Effective July 28, 2014, the Postal Service™ will revise Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®) 604.9 to update the hourly charges and related postage threshold used in assessing certain types of postage refunds and to provide the allowable time periods for requesting refunds for extra service fees.
On January 3, 2014, the Postal Service published a revised notice of proposed rulemaking [79 FR 375-6] to align with current costs of the assessments for processing postage refunds that have been in effect since 2003. The Postal Service received two formal responses to the revised proposed rule. After review and considering the responses, the Postal Service published a Final Rule on June 20, 2014.
This article serves to align the current assessments for processing postage refunds, in effect since 2003, with current costs as follows:
n The hourly factor used in various refund assessments will increase from $35.00 an hour to $50.00 an hour.
n The threshold for assessing postage refunds at the hourly factor will be updated from postage amounts exceeding $350.00 to postage amounts exceeding $500.00. The current 10% assessment below the threshold would remain unchanged.
Additionally, the Postal Service is adding standards to the DMM to provide customers with information on allowable refund periods for extra service fees that align with the revised claims filing periods (made effective January 26, 2014) to promote timely adjudication. Therefore, full refund requests for extra service fees, provided under the allowable standards for Registered Mail™, Certified Mail®, Signature Confirmation™, USPS Tracking™, and Adult Signature, must be made by the mailer no sooner than 10 days, or more than 60 days, from the date the service was purchased.
As a result of these revisions, PS Form 3533, Application for Refund of Fees, Products, and Withdrawal of Customer Accounts, will be revised to reflect the changes.
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Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM)
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600 Basic Standards for All Mailing Services
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604 Postage Payment Methods
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9.0 Exchanges and Refunds
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9.2 Postage and Fee Refunds
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9.2.3 Full Refund
A full refund (100%) may be made when:
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[Revise the text of 9.2.3e to read as follows:]
e. Fees are paid for special handling, Certified Mail, USPS Tracking, Adult Signature, or Signature Confirmation, and the article fails to receive the extra service for which the fee is paid.
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9.2.4 Postage Refunds Not Available
Refunds are not made for the following:
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[Revise the text of 9.2.4b to read as follows:]
b. Collect on delivery (COD), Priority Mail Express insurance, insured mail, and Registered Mail fees, after the USPS accepts the article (even if the article is later withdrawn from the mail).
[Add new item 9.2.4h to read as follows:]
h. For fees paid for extra services, as allowed under 9.2.3, when a refund request is made by the mailer less than 10 days, or more than 60 days, from the date the service was purchased, unless otherwise authorized by the manager, Revenue Field Accounting (see 608.8 for address).
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9.2.6 Postage Affixed to Business Reply Mail
[Revise the seventh sentence of 9.2.6 to read as follows:]
***A charge of $50.00 per hour, or fraction thereof, is assessed for the workhours used to process the credit or refund.***
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9.3.2 General Standards for Metered Indicia Refunds
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[Revise 9.3.2b1 and 9.3.2b2 to read as follows:]
1. When the total face value of the indicia is $500.00 or less, the amount refunded is 90% of the face value. USPS may process the refund payment via a no-fee postal money order.
2. When the total face value of the indicia is more than $500.00, the amount refunded is the total face value reduced by $50.00 per hour for the USPS time to process the refund, with a minimum charge of $50.00. The charge is $50.00 for each hour spent, with the last fraction of an hour treated as a full hour. Payment processing for refunds of $500.01 or more is through the Accounting Service Center.
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9.3.4 Unused, Undated Meter Indicia
[Revise the introductory sentence of 9.3.4 to read as follows:]
Authorized users, or the commercial entity that prepared the mailing for the authorized user, must submit refund requests for undated, unused meter indicia under 9.3.1 and 9.3.2 as follows:
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We will incorporate these revisions into the July update of the DMM, which is available via Postal Explorer® at http://pe.usps.com.
— Product Classification,
Pricing, 6-26-14
