You’re sitting in the offices of your on-line business, going through your in-box. Your mail includes a letter from the U.S. Postal Service. The letter claims that you owe a six- or seven-figure sum—more than your profits last year—because you didn’t pay enough postage on parcels of merchandise that you mailed to consumers one, two or three years ago. You have 30 days to appeal—to another Postal Service official—or pay up. “We appreciate your business,” the letter ends.
You sit there in disbelief. Your company has a dedicated in-house shipping department. You’ve faithfully paid the postage on your outgoing parcels with a postage meter for several years—maybe even with a computerized meter and data link that enable the Postal Service to debit your postage instantly from your bank account whenever you mail. None of the post office employees who deal with your shipping department have ever raised any underpayment issue before. How are you going to reconstruct what you mailed several years ago? And, if you owe more postage, how will you ever be able to get your customers to reimburse you? This seems Kafkaesque.