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Pricing and Classification Service Center

The Pricing and Classification Service Center, or PCSC, is a USPS national center that makes classification decisions on price application, mail eligibility and mailing standards. It serves both mailers and USPS field employees. It also gives guidance on mailing standards and decides customer requests for exceptions.

Updated October 31, 202627 sources

What it is

The PCSC is one national source for classification decisions, for customers outside USPS and for USPS field employees. Its work is domestic and international in scope. It sits in New York, NY.

The PCSC also processes nonprofit price applications, handles Sexually Oriented Advertising and pandering prohibitory orders, and manages the Centralized Postage Payment system. Centralized Postage Payment lets a Periodicals publication consolidate and defer the postage for one issue for up to 28 days.

The PCSC's decisions come in two kinds: final agency decisions and initial decisions. Final agency decisions cover these matters:

  • refund requests
  • revenue deficiency assessments
  • Mailer Scorecard assessments
  • mailability issues
  • requests for exceptions to mailing standards
  • local classification decisions
  • customer related agreements

Initial decisions cover these matters:

  • applications for Periodicals mailing privileges
  • Periodicals reentry applications
  • Periodicals revocations and cancellations
  • authorization to mail at Nonprofit USPS Marketing Mail prices, and name changes for authorized nonprofit organizations
  • decisions on Sexually Oriented Advertising and pandering prohibitory orders
  • PACT Act exceptions for tobacco and Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems

How it works

Meeting every mailing requirement and preparation standard is the mailer's responsibility. When a mailing does not meet USPS standards, the mailer may submit an exception request.

An exception request, from the mailer's letter to a decision.

  1. The mailer writes to the Manager, Business Mail Entry, asking for a one-time exception to a named standard.
  2. A mail preparer or service provider sends a request from the mail owner along with its own.
  3. The request goes first to the Business Mail Entry Unit where the mail is presented or paid for.
  4. The Manager, Business Mail Entry, decides the exception request.
  5. A request outside the manager's purview goes to the PCSC for a decision.

Exception requests

An exception request is a letter to the Manager, Business Mail Entry, naming the mailing standard the mailing did not meet. It gives these facts about the mailing:

  • why the mailing did not meet the standard
  • the date of mailing
  • the volume of mailing
  • the class of mailing
  • the processing category
  • the total postage
  • the permit type
  • the permit number
  • the CRID of the eDoc submitter
  • the Mailer ID of the mail owner

The letter also explains the steps the mailer will take to avoid a repeat.

A shipper with a Parcel Return Service authorization addresses its requests for exceptions to Domestic Mail Manual standards in writing to the Manager, PCSC.

Periodicals

A publisher applies for Periodicals mailing privileges on PS Form 3500. It files the application at the Post Office serving the publication's address. That office emails the application to the PCSC. The PCSC reviews whether the publication meets the requirements for Periodicals mailing privileges.

The review may take one to three months. The PCSC sends the publisher the result by email. A publisher with questions before applying can email the PCSC, and a classification specialist helps.

A change to an authorized publication goes on PS Form 3510, filed at the Original Entry Post Office. A publisher moving its Known Office of Publication files at the Post Office serving the new address. The local Business Mail Entry Unit sends each change to the PCSC, with a copy of the new identification statement. The PCSC then makes the changes in the national Periodicals database.

Several changes can share one PS Form 3510 and one reentry fee when all take effect within 30 days.

Exceptional Dispatch is a publisher delivering copies of its Periodicals publication to other Post Offices, at its own expense and risk. The postmaster of the entry Post Office authorizes it. A publisher appeals a denial in writing to the person who denied the request. That person sends the appeal to the PCSC, which issues a final agency decision.

Publications that pay postage at the Centralized Postage Payment office at the PCSC in New York cannot select the Full-Service option. They do not submit Mail.dat files to the PostalOne! system.

Nonprofit authorizations

A Nonprofit Authorization is a privilege, granted by law, to mail at Nonprofit USPS Marketing Mail prices. Those prices are about 40% below regular USPS Marketing Mail prices. An organization holds one Nonprofit Authorization per organization name.

An organization applies on PS Form 3624, online through the Business Customer Gateway or at a local Post Office or Business Mail Entry Unit. At the PCSC, a Nonprofit Specialist reviews the application's eligibility. The review may take up to 14 days.

A denied organization may appeal to the Nonprofit Specialist who reviewed the application, with evidence of its eligibility. If the evidence still falls short, the appeal goes to the Director, Product Classification at USPS Headquarters for final determination.

An authorized organization changes its name on PS Form 6015, the Nonprofit Database Change Request, at the Post Office where it applied. An organization withdraws an application by letter or email, and the withdrawal takes no more than 1-3 days.

National Customer Rulings

National Customer Rulings is a voluntary program that gives national mailers guidance on mailpiece design and price eligibility. It issues classification decisions on proposed mailings before they reach a Business Mail Entry Unit. The decisions give mailers confidence in planning and budgeting, and certainty of acceptance at entry points.

