I personally have experienced very little of the frustration the is written about in WYD. Local post offices do a pretty good job.

It's not really a service I use, and if I need it, the private companies do it better at pretty much same cost.

We live in rural america and still have a Post office in the little hamlet of Frontier down the road.

I'm a dinosaur, pay bills via check and snail mail. I buy a roll of stamps monthly for our store.

quote:

Originally posted by StorminNormin:...
Shut them down and we would save a TON of money.

How so?

What I don't understand is why there are three post office buildings within a 5 mile radius of my house? Can't they do some consolidation, or is it like closing military bases, where the only redundant and unnecessary ones are in some other politician's district?

quote:

and if I need it, the private companies do it better at pretty much same cost.

What private companies deliver a letter size envelope across the country for less than a dollar?

The little town I live in doesn’t have a FedEx drop off, unless you have a commercial account (then you can use the FedEx drop box).

To send a UPS package or envelope you have to take it to the pharmacy and give it to the pharmacy clerk during their business hours.

I can drop off a letter or flat envelope 24 hours a day at the Post Office, so it’s considerably more convenient to use USPS.

USPS is at least as reliable as UPS here, and considerably better in every way than FedEx.

My wife is blind, she makes great use of the books program. Those are all delivered through USPS. In addition our local PO is great I have as much faith in them as I do UPS.

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Originally posted by 92fstech:
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.

Same. I literally never had one single issue with the postal service in my current house. My post office service is great, my two different carriers- both are excellent, plus they're nice guys. So if the USPS closed up tomorrow, it would be a shame.

I voted yes. Having a rural mail box, I do not trust business mailings to be delivered outside of a PO Box.

What is the new alternative to a PO box where you go to pick up important documents or checks that make me smile?

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Originally posted by Cope:
What is the new alternative to a PO box where you go to pick up important documents or checks that make me smile?

A box at a company such as FEDEX Kinkos, UPS store, and other independent 3rd parties.

When I lived in Alberta, Canada, they had almost entirely done away with their post offices and outsourced to the private business. For example, drug stores that used to have a photoprocessing area have converted it to a Canada post area. Can buy stamps, ship parcels, and they had some PO boxes.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:


What private companies deliver a letter size envelope across the country for less than a dollar?

lol. You honestly think that taxpayers aren’t subsidizing your ability to do that with billions of dollars per year? You honestly believe that USPS does it for less than a dollar? You can’t be that dumb. This is no different than subsidized health care. Subsidized housing. And on and on. Your “less than a dollar” is probably $20-$30 once you pay for the over head and unions. And that is probably a conservative cost with all the waste and inefficiency that has plagued the post office for years.

But, go ahead and believe that this isn’t a big government subsidy. Want to know what it really costs? Look at what private business charge. That is a pretty good idea of what it actually costs. But, yeah, they can do it for less than a dollar.

The last time the USPS made real profit was year 2006. That should tell you something.

I won't miss having a signature only delivery intentionally not delivered (i.e. my doorbell camera shows USPS employee walking to door without the package and already having the "missed you" slip filled out. Never even attempted to ring doorbell or deliver package even though I was home) and then having to go to a sketchy neighborhood to pick it up while unarmed.

The above scenario has happened several times.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by Cope:
What is the new alternative to a PO box where you go to pick up important documents or checks that make me smile?

A box at a company such as FEDEX Kinkos, UPS store, and other independent 3rd parties.

I certainly appreciate the response and suggestion. Out of the dozens of companies in which I do commerce, I have never seen anything other than a physical address or a PO Box. Roughly 5%/95%, respectively. Maybe we are just behind the times in my region. Never have I signed a contract stating that the other party has a mailing address to a private party mailbox.

ETA: We receive packages from all the major shippers to our physical address. It is surprising, at times, to see Prime deliveries show up on a Sunday via USPS.

quote:

Originally posted by Cope:

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by Cope:
What is the new alternative to a PO box where you go to pick up important documents or checks that make me smile?

