The Post Office

While my mother was here, she wanted to send a few postcards. Not having enough extra 43p stamps in my room, I figured we’d just pop over to the nearest branch of the Post Office and get a few. I mean, how difficult could that be?

Silly me. After queuing up, we made it to the window. ‘We need some postcard stamps to send these to America,’ I told the clerk. I was a bit worried when she pulled out the 40p stamps.

‘Are you sure those are the right ones?’ I asked. She assured me they were.

‘Those are the right ones to mail POSTCARDS to AMERICA?’ I said, being sure to emphasize postcards and America. She assured me they were.

‘Then I wonder why they always sold me 43p stamps when I sent POSTCARDS to AMERICA?’ I speculated not so subtly. She assured me again that the 40p stamps were the correct ones.

‘Thank you,’ we said as we purchased the stamps.

‘Don’t stick them on anything yet,’ I told Mum. ‘Let me do some checking first.’

The next day at school, I check stamp prices with the Royal Mail website. Sure enough, since America is a Zone One country, it costs 43p to send a postcard there. ‘I knew it! I told her so!’ I said aloud, earning me more of those odd looks I seem to get so often from the other people at school.

So, now all we needed were some 3p stamps. I figured we’d just pop over to the nearest branch of the Post Office and get a few. I mean, how difficult could that be?

Silly me. After queuing up, we made it to the window. ‘How much does it cost to send a postcard to America,’ I asked the clerk.

‘Forty-two pence,’ she said, picking up a sheet of light green 42p stamps.

‘Are you sure those are the right ones?’ I asked. She assured me they were.

‘Those are the right ones to mail POSTCARDS to AMERICA?’ I said, being sure to emphasize postcards and America. She assured me again that the 42p stamps were the correct ones but decided to check with the clerk next to her.

‘Yes, 42p,’ was the answer.

‘Then I wonder why they always sold me 43p stamps when I sent POSTCARDS to AMERICA? You know, the BRIGHT GREEN ones….’ I speculated not so subtly.

After a not-so-quick huddle with a postage leaflet, they decided that the price to send a postcard to America was in fact 43p.

Having established the correct price, all that was left was to explain that we didn’t need any 43p stamps but instead needed some 3p stamps to go with the 40p stamps we already had. I mean, how difficult could that be?

Silly me. It seems that there are 1p stamps, 2p stamps, and a whole variety of stamps between the values of 40p and 43 p, but no 3p stamps. Given the difficulty establishing the correct stamp price, you can probably imagine the difficulty obtaining the correct number of 1p and 2p stamps.

Given the difficulty in obtaining the correct stamp price, you can probably imagine the difficulty that my mum and I were having trying not to laugh out loud at the whole thing.