Now, before we even get started with this post, let me preface it by saying this is NOT a post about Paul Newman. I am simply stealing a line from one of his movies, Cool Hand Luke, to illustrate my latest (mis)adventure with the United States Postal Service.
“What we have here is a failure to communicate” first uttered by Strother Martin as “Captain, Road Prison 36” and then later used by Paul Newman (as Luke) to mock the captain.
The back story on my story is that I had a vintage Kodak camera for sale and a friend in Australia wanted to buy it. So far, so good.
I found the priority mail costs for international postage at the USPS website and we were hoping it would fit in the small box provided by the post office. There were no options on the website for anything but priority mail for international shipments.
This box would have cost $13.45 to ship from Oregon to Australia; the next size up was $43.45
I took the camera to the post office where it quickly became clear that the camera was too long for the priority mail box. I waited in line, explained the situation to the clerk, and said that I wasn’t willing to spend an extra $30.00 to go up to the next box.
The clerk said I had no choice but to use the box that cost $43.45 since the camera weighed over 4 pounds (mind you, she hadn’t even bothered to weigh it at this point).
I politely insisted that I doubted it weighed anywhere near 4 pounds and finally she very grudgingly agreed to weigh it–probably more to get me to shut up than to provide any kind of even barely adequate customer service.
Surprise, surprise, NOT– the camera was well under four pounds and all of a sudden I could send it first class–not priority mail–in my own box for $19.95
I went home (across town–a distance of 4 miles one way), found a box that would work, bubble-wrapped the camera, and covered it with enough tape to hold the Titanic together.
A few hours later I trundled across town again–another 4 miles–and sent the box off to Australia. It cost $21.08 –yet another different amount– but at least it was not $43.45
The box, bubble-wrapped camera, and copious amounts of tape altogether still weighed less than 3 pounds. If I hadn’t politely insisted on the camera being weighed it would have cost my friend more in postage than he actually paid me for the camera.
“what we have here is a failure to communicate” amplified by the greed of the United States Postal Service.
First the website was misleading in that they gave me no option to ship the camera in my own box even though that’s obviously a service that is offered.
Then the clerk was misleading in insisting that I had to go to the next size box for priority mail since the camera weighed over 4 pounds (without even weighing it).
Then there’s the fact that I drove 16 miles when I could have driven 8 miles if only the website had given me the information on shipping first class in my own box. Who pays for the gas, mileage, and maintenance for my vehicle, not to mention the additional pollutants released by an unnecessary trip?
Those incidentals are certainly not paid for by the United States Postal Service even though they created the situation in the first place!
And the United States Postal Service wonders why most people will use UPS, Fed-Ex, DHL, and smaller regional carriers instead of using them–even if they might be cheaper?
BTW, I am a former employee of the United States Postal Service. I am appalled at the poor customer service I received from start to finish on this experience and would not recommend using their international shipping services OR using their website for anything other than determining zip codes.
Am I impressed with either the USPS as a whole or my local post office? I DON’T THINK SO!!