A Penny Earned?

For three straight trips to United Parcel Service to ship three small packages - I am not making this up - the shipping cost each time was exactly $11.92. The weights were about the same although the contents and exact size of the packages varied slightly. Still: three straight times where the charges were identical? "Maybe it's just a minimum charge," me brother Phil suggested.

I blew that theory out of the water with a fourth parcel. When the girl behind the counter told me to insert my debit card into the reader I saw - I am still not making anything up - that the charge that time was Eleven Dollars and Ninety One Cents. One. Penny. Off.

What are the chances of that, I ask?

Just plain rude

Just when you think you've seen it all, you see something you never think you'd see. This one had me doing a slow burn.

As I walked into UPS yesterday to ship a small package there was one woman in front of me with six packages. Oh well, those things happen. She got in there first and that's that. But what ground my gears was that none of the packages were taped shut. The attendant was doing that. He was also attaching the preprinted address labels.

Are. You. Kidding. Me? This young woman brought in a half dozen parcels which were not addressed, which were not even taped shut (in short, not ready for shipment at all) and had the UPS employee doing all that for her, while me and the soon four people who came in after me waited. What the (insert preferred inapropriate adjective here).

As I said, I could live with the fact that she got into the shipping office ahead of me. That stuff happens. But to bring unclosed, unaddressed parcels into UPS and have the clerk secure them?

Just. Plain. Rude. The height of being inconsiderate.