Once bitten....

I sent a parcel to my brother in Scotland the other day there. Being in a hurry that day and not wanting to go to the post office, I figured I'd drop it off at Postal Annex. Well, it cost me $36 for First Class mail (the cheapest option) which I thought was a bit much but I hadn't checked the likely cost of it on the US Postal Service Web site before I left home. I assumed (big mistake) that that was as cheap as it could be. Well, my brother informed me that the actual postage was $22, so I checked on the USPS site and found that that would be the rate for a 2.5 pound package. Thinking that a serious mistake had been made, I went off to Postal Annex to see if I could find out what went wrong. Turns out nothing was "wrong." Postal Annex charges $14 to handle a 2.5 lb package with a $22 postage. Now off to the UPS Store to see if they are any different. Nope, If I had elected to send a 2.5 lb package by Priority Mail to Scotland using them they would stick me for $59, while the actual postage would be $36--a whopping $23 handling charge! I imagine MailBoxes Etc. and all the other shipping places are the same.

Lesson learned. I'll go to the Post Office in future!