"Why I think the US Post Office should be closed--Rant" Topic

OK I'll start by saying that my wife used to deliver mail for the post office so I have a deep appreciation for the work that they do and some of the challenges they have to overcome. That being said it never ceases to amaze me at the current state of mail and package delivery. Whenever I order something from a company if given the option to pay more to have it delivered UPS or FEDEX then I'll always go that route. But if ends up being shipped USPS I always cringe. Most times when I am provided a tracking number I click on the number, it takes me to USPS and I get "no tracking information available". Why??? Why even have a tracking number if you aren't going to track the package and provide information? And in the few cases where tracking information is provided it is NEVER delivered on the "expected delivery date". I have a package that is "expected" to have been delivered on the 23rd of April. Well on the 23rd it's still several states away but they are still "expecting" it to be delivered on the 23rd. Now it's the 25th and it has finally made it to my state, but….you guessed it it's still "expected" to be delivered on the 23rd. In contrast any package sent via a private company (FEDEX & UPS) the tracking information is spot on almost always. They even tell me when its on the truck for delivery and usually within 5 minutes of it being dropped at my door the status changes to delivered. So why with all of the federal money that the Post Office gets can't their tracking system even come close to that??? And the mail isn't much better. I live in a neighbor hood of single family homes, we all have our addresses clearly marked on our mailboxes. Yet at least once a week I have to deliver my neighbor's mail to them or they bring mine to me. And lastly I have a loan with a bank in my home town, however I have to send my payment to the home office which is just across the state line, a total distance of 13 miles. It takes 10, yes 10 days for my mail to reach them and for their mail to reach me. So when I hear the PO complain about how bad they have it I have no sympathy. I think we'd be better served by a private organization. Yes I know it would cost a little more but…you get what you pay for.

The post office doesn't get federal money actually, they're entirely funded by the postage they sell.

I use the USPS. I have had your problems with delivery from here to the state capital – a direct route by highway where the mail takes 5+ business days to travel a 3 hour drive. Since both my wife and I work, packages that we need to sign for are troublesome. I have even been home and watched the mailman drive up to the mailbox, leave the slip that says I have to come into the post office and drive off without ever knocking on the door.
In general I am pretty satisfied and prefer not to spend more money on shipping than required

I never had any of your troubles. I am very happy with USPS. UPS and Fedex are overpriced. UPS thing of delivering packages during everyone's work hours is ridiculous. 99% of the time people are not home and even in my building they don't sign for UPS packages.

I've never ever had a problem with USPS either!

If they just went ahead and delivered mail efficiently, with proper tracking, they would lose their air of mystery – the romance would be gone. By carefully disguising the expected delivery date they keep customers in suspense, building up excitement for the actual delivery (should that take place).

I love their flat rate parcels. I loved them even more at the older prices.

It's a common misconception that the USPS is a Federal agency, but it hasn't been in over 40 years:

link

Obviously, if you prefer FedEx or UPS, then you should use FedEx or UPS.

With regard to paying your bills, however, I'd recommend using online banking and not depending upon snail mail altogether.

"I love their flat rate parcels."

Me too. And I love how I can order them in bulk, and they're delivered to me for free, pre-return-addressed and scan coded.

Yeah, my experience is different than yours as well. I use Priority Mail all the time, both sending and receiving, and rarely have a problem.

Your experiences are not the norm, and are, in fact, entirely unbelievable to me, especially the claim that 1st class mail is taking 10 days to get anywhere in country. The US postal service remains the best in the world, their tracking data is correct and timely well over 95% of the time, their delivery speeds to anything but the most remote rural location are a blur, and their loss/damage rate in the 40+ years I've been using them is a grand total of one media rate package.

As for the vast sums of money you claim they receive, whitphoto is correct, they don't get a penny of our tax dollars. They're also restricted by an uncaring and generally useless congress in the kinds of business changes they can make for better efficiency, which forces them to compete with private firms while maintaining artificially low prices and universal coverage – something UPS and FedEx do not offer at all. All in all it's a miracle they've managed to keep up their high standards, and whatever malfunctions you're experiencing are not typical.

