Folks should do a comparison of postal rates in other countries, I did and now realize why the post office is loosing money.
Why do people complain about the Post Office
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Originally Posted By: Ursae_Majoris
Because they loose my packages, because I find neighbor' mail in my mailbox at least once a week; who knows where my mail is going. All complaints to the local postmaster accomplished nothing.
Yup...same thing here.
What I don't understand is that if I mail a letter from my address to someone in town...just 4 miles away, the letter goes from here, to Memphis and back....a round trip of some 100 plus miles.
Because they loose my packages, because I find neighbor' mail in my mailbox at least once a week; who knows where my mail is going. All complaints to the local postmaster accomplished nothing.
Yup...same thing here.
What I don't understand is that if I mail a letter from my address to someone in town...just 4 miles away, the letter goes from here, to Memphis and back....a round trip of some 100 plus miles.
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Why I hate the post office:
Line out the door,one employee working as slow and as leisurely as possible,about 10 empty checkouts/registers,and the stamp machine is always out of order. The good old US Government,go figure!
Line out the door,one employee working as slow and as leisurely as possible,about 10 empty checkouts/registers,and the stamp machine is always out of order. The good old US Government,go figure!
Originally Posted By: TaterandNoodles
Small would be an upgrade. I live in a township, population of 1941 but the township is technically 1/3 of the county.
http://www.city-data.com/township/Shiloh-Camden-NC.html
Hey I'm in E-city right now for training. Nice countryside up here...
Small would be an upgrade. I live in a township, population of 1941 but the township is technically 1/3 of the county.
http://www.city-data.com/township/Shiloh-Camden-NC.html
Hey I'm in E-city right now for training. Nice countryside up here...
Originally Posted By: jcwit
Folks should do a comparison of postal rates in other countries, I did and now realize why the post office is loosing money.
First class mail cost only 44 cents and the distance can be as far as 5-6k miles from New York to Hawaii, also medium package with priority mail is about $10 for the same distance. Can any private company or any country match that ?
Folks should do a comparison of postal rates in other countries, I did and now realize why the post office is loosing money.
First class mail cost only 44 cents and the distance can be as far as 5-6k miles from New York to Hawaii, also medium package with priority mail is about $10 for the same distance. Can any private company or any country match that ?
Originally Posted By: jcwit
Folks should do a comparison of postal rates in other countries, I did and now realize why the post office is loosing money.
I will never be able to understand how I was able to buy a gold-plated 2.5mm-3.5mm barrel audio jack adapter from Hong Kong and pay $.32 total for it - including shipping - and that the seller made a profit on it. Shipping must be almost free for them.
Folks should do a comparison of postal rates in other countries, I did and now realize why the post office is loosing money.
I will never be able to understand how I was able to buy a gold-plated 2.5mm-3.5mm barrel audio jack adapter from Hong Kong and pay $.32 total for it - including shipping - and that the seller made a profit on it. Shipping must be almost free for them.
Originally Posted By: stranger706
Originally Posted By: TaterandNoodles
Small would be an upgrade. I live in a township, population of 1941 but the township is technically 1/3 of the county.
http://www.city-data.com/township/Shiloh-Camden-NC.html
Hey I'm in E-city right now for training. Nice countryside up here...
USCG
I take it.
If you are a fisherman you should try and go out off the coast. If you are a beach goer the OBX is starting to pick up as the weather gets nicer. E-city is not for everyone but I prefer it to traveling to VA.
Originally Posted By: TaterandNoodles
Small would be an upgrade. I live in a township, population of 1941 but the township is technically 1/3 of the county.
http://www.city-data.com/township/Shiloh-Camden-NC.html
Hey I'm in E-city right now for training. Nice countryside up here...
USCG
If you are a fisherman you should try and go out off the coast. If you are a beach goer the OBX is starting to pick up as the weather gets nicer. E-city is not for everyone but I prefer it to traveling to VA.
Originally Posted By: Gary Allan
Our post office has observation "ports" on some upper tier from before the time of cheaper video surveillance. That was so that supervisors could look for stuff to reprimand someone for.
Our towns old (built in early 1900's) post office had the same setup. It looked like an oversized air conditioning duct with observation ports every ten feet or so. During a tour, we were told that it was for federal postal inspectors. The entrance to this observation platform was a door on the outside of the building to which even the local postmaster didn't have a key. The inspectors never announced beforehand when they would visit, so the local postal workers always had to work under the assumption that they were being watched.
Our post office has observation "ports" on some upper tier from before the time of cheaper video surveillance. That was so that supervisors could look for stuff to reprimand someone for.
