Timing Matters

THE POSTAL RATE COMMISSION recently dismissed a mailer’s attempt to recover postage costs for a time-sensitive mailing that was delivered late-but not before it slapped the U.S. Postal Service’s wrist for what the PRC termed deceptive advertising.

In rejecting the refund bid of national health club chain Life Time Fitness for lack of jurisdiction, the PRC ripped the USPS for saying in its advertisements that operational standards were a commitment that “an ordinary citizen or unsophisticated mailer may reasonably believe…represents an implied warranty.”

The PRC noted the USPS would face Federal Trade Commission action for false advertising if it were a private company. Telling the USPS to review its advertising and marketing materials to eliminate “any potentially deceptive or misleading language,” the PRC said in today’s economy businesses must be able to “identify with some degree of accuracy” the quality of their services.

Postal officials “don’t agree with the PRC with regard to its criticism of the use of the term ‘commitment’ and have the matter under review,” says USPS spokesman Roy Betts.

The PRC said it dismissed Life Time’s refund application because it was not empowered to act in the matter, which it described as a temporary local service issue instead of one involving national service or postal policy.

Life Time Fitness sought to recover some $15,400 in postage costs for a 99,000-piece mailing in greater Minneapolis-St. Paul that was supposed to have been delivered in early January 1998. It alleged, and postal officials admitted, that the mailing was delivered three weeks late. As a result, Life Time alleged it lost more than $385,000 in new revenue.-PMA