The DU Lounge

There are scams. Rural post offices down south tend to add weight to packages and report for inadequate postage and collection. I think it's an effort to pad their bottom line to avoid closing by USPS, but I could be wrong. The remedy is to always get weight scanned into system at point of dropoff.

I was accused of sending overweight packages at one post office by one screamer. They had 2 scales. Over time I noticed on one scale my packages were about 1.5 ounces underweight, but on the other they were .2 ounces overweight. I used the same home scale for all packages. So if I dropped packages in the post box it could get weighed on the overweight scale.

Another postmistress would not accept packages in the drop box, nor e-labels without her own post office of origin zip code. Such screaming. I think it was local politics.

I got a notice my package was lost. They returned the empty wrapper and promised to search for it or a refund if I mailed it to Atlanta. I did. Never heard a word.

But the post office takes things in stride too. Had a package poorly sealed and they lost parts of it. It was OK, I had replacements. I didn't complain.

And about 25 years ago some guy shipped me a desktop computer via Media Mail, he probably saved about $10. No one questioned it.