I am so mad. I mailed a package out on the 26th to a BookMooch member in Austria. Today the package comes back in my mailbox with the shipping label and the customs form removed. Thank goodness I used an old envelope and my mailing address was on it or who knows where this book may have ended up.

So I take it to the PO and tell them what happened. I have my receipt from mailing it. (cost 6.20 for one book) but they can not do anything but lecture me on reusing packages. :o Well if I had not reused a package and the label was pulled off them how would they have known to send it back to me I ask. Stupid people. lol

So I am stuck resending the package, at my expense. They guy that can possible reimburse me is on vacation and will not be back until the 7th!! :grrr: Normally I like my PO people, but today, not so much. :shedevil:

Wendy :hug: That sucks! That hasn't happened to me yet. I'm scared it will one day though. :blink:

That really sucks! I don't think the person in Austria was me....but if you want to save some money and have anything you need to send me you can add it to the package and I will send it on for you. If they are in Vienna I could even meet them and pass it on....

I have had packages sent back to the States because the Austrians think the 7 on my address is a 1. They write the numbers a little different and of course I don't live at #12 so of course then send it back unknown!

It was a BookMoocher.

But I did mail a package Riaonna on the same day. Hopefully it is going to make it. I also mailed you a package last week, but it was Flat Rate Priority, so I am not worried about it too much.

Thanks for the offer though. I will keep in in mind for the future.

I will just chalk it up to a lesson learned and remail it. :rant:

My mail has been weird lately....I didn't get hardly anything for weeks and then the other day I got about 10 packages at once!

Anytime you want to add Rianonne's things to mine or vice versa please feel free to do so. We try and meet up at least once every 2 months and swap books! She usually ends up with too much to read :giggle:

That is because you read soooo fast!!!!! :lol:

Further adventures at the PO.

So I contacted the moocher to explain to her that the book was returned and that I would be reshipping but that there would be a bit of a delay since it obviously did not make it out when I originally marked it as shipped. She was wonderful and even mooched a couple more books so that I could ship it Flat Rate and make it worthwhile for me, even though I told her it was not necessary.

So I repackage her book along with the new books, this time in a Flat Rate Priority envelope. I use these quite often when shipping books to Amber or Lucie and I can usually get about 4 regular size paperbacks in the envelope with only a small amount of deformity using lots of shipping tape. lol

So I get up to the counter, my regular PO worker is there, and we are discussing how it was even possible for customs to 'accidentally' pull off the customs form along with the mailed label, without leaving a trace of paper or tape. :shrug: She then proceeds to tell me that they are starting to come down on them about the Flat Rate envelopes. Seems someone somewhere has decided that the Flat Rate envelopes can not be packed beyond the original shape, which translates to maybe 2 paperback books. :angry: Come on, they don't make enough money now on International shipping, they want to take away the one advantage we have. :angry2:

Anyways, she says that she is going to continue taking the envelopes regardless of shape until they make her stop, but she just wanted to give me a heads up in case. lol

That's ridiculous. If it was possible to teleport packages, I'd stick my tongue out at post offices. The one I use now has a really nice guy, though, who stuffed some magazines in a flat rate envelope for me when I told him it wouldn't fit.

Good luck with further "adventures."

I believe the rule is that it has to close with the original tape that's part of the package. You're allowed to put extra tape over it to secure it, but the sticky stuff has to hold it closed.

Mine always seal with the original tape, it just is not in the nice neat shape, as it is usually folded over more. I then add extra shipping tape to keep it sealed. But according to her they want the packages to be relatively flat, so that the flap fits normally without any shape difference. It is stupid really. :angry2:

I used a flat rate priority env. (or whatever they call it) to mail several books to Lemmy in Canada. My p.o. lady told me it was ok to include "as much as we could cram in there".

The p.o. lady warned me that ONLY USPO tape could be used on the pkg. - for that mailing rate, it had to be the dark blue tape with "Intl" or "Priority" or whatever imprinted on it.

She did, however, reinforce the edges with regular tape since we crammed alot into the envelope. :shrug:

I love the USPS. I am in WV for a couple of days and SAVED on postage. I must admit I think now our international rates are the same as yours. I even mail from here back home because it is cheaper. I must be the only one who skips out of the PO