Yesterday the mail carrier came early and in the mail was a returned "Thank You" card with a yellow strip that said twenty more cents was needed.
After my daughter had her interview for her first Nursing job she purchased three Thank You cards and mailed them to people with whom she had her interview. The card was about 3 inches by 3 inches.
Only one of the three were returned. "What is this?" Emily asked. "I have no idea." said Claudia as I went and weighed the envelope. It weighed about 1/4 ounce and the postage is more than sufficient for its weight.
"I am going to the Post Office, I feel an argument coming on....." said I. Upon my arrival to the Post Office there was no line and I handed the card to the Clerk and said "What can you tell me about this?" said I.
"You need 20 cents more" said the Clerk. "Why, it is under an ounce?" Claudia asks.
"It is an odd size, the letters are stamped and it is larger than regulation" said the Clerk. (not wearing a name tag either) "They can get stuck in the machine."
I asked "Why is the Post Office keeping this rule a secret and why did not the other two come back?"
Clerk.."If I did not work at the Post Office I would not have known it either and you were just lucky they did not come back."
Claudia, paying her 20 cents as the Clerk removed the yellow notice, "Most of the envelopes that are an odd size come with a little note stating that it requires extra postage."
Clerk "I don't know what to tell you."
On the drive home I started to ruminate this event and asked myself what about all the greeting cards that everyone sends, billions of them I would imagine. Why didn't any of the ones I sent come back. This whole thing doesn't sound right to me. Can you imagine what an uproar that would ensue if this is correct and the card would require 62 cents???? The greeting card industry would be in a state of rage.
I am not worried about 20 cents, and I will follow it more to see what the regulations really are......No wonder more people are paying bills on line and sending for information and receiving it via the Internet. If it is true I will also be sending E card greeting too.
No wonder the US Postal Service is in the RED, I think I am surrounded by idiots.
Agreed about the USPS being idiots. We did alot of mailings through our business and had our own postage machine. Well when the new sizing took place half our mail was coming back. It wasn't the weight is was the size, apparently to the USPS SIZE DOES MATTER!
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