Saturday, November 20, 2010

Screwing with the Post Office

Every year I compile a calendar for my Greater Swiss Mountain Dog Breed Club and another one for the local Foster Rescue Group I am on the board of (and Frank is President of).  I have to mail out the calendars for Southbound Swissy club.  So that necessitates interacting with the US Post Office.

So today I shipped the first wave of 29 calendars for Southbound. The post office is an enigma to me. You do know what an enigma is, right? It is a puzzle that requires ingenuity and careful thinking to solve.

Well. Just saying.


Of course there is no one in the place since it is Saturday. No problem. I have one calendar packages and two calendar packages.  I take a one calendar package, place it on the scale of the self serve postage machine. It weighs the package and asks, like, 95 questions and then I key in the zip code. It offers me several options to send the package, or should I say "large envelope not over 3/4 of an inch thick or more than 14 inches on any given side."

I choose. Cost is $2.07.

This goes on for 5 large envelopes not over 3/4 of an inch thick or more than 14 inches on any given side. Then it refuses to acknowledge that there was a 1 lb package on the scale. I took it off. The screen zeroed out. I put it back on, it went to 1 lb. I have a hard time believing that one calendar is one pound, but I wanted to mail them off without appearing to be a terrorist sending illicit packages in the post. That is why I didn't go to FedEx or UPS. I figured I needed a few guns more than a package to get arrested at the post office.

So I take a couple of other one calendar packages out and the machine refuses to acknowledge these either. I have 4 two calendar packages so I pop one of those puppies on the scale and it registers as 1 lb 14 oz. So that tells me that one calendar is NOT 1 pound, but I don't want to appear to be argumentative, so I accept the verdict.

It seems that two calendars cannot go regular post, they must go priority at $5.15 which is more than twice than one calendar. But I remain calm. I purchase the Priority Stamp and try a 1 calendar package again.

It works. For 2 more calendars, then I get the same deal. I grab another 2 calendar package and this time it reads as $1.90. Hey, I buy the $1.90 stamp and get an idea.

What if I LEAVE the 2 calendar package on the scale where it is registering, and just key in the zip code of where I want the 1 calendar package to go. I am using a heavier package, the correct distance, and taking advantage of a 17 cent sale. So when I get to the end of the 1's and put a 2 calendar package on there, it wants to go back to the $5.15 price.

So I have 3 calendars that went priority at more than twice the price, so I didn't save any money, but the calendars may get there faster.  Howeer if last year is any barometer, it is not necissarily true. and factual

glen


1 comment:

  1. Funny, Big T has a personal vendetta against the US Post Office and Mail system. Believe me, don't get him started on it. I cannot believe such inconsistency ALL the time.

    Hugs - Marie

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