcels open for such purposes. But there’s no right to break the plastic wrapping and ensure that it is indeed a yoga dvd or an instructional booklet on when and how to get a Lupus screening. A small quantity of crystalline Ket’chup’amine was in a reflective baggie the size of the media item’s front cover, directly attached behind it, and inside that was a tight dime bag sized baggie taped to the walls of this sealed reflective, re-ziplock fastened pouch/bag. That was affixed to the inside cover of the box of the media item - behind the single page of the front cover of the frog DVD or whatever media and material it was. Think about where a pop out map/reference page might be on the inside cover of a book on the location and contact info for the state library of each. Or free Lupus screening clinics. Your job is done if you’re opening it for compliance to postage costs. If you suspect another reason to hold and inspect then you would pass it off to a separately designated area for packages randomly or by ordinary course of USPS handling and processing suspicious parcels. There they may break the plastic and look inside the container but all things considered there was nothing slightly off about it in terms of physical properties. It was to mail a media item informative of frogs and not for pecuniary gain or business solicitation or advantage.
It’s very loose and risky to play it this way but actually could arouse less drug offense suspicion if redirected to check postage or tariff requirements. if the items are something one might ordinarily buy at a store it’s bad news - unless it’s an item I incidental to the brochures and pamphlets of sender’s organization and a non-commercial or self promotional nature. Educational, and perhaps by extension that seems to promote the sender organization, but it’s not central to the media item and no offer or sale is made - they are passionate about frogs and are sending you a media item to hope you become as passionate as well and in your own freedom research what you wish to do about that because they’re not sending a company booklet on mesothelioma to a potential client who would be enticed to retain this law firm. The book might inform of all the options patients with mesothelioma have and several forms may have sponsored the publication and it’s not overtly clear the recipient wanted the damn thing to begin with, but if so they wouldn’t have look to sender’s address for specifically trying to retain that firm, as nothing in the parcel gives out their firm’s brochure.
