You can complain to the post office. However, in my experience, they just dismiss the problem by telling me that they handle millions of pieces of mail a day, that only a small percentage are damaged, and they cannot guarantee that my mail will arrive undamaged. I have noticed an increasing number of damaged periodicals coming in the mail over the last 6-12 months. I have also noticed more items arriving very late or not at all. Some titles are damaged more often than others, but I am seeing increases in damage for almost all of the ones that do not come in wrappers (and even some of the ones that do).

Hopefully you have better luck with your post office than I have had with mine. I have concerns that these problems are going to get much worse before they get better.

Our copies for the Chronicle of Higher Ed is often damaged as well. I’m not sure what to do about it. Please respond to the thread if you come up with a good idea.

Hi folks,

The Chronicle of Higher Ed. often arrives in a damaged state.  To be specific, the front page is torn up (sometimes chunks completely missing).  Subsequent pages plus the back page may be damaged as well. We have asked the publisher to send it in a wrapper, but if we do get a wrapper, it only lasts for a few issues.

Anybody else have this problem?  Have you had success in getting plastic wrappers for your issues?  Can you complain to the post office?   Our periodicals coordinator is not too happy that these tattered copies keep on limping in with the mail.  It doesn’t constitute attractive material for potential readers.

I just looked at the shelf and out of 6 regular issues, 3 are damaged. The periodicals coordinator has mentioned that all of our regular newspapers come in plastic wrappers.  Chronicle of Higher Ed. is pretty cheap, and I would think wrappers of some sort, applied in bulk, would not be that expensive on the grand scale.

Thanks,

Diane Westerfield, Electronic Resources & Serials Librarian

Tutt Library, Colorado College

diane.westerfield@coloradocollege.edu

(719) 389-6661

(719) 389-6082 (fax)

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