Does anyone really feel sorry for the US Postal service?"

[StarRidgeAcres]

The private sector would do it better and more efficiently than this quasi government agency. I'm ready to see the free market solve this problem.

I agree 100%!

 

[SampleMM]

Amen Jill !!!!

 

[RockRiverTiff]

Now is not a good time to ask me how I feel about the USPS, since one of my packages has been MIA for a month. I have family and friends that work for the post office, and while their jobs are more complicated than they seem from the other side of the window, I know from their first-hand testimony that the system is woefully outdated. If the USPS does go under, I will miss the personalized service I get when I stop at our little office, but I won't miss the overall inconsistency.

 

[tagalong]

You can blame Customs for many if not all of the delays when parcels are crossing borders.

A parcel sent to me here in Washington state from Edmonton, Alberta in February disappeared as soon as it hit the border. It turned up here in the beginning of June... looking as if sharks had had a feeding frenzy with it. It was covered with the lime green tape that says that US Customs/ Border Agents had opened it. They had not only opened the box, they had opened each of the gifts within - and then I suspect the opened box had been sitting under someone's desk for a while - the interior was dusty and even had someone's crumpled Mars Bar wrapper in it and an empty little coffee creamer tub.

Going the other direction, a few years ago I sent a friend in Calgary a very nice art print in a large mailing tube. It arrived with orange tape on it saying Canada Customs had opened it. Okay - so having opened it, they could plainly see it was a print/poster and they did not need to take it out of the tube. Someone did - and left a fingerprint on it and ripped the corner when rolling it up again to stuff it back in the tube - the wrong way out with the printed side on the outside. They more or less ruined it.

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

The USPS's hands are tied, they can not make any changes without Congress's okay. I still pay all my bills by check and receive all my statements through USPS and will continue to do so. We need changes, definitely, but I think we still need the Post Office. Its one of the greatest inventions of the modern era.

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

Its one of the greatest inventions of the modern era.

I think the problem is it is no longer of the "modern era" and just failed to keep up. If it had been run like any other "business" it would have been making greater strides toward the current technologies, better advertising targeted in that direction, and more services geared toward the way most people communicate today, which is trending away from paper. It's a dinosaur that didn't evolve.

 

[Marty]

First off, I don't really feel sorry for anyone that works in the post office. I can only imagine its a difficult job. BUT! That is their chosen profession and they knew going in it would be a hard job. Nobody held a gun to their heads and said they had to work there. It was their choice. As for stuff getting lost and never showing up, youbetcha! I've had plenty of that happen. It is where I have to send just about everything priority mail or it will take weeks to get from the south to northern states. That's not right.

Our post office is very tiny with two girls, usually one at the counter. The problem with them is that they are way TOO helpful and beyond friendly. They take a long time being so helpful and explaining every little thing in such great detail to everyone, that the line is always out the dang door. They talk too much.

As for the mailman, OMG! This man is late! And I mean he is late by HOURS because he VISITS with anyone he wants to visit with. He is often found pulled over the side of the road just yakking away. He comes up here for his lunch break at the General Store, which is fine, you need a lunch break, but then OMG it takes him another hour or so to get from there to here. I'm not kidding. I'm like 5 mintues from there! He's still chatting it up door to door. He's so friendly he loves to engage everyone in conversation and he does just that.

 

[disneyhorse]

My husband works for Fed Ex. He has great disdain for the Post Office. I don't know why, but I personally enjoy the USPS. I ship a lot of my eBay packages thorough USPS. I really should ship FedEx I guess... sometimes I do... but I wouldn't mind either way if the USPS went under or not. Honestly most of what I get in the daily mail is junk mail, I think e-mail has really eliminated a good portion of the volume of actual mail. And I purchase a great deal of things online, but they usually ship UPS or FedEx so it really doesn't matter a whole lot to me personally.

It's not like people who work for the Post Office wouldn't be able to try to get jobs with whatever companies take up the slack? I don't know. They are paid pretty well though, more than I am!

Andrea

 

[Minimor]

Well, if the USPS does go under, I do hope there will be something/someone to replace it. I can just imagine trying to send registration papers, show results, etc to the office without any sort of mail service. Use FedEx? Not likely--not from Canada.

It cost me $10 to mail my judges cards from our June show to ASPC. I think it would have been about $26 if I had to mail in the results sheets as well, but I sent those by e-mail. If I had to send the results sheets and judges cards by FedEx it was going to cost over $100, and that wasn't the overnight option. At that price it wasn't an option at all.

