
Silly season ( silly post )(venting ahead – you have been warned).
Just went to the post office to send a Parcel to Denmark. Not my usual friendly post office though. Ran into the bigger post office. The one on the way to town.
The lady asked me over. I plopped the parcel down. The weight of the parcel was 505grams.
I looked and the lady looked. I said ( perhaps a little cheekily) ” Would that go as 500grams? “
The lady snorts at me. Says ” not with today’s revenue”. She walks off
Hrmpfff
The other Post lady looks at it. Says “put it back on and let’s have a look”. ( I think, wrongly, that she’s going to let it go) She weighs it. 505 Grams
I ask forlornly how much it will cost.
$26 something she says.
I ask how much it will cost if it’s under 500gms.
She says “$15.60….. not that much difference really”.
Hrumph I think. In what world is that “not much difference”. In another time I would let that go but I think “buggar it, it’s Christmas, every little bit helps” (and I am feeling stubborn now, goaded into being a bit pig-headed).
I unpack it.
Get a lighter envelope to send it all.
Weigh it without the extra card I put in.
It weighs 487grams.
I check the card.
Stupid card weighs 17 grams.
She prints out the postage and starts the process of the parcel…..air mail sticker, contents disclosure….drivers license….
I plonk the card on the scales again. “How much would it cost to send this to Denmark?”
She glances over, scans the weight and before I know what had happened she has printed off a $2.10 stamp, put it on the card and whisked the card to the huge post basket to send stuff.
I look at her. She looks at me.
I say “Actually, I need that back. It doesn’t have an address on it.” It does, however, have a HUGE smiley face scribbled over the front of it (as it was something I planned on throwing into the parcel).
And then I say “Actually, I didn’t ask for a stamp, I asked how much that would cost to send”.
She gets it out of the basket, smiley face and stamp intact.
She gives it back and says petulantly “I can take the stamp off if you want me to”.
What I want is to not be there anymore. It’s all too hard. I don’t think she wants me to be there either.
I feel hassled into leaving the stamp on. But I have to ask for a sticker to put on the front of the envelope to hide the smiley face.
I fill out the form, stick it on the card, scribble a message on the back of the package (now sealed) along the lines of ‘card to follow – an extra $10.00 to include in the parcel’….and get ready to go.
She says “Um, I need the $2.10″.
Crap. I’d forgotten to pay. ***
I scrabble through my wallet. I JUST USED THE LAST OF MY CASH ON THE PARCEL!
Crap.
I have to do an eftpos for $10.00 to pay for the bloody stamp that I didn’t want in the first place. Crap.
Finally I escape out of there….
The moral of the story?
Always go to Mr Nice Local Post Office where they would say…”5 grams? Don’t worry about it love”….
*** She charged me for a Letter to Denmark too – only worked that out 2 hours later when I was thinking how expensive that Christmas Card was.
(EDITED to add the bit that seemed to not save earlier- sorry if the post left you hanging….)