post office hang ups

In today's mail was a very nice gift from Patti Ricci, "the Illustrated Discovery Journal," by Sarah Ban Breathnach, which was "media" mailed from the Orange Post Office, along with a $1.82 "postage due" notice, paid for, of course, by our postal carrier, which obliges us to make up for his contribution, a little trick by the U.S. Postal Service to make sure they get their puny $$$, and hope the consumer will shine it on.

I didn't.

I called the national hot line, and got my call transferred to "Wayne" at the Orange Post Office, and that's where the fun began. Wayne looked up the transaction and told me that since this book was bound in a spiral fashion, this New York Times bestseller was a "dayplanner," and it didn't qualify as a book, which "must be bound like a phone book"...a rule he apparently made up as he went along. When I pointed this out to Wayne in a vociferous way, he said "this conversation is over" and hung up on me.

Back to the national line, to complain about good ol' phone hangin' up Wayne and back to the O.C. Post Office customer service who agreed that Wayne was wrong - big surprise, overcharge was a mistake and they're going to pay me back...in postage stamps!!!

I get it. I get to pay for Wayne's screw up in cash, the P.O. reimburses me in stamps. Great. If I wanted stamps, I'd buy stamps. And so on.

Oh, by the way, they want the postage evidence back, and they promise to send a stampless envelope for that purpose.