 

[Jill]

OF COURSE private interests would step in and fill the void left if we no longer had the USPS. That's exactly what happens in the free market and when it does, everyone benefits. The free market works.

 

[susanne]

I see a great deal of good coming from such a change, but I worry about those living in isolated areas who won't be profitable for these companies. The CEOs and shareholders will have no qualms about cutting service to those who don't bring a profit.

Perhaps the mail could be handled as utilities are -- profit-driven, but with a mandate to cover everyone, not just those who bring in the bucks.

Free enterprise is a beautiful thing, but not if it's allowed to run amok.

 

[Minimor]

Exactly Susanne!

 

[Jill]

Free enterprise is beautiful and the free market works well when allowed to. I have no worries about solutions being in place, that will work and work well, if the USPS is no longer around. Maybe people in rural areas will have to pay more to mail things but that's the way it goes in the real world. The alternative is to prop it up with tax payer dollars and sorry, but that is a losing proposition when we're talking about something that's broken. Once it shakes out and we all know the score, if it costs more to mail things from rural areas, or takes longer, that will be a known and then choices can be made accordingly (mail, pay by phone, pay over the internet, email a card or a letter, ETC...). We need to understand the meaning of a bottom line and the disaster of always running in the red when it comes to the government and quasi government agencies.

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

Except pay by phone and over the internet more often than not come with fees attached, because they know that people will pay them for the convenience. There is no low cost option. Free market works great in the city, out in the country people are forced to live 10 years in the past. I don't even have cable here! Or DSL. And I'm 5 miles from a city. Imagine those who are 20+ miles from the city, or even those who are 100 miles from a city, and 1 mile from a neighbor. Who will help them? There is a reason that the Post Office is a federal entity. Its because its one of the few services that is mandated to be equal access to all. Internet isn't equal access, cable isn't, etc. Oddly enough, in extremely rural areas, land is extremely cheap, so people who can't afford much move farther away. Seems as though you have to have money to do pretty much anything these days.

 

[Jill]

Except pay by phone and over the internet more often than not come with fees attached...

Not in my experience, and I pay EVERYTHING over the internet unless I'm shopping in person.

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

For routine bills, car payments, loan payments, etc unless you are making a transfer-payment require a fee. It stinks. To pay my phone bill, its $5. To pay my trailer payment, its $6. And with dialup internet, its difficult to make internet payments. Not everyone is as fortunate as you.

 

[Jill]

I pay mortgage and all household bills online and without a fee. I'm not sure if that means I'm exceptionallly fortunate, but I do not think the tax payer and generations after should be saddled with the cost of making something that no longer works keep running. Free market works whenever it is allowed to do so. It will offer better alternatives to the USPS. If it costs some folks a little more, that's just how it goes. Every place a person can decide to live has plus and minus issues to factor jn... But that cost shouldn't be socialized to include everyone else, and we shouldn't continue to pour money into a broken bucket.

 

[CKC]

Nathan--- try this website out... They don't take all bills, but they do have a number of creditors that participate and it's free. Maybe there are some that can help save a few fees.

https://mycheckfree.com

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

its difficult to make internet payments. Not everyone is as fortunate as you.

Making payments online - either via your checking account or on each provider's site - is no more difficult then getting on LB. If your internet access is good enough to post on LB, it will handle making payments online. And it's free. I can't think of one provider I have (electric, water, lease, heath care providers, cable, trash pick-up, etc.) that charges me. My vets will take payments over the phone using my visa debit card.

I "get" the service that the USPS provides, but it has out-lived its time. Maybe it can be reconfigured and made to work, but I just don't think so. At a minimun, they will need to get somene with real CEO experience at the top. But I'm not optimistic.

 

[Minimor]

I'm on dial up internet & quite frankly I do not pay bill on line. Initially my computer was an older one that did not have all the security updates on it and it was not secure for banking purposes--there were holes where a hacker could have gotten in if he tried...and so I didn't do anything financial on that computer. If someone hacks into my LB account, well, so they do. I was not going to risk someone getting into my bank accounts or credit card. I do bill payment by telephone banking (there is a fee, though not a large one) or in person, or by mail. Now my computer is newer but I still don't do banking on line--I've known a few people with connections they thought were secure & they still got hacked/robbed, so it just isn't something I do. There are plenty of others that are the same--and there are still many people who don't use the internet at all & probably never will. Many people do still depend on the mail service.

I get really tired of the "everyone can do everything via internet"