I have a post office story that illustrates the "Swissness" of the Swiss:
I wanted to send 2 T-shirts to a customer 15 kms away from my post office. I packed them up nicely and put them in an envelope. A normal, A4-sized letter envelope, but with a bit of foam padding on the back, so that it wouldn't get bent too much, and the T-shirts wouldn't jump around inside too much and get too wrinkled. Given the weight and letter envelope status, the postal charges should be 2 CHF. All of this is fine and the customer has paid for the shipping.
I arrive at the post office. The postal worker decides that what I'm mailing is a "package", not a letter, in spite of it weighing less than large letters (weighed only 280g, and large letters are considered letters until they weigh 500g), because, supposedly, it is "more than 2 cms thick". Now, notice, this is compressible material, with foam padding (the foam padding itself was at least 8mm thick), but no matter how I pointed out that the thickness came from air and not the material, he wouldn't budge. He even took out a spacer thingy where the put my package in between two tabs spaced 2 cms apart (my package compressed, without any trouble and only minimal--literally minimal pressure, right into it), and he still claimed it was "greater than 2 cms" and tried to show me this many times (we were obviously living in parallel universes, for I could clearly see that my package fit perfectly fine between the two tabs). In the end, he wouldn't budge. "Rules are rules". So what was my postal charge? 9 friggin CHF. More than 4 times the original price, even though the package was far below the weight of a parcel (which starts at 1kg). Well, there goes my profit margin. Live and learn. But I can't help thinking that in pretty much any other country in the world (except perhaps Germany, where they're big rule-book thumping people also), I would've gotten charged the 2 CHF that was fair for such a package. I really do have to wonder how anyone ever manages to do any business here.
The size of the package *snigger* is its standard size without compression. Hence yours was bigger than the 2 cm allowed. Next time use a cardboard hard envelope if the T-shirts will fit.
Live and learn... Swiss post is not a cheap option beyond sending a simple letter.
Padded envelopes are bulkier. You either have to remove the air before sealing it (like a "space bag" effect, where you vacuum the air out) or what I do is wrap in brown paper, first wrapping the items. If there is no play in the package the post office is happy.
No, you don't. You have a story that illustrates... well, I'm not sure what, TBH, except your own apparent unwillingness to accept the way things are done.
What I really don't understand is why, having fallen foul of a rule you weren't aware of, which I'm sure has happened to most of us, you then feel a need to complain about it. It's quite clear that the postage charged was correct, so what exactly is your problem with it?
I dunno, I think that charging the package rate for a package that weighs as much as a letter and is 1mm thicker, due to air, than a letter and paying 4 times the cost seems just ridiculous, especially when the package clearly fit into his ruler measuring thingy. To me, the package was 2 cms thick or less. To the postal worker, it wasn't (by 1 mm, well within reasonable measurement error anyway). It is not a matter of "not knowing the rules". It is a matter of how they interpreted the rules, and why, oh why, in this country they are *ALWAYS* interpreted in favor of you having to pay more money. Always.
The "Swissness" part is that they are sticklers for 1mm of air. That doesn't happen in most other countries. It just doesn't. That's my point. Hate all you want, but this story gets laughs in countries where people have better things to do than check whether a tennant left lint on the dryer, or whether you bought the train ticket that was 10 rappen cheaper because you didn't know that the train you were presently on went on a minorly different part of the track. It's just a funny story, that's all. And it is a complaints corner because who wouldn't be upset at having to pay 4 times the price of something you thought it should be, regardless of whose fault it was? The groans and hate were unnecessary. Get a life, peoplez!
I wanted to send a pillow to a customer 15 kms away from my post office. I packed it up nicely and put it in an envelope. Given the weight and letter envelope status, the postal charges should be 2 CHF. All of this is fine and the customer has paid for the shipping.
I arrive at the post office. The postal worker decides that what I'm mailing is a "package", not a letter, in spite of it weighing less than large letters (weighed only 280g, and large letters are considered letters until they weigh 500g), because, supposedly, it is "more than 2 cms thick". Now, notice, the pillow is compressible material - you just need to suck out the air and compress hard enough , but no matter how I pointed out that the thickness came from air (one could just suck out the air of my pillow) and not the material, he wouldn't budge. He even took out a spacer thingy where the put my package in between two tabs spaced 2 cms apart (my package compressed, without any trouble and only minimal--literally minimal pressure, right into it), and he still claimed it was "greater than 2 cms" and tried to show me this many times (we were obviously living in parallel universes, for I could clearly see that my package fit perfectly fine between the two tabs). In the end, he wouldn't budge. "Rules are rules". So what was my postal charge? 9 friggin CHF. More than 4 times the original price, even though the package was far below the weight of a parcel (which starts at 1kg). Well, there goes my profit margin. Live and learn. But I can't help thinking that in pretty much any other country in the world (except perhaps Germany, where they're big rule-book thumping people also), I would've gotten charged the 2 CHF that was fair for such a package. I really do have to wonder how anyone ever manages to do any business here.
Now, if it was just the foam packaging, why didn't you just put the t-shirts in a non-padded envelope? Aafter all it was only a matter of 1mm and it's not like the shirts need any padding to protect them...
If it's any consolaiton, similar rules apply to UK post services... It's the uncompressed size. No pushing allowed. There, they turn the gauge horizontally and the item has to drop through the slit on its own using gravity alone. No pushing or shaking allowed..
According to the Netiquette I'm familiar with, shouting is done by typing in all caps. The bold came out because I cut and pasted from somewhere else as I didn't feel like re-typing it, and the editor bolded it without me doing anything to do so. I thought it looked appropriate given it was a quoted story. It wasn't in larger font than the rest of the writing, and it seemed obvious to me that the bold was there to separate the story from the editorial comments (not in bold), so I didn't think people here would find the bolded font offensive in any way. I guess the sticklerness for rules is not limited to the Swiss, at least not in this forum, I see. But, rule noted. Do not write in bold on EF. Thanks for the heads up.
Doesn't work that way. Either the Post will send a card demanding payment in the form of stamps on the card or the receiver will have to pay for your lack of compliance.
I was asked to pay the extra postage for a blind CV. I brought the oversized envelope to the Post and asked them to trash it, as I was not ready to pay for the information I didn't ask for.