Tips For How To Battle Window Clerks

Bring your mail to the self-serve kiosk to find how much each piece costs. Then put the pieces back into your shopping bag, and make a list of all the cool stamps you want. Bring the list to the window and buy the stamps. Now the window clerk cannot put meter strips on the items.

I've won and lost battles with those bureaucrats. I got a price quote, then asked for some stamps. The guy counted out the stamps and placed them in a glassine envelope, then asked me for twice the amount of money, which didn't make sense. When I looked up, he was slapping a meter tape on the piece! What on Earth did he think I was buying the stamps for?

You have to be careful about their favorite trick question, "Do you want to mail this?"

You see, you've been told it will cost $13, so you ask for two $5 stamps, a $2 stamp and a $1 stamp. The clerk now asks if you want to mail the item. If you say yes, they pretend to think this entitles them to shoot off another round on the postage meter.

Once I walked in and said, "Good morning, I'd like to buy some postage stamps to put on this to send it registered mail, please."

Clerk: "Registered? Certified costs less."

"Good morning, I'd like to buy some postage stamps to put on this to send it registered mail, please."

Clerk: "Oka-a-a-y."

Actually, offering certified mail is okay because it might be as good and it costs less, but
registered mail is more secure.

She told me how much money and I caught her in time, and said "STOP!" thrice.

Clerk: "What's the matter?"

"Good morning, I'd like to buy some postage stamps to put on this to send it registered mail, please."

Clerk: "Oh, so you want stamps and not the meter?"

"Good morning, I'd like to buy some postage stamps to put on this to send it registered mail, please."

I had to say it four times, but I won the battle. This is what we all need to do. I made a youtube video about this issue, but I cannot provide a link here because of the language in the video.

"Tips for how to battle window clerks" reminds me of something that a daughter said about the then-new Smart War on Drugs: "if they're calling it a war, it can't be that smart". Once its a battle, you're beyond the point of tips.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

You can also invest in a small digital scale and use the USPS website to determine postage amounts for any service.

Buy the stamps needed in advance or at time of shipment, but do not hand over the shipment until all necessary stamps are on cover.

You can do this for registered mail too or any other class of mail. I never hand a clerk anything unless all postage is in place and forms are already filled out if necessary.

Unfortunately, many post offices, especially small town post offices have limited amounts of stamps. Some might not have any stamps above the round international forever stamps. Even Priority and Express mail stamps are not to be found. A large shipment of many items might require a trip to 3 to 6 post offices in one day.

The mindset of seeing people with whom we must do business as adversaries does not seem like a smart approach...but that's just me.

Somebody, didn`t you write for `Seinfeld`?

Supply-side aphorism: "You never really win an argument with a customer."

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Amen to that.Digital scales are pretty inexpensive these days and if you send a lot of mail they're indespensible. Once you know the weight, postage can be calculated using the USPS mobile app or usps.com. It also helps to have lots of postage laying around in various denominations. I rarely see the inside of my post office anymore as I just put stamps on it and give everything to my mail carrier.

I want to see the Youtube video! Give us a clue.

I'd have to agree with bookbndrbob.

It's been my experience that the best way to battle a window clerk is to avoid the battle by being friends with the window clerk.

A smile, a little banter while conducting transactions, don't hound them on the first transaction... I've discovered window clerks (and actually, almost all sales/counter workers) can be quite friendly. This includes managers. I've had stamps set aside for me instead of requiring me to buy the requisite minimum strip length or block size, notes taken for me regarding upcoming issues (this was back before the internet), 10+ year items originally inventoried and set to be sent back that got re-opened for me.

I had one clerk who offered to let me use her name/address to enter the recalled Legends of the West error pane. I didn't ask her, she offered. I ended up making 6 different named submissions and got 3 panes, although her entry was not one of the winners.

It's not just postal workers. I will get things like free pizza buffets from managers, free ice cream cones... (again, offered freely to me after my order, I didn't ask for any favors). I even had one car dealership ask me to delay my purchase one week because an additional $500 incentive might start in a week (most car salesmen want to seal the deal before you walk out that door) -- they had already beat the next lowest deal from other dealerships by $1500. Can't avoid all battles, but you might be surprised how many can be avoided by simply taking the initiative to care for the other person. I find this often more than makes up for any "mistakes" they make, and more importantly, I got a new friend.

Treat them as a business transaction for which they have little vested interest, you can expect them to do everything by the book (or what they think is by the book). Invest a little in getting to know them, and they will no longer only work for their boss -- they'll work for you.

