val2525
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Post by val2525 on Aug 13, 2020 4:33:38 GMT
Read this in a FB group I'm in:
I am tracing a lost parcel for an international customer and had a long discussion with my local postal Supervisor. I am placing part of our conversation here, as I wasn't aware of item #2. I thought you'd be interested in it too.
<snipped> There are two problems with shipping parcels in the US right now: Problem 1: Due to COVID-19, US postal employees are getting sick and staying home (or dying), increasing the burden on their fellow workers who are trying to pick up the slack. We also have a new USPS Postmaster, who (politics aside) is slowing down the mail ON PURPOSE including *leaving mail on carts waiting to be delivered for days or weeks*. The new Postmaster who oversees all our mail is denying overtime and workers can't finish their mail routes. This is a known problem. I can send you news articles to read if you want more info.
Problem 2: I found out about this today. Because of COVID-19, there are less airplanes flying. Because there are less airplanes flying, there isn't as much room in the planes for parcels, which are the urgent parcels people pay more money to ship. These are sitting in postal warehouses waiting to fill the small amount of planes available. YOUR PARCEL is at a cheaper, and much slower rate. Because there is no room for the higher priced urgent parcels, your parcel is (supposedly) taking a backseat and waiting in bins at post offices for truck pick up to shipping ports where - you already know this - there are less ships at sea to pick up parcels and transport them.
Normally, it would be: Plane lands, fills with passengers, fills with express parcels, fills with priority parcels, leftover room fills with 1st class parcels < that's your parcel right there. Now, because there's not enough room on planes, and due to the required slowdown for our postmaster, ALL 1st class international parcels are taking weeks to ship. <snipped>
I think it's going to get worse before it gets better, and it's going to affect us as sellers. I'll see if I can find the post eBay made about how they're handling the slow down.
PLEASE KEEP THIS TOPIC NON-POLITICAL. EVEN ONE POLITICAL COMMENT, THE ENTIRE THREAD WILL BE SHUT DOWN. THANK YOU.
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val2525
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Post by val2525 on Aug 13, 2020 4:36:14 GMT
Found the eBay post:
eBay Announcement from Marni Schiffer Levine
re: USPS .. thank you ..
Here’s what we’re doing now and how we’re looking to the future:
Handling time
We are automatically extending estimated delivery dates as necessary to give buyers a more reasonable expectation of when their items will arrive. We recommend that you don’t extend your handling time.
Our extended estimates should give you enough buffer, and additional handling days could lead to the appearance of your items shipping slower than they actually are.
Seller protections
Last month, we announced seller protections against shipping defects through August 31, and we will continue to extend these protections as long as strains on carriers affect delivery dates. “Item not received” cases
If a buyer opens an “item not received” case, and you provided valid tracking and shipped the item within your promised handling time, we will wait to evaluate the case until after the extended estimated delivery date.
We will recognize that you uploaded valid tracking and met your handling time commitment, and you can still qualify as a Top Rated Seller.
If the item shows up late because of a carrier delay, we will remove the shipping defect for late shipment.
If the item is delivered after the extended estimated delivery date, we will remove shipping-related negative or neutral feedback on your behalf.
We are continually monitoring shipping developments and USPS delays. We are working on other affordable, more reliable delivery options for sellers. Stay tuned for important developments in this area in the coming weeks.
As always, thank you for selling on eBay.
Marni Levine VP of Seller Operations and Engagement
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val2525
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Post by val2525 on Aug 13, 2020 4:39:29 GMT
Mail sorting machines are being removed from post offices as well: www.salon.com/2020/08/12/mail-sorting-equipment-being-removed-from-post-offices-leaving-mail-to-pile-up-union-leader/But Kimberly Karol, the head of the Iowa Postal Workers Union, told NPR that there have been even more changes than previously reported.
"We are beginning to see those changes and how it is impacting the mail. Mail is beginning to pile up in our offices, and we're seeing equipment being removed," she said on Tuesday. "So we are beginning to see the impact of those changes."
"Curious," exclaimed host Noel King, "I hadn't heard about this one. Equipment being removed. What equipment?"
"The sorting equipment that we use to process mail for delivery," said Karol, who is also a postal clerk. "In Iowa, we are losing machines . . . so that also hinders our ability to process mail in the way that we had in the past."
