[Dx-qsl] Re: redeeming IRCs

Wed Nov 22 12:02:04 EST 2006

Wow. I just had a real donnybrook trying to exchange four of the old type IRCs.
She first stamped them and was ready to fork over the stamps, when she started to look at them again....Waaaittt jussa minute!
She started hemming and hawing about how old they were (one was a 1992 JA, one was 1999 G, and one was a 1997 DL), how one of them was not stamped in the left block, and how a one of them was US issue.
I showed her the postal bulletin issued a couple weeks back, excerpts from the IMM, etc. She wasn't buying it. She went to make phone call.
She comes back stating that they were going to give me only 60 cents for the U.S. one since she was claiming that the U.S. ones were based on a 1/2 ounce posting. She was refusing to accept the 3 foreign ones (despite the fact that she had already stamped them). She was giving me this and that about the fact that she didn't know how much they were worth, on what basis they were sold, etc.
I fired back that it was IRRELEVANT how much I paid for them, and that it was IRRELEVANT that they may or may not have been sold on a "different" basis. The fact remained that the pre-2002 IRCs were valid for one ounce of air mail first class postage and, I could care less if I had to use a yap limestone wheel to buy them in 1997. 
She said for me to wait for a supervisor. I retorted, "Why should I? The IMM and the bulletin are clear on the point. " She finally gave up, begrudgingly gave me the four 0ドル.84 cent stamps (the U.S. IRC was actually valued at 0ドル.95 so I should have gotten 0ドル.94), and I left.
How wonderful.
73 Rich NN3W
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peg Haese KB9LIE" <kb9lie at yahoo.com>
To: <dx-qsl at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2006 11:15 AM
Subject: [Dx-qsl] Re: redeeming IRCs
We get a lot of direct requests for FP cards. I only redeem a few IRCs
at a time, no more than once a week, and have none stockpiled now. I
try to get in Bob's line at the Platteville PO. He knows what to do and
helps the other clerks if I end up at the wrong counter. I appreciate
him!
At one time we had a stash of quite a few so I used the old "surface
mail" ones first, then the airmail ones, then the larger new ones. That
way I was only redeeming one type at a time. I was never questioned
about where on earth they came from, or anything like that. Almost all
were originally purchased outside the US, none were stamped on the
wrong side, and only a few were unstamped, which wasn't a problem.
In a university town with many foreign students, the Platteville PO
sells lots of IRCs. However I am the main person redeeming them. Our
small local PO says no one ever asks about them.
Find a PO with a good clerk if you can. 99% of them are good, BTW, just
not used to IRCs. Ask other local DXers what they do, if there are any.
Turn your old IRCs in for 84-cent stamps instead of sending them out.
Do it now, a little at a time, instead of waiting until crunch time.
Note: the above advice is not meant for power users like Steve KU9C,
hi.
Peg KB9LIE in SW Wisconsin USA
FP/KB9LIE every summer from Maxotel on beautiful Miquelon

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