Why bother getting letters weighed at the post office?

[torontogal12]

I sent some mail last week...and today one letter was returned to sender due to "insufficient postage."

Except the whole reason I went to the post office in the first place is because I thought it was overweight and I got them to weigh it. And he said it was underweight. And he date stamped it AT THE POST OFFICE. So I now have an envelope with a huge Canada Post stamp showing the location where it got weighed, and then a huge sticker with return to sender right next to the proof that I did everything right.

Seriously? I thought the whole purpose of getting it weighed at the post office was to AVOID this.

Going to tomorrow but it will be a different branch so likely nothing will be done. So now I have to add 2 stamps to everything?? Ughhh

[KrazE]

Now that I have my digital kitchen scale, I put everything on it, even the stamp on it's paper to make sure the stamp doesn't cause it to go over so I know what it's weight is.

I swear that sometimes it's just RIGHT at the end of the weight for the stamps placed on it, and adding the stamps puts it just over causing the returns; I wonder if that's the case for most SC'ers that have had their returned after weighing at the PO.

[Springbreeze]

Sometimes the scales go wonky, drove me insane when i worked at a postal outlet. Sometimes the scales get bumped and it puts them off balance. Its annoying and its not always noticed but it is easy to fix when noticed

[JennyFromTheRock]

I had that exact same thing happen to me!!! I even wrote a rant on here, it was a year ago! I took everything to the post office for THEM to weigh it and they showed up in my mail box days later with insufficient postage, I was ROTTED!! Some of them were quick trades that had time sensitive coupons in them too!!!

I marched right back there and had them send the Express post at THEIR expense.... and one of those express envelopes STILL never did make it to the recipient. Some times I feel like Im gonna go Postal at the PO

[sweet sparrow]

What really confuses me are the Kelloggs gas card offers. This year was the first year I've weighed them. With a limit of three per envelope, the postage with three cards is almost double the cost of one Canadian stamp! I can't remember what it was, but it was over $1. These I've always sent in the past with just the one stamp and they've always received it.

My taxes, (before I knew there was such thing as adding additional postage - I know, I lived under a rock) I would always send with one stamp and Revenue Canada always accepted my money, and those are big envelopes.

I can't remember many times I've ever had anything returned. Once, a stamp fell off and it was returned to me, but you could clearly see the outline of where it was. I was peeved at sending it again with another new stamp!

My sister's favourite story though, is the time I wrote her a letter as a child. It was probably the hardest envelope to read ever, because I wrote each letter in a different coloured crayon - and used yellow every tenth letter or so! I don't think I wrote a return address because the crayons wouldn't print finely enough to fit in the upper left corner, and mailed it with no stamp! I even addressed it to the wrong city. (My parents always said she lived in the big city, but as I got older I found out that was just to be simplistic. She really lived in the suburbs about an hour away.)

Anyhoo, to this day, she still gets teary eyed thinking about some nice postal worker who mailed a stamp-free envelope, with the wrong address in ten shades of colours, written by a "baby sister". Now that I think about it, it probably didn't even have her real name on it since I called her a different name when I was little.

Sometimes, CP does nice things.

[redhdlois]

LOL Sweet Sparrow! Your story reminds me of when I used to write to my aunt ( was maybe 4 years old) and drew a picture of a stamp (Queen's head lol) on the envelope and mailed it...not sure if she ever got it though!
And the time I was determined to mail her a letter, so I got on my tricycle and rode down to the store by myself (3 yrs old). Took my mother awhile to figure out I was missing (great parenting back in those days lol)

[Skittles160]

I sent some mail last week...and today one letter was returned to sender due to "insufficient postage."

Except the whole reason I went to the post office in the first place is because I thought it was overweight and I got them to weigh it. And he said it was underweight. And he date stamped it AT THE POST OFFICE. So I now have an envelope with a huge Canada Post stamp showing the location where it got weighed, and then a huge sticker with return to sender right next to the proof that I did everything right.