USPS spokesman David Partenheimer told Salon that the equipment removal was among actions the agency was taking "focused on increasing operational efficiency."
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val2525
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Post by val2525 on Aug 13, 2020 4:41:58 GMT
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Post by chapeaunoir on Aug 13, 2020 6:19:54 GMT
I would not ship internationally at this time, and it may be prudent to upgrade all first class parcels to priority. I won't be doing this - most of my stuff sells for so cheap anymore due to eBay's race to the bottom that I can just refund if it never arrives (my buyers, though, have been great). I think the site should be more cognizant of the sabotage of the postal service with the end-result being severe delays in mail, and how long these delays are occurring. In fact, I would think that they would be actually meeting with postal service officials to determine the rate of delays and future plans, but I don't foresee this. I read in Ina's blog that eBay is considering 'other shipment options' - unless they decide on their own logistics, I don't see this happening.
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Post by zoesam on Aug 13, 2020 14:37:47 GMT
Yes, the first 3 are well known for a long time. Planes have been a huge problem BUT my experience (limited) has been that the 2 items I shipped to 2 different countries in W Europe got there in a couple of weeks, BUT I had to shut off GSP b/c those pkgs were sitting AT the GSP center for 12 days for me & I've heard up to 22 days. One guy who's worked in Intl cargo for 20+ years tried to tell me the GSP problem was planes & that they couldn't process the paperwork until space on planes was committed BUT all I can say is that the stuff I mailed directly to Europe went through fine.
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val2525
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Post by val2525 on Aug 13, 2020 16:16:18 GMT
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Post by denise15601 on Aug 13, 2020 17:38:45 GMT
I honestly dreamed last night about not being able to mail in my ballot. And then, of course, I dreamed about people not wearing masks. Things of nightmares...enter Stephen King.
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val2525
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Post by val2525 on Aug 13, 2020 20:53:05 GMT
Folks, keep the politics OUT of this thread please. That includes discussion of mail-in ballots.
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Post by denise15601 on Aug 13, 2020 21:06:56 GMT
Oops.
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Post by zoesam on Aug 14, 2020 0:06:30 GMT
Interesting. There are some surprising countries on there. Tho' most are what you'd expect. My stuff was all going to Western Europe, which we are not going to cease delivering mail to, too much business relies on it.
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Post by chapeaunoir on Aug 14, 2020 7:09:20 GMT
The WH has made an about face and is now allowing the bill with the USPS funding to pass. Hopefully this will have a good effect on the USPS's ability to begin processing mail and rolling back some of the most egregious changes - hopefully we'll be seeing smoother transmission of mail and a resumption of services. The USPS, in my view, has been doing an heroic job of getting the mail through, despite all.
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Post by denise15601 on Aug 14, 2020 14:31:44 GMT
I checked my shipping and all of my stuff is getting delivered okay. EXCEPT for a package in my state, PA. It will be delivered today, but I sent it FC a week ago.
PA gov has ordered a valid explanation of the slow-down immediately.
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kritter
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Post by kritter on Aug 14, 2020 14:50:22 GMT
JMO but I think a certain amount of respect is due any member on this board when they start a thread and request that politics or whatever should not be included, that request should be respected. Not only for this thread but any thread. If a member is unable to contain themselves to follow that request, they should not post on that thread. There are political boards all over the web that a person can discuss political issues but this is not one of them.
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kritter
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Post by kritter on Aug 14, 2020 15:00:00 GMT
I am a coward and have not been checking my shipping. I get packages scanned at the post office and send them off with a wish and a prayer.
Anything over a certain amount pricewise, I build the priority shipping in to the sale price because in my mind, priority has a better chance of getting there close to a timely manner than first class.
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val2525
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Post by val2525 on Aug 14, 2020 15:54:08 GMT
Actually one can discuss the USPS mail slow down without getting political, as can be seen by the now edited reply. It makes the same sense it did before, without the negative political comments. The USPS service slowdown affects us all as buyers and sellers and we can easily discuss it in that context.
We've given everyone a little leeway on the coronavirus thread because that IS one topic that is so politicized it can't be discussed without some politics sneaking in. Now I'm beginning to see that may have been a mistake, since this is now the SECOND thread on the SAME TOPIC where members have been asked to NOT DISCUSS POLITICS and some members continue to do so.
