Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Things I Do Not Understand
I went to the Post Office today. The lady behind the counter was very nice. I understand that.
I had a couple of packages to mail, both of which contained the same things. One I packed in a used Amazon box, the other in a box I cobbled together myself out of a larger box I'd saved. The first (Amazon) box went for about $10 and the second, which weighed, if anything, a tad less than the first, was clocked for way more coin. So the nice lady (see above) says, "You can put it in a flat rate box and save some money." Um, yeah, OK. I can put my box in another box and save money. How exactly does my shipping more cardboard and a greater volume of package result in a savings for me?
It did, mind you. But I don't have any conception of why that is.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gummint... Maybe if you put it in a *really* big gummint box, they'd ship it for free...

BobG said...

Don't try to make logic out of government policy, that way lies madness.

Kris said...

The postal carrier who lives here says it has nothing at all to do with weight. It's the size of the box. The flat-rate boxes fit predictably into whatever they're using to haul them, so that there's no wasted space.

BlogDog said...

Aha! An actual reason that makes sense. Apart from the fact that my box puffed out the flat-rate box to a non-standard thickness.
Not that I'm complaining mind you....

Peter said...

Actually it's even more simple. Amazon started out a bookseller. Someone not particularly into internet shopping would think that an Amazon box contains books. Book rate is a lower rate than Parcel Post. My wife retired from the Postal Service, we know more about that stuff than is good for us.