The Post Office and Christmas. cards and errors!

[RICHARD]

O.k.,

To quote a Peter Gabriel song

Tell them how my life is one big adventure,
And always they're amazed.

Every time I wake up I am prepared for an adventure - It's gonna happen and I like that! Today it involved the Post Office, my mistake and some sneaky children's help organization.

I went to the post office this morning to post the rest of my cards. That done I went shopping and came home to do some work around the house.

I was cleaning out some boxes and found some stuff that I should have sent out in the mail a while back! As I prepped everything I realized that I should go back to the P.O. to mail out the packages.

I prepped two of them and put them aside........I went to check on my mail and saw some money, a Christmas card and one card that oddly enough was to the person to whom I was mailing a package to.

I saw that the returned card was missing the STATE NAME-I thought that was weird- and didn't think anything about it.......

Luckily I hadn't closed the package, so I slipped the card into the envelope, sealed it and addressed it.

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I went back to the P.O. and posted two parcels, one to Timbuktu and the other to Timbukthree! I thanked the woman and walked out of the building. I went to get two money orders and pulled out the receipt from the P.O. and looked at it. The one package, that went to Timbuktu was correct. The Timbukthree package was headed toward Wachington D.C.

I panicked and thought that I could go back to the P.O. and see what I did wrong. I cashed my check and went back to see if I could get the package error (my error really!) corrected and get peace of mind.

I could always get the money orders there and some stamps too!

When I made the lobby I saw that the girl who helped me was gone, BUT MY TWO packages were in the hallway behind the counter in a cart! I was hopping on my feet, I was sure that someone from the back would push the
cart to the back and make my problem worse. I got up to the clerk and asked for his help. I explained that the package I sent was going to the wrong zip code and I needed his help.

I pointed out the package I could see and the one I suspected was the "wrong way" package and he pulled it from the cart. I explained to him that I figured out that the ZIP CODE was wrong. HE was able to pull a tattered yellow pages style book from his work area and manually looked up the zip code for me. I joked with him about not having the info on computer and he told me that there was some kind of wait for the system to properly get the correct code for me.

He then told me that the town didn;t exist. On the package, I had changed the town name by one letter! We finally came to a concensus as to what I had done and he fixed the envelope for me!

I thanked him profusely and walked out to the car, happy as a lark....

I forgot my stamps and money orders......I went for a little spin to ANOTHER POST OFFICE-three times would be a real shame, eh?

I got there and bought my money orders and my stamps! Finally!
On the way back home I stopped to buy some gas and bought 5 lottery tickets, by this time I was feeling lucky! I made it home, filled out my money orders and got them ready for the mail, I looked at the card that I had received and when I opened it up-grant you it had a nice computer printed envelope and a NY address on the back....I thought it might be from someone I knew who had moved out there and sent me a company Christmas card.

I opened it up and there was a child's face on the card and he had a hare lip.
I actually recoiled and thought, Who the Eff would send out something like THAT! It actually came from a child care/help organization that helps kids with physical problems. I was so shocked by that photo and the three others that I tossed the whole shebang into the waste can.

I thought I'd walk over to the mail box and put my cards in for tomorrow.
Instead I sat down with a beer, a quarter and my lottery scratchers....

Great thought! I won 4 dollars-plus my original 5 dollar investment.
And I got all my postal problems solved.

I love the post office!:D;)

[Maya & Inka's mommy]

ROTFLMAO !!!
I tried to visualize things,and couldn't stop laughing...

[jazzcat]

This is off topic but as I read your post and came across "hare lip" I had a light bulb go off over my head. I have heard that term since I was about 10 years old (first time from a bad joke :o) but I have never seen it written until now. My whole life I had always thought it was "hair lip" and wondered why it was called that but now knowing it's "hare lip" I understand.

Guess I've had a blonde moment for the past 30 years.

[Pam]

You had quite a day....it seems that the "senior moments" are beginning for you! :p Of course I wouldn't insult you without confessing to one of my own that involves the post office.