For the record, I'm very close to either converting this forum to ALL BUSINESS topics or saying screw it and shutting down the entire forum. Keep pushing it, all, and everyone will need to find somewhere else to virtually hang out.
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val2525
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Post by val2525 on Aug 14, 2020 23:22:37 GMT
Oh great. In addition to the slowed service, we now get a price hike on 10/18. about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2020/0814-usps-announces-temporary-price-increase.htm?fbclid=IwAR2JV6XbwyaMCXabwXxx3fPCFis18yzItd_MvhCXu2VsKVV64pWWDemhlrAThe United States Postal Service filed notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) today of a temporary price change to take effect Oct. 18, 2020.
The planned temporary price adjustments are in response to increased expenses and heightened demand for online shopping package volume due to the coronavirus pandemic and expected holiday ecommerce. As a result of these changing market conditions, the Postal Service is planning a time-limited price increase on all commercial domestic competitive package volume from Oct. 18 until Dec. 27, 2020. Retail prices and international products will be unaffected.
The planned price increase would go into effect at 12:00AM Central on Oct.18, 2020 and remain in place until 12:00AM Central Dec. 27, 2020.
The planned prices, approved by the Governors of the Postal Service on August 6, would raise prices on its commercial domestic competitive parcels – Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, First-Class Package Service, Parcel Select, and Parcel Return Service.
This time-limited adjustment will increase prices for our commercial customers in line with competitive practices without impacting customers at the retail level. In doing this, the Postal Service is protecting the retail consumer during a vulnerable economic period while increasing prices on commercial volume during heightened volume levels.It will impact customers, just not USPS customers. This sucks.
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Post by chapeaunoir on Aug 15, 2020 1:35:12 GMT
Crap time to be doing this - the holiday season. Having said that, the increases aren't as bad as I feared - at least they're not 'four times' and somewhat absorbable. I read earlier today that DeJoy at least MENTIONED the ridiculous funding plan, one bright spot. Given that price increases are usually...what...early January? This will probably be permanent.
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Post by denise15601 on Aug 15, 2020 1:57:02 GMT
Good to hear the report that the people are complaining to their senators. The elderly and veterans are not receiving their life-saving meds. So the removing of the mailboxes has apparently been stopped.
I am wondering how the destroying of the million $$ sorting machines is going to save us money??? How can our mail ever be brought back to our previous standards?
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Post by chapeaunoir on Aug 15, 2020 5:51:06 GMT
This is the USPS subreddit (not sponsored by the USPS itself, these are postal employees) - www.reddit.com/r/USPS/They've been posting some pretty up-to-date articles and bulletins on this issue. For instance, I just found that the removal of postal boxes in most Western states has been halted until after the election, with list of states.
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Post by labbypaws on Aug 15, 2020 10:40:34 GMT
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Post by pyrexandpearls on Aug 15, 2020 16:13:24 GMT
The blue mailbox drops have been downsized in my neighborhood. My neighborhood, and almost every single one surrounding mine, has the "community style" mailboxes where we receive our mail. The box locks and each person has a key to their respective box instead of a home mailbox. Because of this, we have to put outgoing mail in a blue box. The nearest location to me had 4 blue boxes that were picked up twice a day - and even then they were sometimes full. They took the 4 regular boxes away and replaced it by one, "jumbo" box that doesn't have nearly the capacity of the four previous boxes combined.
With small businesses already struggling right now it is disheartening to think of what will happen to those who rely so heavily on the USPS.
It makes me wonder - do you think Amazon will ever throw their hat in the ring? They already deliver their own packages in my area a good portion of the time - will they ever start offering delivery of packages that originate outside of Amazon? Something to ponder.
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Post by marsha91091 on Aug 15, 2020 18:54:35 GMT
I didn't read through all the above links but I do not for a moment believe this has anything to do with Covid. Up until this past week I have had ZERO issues with mail and I am in NY (in westchester county...the alleged epicenter for NY). On Tuesday I didn't have 1 piece of mail. I get tons of mail and I do not recall a day without at least 1 piece. When the same thing happened on Weds., I knew this was suspect. According to informed delivery, I am getting 1 piece today. One of these days I should be getting a giant box worth!! And I shipped a Priority pkg to my son in NOLA this past Monday, he still has not received it and tracking just says "delayed"...nothing else. I guess I should be relieved that I have barely sold anything. This is really scary....I feel like we live in Russia, or some place similar where anything goes. And, as much as I am not an Amazon fan, I do wish they would start USPS type services.