Our towns old (built in early 1900's) post office had the same setup. It looked like an oversized air conditioning duct with observation ports every ten feet or so. During a tour, we were told that it was for federal postal inspectors. The entrance to this observation platform was a door on the outside of the building to which even the local postmaster didn't have a key. The inspectors never announced beforehand when they would visit, so the local postal workers always had to work under the assumption that they were being watched.
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Originally Posted By: jcwit
Folks should do a comparison of postal rates in other countries, I did and now realize why the post office is loosing money.
First class mail cost only 44 cents and the distance can be as far as 5-6k miles from New York to Hawaii, also medium package with priority mail is about $10 for the same distance. Can any private company or any country match that ?
Precisily what I was getting at.
Originally Posted By: jcwit
Folks should do a comparison of postal rates in other countries, I did and now realize why the post office is loosing money.
First class mail cost only 44 cents and the distance can be as far as 5-6k miles from New York to Hawaii, also medium package with priority mail is about $10 for the same distance. Can any private company or any country match that ?
Precisily what I was getting at.
Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
]I will never be able to understand how I was able to buy a gold-plated 2.5mm-3.5mm barrel audio jack adapter from Hong Kong and pay $.32 total for it - including shipping - and that the seller made a profit on it. Shipping must be almost free for them.
I'm puzzled by the same thing, and how the two countries split international postage. I figured since they hold so many of our dollars...
A post office is infrastructure, not (just) a business. It benefits the people of the country, encourages business growth, etc. Not every piece of mail has to turn a profit. Just like not every highway has to go where you choose to drive, or not every Amtrak train has to be seated to capacity. (But they CONNECT riders to other useful profitable services.)
Similarly, if they employ a few dolts and trade them for stupendous awesome workers, and the dolts are on welfare... that just shifts costs around and the dolts are less productive.
This threat of no saturday delivery is a scam to charge more for stamps or whatever. If they skip another day, make it wednesday or rolling tue-wed-thu so there aren't too many contiguous mail-less days.
]I will never be able to understand how I was able to buy a gold-plated 2.5mm-3.5mm barrel audio jack adapter from Hong Kong and pay $.32 total for it - including shipping - and that the seller made a profit on it. Shipping must be almost free for them.
I'm puzzled by the same thing, and how the two countries split international postage. I figured since they hold so many of our dollars...
A post office is infrastructure, not (just) a business. It benefits the people of the country, encourages business growth, etc. Not every piece of mail has to turn a profit. Just like not every highway has to go where you choose to drive, or not every Amtrak train has to be seated to capacity. (But they CONNECT riders to other useful profitable services.)
Similarly, if they employ a few dolts and trade them for stupendous awesome workers, and the dolts are on welfare... that just shifts costs around and the dolts are less productive.
This threat of no saturday delivery is a scam to charge more for stamps or whatever. If they skip another day, make it wednesday or rolling tue-wed-thu so there aren't too many contiguous mail-less days.
Skipping mail delivery on Saturday is similar to "skipping gas station on a day boycott" concept. If mail carriers are paid extra to deliver on Saturday (i.e. overtime), then yes US Mail will save money but that would be stiffing the employees. They will still have to deliver "SAME AMOUNT OF TOTAL MAIL" for the other 5 days i.e. on Monday, they will be expected to carry the double load and I would think they should be paid double on Monday!
Anybody who compares USPS with Fedex/UPS, tell me what kind of service do you get for 40 cents from them
- Vikas
Anybody who compares USPS with Fedex/UPS, tell me what kind of service do you get for 40 cents from them
- Vikas
I like the USPS because they don't gouge me at the border shipping items from the US. All the private guys seem to add some sort of fee...
The saturday delivery sounds abit strange though. In my rural area we have private contractors who deliver the mail, lowest bidder..., so its not unusual to get guys who only deliver 4 days a week, and lose stuff, while having to drive $300 cars...
The saturday delivery sounds abit strange though. In my rural area we have private contractors who deliver the mail, lowest bidder..., so its not unusual to get guys who only deliver 4 days a week, and lose stuff, while having to drive $300 cars...
Our company mails about 3,000 invoices a month - rarely do we have an issue with a customer not getting their paperwork, or (most important) our $$$ by return mail.
