SHIPS AND BOATS AND PLANES........SPROUT WINGS

My surface mail to Canada and America went off in time for the last surface mail posting date in mid October 2016.

The packages would take minimum four weeks and a maximum of five weeks to arrive, said the post office clerk.  

The stated timing was perfect; early slow mailing is economic and in any case, there was plenty of time for slow delivery.  The packages could have taken six weeks to arrive and still been in time.  


Five days after posting, I received my first thank you email for my gift.   It was soon followed up by a second one................ Ships, coach and horses, obviously sprout wings.

CouRteSy Of Ebenezer Scrooge and Charles Dickens ...BAH! HUMBUG.

There in front of me, in print, I read that Royal Mail 'International Economy Mail' for for post of a weight up to 20g and specified small measurements was 81p.  

• A quick bit of mental arithmetic immediately told me that I might save a whopping 16p per item on the 97p 'Standard' International Mail.  Read on...

• If I was not in a hurry for mail to arrive, it would be at destination within two weeks.  At this stage, the end of November 2014, there was plenty of time for my international Christmas mail to go Economy class. 

This was getting quite exciting......

I scrolled down the page where I found an invitation to print my own stamps at no more cost than it would be at a Post Office counter.  

Now that was a bit far fetched. I would be using my printer ink; my paper; my labels; all at my cost, and pay the full up postage costs.  I would still have to physically post the mail into a mail box either outside the Post Office, or, a mail box at the Sorting Office, equidistant in the opposite direction.  It definitely was not difficult to decline the invitation to be my own post mistress.  Anyway, I rather like having a fully functioning Post Office to take my business to.

Scrolling down a bit further I was invited to click for further guidance;

• International Economy Mail is the smart new name for what we used to know as Surface Mail -  Enlightenment dawned;  that's why using this posting method would take some time to get there, but that's okay, time is on my side.
• Uh oh. The definition for 'International' is lots of places on the map except the land mass we know as Western Europe. 
                           Except Western Europe !!!!
• So, Folks, it's great news if your mail is going mostly anywhere but in Western Europe.  If your mail is going west, your extra pennies will go with it at a minimum of 97p per letter, up to maximum weight of 20g and within specified quite small measurements.

  Bah! Humbug.

A BIG QUESTION

"You'll get the confirmation and a form to sign in the post within three working days,"  she said, "and thank you for your call."

Five working days later I have received all sorts of mail, but not the correspondence I am waiting for. As time is of the essence - there's a deadline to be met - there is nothing else for it, but to phone. There's the usual recorded message and a couple of menus; however, my sense of calm is short-lived as the android pipes up and wants all sorts of information, which has to be tapped out on my telephone keys. I search for the answer to one question and by the time I've got it, the android has given up on me and I find I am in a queue.  I sit and hope it is the right queue.

Ten minutes later, when I get to speak to her,  the operator is very apologetic for my wait, and for the lack of delivery of the letter. Yes, it was sent, the records show that it was.  
BIG QUESTION....... "who have you used to deliver your mail?"  
"We have just started to use TNT".  
I groan.  "If I get the mail," I tell her,  "from previous experience, it will be earliest seven days, more likely ten".  
"They use first class mail." She said.  
"Not here they don't." I insisted.  "I would not need to have called if that had been the case."

Because of where I live, it is agreed that another set of papers will be sent out to me, but this time, to be delivered by Royal mail.  

The replacement correspondence arrived today, two days after my call.  The original lot, which is being sent via TNT,  is still floating around the U.K. somewhere.

WHAT SHOULD I HAVE CALLED IT?

One day in October, I took a package to the post office for surface mail delivery to Italy.  Details were tapped into the post office counter computer. The counter clerk shook her head in obvious disbelief and started tapping at her computer a second time.  "Look, "(not that I could see anything, the screen didn't swivel)" it's cheaper to send your package to Italy airmail."  I thanked the clerk and decided I would bring the package back in just over a month's time, end of November, (earliest).

The next day  I took in two other packages for surface mailing across the Atlantic.  The packages were an economic posting price.  I asked for a card to be sent surface mail, and made a point of showing the counter clerk that I had already put  a twenty pence stamp on the envelope, to be offset against the total cost.  She whizzed through the parcels administration, and stuck a bunch of stamps on the card envelope like it needed a whole stock of them. I reminded her it was a surface mail item just as she was about to put on an airmail sticker. "oh yes, so it is," she burred and looked a bit embarrassed.   All the items were rushed to the post bag before I had paid.  When she returned I asked for a receipt for the posted items; I said wanted the itemised costs. By her reaction, the clerk clearly did not expect this request.  She disappeared again, returning with the three items of post; without the details she could not do as requested.  I received three pieces of paper, one for each item, which, unfortunately, I did not examine till ten minutes later.  What I had been given were 'proofs of posting', which do not give any itemised cost details, they are definitely not receipts.  

Blast!  I had to go back and queue again to get to the counter to speak to the woman.  She was ever so busy doing important stuff like getting the post bags tied up to shove out to the collecting post van.  Nevertheless, we discussed her mistake.  Her mistake!  Heavens no! People who ask for receipts usually mean proof of posting....oh so it was my fault then for using the right terminology for what I wanted.  "So, what should I have called a receipt?".......... No clear answer.