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Post by zoesam on Aug 15, 2020 20:02:54 GMT
I didn't read through all the above links but I do not for a moment believe this has anything to do with Covid. Up until this past week I have had ZERO issues with mail and I am in NY (in westchester county...the alleged epicenter for NY). On Tuesday I didn't have 1 piece of mail. I get tons of mail and I do not recall a day without at least 1 piece. When the same thing happened on Weds., I knew this was suspect. According to informed delivery, I am getting 1 piece today. One of these days I should be getting a giant box worth!! And I shipped a Priority pkg to my son in NOLA this past Monday, he still has not received it and tracking just says "delayed"...nothing else. I guess I should be relieved that I have barely sold anything. This is really scary....I feel like we live in Russia, or some place similar where anything goes. And, as much as I am not an Amazon fan, I do wish they would start USPS type services. Lucky you. It absolutely DOES has to do with COVID & has been going on for many months. The county tried to shut down the Denver USPS Sort Center b/c of a COVID outbreak & there were even deaths. I have posted the link to the article that made lots of news. That was not the only sort center affected by COVID. But it's a big sort center that handles not just Colorado, but nearby states as well. So for 4 months now, at least, my pkgs have been going to a different sort center every night & most of them do not make logical sense geographically. It's a nightly crapshoot as to where they will end up. You're very lucky if you haven't been affected, but when the county tries to shut down the Denver Sort Center due to an outbreak & COVID deaths & it's ALL OVER the news, it absolutely has to do with COVID. Many sort centers have problems, I'm just up on this one b/c it affects me directly & was all over the news. Yes, there aren't other more recent problems, but the COVID has been going on the longest & is causing the most severe delays. I'm up to 5 INR's & a number of others who were nice enough to contact me first to ask what was going on. A number of pkgs have taken a full 2 weeks & most are taking at least a week. So just b/c you're sort center may not be affected does NOT mean that others aren't. Every single night, it's a guess as to what sort center in what state they will end up in & prior to this, my pkgs have NEVER gone anywhere but the local sort center. Despite Ebay's memo on it which we've been asking for, for months, I noticed that when I go to print my labels, Ebay is suggesting that I may want to consider other carriers due to USPS problems. I wonder, with the Last Mile agreements that USPS has w/UPS & Fedex, how that would help, since most of them would eventually go to USPS after all.
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Post by zoesam on Aug 15, 2020 20:09:45 GMT
The blue mailbox drops have been downsized in my neighborhood. My neighborhood, and almost every single one surrounding mine, has the "community style" mailboxes where we receive our mail. The box locks and each person has a key to their respective box instead of a home mailbox. Because of this, we have to put outgoing mail in a blue box. The nearest location to me had 4 blue boxes that were picked up twice a day - and even then they were sometimes full. They took the 4 regular boxes away and replaced it by one, "jumbo" box that doesn't have nearly the capacity of the four previous boxes combined. With small businesses already struggling right now it is disheartening to think of what will happen to those who rely so heavily on the USPS. It makes me wonder - do you think Amazon will ever throw their hat in the ring? They already deliver their own packages in my area a good portion of the time - will they ever start offering delivery of packages that originate outside of Amazon? Something to ponder. The blue mailboxes around here have been getting downsized & disappearing for years due to lack of use (way before COVID). I've had clusters for 25 years now. Many of the blue mailboxes around here, closed years ago, except at the post offices. They just aren't very necessary any more. Don't your cluster boxes have an outgoing mail slot? We have had some problems with cluster break ins, but hey, last year one of the giant blue boxes (not the regular ones, the huge ones) was run into, broken into & all the mail stolen right from the drive through at one of the post offices here, on a weekend. Since then we no longer use the drive-throughs & either go inside on the weekends or use our neighborhood outgoing cluster slot.