We did have one really interesting situation involving a customer who was supposed to send a fairly large ($15K) down payment for a project - he insisted he sent it, we never got it, and the USPS guys, of course, said, "we don't know what to tell you". Relations with the customer got a bit testy, but he eventually stopped payment on the first check and we picked up the down payment in person. About 6 weeks later, in addition to the regular mail, our guy brought a gum-banded bundle of mail back from his daily trip to the Post Office. In that bundle were about 25 pieces of our mail that had been put in someone else's box (the number wasn't remotely close to ours) - the guy moved away and canceled the box, and when the P.O. employees went through it, they found our mail. The customer's check was in there, along with a bunch of other stuff that caused a lot of re-filing and such.
My main complaint has always been, why charge the same price for a letter going 1 mile as one going 3,000 miles. I'm sure it would be mass mayhem trying to come up with some kind of equitable pricing based on distance.
We did have one really interesting situation involving a customer who was supposed to send a fairly large ($15K) down payment for a project - he insisted he sent it, we never got it, and the USPS guys, of course, said, "we don't know what to tell you". Relations with the customer got a bit testy, but he eventually stopped payment on the first check and we picked up the down payment in person. About 6 weeks later, in addition to the regular mail, our guy brought a gum-banded bundle of mail back from his daily trip to the Post Office. In that bundle were about 25 pieces of our mail that had been put in someone else's box (the number wasn't remotely close to ours) - the guy moved away and canceled the box, and when the P.O. employees went through it, they found our mail. The customer's check was in there, along with a bunch of other stuff that caused a lot of re-filing and such.
My main complaint has always been, why charge the same price for a letter going 1 mile as one going 3,000 miles. I'm sure it would be mass mayhem trying to come up with some kind of equitable pricing based on distance.
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
In my rural area we have private contractors who deliver the mail, lowest bidder..., so its not unusual to get guys who only deliver 4 days a week, and lose stuff, while having to drive $300 cars...
We live on a dead end street. We used to have a jerk who would skip the whole road if he was running late, presumably due to heavy work load or whatever.
He was so overwhelmed after a Monday holiday he'd skip us on Tuesday as well. So we got to go Sat-Wed without mail. I felt like if I complained he'd know it was us and screw with our mail even more.
As for the $300 cars, it could be a lifestyle choice, as the driving is worse than pizza deliveries, if that's possible. Could be one of those jobs where the car is such overhead, it makes sense if one is a hobby mechanic as well. Until very recently Ciera/Century wagons with bench seats that could be operated from the passenger position were very popular.
In my rural area we have private contractors who deliver the mail, lowest bidder..., so its not unusual to get guys who only deliver 4 days a week, and lose stuff, while having to drive $300 cars...
We live on a dead end street. We used to have a jerk who would skip the whole road if he was running late, presumably due to heavy work load or whatever.
He was so overwhelmed after a Monday holiday he'd skip us on Tuesday as well. So we got to go Sat-Wed without mail. I felt like if I complained he'd know it was us and screw with our mail even more.
As for the $300 cars, it could be a lifestyle choice, as the driving is worse than pizza deliveries, if that's possible. Could be one of those jobs where the car is such overhead, it makes sense if one is a hobby mechanic as well. Until very recently Ciera/Century wagons with bench seats that could be operated from the passenger position were very popular.
Why do people complain about them? Why would they NOT? 8 out of 10 times I go to two different Post Offices in my area the employees are either extremely rude and nasty, or are so slow at job performance that they make a snail seem like a sprinter. Typically staffed with older, angry folks that, frankly, have seen better days.....or affirmative action hires that are barely able to communicate in an intelligent, coherent, fashion. Terrible service most times, an 'I don't care' attitude, and when lines are out the door they STILL don't staff the other counter positions. Idiots.....that's why I complain anyway.
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Whatever complains people have for the post office, you can find the same in UPS/FedEx. Mine never knock on my door or couldn't even find my house and say wrong address and return back to sender.
One time FedEx even managed to lose a ceiling fan (a 3'x1'x1' box) after they drop it off the front of my house without even ringing a bell.
Most complain about post office is just because it is government, and some people have a thing against the government regardless of whatever it is.
Are you an authority on why 'most people complain' now? You think it's just some anti-government right-wing extremists that have a disdain for poor performance? I know plenty of liberals that think the USPS is a joke too. Must be closet conservatives?
Whatever complains people have for the post office, you can find the same in UPS/FedEx. Mine never knock on my door or couldn't even find my house and say wrong address and return back to sender.
One time FedEx even managed to lose a ceiling fan (a 3'x1'x1' box) after they drop it off the front of my house without even ringing a bell.
Most complain about post office is just because it is government, and some people have a thing against the government regardless of whatever it is.
