I yearly rent a box at my branch Post Office. Sure, it costs about $250/year, but my street box takes hits from vehicles all the time. I only have a street box to satisfy the local ordinance for numbered address.

All of the truly important stuff (bills, tax notices, package delivery, etc) go there. I go to the PO once per week, when go to grocery, to pick up what’s there. If overflow from my box, they put the excess into their oversize pickup boxes. I pay all my bills on-line

The only time I check the street box is when I take out the garbage; and that’s where the street-delivered JUNK mail then goes. Very seldom has anything of importance been sent to my street address box.

Eliminate daily street deliveries to only Monday-Wednesday-Friday.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
.. delivering packages randomly with completely different addresses on them.

We get that here from time to time - we just leave it in the mailbox and put up the flag, and 'poof' it's gone.

We're away on vacation right now. I put a hold on our mail for the time we're gone.

My wife's friend stops by the house the other day to water the plants. She says the mailbox is filled to overflowing.

Despite the hold, they never stopped the mail and the carrier never bothered to stop delivering it. Even when the mailbox filled up, he just kept jamming the mail in. When I called the post office, the clerk acted like she couldn't care less.

In my experience, the Post Office even outdoes our state DMV in lousy service and shitty attitudes.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
The Post Office is a DEI hellhole. Around here, there's not one white face to be seen in any post office I visit, nor any mail carrier I see. Some of the people I encounter are outright idiots and that's not an exaggeration, and most of the rest have entitlement attitude to burn.

If you've got a hyphen or apostrophe in your ridiculous name, you're going straight to the top of USPS in the Atlanta metro area. It's disgusting. "Merit" and "competency" are racist constructs of the White Patriarchy.

Here's the thing: It's been that way for as long as I can remember. I worked there for 36 years and I saw first hand some of the bullshit that went on there. I was a letter carrier back in the late 60s and early 70s. Back in about 1972 or 1973 there was a test for supervisor. It was actually a relatively difficult test. Out of 100 I received an 86. 70 was passing. I was one of only 13 people in the Sectional Center that passed the test. The Sectional Center covered a large territory with many employees although I don't know how many took the test, I assume that it was quite a few. Anyway, somewhere higher up, it was decided that the test that had been taken was unfair to minorities so they cancelled that test and gave another test that was more fair. I got a 98 out of 100 on that test.

So to summarize: DEI in one form or another has been around the Post Office for a very long time, and not for the better.

quote:

Originally posted by Ogie:
I was a letter carrier back in the late 60s and early 70s.

I miss our carrier from “way back then.” He was the coolest fella. Always happy to stop and chat for a minute as he walked the route, often accompanied by a dog that belonged to one of the neighbors. There’s a book we had as kids, aimed at getting to know “people in your neighborhood.” I know that book is around here somewhere, with his ‘autograph’ inside.

If you cruised down the main street at lunchtime, you’d see him sitting by the sidewalk, leaned up against one of the big ol’ blue mailboxes, eating a sandwich and reading a magazine. We always wondered if the magazine was his own, or if maybe it was one that caught his interest on the way to one of the homes on his route.

Its sad to see what has become of the Post office.
When I was growing up in the 50's and 60's the Mail Man was a respected and loved person to everyone on his route. Everyone knew his name, all the kids knew him by name and he knew everyone on his route.
We kids marveled at his big leather mailbag and the way he would push his mail cart down the sidewalk ahead of him to the next house.
He was the first to spot anything in his territory that was not right and notify the people he thought might be effected.
He was truly a valued part of our neighborhood.

When I grew up (late 60's and early 70's) I recall that getting a job at the Post Office as a great thing, a job as a letter carrier was the best job you could get. It had dignity, paid well, and had good benefits.

Years later I worked for a Armored truck company. One of my daily stops was to the main Chicago Post Office to pick up and deliver high value packages. This brought me inside the post office to the work area. I was amazed that every piece of equipment that had a seat on it was occupied by a postal employee sleeping. nobody cared. I would go to the "cage" where I made my pick-ups and there would be 5 people sitting there occasionally glancing at me then going back to talk to each other. Eventually a supervisor would walk past and see me waiting. He would ask if I was taken care of, and I would reply NO. He would look around and give a deep sigh, never saying a word to the lazy employees sitting around. He would explain that the main post office was reserved for the highest level of seniority and the people working there are there to wait out there retirement. I would ask employees that said they had been at the Post Office for 30+ years why they did not retire. They would tell me that all there friends work there and they actually do nothing but visit all day, and for what there pay level was they would be foolish to retire.
In a large open area inside the postal facility they were in the process of assembling a large machine and all the parts that fed it. I asked what the machine was and was told it was a new machine to sort the mail. It took months to see it get finished. I again asked when it would go into operation and was told it never would as it effected too many jobs there. That turned out to be the case. After several months it was torn down because it was always being vandalized and broken by the postal workers.
That explained to me the entire problem with the postal system. It was hopeless.
And yes, the entire facility was comprised of one racial group.

My brother-in-law is a big lib and was the union steward for our Post Office in town (he's now retired in Georgia).
I could not believe the stories he used to tell about him defending (and winning) disputes for reprehensible conduct by the postal union workers. The workers could do anything (or nothing) and he would defend them and blame management. Based on that alone, the whole outfit should closed down.

And to think that the absolute state of the art cutting edge facility in all of US post officery is the Palmetto, Ga. distribution center.

30268 is where good packages go to die...

