Previously I had, once in a while, wondered why the sending of cards is not big business here, but on Monday I found out...
I called into our local post office (roughly akin to a sub post office in the UK) to pay my electricity bill and purchase stamps for a total of 24 letters/cards and one small packet. After waiting patiently for around 10 minutes in the queue whilst others paid their bills I made it to the one counter and presented my bill for payment. I also placed the cards on the counter, in two piles, and tried to explain in my broken Greek that I needed stamps for them, but I was sending one pile on behalf of a friend, so needed just to know the total cost of postage for those letters.
The cashier gave me his best mega scowl, put my half processed bill to one side and motioned for the gentleman behind me to step forward. The cashier then proceeded to issue him with his car tax for next year.
Meanwhile the cashier's wife came and took a look at my letters, tutted loudly and frowned. I again tried to explain that I just needed to know how my the total postage cost of each pile would be, although I was happy to pay for it all together.
More tutting and out came the scales. My pal's pile was dealt with first, each card weighed and priced. The tiny ones were marked at .72c, the slightly larger ones - A5 sized - were priced at 1.55€ for those being sent to England, and 1.60€ for those being sent to Australia... and Scotland!
She then moved on to the small package, put it on the scales and looked at me. I wasn't at all prepared for what happened next. She scowled and started to shout (or at least speak very loudly) at me... "why for do you bring these in to me. You are wasting 3, 4 hours of my day having to weigh these letters. Why don't you bring all the same size and weight in?"
"Ummm," I said, taken aback (remember these envelopes only contain Christmas cards, all fairly standard sized, nothing larger than A5, and at this point she had spent all of 90 seconds weighing and pricing on my behalf)... Eventually I recovered myself and retorted "Perhaps you should have a word with the card manufacturers and get them to make a standard size to suit you, I'm sorry, but such matters are beyond my own control."
Whether or not the lady understood me fully I have no idea, but she certainly got the impression that I wasn't entirely happy with her diatribe. She glared at me again "You must take these to K**** (name removed to protect the innocent) I should not be expected to process these". K being some 10km away but home to the nearest main post office.
I'm afraid I then got a bit angry too, although I did manage to hold back on the language! "I'm sorry," says I, "I foolishly thought this was a post office, and that one of the basic functions of a post office was to supply stamps. Obviously I'm mistaken".
It was at this point that I noticed she was now weighing my cards. In an attempt to be clever I had three A5 envelopes that each contained two cards destined for the same address, one went on the scales, and 1.60€ was written on the envelope. Hang on a minute I thought, each of the cards in that envelope is small and wouldn't cost more than .72c to post separately. I'm not mathematician, but I do know that 72+72=144, which is a .16c saving, x3, that's nearly enough for a small loaf!
"Stop" I said, "don't bother weighing any more of my cards. Just give me 16 .72c stamps and my cards back. "No, no" came the reply, "I must do this". She looked suddenly contrite. "No, you don't have to. Just give me back my cards and sell me 16 stamps" I assured her.
The conversation continued in that vein for several more seconds before I eventually got my cards and stamps. This was followed by much thumping of keys on a hard done by calculator before "Twenty five euros" was snapped at me. I paid - along with the cost of the electricity bill. Outside I opened up the larger envelopes, stuck stamps on my cards and popped them in the letter box. Hopefully they will arrive safely
I do appreciate that the Greek rules regarding the weight and size of postage may be quite strict, but to berate me so loudly and publicly for having the audacity to go into a post office and ask to send some letters seems completely over the top! If a PO isn't there for buying stamps from what does it do? Yes, you can pay your bills there, but even that isn't a free service in Greece - there is a handling charge of around .60c per bill! What I found even more irritating was that when I too punched my calculator I realised that the postage hadn't been a round 25€ at all, I'd been overcharged by .27c. Not a fortune I grant you, but irritating nonetheless.
Later in the day I regaled the story to a Greek colleague of mine. She roared with laughter and said, "do you know, since I was a girl I have always wanted to work in a post office. You work from 7-10, take a 2 hour coffee break, then close at 1pm. When you are actually working you get to sit down behind a desk and shout at people all day..." How right she is!
Now I understand why greetings cards aren't popular in Greece!
Xronia Polla to all, have a wonderful Christmas and please excuse me if I send you e-cards rather than paper ones :0)
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