Just a word of advice - never go into here thinking that the counter clerks are going to help you with anything. Like any bureaucratic appendage, private or public, they are only in the business of ripping you off. Do everything on the kiosk, if you can, as the machine ironically is more likely to be fair to you - but know how to use the machine, first and foremost, by understanding what constitutes the different sorts of packages ahead of time.
I learned that today when I tried to return an international parcel. I thought that because it was a very small and light book, I could get away with just shipping it as a large envelope, for the already exorbitant price (and more than what the book was worth) of $10. I get up to the counter though, and they insist that it needs to be sent as a package, because books evidently aren't duty-free. Fine, my mistake - but I was flabbergasted that they then charged $24 in postage to ship this 8.5 ounce package. I guess that 0.5 ounce over 8 oz was worth $10 extra, somehow - quite literally, as when you use the online postage calculator, 8 oz is shown as being only $14, while 8.4-8.5 soars up to $24. It makes me think that in this case, UPS, FedEx, or DHL would have been the cheaper option, as at least they go by weight instead of arbitrary cut off points. And this is after, mind, they had previously sat on this package for over a month in customs. Zero sense of accountability or integrity -- that's the United State Postal Service for you. read more