Well, I already had two stamps on it and I asked the clerk to check to see if I had enough postage on it. He said no even before he weighed it. He said it was a parcel. I said apparently you didn't get the memo. He said I go by what my book tells me and proceeded to read me the same old stuff they always tried to go by. I said I know all that stuff already and this memo says that it is wrong. He said that he would have to talk to his supervisor and then continued to try and tell me that if it varied in thickness by more than 1/4" it was a parcel. I read him the requirements from the memo and told him that he needed to get the supervisor for me. Finally he got the supervisor and the supervisor read the post that you put on here and said, "Yes, that's right." He told the clerk that it should be a large envelope and the clerk was still babbling on about the 1/4" difference in size. The supervisor said that from now on cushion mailers under 3/4" in thickness would go as a large envelope. I asked him if he would like to keep the post and he said no that he would print out the memo and make sure that everyone understood it. I don't think that they were any to happy. I had to pay an extra penny in addition to the stamps that I already had on it but that's better than $1.13. Hopefully that battle is won but I'm keeping the post with me when I go back.

I got my first job when I was 14 working at Dairy Queen. My parents had a Dodge Coronet they bought new in 1968 when I was 2. When I was 10, they parked it next to the garage and there it sat for 4 years. I was on the swing set, looking at the car, thinking I would need a car pretty soon. This was in 1980. I strolled over to my dad who was working in the yard, and started peppering him with questions. Will it run? What needs to be fixed? How much will it cost? After he answered, I told him I was going to get a job, and then we could fix it. He laughed and said ok. I went and begged for a job. I got it and saved every dime I made. By the end of summer, I had 10 $100 bills. I took it to my dad and asked if we could start working on the car. We did. It was ready to go in a year. To this day, I have never been without a job, sometimes two. And, yes, we still have the Dodge and it is still beautiful. And, yes, many kids today don't know the value of hard work or the value of money. Too many parents hand them whatever they want, whenever they want. Too many are spoiled and lazy. I made my daughters get their own jobs to pay for the things they wanted. Hard work never hurt anyone.

Thanks for the responses everyone. Running around with dd and could not get back to the computer all day. We felt pretty much like most of you. Didn't want the retraction printed as we were opening the new business. Any association about us and our business and a financial problem is not the type of marketing we are after! But... at the same time wanted to make sure anyone who saw it knows it was incorrect. We pay our bills darn it! I honestly expected nothing when I filed with the OCC. I simply wanted to know I did what I could to right a wrong and let it go. Never expected a case to be opened or the bank to contact me. The bank messed up our homeowners insurance last year and I thought nothing of it. A few phone calls and all was well. I think the snide BOA women who laughed put me over the edge. I appreciate the advice regarding not using the same bank for the business banking as personal banking and we don't. Igloo, I am all for business relationships but had to follow the savings...local bank really could care less if they had our mortgage business after we have banked with them for 20 years. I don't get it. Their interest was much higher than BOA and they would not go lower. Full disclosuree: I have a smart, sweet sil who has worked for BOA for almost 30 years. If I had asked she would of helped but I felt it would have been rather obnoxious of me. After all the turmoil at BOA, she did not need to deal with a relative's issues. asjama and idee, thanks for the credit report heads up. I only ran 1 of the 3 free ones for myself and was going to run the other 2 every few months as you suggested . They did not use our money for the penalty. Will talk to hubby about taking care of our own taxes. shermann thanks for the input. I'll let it go when we get everything in writing. Most of it is so far but the contact balked the whole way through. She didn't want to put anything in writing and do everything via phone. That didn't work to well for us when we talked to people who said they would pay the taxes the next day and it took them over 2 weeks to get it done. carol, I feel your pain. How darn hard is it to pay your customers taxes? Shannon, my husband would have went ballistic if that had happened to him! magothyrivergirl, You're right. Promoting a negative event is not the way to go. I'm sure I'll toughen my skin as I go, but at my age it's pretty tough already. I simply refused to take really crappy treatment and followed some simple procedures to make it right. lukk, I will watch for the vultures. We had a couple of the real ones land in our yard the other day. Had no idea they were THAT ugly close up! Thank you stinky and best. Why do they publish peoples names anyway? Since we are looking for a new Supreme court judge, they may want to consider someone from GW. You guys are awesome. Thank you Will let the hub know what you all said. Thanks again

I'm hoping for another book by Julia R. Fleming about the helicopter pilot turned Episcopal minister, with 'feelings' for her small town's chief of police. Dramatic, very human characters, *funny*, unpredictable. I liked Anne Perry's books set in England between the wars, but she began to repeat herself -- writing too much, too fast? DH and I ejoyed Silva's books featuring Gabriel Allon, but...eventually the character is running out of steam. Great plots! Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko is another great character. ("Gorky Park", etc.) Love Sandford, Robert Crais, the late Donald Westlake. (So sad there will be no more from him.) S. J. Rozan! Her Chinese-American detective Lydia Chin and her 'friend'. ("The Coldest Place") Who is the author who writes about books and book sellers? Lives Minneapolis, I think. May I mention my modern favorite book, "City of Thieves"? A 'fairy tale', a mystery, reads like Dostoevski might have written it if he'd lived through WWII. Alan Furst -- "The Polish Officer", etc. Philip Kerr's character Bernie Gunther in the "Berlin Noir Trilogy" and more. (Another character who must eventually wind down...so sad.) Oh-oh, I've really stayed from the OP's request. Sorry, Susan.