One morning on the way to work I cashed a check for Christmas shopping and, since it was for $250, I put it in the secret compartment of my pocketbook for safekeeping. I then went to work, and after work, as I always do, I stopped at the box outside of the post office to deposit the mail from my office. I also reached inside my pocketbook where I had placed my own personal mail which I had planned to mail along with my office mail.

Driving home from the post office I looked inside my pocketbook for the envelope with the $250 and couldn't find it. I drove back to the post office (10 miles) and went inside and asked if someone could get the mail from the outside drop box as I was "sure" I had thrown the envelope with the cash into it when I pulled out my own mail (totally forgetting that my envelope with the cash was safely inside the secret compartment). It was 4:55PM and they were scheduled to remove the mail from the box at 5:00PM and suggested that I wait and they would bring it in and go through it.

As I stood there, I remembered about the secret compartment :o and very sheepishly went to the window and explained to the clerk that I had my money all the time! :o:o I was ready to wring my own neck after all of that needless driving and stress!! :mad:

[Lady's Human]

I'd say send a nice letter to the PO about the clerk being helpful, but......

The clerk would get written up for spending so much time on a non-transacting customer, and also for not explaining to you that the ZIP really wouldn't matter much, as most parcels now go through an OCR which takes less and a second to fugre out an address in the bast case scenario.

[Freedom]

Richard, what a day! And only you could find a way to write it up that is so entertaining. Thanks much!

When I was living in Maine, I had a problem (can't recall what it was, now) so I had to get a ton of receipts photocopied to explain what had happened. On my way out from doing the copying, I stopped to mail some letters, at a drop box.

Got home, couldn't find the original receipts, couldn't find my copies. WHAT? Thought through what I did and . . . realized I had put everything in the mail box!

I raced back, checked the box, no pick up for another 2 hours. I went inside to speak with the clerk, who really had nothing to do with the post office. She told me he arrives anywhere from 10 minutes early to 20 minutes late, and ya never know.

Dashed home, got a book, drove back, and sat in the car reading and keeping an eye on "MY" mail box until the postal carrier drove up.

Raced over and explained to him. He told me (later, I realized he was probably teasing me) that once a letter is mailed, it is not my property and he can't return it. What if I wanted someone else's package, which had cash in it? I thought that over and explained that this WASN'T a letter I wanted, it was papers which the post office wouldn't want and would only throw away, and could I have his trash? Meantime, he was opening the box, removing the insides. And there was my pile of paperwork! I did get it back, thank goodness. Whew!

[lvpets2002]

:o Only you Richard could make going to the Post Office 3 times sound like so much funn..:p great story thanks

[RICHARD]

I'd say send a nice letter to the PO about the clerk being helpful, but......

The clerk would get written up for spending so much time on a non-transacting customer, and also for not explaining to you that the ZIP really wouldn't matter much, as most parcels now go through an OCR which takes less and a second to fugre out an address in the bast case scenario.


I didn't quite mention that the town name AND the Zip were wrong!:rolleyes::o


I really appreciate people being helpful, above and beyond! That really sucks, I should have known that because I was threatened with being written up for being "useful" when people needed help.

When a regular clerk was out of the office and someone came in to sign a birth certificate-that didn't speak English-I was asked to come up and help them out. At the time there was a extra monthly differential (pay) for doing translation. I refused to do it for actual patients-I was afraid that I would get something wrong and there was a story about a translator who almost killed a patient with a miscommunication about allergies.

My boss was ticked off that I didn't sign up for the extra pay-She thought that I should get paid for it, but why should I get paid for something that I was not willing to do all the time?

Anyway, I was told not to help anyone that came in to sign a BC. Later on there was HUGE scandal when they found out that the clerk had a business on the side of selling BC copies to people. If an illegal alien had a child they needed to enroll in a school, get Medi-Cal for, or ???? He would get a blank certificate, have a doc sign it, then fill out the info-backdating it.

Later on we figured out that he was making a few hundred dollars on each 'sale'- I figured out, later on, that my boss wanted me out of the investigation that was started and she ended up paying for the fiasco when they demoted her on a technicality.:rolleyes:

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Pam, we all know about your secret compartment now! ;)