Send Mail with a Gift Card
Yesterday I need send a couple of greeting cards. For one of the cards, I need to get a Starbucks gift card, so at lunch time I went to Starbucks and the Post Office in Lexington, Massachusetts.
The Starbucks in Lexington, MA wasn't that crowded at lunch time. I was able to get right to the counter when I walked in and get the gift card with no problems. Pretty simple task.
The Post Office trip was a little strange:
When I went to the post office to drop off the cards, I decided to get some The Simpson stamps. Very cool idea to have The Simpsons as postage stamps!
I gave the clerk the two greeting cards to be mailed, which both had the 'Forever' stamp. She took the one that had a gift card in it and started to bend it.
"This one won't make it through our machines," she said. "It will have to go through Parcel Post."
"Ah, ok." was my reply.
"Its going to cost an extra .60 to mail this letter," she said.
I was a little surprise at that. It cost .60 more to mail an envelope with a gift card in it? Just because it can't fit through a sorting machine? That seems very weird. Instead of arguing, I took some stamps that I had with me and use that to increase the postage.
I'll have to test this out to see if this is really true. Is the Post Office charging more money to send gift cards when you hand it to the clerk?
I have a feeling that it would have gotten to the final destination just fine had I just put it in the mail slot.