Canada Post
I am returned from the local Postal Outlet, so called because now I need an outlet for my frustration.
- A local (across Canada) postage stamp costs 51¢.
- A letter to the United States costs 89¢.
- The difference is, of course, 48¢.
I plan to mail a letter to each of my contacts. So I ask for one hundred 51¢ stamps, and after struggling to explain that I’d rather not have the new-fangled self-adhesive stamps (they never did dispense from Canada Post’s nifty little plastic dispenser), I ask for ten 48¢ stamps.
They don’t have any. Canada Post doesn’t sell 48¢ stamps. Despite the fact that they have known for a suitable period that letters within the national boundaries will cost 51¢ and with their largest trading partner 89¢.
No 48¢ stamps!
After a mental struggle lasting eight minutes, the clerk manages to assemble a wad of 25¢ stamps, some 10¢ stamps, some 2¢ and some 1¢ in roughly the correct proportion.
I can now mail off letters that will look like they were prepared by a bored junior kindergarten student on a long and rainy afternoon.
What a (postal) impression we make on our neighbours!
You can contact me by telephone or email via http://www.chrisgreaves.com/contact.htm
