BOXES (the week of the giant box)

I know, that title is a little weird, but if you only knew what I have had to go through the last week, you would understand. It all started when we needed to ship some things up to Rexburg...

I called PostNet and asked for the largest box they had (I knew I would need a pretty good sized one to send all that I needed to send). They told me that they had one left. I got into the store and asked about their largest box, the man behind the counter had talked to me on the phone so he rang me up before he brought out the box. After ringing me up, he brought out this GIGANTIC box! I had this terrible feeling (I know - I think I am too independent that I sometimes ignore that feeling I should never ignore - it is there for a reason - to warn me!!) Anyways, I knew I should have asked him for his second biggest box but since he had already rang me up - I didn't want to say, "well - do you have anything a little smaller" (It would have saved me a ton of trouble even though I might have felt stupid at the time).

So I took the box home. I got everything I needed in it and there was still a ton of room (yes, I knew I should have got a smaller size!). I taped it all back up and headed back down to PostNet!! I get into PostNet and the guy behind the counter puts it up on his scale. Clicking through all his options, he casually tells me the price. I wasn't sure if he was a digit off so I asked him again what the price of shipping was - he looked at it and said $182!!! I could not even believe it. He stated that because of the size of the box UPS automatically charges a $75 charge on there plus shipping. I told him that I could drive it up to Rexburg for cheaper than that and drug the box out of the store. I came home frustrated and talked to Lance. He had some co-workers around him that said that I could send the box through the Postal Service.

So the next day, I loaded the box up and headed down to the Post Office. I had Emilyn with me. She helped me push the Giant Box into the Post Office. I tried not to look at the faces around me because I was sure they were thinking, "What in the world are you shipping lady!!" We got in line and waited our turn. After waiting forever in line we finally got to the counter. The guy looks at me kind of funny. I asked him if he shipped packages that big. He said he would have to measure it. So I used all my strength to heave the Giant Box up onto the counter as everyone in line watched. I hate those kinds of moments!!

He weighed the box, everything was looking promising, there was a price listed on the screen that was less than $20. Then he began to measure..... Apparently it is called the "girth". There is some equation they use to determine if the box is too big to ship. The particular girth of this box was 132. They can only ship up to 130. I look at him - not wanting to pull down the Giant box and push it out of the Post Office in front of all these people. He tells me they have some boxes for sale on the other wall - I ask if I can leave the box there while I go look (that allows the time I need to make the line of people smaller while I am looking at the boxes and then I won't have to push it out in front of so many people). So I go and look at the boxes near the wall which are way too small to ship what I need them to. I take my time and finally decide that I might as well get it over with and push the darn box out of the post office. There really weren't too many people there anymore which was somewhat of a relief for me (but there were still people - luckily nobody that I knew though).

So Emilyn and I go home. I call Lance - he thinks he can cut down the box. He is my hero :)!! Over the weekend, he cuts down the box and I have him load it into the back of my car.

Today, Emilyn and I head back to the Post Office. We push the somewhat smaller box into the Post Office. People still look at me and make a few comments. If only they knew how big this box was last week :)!! I get up to the Counter and she begins measuring the box and trying to determine if they can send it. I told her that I had already been in before and we had cut down the box. The girth comes to 124 this time. HOORAY. I am able to send the box through the Post Office for about $17 (and it went Priority-wow!!) As we left the box behind and Emilyn and I were heading out of the Post Office - Emilyn looks at me and says "We finally got rid of that box!" Yes, Emilyn was tired of that box too and she took the words right out of my mouth!!

So the lesson I have learned through all of this is to ALWAYS listen to those bad feelings I get and NEVER again buy a 36x24x24 size box :)