You claim your wife used to work for the USPS. Has she suggested you take the appropriate action and requested that a postal inspector review your case? It sounds like the problems you say you're having stems from the local branch, and quite possibly from a single mail carrier. Even the best organization has the odd bad apple, and it usually takes outside assistance from unhappy customers to locate and remove them.

I have had your problems with delivery from here to the state capital – a direct route by highway where the mail takes 5+ business days to travel a 3 hour drive.

You know that mail doesn't (and can't) go directly from one branch to another, right? The volume of mail requires them to route branch mail to processing centers, which sort and redirect items back to local branches for local carriers to deliver. In most cases this does mean longer delivery times and distances than an as-the-crow-flies car ride would give you.

There's good reason for it, though. I've seen the projections for what trying to do limited branch-to-branch sorting and delivery would cost within a 20 mile radius – back in the early 90's it would have more than quintupled postal rates at a minimum, and gas costs were proportionately lower then. The union loves the idea – it would require vastly more work hours – but between payroll, equipment wear, extra vehicles required for micro-transfers of mail between branches, and lost efficiency, it's never going to happen. Given that they were pretty sure it would only improve delivery time about 30% of the time, I agree with that decision.

And yes, I have done my homework on how the PO works. My business runs on package delivery – knowing how they function is vital information. I've done the comparisons with FedEx and UPS as well, and will never use them. Their rates are crippling, their delivery net is iffy at times (especially overseas) and their theft/damage rate is staggeringly high by USPS standards.

I have to say. I have had great experiences wit the USPS. Sure there has been the occasional issue but overall it has been a good experience. The sheer volume of nail that they successfully deliver is staggering. I would take our service over any other in the world. Some of those services are absolutely atrocious.

I live in Canada and have been serviced by USPS for many years. I have never had a problem.

I actually prefer ordering my toys via USPS instead of UPS, for the exact same reason IGWARG1 mentioned. I had a parcel from Warweb (Grandiosity) go missing from my doorstep (I live in an apartment complex) instead of their previous practice of leaving a sticky note on my door to pick it up at their regional center. I called UPS to complain, who told me that the shipper would have to make the loss claim. Warweb already got my money, so I had to call them several times (4-5 times?) and one or two emails before they would replace my package.

I hate UPS, hate them.

I have had a military APO for the last 17 years now. In that time, I have only had two packages go missing. Two weeks ago I placed an order for Maurice from Sam Mustafa. I had the package here in my APO two days after ordering it. In general, it usually takes 5 days to get something from the US to my APO. I have no complaints with the USPS.

I usually get stuff the day or two before their initial predicted date, especially stuff shipped coast to coast. As far as bills to wherever, those are probably there in a day or less, but go into the big pile where someone has to open, enter the data, match the check, and then post that. Outgoing mail from the site may be postmarked there by a clerk, but then they put it in a bin by their desk for a few days and then it gets collected at the end of the week and then actually enters the mail service system.

Well I must be the entire 5% of their problems because I have had nothing but issues with their pacakge delivery ever since moving to my current location 10 years ago. Now granted I live in a somewhat rural area and some of it could be caused by my local post office, but the issues with their "tracking" system aren't local and these issues are the norm for me rather than the exception.

I do retract my "federal money" blurb as I was under the wrong impression that they still were partially funded by the government.

If I shipped alot of items then I might have a better opinion as I can see where pricing would be a major concern. But if given the choice, as stated I'll always pay more to use FEDEX/USPS. However many times when I purchase an item the shipper chooses the method not me and since USPS is cheaper and maybe easier for the shipper many times that is their choice.

I agree that 10 days is unbelievable for 1st class delivery and yet that is the norm, as far as banking online, this particular bank started charging an extra fee to bank online which I refuse to pay so I'm stuck snail mailing until my loan is paid off in July. (then they will lose me as a customer).

I am very glad that many of you do not have the issues I have with the PO and again some of it could boil down to the rural post office I have but certainly not all of it. These are just my rantings brought about by having to wait extra days for figures I need to finish a project that I'm already behind on. So thanks for listening!!1

It's all fine to say it isn't an agency. However, they can't raise rates without Congressional approval, they have the same retention practices that the Federal Government has, they have onerous affirmative action hiring practices (a hispanic woman with prior military service is pretty much guaranteed hire; a male anglo can't get hired with a perfect aptitude score), they are mandated to fund retirement for 75 years forward (at least this is the number I have heard).

