CHESSNOID

I do a lot of postal shipping and go to the post office on a daily basis. I also have a post office box to minimize lost mail. It is open 24 hours a day. The particular office I go to has the lockers for oversized boxes so you don’t have to wait in line during lobby hours. My wife and I (mostly my wife) get many letters and parcels. It is always fun when you get goodies in the mail. I remember back in the day when I personally would get 2-3 packages everyday. Mostly comic books from Ebay. It was Christmas everyday. Now, when I sell things I try to get it in the mail within 24 hours of payment because I believe that person on the receiving end will experience the same joy I once did.

I have had a p.o. box for the last 20 years or so. When I recently moved a year and half ago, I had to open a new one up that was more convenient to my new place. It was actually a hassle to get it opened. The clerks were treating me like a criminal. They didn’t understand why I had my p.o. box on my drivers license. Duh! They asked if I could bring them a utility bill. Easy enough. I show it to them and viola, my p.o. box is on the bill too. They actually didn’t appreciate that. I was in caught in a vicious circle. They wanted something with my physical address because of the dreaded Patriot Act. I even talked to the manager and she grilled me why I was getting a p.o. box that was large. I didn’t think it mattered, but I told her the truth. I get a lot of packages and it would be more convenient that way and I would pay extra for the larger box. Money was no object especially when it was only going to cost me $20 more a year. That is only a buck fifty a month. Totally worth it. I made 3 trips to get this p.o. box open because I had to keep retrieving more acceptable paperwork.

I have had much easier times opening up bank accounts. I even have opened up bank accounts online. It is super easy and extremely convenient. If it is something you are considering, I would recommend ING bank. They have been good to me and there hasn’t been any problems or mixups at all ever. They are also FDIC and a big bank. I chose them because they pay you $25 bonus to open an account with a $250 minimum opening. that is 10% upfront and they pay 5% no minimum balance required. You can’t beat that at any banking institution. Of you want in on the $25 email me and I will send you a link. They give the referrer $25 too. Cha Ching!

Back to the post office. This post office I go to gives me bad service on a regular basis. They are rude so I try to minimize my face time with them. In the last 10 years, my wife and I have probably sent over 1500 packages through them and only 1 package has been lost. I once had a comic book take 4 weeks to be delivered 1st class mail. I usually buy delivery confirmation on everything, but it does no good when the post office doesn’t scan them. I prepay postage now all our packages, but when I drop them off, the clerks just do not want to scan them. I have read on the internet forums from other sellers who experience this problem too. It makes sense to scan them. I pay for the service but I don’t understand why they refuse to do so. My theory is the clerks just don’t want to be held accountable meaning if they have to follow who touched the package last, it will be the last person to scan them. And I think they all know that the clerk behind them that handles the package doesn’t want accountability so he or she doesn’t scan them. Is anyone else out there experiencing this problem and if so, what were you able to do to resolve it. In the forum, one reader said she went to a different post office and they scan them all the time. I really don’t want to start taking my mail farther out but I just might have to if service doesn’t get better here. If you have any ideas, write a comment for me.