 
Thus began a circular question and answer session, from which, no receipt was forthcoming as all the post was now gone; my mail could not be retrieved for weighing etc to obtain one, the clerk said.  This whole nonsense, I felt, was a crude subterfuge.  I was very unhappy.

Once home, I registered a complaint with the Customer Services section of Post Office Counters Limited.  A week or so later I received a letter explaining how the complaint had been dealt with, with profuse apologies from the counter clerk, etc. etc.,  and half a dozen first class stamps were included as compensation for the episode. What made the letter particularly implausible, was that the writer constantly referred to 'he' throughout. They could not even get the right gender for the person who, they say, they had contact with.  

     

The post script to this is, the card which was meant to be sent surface mail, arrived in New Hampshire USA, four days after posting. I believe this tells me what the defensiveness and offensiveness at the post office counter, was all about.  I rest my case.

THE RUNAWAY BUS CAME OVER THE HILL AND IT BLEW...

Because of the storms last week, post and other deliveries have been seriously delayed. No commercial planes were flying passengers, nor to distribute post to outlying areas, or, to heavily populated ones either. Just imagine the bulky back-up of Christmas and business mail that resulted. Some long distance passenger buses tried to maintain a limited service when the trains could not. The bus drivers were brave, and the buses that battled with the weather, were extraordinarily late in their arrivals. They did, however, arrive. Passengers had some hair-raising tales to tell. It is just possible that a mail van limped through the stormy trail as well, though one of those, by no means, would have dented a sizeable backlog very much.

Trickles of mail arrived here at home by Friday evening. Apart from one letter, everything else was local. Is it possible that the bosses had allowed the local sorting office to do their own local sorting rather than bag everything up to travel hundreds of miles South, only to return North again I still have difficulty mentally sorting out the economics of that exercise. 

At about 4.30pm, Monday 12th December 2011, a wadge of mail landed on the mat, mostly Christmas mail. No packages or parcels have arrived. Don't get me wrong, I am not expecting tons of presents, I am however, expecting our usual arrivals of mail order, which haven't shown up. It is this current pattern of deliveries that leads me to believe that there is quite a backlog of mail somewhere in the system, much of it caused by extreme weather conditions. Now, we are waiting for the next severe weather experience that is forecast, which, is bound to have a further impact on mail and courier services.

From past experiences, especially that of last Winter here, I am sure the individuals who work for most of the delivery services will do their level bests to meet the extra demands of Christmas and get their post and parcels to businesses and households. 

I cannot speak highly enough of the local postal services and the efforts they made in the severe Winter of 2010/2011 with the most difficult of weather conditions - blizzards, ice and deep snow underfoot.

A RECIPE FOR MAILING

How to avoid a small letter becoming a large letter.   

1) Iron the folded contents flat.

2) Once the paper/card is in the envelope, Use the iron again and iron it very flat.

3) If you haven't got an iron handy and there's no breakables or other issues, hammer the envelope.

4) Otherwise, prepare everything a day or two in advance of posting and spend some time sitting on the envelopes to flatten them.

5) When you are sure all your mail is slimline and will easily slip through the wafer thin Post Office measuring template,  stick stamps on it and post.

COUNTER WITCH AND BROOMSTICK MAIL

Spurred on with the Xmas wrapping and posting, a couple of calendars left these shores by surface mail, two days after the last posting date. 

My package for Western Europe was in good time - Halloween- and I requested surface mail for it from the orange headed wigged witch - cum - counter - clerk. After tapping her counter computer box, she informed me the rate was not available. She could not have written or read the enormous hand written last posting dates notices stuck on the counter windows. "Western Europe", I read, "last posting date 22nd November" .

She shook her head, and then there was light..."It's right at the end of the list" she stated

The cost was £5.40p......"Really...so, how much will airmail be?" I asked, incredulously.

A bit more tapping around on the counter box; obviously happy, she had found Western Europe, Counter Witch triumphantly announced.....£4.60p.  It didn't take high level maths calculations to work out that airmail was a whole £1 sterling cheaper!! I refrained from asking if transit by broomstick might be more economic.

I asked her to check the surface mail cost again. Counter-witch's brow furrowed. A moment, and a few taps later....yes, she said, that's right. It doesn't make sense does it.

I opted for airmail, even if the package got to it's destination far too early, reminding counter witch to deduct the cost of the stamp I had already stuck on the package.  She forgot to do it.

Was I paying in cash...if so, the transaction data could be input and some plus and minus keys could be tapped out at the end of the sale. There was a quick explanation on how to do it from the manageress, which got muddled up. Patiently, I waited till counter-witch and I got the all-clear.

MOZILLA SUCCESSFULLY  FILTERING  THEIR OWN

I found another Mozilla reply in my junk mail box today. (See yesterday's post on Mozilla junked).   They do not appear take any notice of the report I made about the bizarre situation they have created with their messages.  Not only does the template appear to be junk to the filter, but the word 'bug' is all over the place.  So, of course, their email filter will do its job, and filter their mail out.

Incredible!