Seriously? I thought the whole purpose of getting it weighed at the post office was to AVOID this.

Going to tomorrow but it will be a different branch so likely nothing will be done. So now I have to add 2 stamps to everything?? Ughhh

Is it a legit Post Office (Canada Post) or is it like a postal outlet in a pharmacy or something? 'cause the pharmacy ones are third party so they're not run by "Canada Post" employees but by the store that they're in. Anyway, point is that I find the third party postal outlets aren't always trained all that well. I had a similar issue, but the thickness of the envelope was an issue. I specifically took it to the post office because I thought it might be more postage but wanted to be sure. The postal employee (or really, the pharmacy employee working at the post office...) put the wrong postage on it and a week later I got it back (super awesome, I love waiting for my mail to take a week just to make it back to ME). Similar to Jenny I went back and demanded they do something about it. They were fairly useless and I wasn't gutsy enough to ask for express post since it was a birthday card and was already going to end up late regardless because of this, but they did pay for the postage to do it properly (a big $1.29 or something, big whoop).

IMO I'd bring it up with them/talk to a manager - if you're going through the trouble to go to the post office to get them to figure out the postage, the least they could do is get it right.

[SarahS83]

Call canada post if you have no luck at the outlet. I've done that before and was refunded the full amount. As the poster above says not all outlets are CP run so it can be hit and miss.

[Skittles160]

Call canada post if you have no luck at the outlet. I've done that before and was refunded the full amount. As the poster above says not all outlets are CP run so it can be hit and miss.

Only problem with a refund - and what annoyed me about their screw up - is it doesn't turn back the clock and doesn't help that "time sensitive item" get there in time...

[torontogal12]

Ok so turns out that was the ONE envelope I had mailed from the post office in the SDM near my inlaws. They live 2 hours away so no way I was going back there. So I went to the post office today and the girl was like "ummm it is totally overweight! Wonder why their stupid scale didn't weigh it right???"

Then she charged me the difference but I didn't feel like fighting with her after I waited in line for like 10 minutes on my lunch. It was kelloggs gas card forms. Why did they have to make the forms so large??

Thanks for the idea, Jenny! Next time I'll ask them to Xpress post at their expense

[sweet sparrow]

It was kelloggs gas card forms. Why did they have to make the forms so large??

Oh my goodness, I had no idea they were the Kelloggs forms. I've always wondered why they put a mail limit of three if it already requires extra postage. You'd think they'd tell you or otherwise why wouldn't you be able to send in all five at once?

And what is up with that vertical printing of the code to make it as large as possible? If it was printed horizontally the cards would be half the size and no extra postage would be required. Hmmmmm......

Maybe they're in cahoots with Canada Post for some extra money.

[Springbreeze]

Is it a legit Post Office (Canada Post) or is it like a postal outlet in a pharmacy or something? 'cause the pharmacy ones are third party so they're not run by "Canada Post" employees but by the store that they're in. .

They are actually run by Canada Post, at least the one i worked at was. Yes it was in a Shoppers and I was paid by the owner of the shoppers but my manager was trained by Canada Post and she trained us. Shoppers has no say in the post office at all. All of Canada Posts rules and regulations are supposed to be just the same.

[YOU AND ME]

I've had this happen also so i went back to the postal outlet and made them resend them,you weighted them it not my fault that they were returned.

[ericaraina]

Canada post is really good at refunds and making it up to you! Just make a friendly complaint

[bluzsuz]

My taxes, (before I knew there was such thing as adding additional postage - I know, I lived under a rock) I would always send with one stamp and Revenue Canada always accepted my money, and those are big envelopes.

I was in the PO this spring and a lady had her CRA envie and was asking the guy at the counter if one stamp was enough - and he told her if she put it in the mailbox with one stamp it would go to CRA on just the one stamp BUT if HE weighed it, she would have to pay the correct postage. He encouraged her to just put it in the Red Box lol.

Apparently they have to take gov't envies with just one stamp even if they are overweight.