So what the heck? My husband went and dropped off two books for me at the postal office this morning. And the woman at the counter was TOTALLY confused by the PBS wrapping and label. So she told my husband that it was ready to go as is (just dc on it.. still had to pay postage). And he was like "No ma'am I think I am supposed to pay for the postage". And she goes.. "no no it's all right here. I've never seen this before you're good to go." WTF? So I had to call the post office and explain.. that NO it did NOT have postage on it that it was SUGGESTED POSTAGE. So I ask her if she can please run my card over the phone. She says No. I then clarify that yes, they do accept credit cards.. so why can they NOT manually enter my card number in because this was THEIR mistake because the lady didn't know what she was doing. Her response? "Our machine doesn't do that." I'm sorry.. WHAT? What credit card machine doesn't allow you to manually enter a credit card number in??? None that I know of. So now tomorrow morning I have to go all the way back to the post office and pay the postage. Granted.. my husband should have been more persistent because nothing is "free" and I told him it would have been about six dollars. But boy it just ticks me off when they don't know how to do they're jobs! Ugh. Just venting.

Wait- I agree with you that she was wrong to begin with, but a lot of places won't just take your credit card over the phone. You have to be there in person or it could be anyone having stolen your card and reading it off to them. Overall yes, you got hosed for stupid reasons, but the credit card thing is legit. At one of the POs I go to, they won't take your card if it's not signed on the back (and no, you cannot stand there, sign it, and hand it back to them). They could just be hypersensitive about the card issue.

That's true. I guess I'm just pissed at the situation. I would think though if they manually ran my card and the slip said Victoria Lerma and the return address on the books say Victoria Lerma then it'd be good to go. I just hoped they'd be more lenient on the CC thing because it was their mistake. Oh well.

Edited to add: Plus I have drag my 3 kids with me tomorrow to go pay the postage (all under 3) and it's a pain. So I am probably more irritated than I need to be.

Sorry to hear someone else's mistake is resulting in extra inconvenience for you.

But the credit card thing is possibly true. Banks that process credit card transactions charge merchants different rates depending on how they accept cards -- over the phone / web being more risky, a higher rate is charged because there's a higher chance for fraud. If a card is swiped and a slip signed, there more "proof" that the card user authorized that charge. Plus I imagine not too many business transactions are conducted over the phone at the post office.

I guess the packages are sitting at the PO. I was thinking perhaps you can just place stamps or something. If you were expecting 6 dollars it's probably over 13 oz but in my neighboring post offices they let you just pass the packages over whenever the next clerk is free if they are already fully paid.

sorry again.

The card can not be entered manually, even if you are standing right there. I have tried when the card reader would not pick up the number. Sorry about the extra trip. Hopefully it is a lesson learned all around?

The fact that the name on the package and the name on the card match should have been proof enough that the card is not stolen. Our PO can type them in because my Perks card is always wore out by the last year of use and it would never read right, so most places would have to type it in. One of my favorite clerks even commented on it when I got my new card and it actually worked. Sure they don't like it because they pay a higher fee, but they should be able to do it.  Not that that I'd expect someone who cannot read a PBS label that says "Please Attach Stamps Here" and then shows "suggested postage" to be smart enough to figure that advanced of a step out.

LOL. Melanie.. I couldn't agree more!

I understand the caution about the credit card, but had to laugh at the idea of someone stealing your credit card and then using it to pay a $6.00 media mail fee!!