They are a private institution in name only. Every practice they have and their governance is mandated by the U.S. government.

If your bank is anything like mine used to be (note the "used to be" phrase) the mail is NOT taking 10 days to get there, it is taking 1 or 2 days and they are sitting on it till then. My wife and I took to sending mail to them receipt confirm, that way when the bank tried it's "late payment" shenanigans we could point to the payment received date and tell them to stuff it.

I usually cringe when only offered UPS or Fedex shipping. Much rather use USPS priority mail.
M

Love USPS. Despite their recent troubles caused solely and deliberately by the Congress literally in the midnight hour in 2006 they are by far the best option available to me.

Yes, their recent rate hikes have killed me for international. Again, they have been boxed into this by the unprecedented financial obligations imposed on them by Congress – obligations imposed on or observed by no other agency or private business in this country. Obligations deliberately designed to bankrupt them.

Despite those rate hikes they are still far cheaper than UPS or FedEx. Further, the USPS completes delivery for those carriers on routes they consider "unprofitable" – many rural routes, small towns, etc.

Several branches in my region have been closed (mainly in Inglewood, CA about 2 blocks from my house). My branch has had its staff cut while the volume has increased considerably due to the nearby closures. The staff that remains work their butts off trying to retain fast, efficient service. Their attitudes have soured, I grant you, but I can't say I blame them.

Despite all these challenges, my mail still arrives quickly and in good shape – albeit a couple hours later as they have consolidated routes, thus expanding each individual route to cover a piece of territory from an eliminated route. If a parcel is undelivered my local office usually finds it within a couple minutes of me handing over the "failed delivery" slip. I say "usually" because I was there one time when they couldn't locate another patron's package. The manager came out, took the individual's information and promised to personally track down the parcel.

All in all, a great organization struggling through artificial, cynically imposed financial crisis.

I am willing to bet it isnt taking 10 days for your loan payment to get there, they prolly have a policy to sit on it a few days (hoping that makes you late and then you have to pay late payment, your rate goes up ect..) Credit card companies do that sometimes and it is slimy. The part about having to deliver your neighbors mail once a week says you have a crappy driver and should complain to the main office. Goes to show how one employee can make an entire business look bad

Never a problem with the USPS here, either.

Next time you pay your bank loan, make the recipient sign for it. That will tell you how long it actually takes to get there. The bank could very well be taking their sweet time with things.

In fact, given a choice of the USPS or the bank being at fault, I know who I'd side with.

10 days to deliver mail would be backward by some 3rd world countries standards. It is fairly normal for a package from the UK to a customer in rural NY to take less than that.

Charging extra to bank online ? That is ridiculous, most banks here in the UK encourage you to do that with special offers and little extras as it keeps their costs down.

Cheques are dying out here in the UK too, a lot of places won't accept them as payment. Most of my bills are now sorted electronically now that the reliability has improved and I keep control of payments.

Move to Venezuela, you might get better service there !!!

I would pay extra not to use FedEx. They screwed me last year and since then I have gone out of my way to make sure they don't get any more of my money.

I am very satisifed with my postal service.

Sometime USPS takes a little longer than expected – and it's become more unpredictable lately, but I can usually expect a normal package within 3 to 5 days of order (I've often received them within 2 days), and books at media mail in about 2 weeks. I don't think that's all that bad myself. Yes, things occasionally go astray, but I've had equally (or worse) service from both FedEx and UPS.

"The US postal service remains the best in the world"

Sorry, Chief Lackey Rich ! I order from all over the world (Australia, Asia, Russia, here within Europe like UK, Italy, Germany and Spain) and ONLY from the USA I have lost about half (!!) of the parcels that were sent to me. Let's say about eight orders or so in the last two years = four parcels gone. This is the reason why I try to order from USA firms as little as possible.
I live in The Netherlands, BTW, not a third world country…

I've had little trouble with USPS myself. I prefer it to UPS or Fedex.
By the way, I've seen a DHL delivery guy store packages in a public bathroom stall while he was doing his business. I wouldn't want to handle those boxes afterwards.