A mailer at a single location with an established local Business Mail Entry relationship should keep sending inquiries to its local contacts. The Manager of Business Mail Entry refers matters to the PCSC case by case.

Rules

All exception requests must first be submitted to the BME office where the mail is presented/paid for (or BME serving DMU).

A mailer must send every exception request first to the Business Mail Entry Unit where the mail is presented or paid for.

If the requesting party is the mail preparer/service provider, an additional request from the mail owner must accompany the exception request and be submitted to the serving BME office.

When a mail preparer or service provider asks, the mail owner's own request must go with it to the same Business Mail Entry Unit.

Where any request for Move Update documentation is made to justify the mailer’s claim of postage discounts, the mailer must refer the inquiry to the PCSC (Pricing and Classification Service Center DMM 608.8.4) for resolution.

A mailer asked for Move Update documentation to back its postage discounts must send that inquiry to the PCSC to resolve.

If an ISSN is not assigned, the USPS number assigned by the PCSC must appear in the identification statement within 90 days after being provided (for example, “THE CIVIC BULLETIN” (USPS 876-690)).

A publication without an International Standard Serial Number must print the USPS number the PCSC gives it in its identification statement within 90 days. The number looks like USPS 876-690.

When the .cpt Approved Piece Design Type is populated, it must contain C = CSR or P = PCSC.

A Mail.dat Component record that fills in the Approved Piece Design Type must use C for a Customer Support Ruling or P for the PCSC.

The application (PS form 3624) must be signed by someone in authority in the organization, such as the president or treasurer.

Someone in authority in the organization, such as its president or treasurer, must sign the nonprofit application.

When an organization disagrees with the denial determination, they may appeal within 15 days of receipt of the denial letter.

An organization whose nonprofit application is denied may appeal within 15 days of receiving the denial letter.

If the request is denied, you may appeal the decision to the Director, Pricing and Classification Service Center.

A publisher whose Exceptional Dispatch request is denied may appeal to the Director of the PCSC.

What goes wrong

Not every exception request is granted, and no exception is granted for prices.

A publisher must file PS Form 3526, its statement of ownership, by October 1 each year. Missing it may lead the PCSC to revoke the publication's Periodicals mailing privileges. Exceptional Dispatch agreements are not guaranteed, and depend most on whether the local office has the staff.

A nonprofit application whose name uses abbreviations, acronyms or name variations is delayed. An organization that is not religious and has no Internal Revenue Code section yet is denied as premature or asked to withdraw. An IRS assignment of 501(c)6 is an automatic denial for business leagues. No refund is made when a nonprofit application is denied and no appeal is filed.

Terms

national customer rulingNCR
A voluntary customer program administered by USPS that renders decisions on mailpiece design and price eligibility and issues a classification decision on the pieces in the mailer’s proposed mailing before it is presented at a business mail entry unit.
Customer Support RulingCSR
An official clarification of a mailing requirement issued by USPS when needed. The ruling presents examples of specific mailpieces and an analysis of how the mailing standard applies.
exceptional dispatch
The delivery of a Periodicals mailing by the publisher to a Post Office other than the office of original entry or additional entry.
Nonprofit AuthorizationNPA, USPS Nonprofit Authorization
Authorization to mail at the Nonprofit USPS Marketing Mail (nonprofit) prices is a privilege granted by law only to authorized organizations.
Business Mail Entry UnitBMEU, BME, PAU, Business Mail Entry, platform acceptance unit
Business Mail Entry Unit (A specialized USPS organization responsible for receiving, verifying, and accepting business (bulk) mail)
Original EntryOE
The Post Office where a publisher submits the application for Periodicals mailing privileges for a qualified publication.
Known Office of PublicationKOP
The business office of a Periodicals publication that is in the city where the original entry for Periodicals mailing privileges is authorized.
prohibitory order
A USPS order requested by the addressee of a pandering advertisement that directs the sender to make no further mailing to that addressee.
mailability
The eligibility of an item or mailpiece to be accepted into the mail because it meets size, weight, and other preparation criteria and its contents are not prohibited by law as mail. Some mailpieces are prohibited because they do not meet required size or weight standards. Other mailpieces that meet size and weight standards are prohibited because of legally mandated content restrictions (such as certain hazardous materials).
classification
The grouping of mailable matter into mail classes, products, and price categories, according to content, weight, size, and preparation standards as defined in the Mail Classification Schedule.

Documents

Fact Sheets

FAQs

Applications/Forms

Contacts

The PCSC is at 90 Church Street, Suite 3100, New York NY 10007-2951. Its phone is 212-330-5300, its fax is 212-330-5320, and its email is pcsc@usps.gov. Its page on Postal Explorer is https://pe.usps.com/PCSC/Index.

Nonprofit application withdrawals can go to the Nonprofit PCSC email, NonprofitPCSC@usps.gov.

Sources