Originally posted by: mplogic
Geez people, lots of stuff you do every day is illegal. Technically it's illegal to use those milk crates or plastic postal bins but I know lots of good honest people that have a few of those out in the shed. Also, did you know it's illegal to have sex in any position other than missionary??? It's true, its on the books in most states. My point is "he who is free of blame be the one to throw the first stone". Let the mods do their jobs, it's their job to do, not yours, they're actually quite good at it. You don't need to wave your conscience all over the place.
Yes, it is assumed that you will use the free boxes USPS provides for Priority mailings only as they sell others for non-Priority, however I have never seen a contract or legally binding clause that they make you sign before accepting some free boxes. I've never even had them say "you know these are for Priority mail only" when giving them to me. In fact, I only had one guy not accept a box that was turned inside out but he was just a jerk who gave everyone a hard time. I wrote a letter asking if it was wrong for me to recycle Priority boxes that were shipped to me by turning them inside out and the reply was "of course not". I used that letter the next time I dealt with said jerk at the P.O. 🙂
They don't have a big sign saying "free boxes here" because they know everyone would use them for everything else. It is just a nice service they offer to informed customers who are usually the ones keeping them in business. You ever think about how much postage one day of trading on the Anandtech forums generates??? We are creating plenty of good business for them, the free boxes are just a nice perk. You're not ripping anyone off if you use one or two for something else, or if you don't send priority every now and then. The boxes obviously pay for themselves otherwise they wouldn't give them away so freely. Claiming that it is illegal or "morally wrong" is like refusing to blow your nose in a napkin at a buffet because they are intended to be used for your mouth only! 🙂
Really! There are whole nations full of people that feel Americans are the devil and there are ruthless dictators out there that have no guilt over the slaughter of massive amounts of people (including our own rocket scientist of a president) and there is probably someone within a few miles of you right now that would shank you in the neck for $5 or a fix and you don?t feel the least bit silly pointing your finger at someone who might use a few boxes for something other than their intended purpose??? Get some perspective.
Sorry for the rant, wind me up and watch me go. 🙂