Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Weighty Matters


If you live in the US and don’t get a Christmas card from me this year, it won’t be because I don’t cherish your friendship (even if it is merely a Facebook occasionally-click-on-your-Like-button type of friendship); it will be because the Royal Mail won’t sell me any postage. Allow me to explain:

I went to the post office yesterday. The reason I went to the post office yesterday and not Saturday is because the government shut down about 95% of the local post offices. Granted, they didn’t shut the one in our town center down, but they shut down every other branch in the county, so anyone who needs to mail anything has to travel to our post office on Saturday morning to do it. (Soon, we are going to have a single, national post office located in Leeds where everyone in Britain will have to go to get their mail. This is one of the main reasons Scotland wants independence; they don’t want to go to Leeds, they would rather go to Edinburgh. But I digress.)


Proposed sorting office in Leeds.

For the time being, however, we are blessed with a regional postal center here in Horsham and slackers like me with a part time (and soon to be no) job can avoid the hassle of getting up at 5 AM to join the queue in hopes of being served by noon, and simply go on a weekday when the crowds have thinned out somewhat.

And so, armed with the knowledge that I needed World-Wide postage stamps, I joined the queue and started making my calculations. This is something I do to pass the time: try to calculate which clerk is going to serve me, and adjust my expectations accordingly. There were four windows open: one was staffed by a blonde woman who I know to be competent, knowledgeable and courteous. Next to her was a matronly woman I had never been served by but who, nonetheless, radiated confidence and appeared efficient. I gave her a 7 out of 10 and put her down as my second choice. On the other side of the blonde was the Money Lady, who is supposed to wait on postal customers when no one is at her window exchanging Euros for Australian Outbacks (or whatever they call their money). She was free now, but was busy arranging bills into neat stacks.

At the far end was a young bloke whose dress and demeanor screamed, “Temporary Help;” I gave him a “1” and prayed for favorable odds.

"Don't make me think!"

The Temp was waiting on an elderly woman when I joined the queue. The blonde and the matron finished their transactions and called up two more people. The Money Lady started filing her nails.

The Temp was pointing at a document, explaining something to the elderly woman who was nodding her head and clearly not understanding a word he said. Two more customers went to the blonde and the matron. The Money Lady was reading War and Peace.

The Temp slid some documents to the woman, who smiled and began rooting through her cavernous handbag for her purse. Two more customers left the queue. The Money Lady was working on a cross-stitch of The Last Supper.

The woman found her purse and began counting out her money—slowly and deliberately—in pennies. Two more people left the queue. The Money Lady was updating her Facebook status.

Transaction complete, the woman was thanking (and thanking and thanking) the Temp. Two more people left the queue. The Money Lady was taking up oil painting.

The woman finally stepped away from the Temp’s window; it was my turn. The Money Lady was signing up for a correspondence course in home laser surgery. I had no choice; I went to the Temp.

“I need world-wide stamps,” I told him.

He stared at me. “What kind?”

“Um, the kind for sending letters. To the US.”

“It depends on the weight.”

Handy, if you know how much a gram weighs.

“They are for standard letters, a sheet of paper in an envelope, how much would that be?”

“Depends on the weight.”

“They all weight the same and they are all just average Christmas cards.”

“Depends on the weight.”

“But they aren’t anything special; they are the same as any other card you get, how much do they cost to mail?”

“Depends on the weight.”

“I’ve never had this much trouble buying stamps before,” I told him. “I just say it’s for a standard letter and they give me stamps.”

“I can sell you some stamps, but if they are the wrong kind, you won’t be able to use them.”

“Then what would be the right kind?”

“Depends on the weight.”

And so, I left, without my stamps. We now have a pile of Christmas cards that my wife has signed, addressed and assembled but we have no way of mailing them. I suppose I could take them all down to the Temp and make him weight each and every one individually, but I suspect he might enjoy that. The only thing I can do is wait for my next day off, go back to the post office, join the queue and hope I end up with the Blonde or the Matron. Or that the Money Lady has finished her correspondence course.

15 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:31 PM

    It's not that hard, you just take the letters with you so they can weight them. Can't believe you didn't know this after all your time living here ;0)

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    1. There were a lot of letters ;)

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  2. A central post office based in Leeds would be fine by me... :-)

    Er.... does it show very much that I have lived in Leeds all my life?

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    1. Thought you'd appreciate that.

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  3. We have 2 post offices within a mile of our village home. You need to move up north!

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    1. Shhhh...! The mail police might be watching this blog! If you want to keep them, you'd best keep quiet about it ;)

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  4. You could perhaps just take one in and assume that the others all weigh more or less the same? But that would be a bit too sensible for the temp wouldn't it?

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    1. If I'd have known the jobsworth I was due to get, I certainly would have brought them, but I was just going to buy stamps fer chrissake!

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  5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  6. This is so hilarious, Mike! It made my mom and me laugh out loud.

    Better luck next time ;)

    -Abby
    www.PictureBritain.com

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    1. Glad you liked it. Enjoy your turkey!

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  7. At least you can choose your weight and size! I read somewhere that Belgium - I think it's Belgium - has to have all its cards/envelopes exactly the same size. You can weigh your cards at home and look it up online.

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    1. I put the cards on the bathroom scale but they didn't even register ;)

      What I did was go back this past weekend. I got the Matron, and she sold me stamps, no problem.

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  8. Mike, I feel your pain! We have one postal clerk who, no matter how long the line is, will respond to "I'd like to buy 20 regular stamps" with "Which style?" and proceed to go into every drawer to show me every possible style from Disney characters to wedding rings to Elvis Presley.

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    Replies
    1. I guess postal clerks figure, if they are there all day, why shouldn't you be ;)

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