Palmetto sent a package of mine to Peurto Rico this week. Charleston PR. It was being shipped from Charleston, SC.

The postal union needs to be declared illegal and these retards FIRED on the spot. ALL of them. Just start over

Now I am trying to determine which group of clueless idiots did this:
In Fridays mail, a post card arrived from my pension plan health care administrator (called Alight) reminding me to be prepared for my phone conference for the 2026 health care plans they offer. The appointment date was....December 2nd 2025.
Did the post office lose the card and send it 3 months + late? Or did ALight not bother to send the card? Its an idiotic choice either way!

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
.. delivering packages randomly with completely different addresses on them.

We get that here from time to time - we just leave it in the mailbox and put up the flag, and 'poof' it's gone.

Yeah. We should continue to fund “poof it’s gone” service.

If this was being run as YOUR private business, and operating costs came from your pocket, would you be ok with “poof it’s gone”?

It’s way past time to let them “just run out of money”

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
My brother-in-law is a big lib and was the union steward for our Post Office in town (he's now retired in Georgia).
I could not believe the stories he used to tell about him defending (and winning) disputes for reprehensible conduct by the postal union workers. The workers could do anything (or nothing) and he would defend them and blame management. Based on that alone, the whole outfit should closed down.

Even FDR was against public employee unions.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) strongly supported private-sector unions but opposed collective bargaining for public employees, calling strikes in public service "unthinkable and intolerable".
He believed public sector collective bargaining was incompatible with democratic processes, as government employees negotiate with tax money rather than profits and should have wages set by elected officials.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:

quote:

Originally posted by Ogie:
I was a letter carrier back in the late 60s and early 70s.

I miss our carrier from “way back then.” He was the coolest fella. Always happy to stop and chat for a minute as he walked the route, often accompanied by a dog that belonged to one of the neighbors. There’s a book we had as kids, aimed at getting to know “people in your neighborhood.” I know that book is around here somewhere, with his ‘autograph’ inside.

If you cruised down the main street at lunchtime, you’d see him sitting by the sidewalk, leaned up against one of the big ol’ blue mailboxes, eating a sandwich and reading a magazine. We always wondered if the magazine was his own, or if maybe it was one that caught his interest on the way to one of the homes on his route.

My Uncle John was a letter carrier for the old USPO. Sounds like you’re describing him perfectly. He was a WWII U.S.N combat veteran who served on a PT Boat. He turned down promotions to keep walking his route.

I smiled when I read, “often accompanied by a dog that belonged to one of the neighbors.” He used to tell the story of a German shepherd that walked with him everyday, and everyday when he got to the house where that dog lived, he had to wait for the wife who lived there to come out so he go up on the porch and deliver their mail.

He was proud of the job he did, and it showed in his uniform and his approach to the job.

Back in the mid 90's I had to be out of town for a week so I put a hold on mail at the post office. Came back and spoke with the post master about picking up mail. She said you don't have any which is strange since I get a ton every day. Spoke with the letter carrier and he didn't deliver any, so mail was lost in limbo.

quote:

Originally posted by 12GA:

quote:

“We cannot let the U.S. Postal Service die,” Mfume said in the hearing.

I'd say around 90% of mail delivered to the 12GA residence is junk that is immediately tossed into the recycling bin.

Let it die.

Same here. Very little is anything more than "junk mail" that goes right into the trash bin.

quote:

Originally posted by creslin:
<<snip>>
WRT email, I'm pretty sure by law there has to be an "unsubscribe now" button included in every single ad - I always use the hell outa that thing.
<<snip>>

Every marketing email I get does have an "unsubscribe" link at the bottom. The problem comes when you repeatedly unsubscribe from a company and they continue sending emails anyway, totally ignoring your request to unsubscribe! I have several that I've had to create a filter to dump them straight into the "trash" when downloading from the server because they will not comply.

quote:

Originally posted by bronicabill:

quote:

Originally posted by creslin:
<<snip>>
WRT email, I'm pretty sure by law there has to be an "unsubscribe now" button included in every single ad - I always use the hell outa that thing.
<<snip>>

Every marketing email I get does have an "unsubscribe" link at the bottom. The problem comes when you repeatedly unsubscribe from a company and they continue sending emails anyway, totally ignoring your request to unsubscribe! I have several that I've had to create a filter to dump them straight into the "trash" when downloading from the server because they will not comply.

If you have the time, find an attorney that will sue them for violation of the can spam act. I have no idea how successful that is but I recall reading abut a guy that regularly did that and was making some decent money off the spammers. It requires good records for proof. Maybe the attorneys on the forum can say whether that is worth it or not.

Another option is to raise stamp prices, particularly on bulk junk mailers, to $25 each. Or $50. Whatever it takes to balance the budget.

This would reflect a pay to play service that supported by those who use it. Instead of the welfare service it is. The thing I have noticed is that those who support keeping the post office open also support using someone else’s money to pay for it.

Raising the cost of junk mail is an absolutely great idea as it would kind of kill two bird with one stone. NO ONE likes getting junk mail so it would certainly reduce it and it would add something into the coffers of the USPS. Of course, we all know they don't run it efficiently anyway, so any additional income could get pissed away.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
This would reflect a pay to play service that supported by those who use it. Instead of the welfare service it is. The thing I have noticed is that those who support keeping the post office open also support using someone else’s money to pay for it.

What? What are you talking about? Who else's money is supporting the Post Office. Give me some examples of those who support using someone else's money to pay for it.