Smurf the USPS--AGAIN!

[cody6268]

There are three post offices (for each of the three towns) in my immediate area. I often send knives through warranty work, in the open, and have the clerk pack them. No problem.   Well today, I went to the third, which my folks rarely go in, and if we mailed something out through it, it was in the outside boxes on the other end of the parking lot of the shopping center this PO is in.  Today, my grandmother decided not to go to the PO for my town which I've used twice to send stuff off for warranty work, even a tactical Gerber. 


 Well, I was stuck going to the other PO in the next town over to send off two SAKs and a Swisstool on warranty work. I spend 5 minutes packing it in a flat rate box, then go to the counter, the lady says "Those are weapons, we can't take them". I said to my self "Bullsmurf! Tazewell and Bluefield VA took them no problem, so why not here? This woman probably just didn't want to bother" and left, agitated and in a bad mood.


I was ready to say, "That's a bunch of BS, I've read the laws, and I should know, my father's been a letter carrier for almost 20 years". Because if you didn't already know, about the only edged tool you can't ship via the mail is an automatic/switchblade knife. But I didn't want to cause a ruckus, so I kept my thoughts to myself. So, I went to UPS instead of my town's post office and ended up paying double (should have packed it myself). At the UPS store, I've never had to deal with a smart-arsed or hateful employee.  USPS on a regular basis.

And if you're wondering what happened before, I'd purchased some items from a seller I deal with regularly. Well, they never showed up in the system, and it had been over a month since I'd ordered them. Seller did everything on their end, including contacting the post office. Well, they tell me to go to the post office (the Bluefield, VA one)  to file a lost items claim. Well, the lady at the counter tried to shift the blame from the post office and accuse this seller of never sending it (when I knew better). I did get a refund though from the seller.

[NutSAK]

Just curious, was this an actual post office you went to, or one of those satellite POs that the USPS contracts out to?  I find that those around here have employees that are flat-out clueless.  I use them on occasion, but if anything is out of the ordinary like requiring a customs form, forget it.

[SteveC]

Sorry for your troubles 

[cody6268]

Just curious, was this an actual post office you went to, or one of those satellite POs that the USPS contracts out to?  I find that those around here have employees that are flat-out clueless.  I use them on occasion, but if anything is out of the ordinary like requiring a customs form, forget it.

This was a regular post office, and one of the larger ones around here. It handles the mail for both Bluefield VA and Bluefield WV. All of the mail I get comes from there. We have a regular post office in my town, but I don't think any mail is delivered from it. I've had to pick up packages that had to be signed, or couldn't be delivered due to weather from this post office as well.

[chrono]

I never trust my stuffs packed and weighed at the post. I sell stuffs on the Bay occasionally, always pack and weigh my stuffs. I once had my Dad to bring a fairly large and weighty package to the PO to pay for postage cost and ship. I expected to pay $25, but somehow the scale there spun to $50 for shipping. My Dad did not know I charged only $17 for the SH. I ended up in the red on that deal because of the shipping incident.

If you ship knives often, have some blank boxes laying around will be helpful. Also get a few free Flat rate bubble envelopes too. The Small flat rate box, though rigid, is not as dimensionally useful as FR envelopes.