I guess it's official.

Checking my accounts this morning, I saw that the check paying for my MFF registration had been cashed. So now I should be properly registered for it and all, even though I haven't yet received the confirmation from MFF.

I've also started setting a bit aside for MFF expenses, so they shouldn't be a problem. Hrm, need to prepare a sandwich bag of dimes (no, not a dime bag) for those annoying tolls that IL puts in the way on the halfway decent roads, at least around Chicago.

I suppose I should also start putting a (smaller, for now) bit aside for RCFM. No, jugularjaguar, I haven't forgotten about RCFM. In fact, this morning I printed out the RCFM registration form. It might be a little while before I send it, but it will get sent.

It reeks of false advertising.

Express

Doesn't that imply speed? Like Pony Express, the fast for its day delivery service, or Express Lane which is supposed to be faster than those other lanes?

Well, the United States Postal Service has revised the definition. Express Mail used to mean that if you sent something today, it'd get where you wanted it tomorrow. Not anymore. I had to Express something today[1] (because Airborne Express - there's that word again - wasn't swift enough to follow simple directions about where to pick up that something... but that's another rant).

Other package delivery services use Express in their name to indicate speed. It's not Federal Someday Get There, it's Federal Express. Why? It's a next-day service! Sure, you can now get a cheaper, slower FedEx service, but they still offer the point of their name: Getting stuff places fast. Airborne Express, had they been smart enough to understand a simple location description, would have gotten the parcel where it needed to be next-day. But since they weren't competent enough to handle a simple pick-up, I got to have this exchange at the Post Office:

Clerk: When do you want this to get there?
Vakko: Tomorrow.
Clerk: I can get it there Saturday.
Vakko: Saturday isn't tomorrow. Isn't the whole point of Express mail to get something there tomorrow?
Clerk: No, it's to have it tracked. (Or was it confirmed delivery)
Vakko: Nice of USPS to change the definition after telling everyone it was for speed.
Clerk: Do you still want to send it Express?
Vakko: *grumble* Yes... *what choice is there?*

What's annoying is the quiet redefinition of "Express." If it's just delivery confirmation, then call it that. If it's second-rate package tracking, than call it that. First rate tracking is what Registered Mail gets. But Registered ain't Express. Since they are not offering a truly Express (fast!) service, they have no business using the name and implying that that is what they have. Bait-and-switch seems a good description of what USPS is doing with its alleged Express Mail service. It's one thing if USPS simply can't do what other places do. I can accept that. But being lied to is another matter, and using the term Express Mail for two-day delivery is a lie.

So now, because of a bungle by Airborne Express and the false advertising of USPS, I've wound up having to pay $17.85 for inferior service.

[1] I had not known that this item needed to be shipped until last night. Had I known about it earlier, I would have sent it earlier.