Another Postal Story

4 different trips to the same post office to mail the same item, a CD protected by a cracker package (wheat thins) cut to cover it in a manila envelope 6x9. I've been charged $.93, $1.20, $1.64, and $2.68. All claim this is the correct amount to send it. What should it really be? 3 of the 4 times it fit in the slot. The other time it needed to be straightened out but the clerk refused. I think I'm as confused as the clerks.
Tom

I had to chuckle while reading the post. The same kind of thing happens to me on a regular basis. It is like Russian roulette. I do everything I know to do to make it easy for the clerk, and sure enough, he/she will come up with some reason why I'm wrong. It doesn't always happen, but it certainly happens often enough to make it very annoying.

I'm lucky enough to have a post office with a Kiosk and use that for everything except media mail and overseas packages. I've found postal clerks here in Milwaukee are pretty useless for the items I mail regularly. And good luck trying to explain to them that they are wrong.

tom, is this a "one minute mystery"? "Wheat thins" is a red herring, right?

Solution is to have a postal scale at home, or be a very good guesser. Then refer to this site for mailing rates: pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/Notice123.htm .

I don't mail very many flats of the type described, but seldom do I stand in line to get something weighed. I pick up $1 and $2 stamps from either the Stamp Fulfillment Center (mail order) or buy them at the local post office. I also have a good number of "odd amount" stamps, like the .79 airmail, etc.

I have been thru the same argument with the US Postal Service.

I posted an 8x8" bubble envelope with a stiffener & collectibles for the grandchildren (cards, stamps, Wall-E cd) overseas.

Width was now just over 1/4", which should have upgraded me from letter to flat but, either way, cost U$D ~5.

Clerk insisted I pay the parcel rate, eg, U$D ~10.

Being an accommodating sort, I next tried a 6x9" photo mailer (same sort of contents).

I expected that the photo mailer would travel at the letter/flat rate (much less than 1/4" thick) plus the non-machinable charge.

Different clerk, different post office, different *county*, same result: the clerk insisted it be rated as a parcel, doubling the price from U$D ~5 to U$D ~10.

"But a letter can be rigid" says I, "and that adds only 21 cents."

"Yes, but that is for 'rigid', and this is actually STIFF."

I got stiffed, in more ways than one.

I next wrote the USPS HQ on my letterhead, asking for a ruling about the photo mailers, on their letterhead.

They never answered that simple question.

Of late, I have resorted to ikeyPikey's Maxim: "Count on indifference to make a difference."

I insert stiffeners in a greeting-card-sized envelope.

In the middle, along the top, I hand-write the amount of postage for a first-class letter and, underneath that, write "21c".

I put what I think is the correct letter rate worth of postage on the right side of the envelope.

I add twenty-one cents worth of postage over on the left side of the envelope - perhpas inadvertently creating the impression that I added the 21c after a window clerk told me to pay the non-machineable surcharge - and toss the envelope into the outbound mail slot. Sans customs declaration, to boot.

These arrive at their destination, on time, intact, no postage due, no nothing. Indifference rules! YMMV.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

[quotetom, is this a "one minute mystery"? "Wheat thins" is a red herring, right?
][/quote]

It is a red herring. What is your guess?
Tom

I just got done reading ikeyPikey and the thought occurred to me why are the inmates running the asylum? I'm going to talk to the supervisor ( he charged me $.93) the next time I go in with the next package and tell my tale to deaf ears.
Tom