Are you an authority on why 'most people complain' now? You think it's just some anti-government right-wing extremists that have a disdain for poor performance? I know plenty of liberals that think the USPS is a joke too. Must be closet conservatives?
Originally Posted By: andrewg
Are you an authority on why 'most people complain' now? You think it's just some anti-government right-wing extremists that have a disdain for poor performance? I know plenty of liberals that think the USPS is a joke too. Must be closet conservatives?
Where did I ever said only the right-wing extremists are anti-government and where did I ever said that liberals can't be anti-government extremists? Check the news on UC rate hike student protests, I've seen so many that I don't even want to mention anymore.
Why do I have to be an authority to express my opinion? You can express your opinion, does that means I can accuse you of being an authority wannabe as well?
Are you an authority on why 'most people complain' now? You think it's just some anti-government right-wing extremists that have a disdain for poor performance? I know plenty of liberals that think the USPS is a joke too. Must be closet conservatives?
Where did I ever said only the right-wing extremists are anti-government and where did I ever said that liberals can't be anti-government extremists? Check the news on UC rate hike student protests, I've seen so many that I don't even want to mention anymore.
Why do I have to be an authority to express my opinion? You can express your opinion, does that means I can accuse you of being an authority wannabe as well?
Quote:
The Postal service is NOT, I REPEAT NOT subsidized by the federal government or TAXPAYER MONIES.
Not quite correct:
"However, unlike other private businesses, the Postal Service is exempt from paying federal taxes. USPS can borrow money at discounted rates, and can condemn and acquire private property under governmental rights of eminent domain.
The USPS does get some taxpayer support. Around $96 million is budgeted annually by Congress for the "Postal Service Fund." These funds are used to compensate USPS for postage-free mailing for all legally blind persons and for mail-in election ballots sent from US citizens living overseas. A portion of the funds also pays USPS for providing address information to state and local child support enforcement agencies, and for keeping some rural posts offices in operation.
Under federal law, only the Postal Service can handle or charge postage for handling letters."
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/consumerawareness/a/uspsabout.htm
Not paying taxes as well as other advantages that come from being a government agency surely are "subsidies" when private organizations don't get the same benefits.
The Postal service is NOT, I REPEAT NOT subsidized by the federal government or TAXPAYER MONIES.
Not quite correct:
"However, unlike other private businesses, the Postal Service is exempt from paying federal taxes. USPS can borrow money at discounted rates, and can condemn and acquire private property under governmental rights of eminent domain.
The USPS does get some taxpayer support. Around $96 million is budgeted annually by Congress for the "Postal Service Fund." These funds are used to compensate USPS for postage-free mailing for all legally blind persons and for mail-in election ballots sent from US citizens living overseas. A portion of the funds also pays USPS for providing address information to state and local child support enforcement agencies, and for keeping some rural posts offices in operation.
Under federal law, only the Postal Service can handle or charge postage for handling letters."
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/consumerawareness/a/uspsabout.htm
Not paying taxes as well as other advantages that come from being a government agency surely are "subsidies" when private organizations don't get the same benefits.
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Originally Posted By: andrewg
Are you an authority on why 'most people complain' now? You think it's just some anti-government right-wing extremists that have a disdain for poor performance? I know plenty of liberals that think the USPS is a joke too. Must be closet conservatives?
Where did I ever said only the right-wing extremists are anti-government and where did I ever said that liberals can't be anti-government extremists? Check the news on UC rate hike student protests, I've seen so many that I don't even want to mention anymore.
Why do I have to be an authority to express my opinion? You can express your opinion, does that means I can accuse you of being an authority wannabe as well?
I asked you a question....didn't say you said 'only right wing extremists'. You did say however that MOSTLY those that dislike government are the ones complaining. That's a statement one can assume comes form an opinion that reflects my question.
Originally Posted By: andrewg
Are you an authority on why 'most people complain' now? You think it's just some anti-government right-wing extremists that have a disdain for poor performance? I know plenty of liberals that think the USPS is a joke too. Must be closet conservatives?
Where did I ever said only the right-wing extremists are anti-government and where did I ever said that liberals can't be anti-government extremists? Check the news on UC rate hike student protests, I've seen so many that I don't even want to mention anymore.
Why do I have to be an authority to express my opinion? You can express your opinion, does that means I can accuse you of being an authority wannabe as well?
I asked you a question....didn't say you said 'only right wing extremists'. You did say however that MOSTLY those that dislike government are the ones complaining. That's a statement one can assume comes form an opinion that reflects my question.
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