Hand Cancellation? Help!

Oddly, what follows is not a horror story.

This past Saturday, I took a small stack of mailpieces to the nearest post office that offers weekend hours. I handed the young clerk the first piece: a rigid 10 3/8" x 4 1/2" envelope that I had inscribed "Non-Machinable, Do Not Bend".

"This is a nonmachinable Letter that needs a hand-cancel and to go into the metered bin," I said. As I was talking, the clerk placed the letter on the scale and it registered as 1.62 ounces.

The clerk squinted at the Henry James stamp. "What's the value on this?"

"It's a Three-Ounce Forever," I replied. "So, two ounces plus the nonmachinable surcharge…"

"… is ninety-one cents," replied the clerk with a smile. He rapidly flipped through the rest of my mailpieces — each with proper formatting, different service inscriptions, and adequate postage — clearly doing math in his head. He looked up at me with surprised respect and said "You know what you're doing. I like that."

I had to restrain myself from replying "LIKEWISE!"

(Now if only I can just end up at that clerk's station from now on…)

Nice story, Mcgee.

I usually have good experiences with postal clerks. I've posted several here. Of course, there are a lot of USPS staff who just don't get it...

You're lucky. When I take those across the postal counter most of my clerks insist it's a parcel and demand $3 for the $.91 item. (doesn't help any that small parcel rates went up again in early September...)

Rather than fight with the clerks, I try not to send things over the post office counter...