Yesterday I took a package to the PO. Nothing new. It had lots of different items. Nothing new. I had filled out the customs form in detail. Again, nothing new.  This particular PO is  a "test site" for the Dept of Homeland Security and wants extreme details on the customs form.

 This is new.

And irritating.

Let me explain. I must have had 13 different kinds of things, from candy to magazines to Dominoes.  I wrote those things on the form. Clerk asks, "want insurance?" I say yes. "Want delivery confirmation?" I say no. She hits the wrong button by mistake, thinking I had said "no" on insurance. The computer didn't ask for any more details. But then I corrected her and said I wanted insurance. So she went back and punched in "yes."  The computer than asks for the weight of every single item. "How much does a magazine weigh, about 2 ounces?" she asks.  "The Dominoes, heavy? A pounnd?" Probably. And so it went for almost a half hour on my ONE box. Thankfully that's all I had!

She said next time I might want to go to the PO in the next town. They aren't a test site. I say I probably will but it's discouraging, I tell her, to have to go thru this much to get a package to a soldier. 

"I agree," she said. "What'll happen is people will stop sending things, or at least so frequently.  Why don't you call the 800 number and express your dislike for the extreme details?"

"I will," I said. "This won't stop me from sending packages, but I hate to make eye contact with anyone behind me in line!"

 It's only till May 10th, this testing, she said.  "Next time I come here it'll just be with two sets of twin sheets and some beef jerky," I joked, "after weighing each item on my own postal scale." 

 I could hear other customers tittering.

Oh, and THEN she tells me there's a lady who comes in EVERY day and mails 15 packages to Iraq.

Every day.

Fifteen packages. "It normally takes us a half hour to process her stuff. This would take 2 hours, I'm sure," said the clerk, matter-of-factly, not complaining about the customer's deed but, in her words,"The Dept of Homeland Idiocy."

"Fortunately," the clerk whispers, "she just had surgery the day before this testing crap started. I called her and said 'Jan, you might want to avoid this place till after the 10th

I guess that I am lucky. Most of the time I just put non-perishable food, hygiene items, clothing, etc. They never have asked me for more. They don't have the big FRB at our post office and so many of them don't know what it is and they just charge me $8.95. This morning I took a large FRB to mail and I had weighed it on my home bathroom scale because it felt so heavy. It was 21.5 lbs. The limit is supposed to be 20 lbs. But the clerk didn't even bat an eye when she weighed it. She did charge the $10.95 though. I think most of the clerks at this post office are veterans themselves. My scale was pretty accurate. She weighed it at 21.2.

It's my understanding that the 20 lb. limit is for international shipping.  Although our packages are ending up overseas we are actually shipping to a domestic location (east or west coast) and therefore the 70 lb. limit applies.    I have run the gammit with different postal clerks at my local PO and their individual preferences as to how the form is filled out.  Some have complimented my listing, some even wanted me to be more vague!!  I always dread rounding the corner to see who is "manning" the counter that day.  I always figure I can endure a little pain at the PO for the benefit of those who are sacrifice most of their comforts over there.

Good grief,  I can only hope this test fails miserably.  Who wants to weigh every single item you cram into a box?  I can understand the need for drug dogs,  chemical sniffing, x-raying, randomly opening boxes... but I can't understand the need to know a magazine weighs 20 ounces.  Sometimes I think people get a wee over enthusiastic.

 Oh boy, what a pain.

I wonder why this test is being done?  Have "bad things" been sent to the soldiers and is Homeland Security trying to protect the soldiers?

Best,