The "free" boxes are designed to get you to use that service when the weight does not require it. If they can get you to mail an 8-ounce item for $5 in priority mail postage, or "important" correspondence in a flat rate envelope instead of a regular first class letter, they make between $4.50 and $3.00 in extra postage rates. The secret: priority mail IS first class mail and is not delivered any faster. Yet nearly every week I hear a disgruntled customer in line at the post office complaining that they have to pay $4.95 simply because they used a free box or the free packing tape marked "priority mail." This causes longer lines, and customer confusion.

The free boxes are an up-front expense for the post office, people do pick them up to evade the rules and use them as packing materials or boxes for their next residential move, and it leads to dissatisfied customers.

I really think the post office needs to go back to basics.