JMO

@TheArtfulHinger: How about the window clerks give the customers a chance before automatically shooting off another postage meter strip? Like, instead of shooting on the cue, "Do you want to mail it?" they should see if the customer wants to buy stamps for it.

"Do you want to mail it?" does not mean, "Do you want a postage meter strip on it?"

@Ringo: Use the filter. Filter by time, within the past week.

1. Postal clerks are going to use meters over stamps the vast majority of the time because most people who mail something don't care.

2. See my previous message - a lot of post offices don't carry enough stamps these days. You want to mail something Express mail with an Express mail stamp? You'll be out of luck at many post offices. $2 or $5 stamps? Very hard to find and I haven't seen the $10 stamp for a couple of years now. Even the 3 oz. and $1.15 stamps are few in numbers.

As I've gotten to know the regular clerks they automatically put stamps on my mailings.

I make sure I have stamps at hand to put on my mail, packages or letters. That way I do not have trouble at the post office.

Peter

If you go into the post office with the attitude that it's a battle, that's too bad for you.

When I go to mail a package and I already have the stamps, I ask the clerk how much the postage will be and I always mention that I already have postage stamps so I won't be needing a label from the postage validation imprinter (PVI). This works every time. No problems at all. Even if I don't have stamps, I tell the clerk up front that I will be wanting stamps only. All post offices have a basic stock of stamps what can be used.

Despite what I posted above, there are some postal clerks and even entire post offices in which battles frequently erupt. There is one post office that I used to have to go to, in which some of the clerks clearly had a chip on the shoulder and I even witnessed one "ring-leader" clerk frequently giving a hard time to anybody who was clearly a recent immigrant from Africa (not blacks in general, but targeting that group).

The station manager was almost never seen, and when he did appear, it was clear he barely knew the DMM. After that station manager was replaced, I noticed that the "ring-leader" clerk abruptly disappeared soon afterwards. After that, the remaining postal clerks were either nice, friendly, or just methodical -- but never again mean-spirited. Now I enjoy going to that post office. One subsequent station manager even unlocked the door 10 minutes after the official close time and allowed me to drop off a package -- even affixing a zero value meter on it.

Most of the postal clerks/carriers I've met have been extraordinarily nice. But there are a few bad apples out there that cause problems for everybody, and unfortunately a lot of times it isn't that easy to get rid of them unless they are caught stealing. Some battles cannot be avoided.

Oy vey.

If you go into the post office the mindset the OP seems to have, no wonder there are problems.

I would bet that 90%++ of USPS daily transactions do not involve stamps, so their workflow is optimized for printed labels vs. the old school affixing of stamps. The latter is no longer the norm, and one shouldn't get offended when a postal clerk's first instinct is to affix a printed postage label.

I've found that in general, if you make things easier for them, they will make things easier for you, whereas if you constantly have a chip on your shoulder, they won't want to accommodate you, nor do I blame them.

As previously mentioned, get a cheap digital scale, use the USPS online price calculator, and affix your postage before going to the post office. It saves yourself time, the clerk's time, and the time of all the people waiting behind you in line.

My workflow for my ebay shipments:

1. Package up and affix my return and address labels.

2. Weigh package, and mark weight on my copy of the invoice.

3. Go to USPS web site, put in origin and destination zip codes, select type of shipment (parcel, letter, etc.) and weight. Add any extra services (insurance, signature confirmation, certified, etc.). Calculate price.

4. Write price on upper-left corner of parcel in ink (the clerks really appreciate this when you are affixing a zillion stamps, as it is a point of reference whether you got the rate correct or whether you made an error or your postal scale is off, rather than standing there counting up stamps).

5. If the shipment is a parcel that gets tracking, apply a tracking number. Yes, you apply the tracking number yourself rather than waiting for the clerk to do it at the post office, by getting pads of tracking numbers from USPS:

https://store.usps.com/store/browse...d=P_LABEL400

6. Affix postage.

Now when you get to the post office, you have taken all of the decisions out of the hands of the postal clerks. You have indicated the amount of postage paid, affixed postage, and supplied them a tracking number. The only thing they have to do is scan in the tracking number, confirm the rate and postage amount, cancel stamps, and done.

My packages take about 30 seconds (if that) at the window for them to process and do the acceptance scan. I do most of the work for them, and they know through a long history that I do a lot of domestic and international shipping and know the rate differences for letter vs. letter with nonmachineable surcharge vs. flat vs. parcel. They don't even question my calculations any more.

I make things go faster for them, so they have zero problems accommodating my occasional philatelic requests, e.g., "please hand cancel this one especially neatly".

They have a job to do... don't make things more difficult for them.