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Post by chapeaunoir on Aug 15, 2020 20:13:57 GMT
I was chatting with someone in the shipping industry and the business with the wonky sort center assignments has to do with cargo allocation, and this cargo allocation has been affected by changes in available flights (less) and airport access (also less) and suddenly higher number of mail pieces/parcels being sent (due to Covid). Basically, 'all available space' needs to be filled up in cargo areas and, since the plane is flying anyway, other parcels not destined for that particular region will be crammed in and sent a round-about way, rather than having one plane flying half empty and one full. He explained it a lot better than I'm doing. But it's deemed cheaper and more fuel efficient to transport groups of parcels this way. That's why some will go along their regular route and others take the scenic route. So everything initially goes to the local sorting center (here it's usually Kent, WA but sometimes has been Federal Way) but after that it can go almost anywhere that there is cargo space. ETA: marsha91091 Your up-until-now regular mail delivery has probably been now affected by these bogus new 'cost cutting' measures, thus you're not seeing much. My parcels have been doing well getting to their destinations, with only a few going astray (I don't sell much these days) with a few taking longer, but like yourself I live near a major shipping hub so the odds have been more in our favour insofar as the impact the pandemic has had - unfortunately, that hasn't been the case for a lot of sellers.
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Post by zoesam on Aug 15, 2020 20:23:31 GMT
I was chatting with someone in the shipping industry and the business with the wonky sort center assignments has to do with cargo allocation, and this cargo allocation has been affected by changes in available flights (less) and airport access (also less) and suddenly higher number of mail pieces/parcels being sent (due to Covid). Basically, 'all available space' needs to be filled up in cargo areas and, since the plane is flying anyway, other parcels not destined for that particular region will be crammed in and sent a round-about way, rather than having one plane flying half empty and one full. He explained it a lot better than I'm doing. But it's deemed cheaper and more fuel efficient to transport groups of parcels this way. That's why some will go along their regular route and others take the scenic route. So everything initially goes to the local sorting center (here it's usually Kent, WA but sometimes has been Federal Way) but after that it can go almost anywhere that there is cargo space. ETA: marsha91091 Your up-until-now regular mail delivery has probably been now affected by these bogus new 'cost cutting' measures, thus you're not seeing much. My parcels have been doing well getting to their destinations, with only a few going astray (I don't sell much these days) with a few taking longer, but like yourself I live near a major shipping hub so the odds have been more in our favour insofar as the impact the pandemic has had - unfortunately, that hasn't been the case for a lot of sellers. Yes, that's part of it Chap, but depending on where you're at, everything does NOT initially go to the local Sort Center. My items have NOT been going to the local Sort Center for 4-5 months now except on rare occasions due to COVID issues. That's b/c they tried to shut down 'my' sort center due to COVID illness & deaths. They are presumably (I haven't checked lately) still operating with much less staff than usual. Plus like Val mentioned awhile back, I think it was Val, the USPS has offered the ability to older employees not to work during this time, which also limits the staffing. When I say every night it's a crapshoot as to where they will end up, I'm not kidding. It changes NIGHTLY & only in the last month, have I started seeing 'my' sort center again, on rare occasions. The cargo situation is supposedly why items are staying at the GSP Center for weeks before moving on.
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Post by chapeaunoir on Aug 15, 2020 20:28:01 GMT
Yes - it's definitely a crap shoot because it depends on what's flying out at that time. We have two sort centers here (both near the airport) due to the amount of shipping done here, so if one struggles, the other can take up the slack. If one has one sort center and it gets closed down or is on reduced capacity, then the hold up starts right there. Marsha and I are near two major ports, which helps.
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Post by denise15601 on Aug 15, 2020 21:34:01 GMT
This is the USPS subreddit (not sponsored by the USPS itself, these are postal employees) - www.reddit.com/r/USPS/They've been posting some pretty up-to-date articles and bulletins on this issue. For instance, I just found that the removal of postal boxes in most Western states has been halted until after the election, with list of states. Rachel reported that last night, TG.
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val2525
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Post by val2525 on Aug 15, 2020 21:51:21 GMT
I didn't read through all the above links but I do not for a moment believe this has anything to do with Covid. Up until this past week I have had ZERO issues with mail and I am in NY (in westchester county...the alleged epicenter for NY). I'm not in an epicenter (although we were a hot spot for awhile). My mail was slowed down somewhat since COVID infections started, but still still made it to me. Just 3-5 days longer than usual. Ever since the new changes were implemented at the USPS by the new dude, my mail is being delayed 7-10 days and I've had more packages lost than I've had in my entire lifetime. Actually, I never had a lost package until the past 4 weeks. The initial slowdown was COVID related, but not everyone was affected by it, based on where they were and COVID infections. But now, we're ALL going to be impacted by the USPS changes. The holiday selling season is going to be a nightmare.
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