Going Postal Again

[howeird]

Highlight of the afternoon was going to the PO with a stack of calendars already sealed in labeled envelopes. I was all out of customs forms, which were needed for about 7 of them, which turned out to be a good thing, because the USPS has switched from a simple single-ply sticker to a 4-ply carbonless copy form with the sticker on the bottom layer needing to be peeled off. It took 20 minutes and severe hand cramps to complete those. And it made what used to be a simple bar code scan for the clerk into a 2-minute ordeal per form. The domestic ones were not much better, because even though they all weighed the same and were going first class for the same postage, she had to punch in each zip code separately. And we wonder why they are losing money.

Work was pretty mundane. The 10 am meeting I loathe was moved to 11, which is still a crock being it's Monday. SortaBoss™ is a bean counter, and very AR about the power of statistics, but he is a smart guy and little by little he is learning that the data he is basing his stats on is misleading, and needs to be re-thought. Meanwhile I am starting to re-think my future there. Trouble is, there still are no good jobs out there in my area of expertise. At least not locally.

And I'm thinking of moving. The numbers are right for a place with a washer/dryer. Trouble is it is the rainy season, and that is not the time to make a move. However, it may be time to start looking again, just to see what the prices are.

BASFA was fun, though poorly attended. johnnyeponymous missed some great auction items. There was a book I would have liked, except it was thrown in with several pieces of junk which I had no interest in. I was happy to see my 2011 calendar bid up to about $7.

Yay for Stanford clobbering the Yokels from Virginia. Wish the game had been on the radio. Had to make do with Sports Tap

Plans for tomorrow:
 Work
???

Comments

[melchar.livejournal.com]

This is where I chortle with glee, since I ended up as top bidder for the calender. ^_^ I enjoyed the last one so very much! You are a genius with framing and taking photographs. Thank you!

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Unless they've changed the rules inthe past 3 days, there are 2 different customs forms. The short green and the one you describe. I was going to send you the links to tell you which form to use when and how to order insurance forms online, but they seem broken, as is the link to do a vacation hold on my mail for my upcoming trip to Atlanta. Maybe USPS really is making some changes. Now I have to go to the post office myself. Bah!

At my local post office, they told me first not to stand in line and just ring the bell, then they told me not to ring the bell and just leave stuff on the counter. They told me to just throw my international prepaid in the box, but the other post office echoes the online instruction that tells me I have to stand in line with any international package.

Idiots.

[howeird]

*blush* Thanks! I hope you enjoy this one too.

[howeird]

They changed the rules as of Monday. The short form is now in triplicate, plus a cover sheet with a unique bar code for each mailing. There's a way to print the form online, but it requires a phone number for the recipient (which I rarely have). And it needs to be printed on a non-standard sized label. The web site does show the old style single page form available, but I bet they don't accept it at the PO anymore.

I've never had a problem ordering forms & boxes online, tried it this morning and it worked fine. Must have been something you ate. :-)

As for the run-around, that's your local PO, and they have a complaint card you can fill out about that. It doesn't need postage, so you can just leave it on the counter, or drop it in the mailbox, or you can ring the bell and wait for someone to come out and tell you to leave it on the counter or drop it in a mailbox.

My PO is a major WTF for collecting vacation hold mail. They tore down the old PO and built a brand new one on the same spot, but instead of making it bigger and better they made it smaller and added more parking for the staff & mail trucks. As a result they hold your vacation mail at another office which is not open to the public, and you have to phone them one working day in advance so they can bring it to the public PO to pick up.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

On vacation hold mail, I start a day early and end a day late, and have them deliver to the house when I get back. I have a direct phone number to the PO that I wrangled out of them, and I normally expect to call them twice, once when they deliver on the day before I go on vacation, to remind them my mail is on hold hand they shouldn't deliver. Again, when I get back, the day after I should have received my mail, to ask where it is because they forgot to restart it.

One thing they do with online postage that's a HUGE ripoff is they don't offer an option for first class on international, only priority. I have to stand in line at the PO to mail most international for that reason. 1st class is often much cheaper than priority, with the exception of 3-4 pound items that fit in the small fixed rate box or envelope.

Ah, for the days when there was an international book rate!

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Here's the error I get from the post office when I try to get the PO store. It was fine last week.

http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h434/lemmozine/xmas%20dinner/Screenshot2011-01-04at11236PM.png

Something about the site redirecting somewhere else then back to itself. Pyoingyoingyoingyoingyoingyoingyoingyoing!

[howeird]

Well now anything as big as a book going by air (which includes first class) has to be handed to a human being at the PO, thanks to all the terrorists mailing exploding Korans.

[howeird]

That's a Safari issue. Try using a real browser. :-)