Today I learned that I should pay better attention to posted signs as well as my surroundings.

It started out innocuous enough—I needed to mail a few things. Since I pretty much pay all bills online, I haven’t had stamps for months, and so needed to buy some.

I head down to the local post office, where I come across the stamp vending machine. Not wanting to stand in line just for a few stamps, I peruse my purchasing options. It seems I can only buy a book of 20 stamps, which is way more than I’ll probably use before they raise the rates, but I’m going for convenience here! I note that the machine takes $1, $5, $10, and $20 denominations; the total will be $7.40, so I reach for my $10 bill.

“No,” I think to myself, “I will use the $20 bill so that I can break it up and have change for lunch.” So I slip the money in the machine and make my purchase.

Clink, clink, clink. As I hear a ton of change falling, I fear that I am getting back $12 in quarters! But no, even more useless, I get back 12 shiny gold dollar coins! It is then that I read the sign on the machine that says “ATTENTION: THIS MACHINE GIVES CHANGE IN DOLLAR COINS”. DOH! So now I have to devise a way to get rid of these damn coins, since there is no room for them in my wallet. That also means that I now have to make sure when I pay for something that I point out that it is a dollar and not a quarter, lest someone think I am stiffing them.

My next thought is, “Gee, if I had used the $10 like I planned, I’d only have 2 of these coins, not 12!”

And then my eye catches the smaller, older looking machine on the left that dispenses single stamps or 5 at a time. And I only needed 2….

Posted at 11:56 AM |