The United States Postal Service is one of those organizations that have little value in my eyes. In the past five years, they’ve been complicit in delivering tons of waste to my house. Most of which have been campaign fliers, and other spam mail marked “current resident”. They have also done a fine job of delivering someone else’s mail, well actually 4 someone’s, that haven’t lived here for years. Despite repeatedly marking “bad address”, “doesn't live here” and the like in big black letters and returning it, and three trips to the post office to fill out, and refill out the “who lives here paperwork”, I keep getting the mail of other people.

The USPS is a shining example of what the .gov is all about. Only maybe slightly ahead of the VA and the SSA.

Question:
Would closing up the USPS really bother your day to day?

Choices:
Yes
No

 

I voted "yes" only because I still pay a few bills by mail and receive payment for work I do for others the same way. Both of those could be dealt with, but it'd be a pain.

Thread drift: My experience with the VA has been 100% positive, orders of magnitude better than the traditional medical community including Primary Care, Eye Care and Audiology.

The exception to that is my Dentist. One-stop shopping for everything from cleanings to dental surgery. Latest equipment, cheerful, professional staff.

Yes, I receive most of my business income by check from business clients. I receive my POA client IRS notices by mail as that is the only way IRS notifies taxpayers. I want all bills to come by mail so if I die suddenly my wife can take care of them. Website security has become so personalized it is difficult for someone else to pay online.
The Nashville VA is fantastic as they employee Vanderbilt specialists.

YMMV but at least for me the USPS has worked pretty well for me. The only complaint I have is the multi-box for the neighborhood keeps getting broken into and they aren't doing anything to improve the situation. But the service is still price competitive whenever I send stuff. I do wish we could tell them to stop junk mail - do it for others if they don't object but give us an opportunity to opt out.

UPS is also good around here but they are expensive (or maybe I'm just doing it wrong).

That being said - in person service in the store is better with UPS than USPS. The latter is very slow, long lines and surly representatives. The delivery people are much friendlier.

I voted yes because it is my livelihood. However, the only mail I get is from the Post Office, which is actually quite annoying.

Yes, use their service multiple times a week. Use Fed Ex on rare circumstances like shipping firearms or overnight.

Day-to-day, I probably wouldn't miss it. If it went away altogether, I would.

Some people are still old-school and send (and like to receive) birthday cards, Christmas cards, and the like. Many still want paper bills/statements, not having fully embraced the "e-world." I know several people in both of those groups.

Some business needs essentially require US Mail, and I can mail an USPS money order to someone for an item purchased, for a little bit less cost than sending it by UPS or FedEx. So there's that.

In terms of practicality, though, I'm not sure it would hurt any of us if the PO reduced residential delivery to three days a week. Many times, my friends and I have discussed the cost savings (fuel, vehicle wear, labor, etc) involved in cutting back residential deliveries.

Some I've talked to argue that they need their mail delivered every day, for they've got medicines coming by mail. The jerk in me says a single day in one direction or the other can either be planned for, or recovered from. Getting meds? Have them shipped early. My birthday card is coming? I'm okay if it's a day late.

Cut residential delivery to Monday-Wednesday-Friday, and reap the savings. Postal holiday falls on one of those days? Ehh, I guess we'll have to deal with that. Won't faze me much, though.

I voted yes. USPS Service in my area is very good. If a service comes along that can can provide a comparable service @ same costs so be it.
Lots of bitching and moaning about USPS service for years now. Lots of crickets when it comes to a comparable or better service provider stepping forward?

Who would Clark have to bark at if it weren't the mailman every day? He gets little enough excitement as it is.

They always claim they lose so much money but then they come to the house 6 days a week to drop off mostly junk mail. I could easily get by with a twice a week mail person stopping by.

Certainly M-W-F would be plenty for 95% of the people. I heard how much they would save by just dropping Saturday and it was an astronomical figure but they won’t even do that.

Dropping Saturday delivery would seem to be the EASY thing to do. Even if USPS still had to pay delivery people for Saturday, they could still save a pile of money on reduced vehicle usage (fuel and wear).

But that's just my opinion.

I voted "yes". In Wisconsin, the only legal way to deliver Property Tax notices is the U.S. Mail... I sent out 2,407 of them last year. That's not counting all the other letters I send out to people who want a copy of their record, etc, but don't want it sent email.

I have a business so USPS in necessary. I have been successful in eliminating most junk mail.

USPS service around here is excellent. Our guy is great and has an excellent performance record. I also really like the guy in the town where I work...he's very reliable, knows everybody, and has helped me out on more than one occasion. All of the local branches that I visit have friendly and helpful staff, and they are also the cheapest way to send most stuff.

Fedex on the other hand...particularly the sub-contracted FedEx Ground unit...absolutely sucks.

Although the internet has taken over a lot of its functions like paying bills, the post office is still needed. How else will the IRS send you dunning notices? Greg Cote would have to find some other way of sending us magazines. Mend it, don't end it.

yes, Most of my business is USPS international 1st class.

The Click and Ship for packages is better than the other services.

Not only no but hell no.

Our local PO is great, it’s when something leaves here and gets to a distribution center that things turn to shit. I have zero faith in the USPS once it gets past the local level

The USPS has gone to complete shit all the way around. I am now at a point that I don’t mail out a single bill payment. I had gotten down to just a few I still paid by check, but now I pay everything online. 99% of what I receive in the mail is junk mail; about the same as my email.

Shut them down and we would save a TON of money.