A box at a company such as FEDEX Kinkos, UPS store, and other independent 3rd parties.

I certainly appreciate the response and suggestion. Out of the dozens of companies in which I do commerce, I have never seen anything other than a physical address or a PO Box. Roughly 5%/95%, respectively. Maybe we are just behind the times in my region. Never have I signed a contract stating that the other party has a mailing address to a private party mailbox.

You might not have noticed either as some addresses to private boxes look like apartment numbers. For example, when I moved from Anchorage to be an expat in Canada I needed to have a US mail address so I hired a forwarding mail service which provided me with a US address. My US address the entire 2 years I was an expat was simply their physical address with #172 immediately after it, and nearly everyone I told my US address thought it was an apartment.

For now, yes. The little missus uses the USPS frequently to mail stuff she sells on eBay, marketplace, Etsy, and Mercari. The only other local option is UPS which isn’t always cheaper depending on package size. Prices have been creeping up (forever) so that at some point they may even out, but for now the USPS is still useful.

Discussions about the Postal Service always end up demonstrating, like many other topics, that many people unthinkingly assume that everyone else’s lives and circumstances must be the same as theirs. I and my wife receive and send a lot of stuff by mail, including things that would not be convenient, and sometimes impossible to take care of “digitally.”

For a small, rural town we’re lucky here to have a local business that handles UPS and FedEx shipments, but that’s hardly true of all towns our size, or even towns that are significantly larger. Without the post office or that store, what would we do? The closest possible alternatives are an hour plus round trip drive as a minimum—and that’s in good weather.

I’m also bemused by the fact that some people HATE!!! junk mail. I can only congratulate anyone whose life is so well ordered that handling an envelope or other few pieces of paper long enough to determine it’s not something they want to keep and dropping it into the trash is one of the worst things they must cope with.
Envy is supposed to be one of those innumerable sins that none of us can avoid continually committing, but not thinking about how life would be if I were in that position is very difficult.

None of that is to defend the Postal Service’s performance or practices, but would it be a significant inconvenience for me if it didn’t exist? Yes.

Those needing to get important financial documents to me would have to find another method for those documents to disappear en route to me.

At this point the USPS is an absolute shit show in my experience of the last 5 years or so.

I’ve chimed in already, but I’ll pipe up again to offer my views from both sides of the coin.

First: I actively have an envelope on its way to a fella in Alabama… it was supposed to be in his hands this past Friday, and is now “moving through network.” Great. "Thanks for the promptness, USPS. ‘Preciate ya.” On the other hand, I realize that sh*t happens. It’s okay. It’s not life changing. If it reaches its recipient tomorrow, or even Tuesday, that’s fine. It’ll all work out. But it’s still annoying.

On the other side of the coin: I’ll offer that the carrier who usually brings mail to my house is great. She’s attentive, she’s pleasant, and she’s reliable. I’ll add, too, that the two ladies I deal with most often at the PO near work are great help. Again, friendly and attentive, and they actually pay attention to what I’m trying to do (like purchase and send a money order) and take steps to make the process smoother. (Far more helpful than the fellow who retired from there not long ago… he was slower than Grandma’s molasses.)

Similar to the manufacturing world: often when something goes to crap, it’s a system problem rather than a people problem. People keep the system going, whether for good or for bad, but in the big picture it’s often the system that facilitates the failure.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
I’m also bemused by the fact that some people HATE!!! junk mail. I can only congratulate anyone whose life is so well ordered that handling an envelope or other few pieces of paper long enough to determine it’s not something they want to keep and dropping it into the trash is one of the worst things they must cope with.

we don't get a newspaper anymore, so junk mail is a convenient source of free paper for lighting the wood stove .

I just though of another reason I like the USPS...flat rate boxes. Yeah, they've gotten more expensive, but it's still by far the cheapest way to ship 3400 9mm projectiles halfway across the country.