"It's a common misconception that the USPS is a Federal agency, but it hasn't been in over 40 years:

[Link to Postal Reorganization Act]"

The USPS is *most certainly* a federal agency -- albeit a unique one, with a lot of independent "business-like" facets. It exists as a creation of federal law -- Title 39 of the U.S. Code to be exact -- and its status as a federal agency cannot seriously be questioned.

Prior to the Postal Reorganization Act (linked to above), it was a cabinet-level *Department* of the executive branch. It is not that now. But it is a federal agency.

I'll also chime in and say I'm usually satisfied with USPS. I had one package finally go missing…after DECADES of using the service. This is as opposed to UPS, which delivered a friend's computer to the wrong address and forged his signiature…

Damon.

I send and receive a lot of packages through USPS and have only had one problem about 15 years ago when a package took about two weeks longer than it should have. The tracking always seems to be pretty on to me, too. Sounds like you just have the worst luck mail-wise.

I've never had the slightest problem with the USPS.I don't bother with tracking and they've never lost any parcels, packages, and letters and usually they arrive far ahead of when I think they will. I've gotten stuff from overseas and from the US and I never have a problem. I post all the notices for "The Weekend" and the invites for that convention, and the newsletters from the Society of Daisy. I have a lot of traffic with them on documents for transfer and buying and selling of real-estate and legal documents and I find it fast, high quality, and far more reasonable than Fed-Ex.

As for banking, I caught my credit card companies red handed several times. USPS delivered the letter with the check two weeks early (they signed for it) they didn't process it til AFTER the due date. Each time I got the charges reversed. Changed credit card companies.

Sorry the USPS for my book is the best.

I disagree.

Yep, it's three days to get a letter clear across the country, so the bank is holding on to your payment, and not processing it, or they have a problem in their mail room, or accounting department.

I see the issue happen all the time with CC payments in the past.

I think they are hoping to generate some of those exhorbitant late fees that make them rich, by delaying your payments.

Better to go to your local bank, and make the payment in person, getting a receipt for it, immediately.

Maybe they need new ponies?

Are you certain that your mail problem is not deliberate sabotage by one of your wife's former co-workers?

Just sayin'.

I rarely have a problem with the post office. They screwed up one package really badly about 10 years ago but other than that things have been pretty much fine.

My netflix stuff comes in a couple days after I send the old disc back. It all works pretty well.

I to prefer the USPS option.

I rarely order when FedEx ground is the option for out an of state package as in my location that is much slower than USPS.

I had a UPS supervisor tell me that it is 3 day service but you don't count they day they receive it. I am talking the day they scan it not the day the sender printed the label.

Not to mention you actually have legal protections using the USPS you don't have from FedEx and UPS.

I ship nearly 100% with USPS and I can tell you there tracking is not worth a hill of beans. Most times its delivered before its ever tracked anywhere.

I too get other peoples mail, but that is because it was machine sorted and not hand sorted by the carriers as it used to be.

The delays your talking about are not unusual I see them all the time.

Still USPS only looses about 1 in every 1,000 packages and half those that I send out are international as well so I can not complain.

If the USPS were privatized my business would be closed in 90 days. My "bread and butter" is orders under $50 USD with shipping under $4. USD You can't mail an empty envelope with UPS for $4. USD

I'd also like to point out that UPS and FedEx do not serve the entire country. Vast regions of our country are only reachable by USPS. Turn it into a business and they'll come to the same conclusion. Sorry Montana, no mail for you.

I checked UPS charges for a package the other day, and was shocked at the quote, for a 4 pound shipment..

So, despite their shortcomings, they are still the most reasonable service in the business.

And, in many cases, Fed Ex is transporting the stuff anyway.

Don't get me wrong, they do have their issues.

Received a Priority Mail (3 day delivery) item sent from relatives, about 45 days late one year. Fortunately, it was one of those smoked, salted, hams, so was no worse for the delay.

If it had been fruit or seafood though, things would have been ugly.

I'm a fan of USPS as well and have never had a problem. Congress seems to have been putting a heavy burden on them lately but I hope they can get through that rough time.
I used to work for UPS and learned enough that I refuse to ship anything with them anymore.

Tracking/Delivery Confirmation – is really comparing apples with oranges if comparing with what UPS or FedEx have.

It does require the postal employee at the delivery location to scan the parcels. they have gotten better at this but they do sometimes not do it. In the past sometimes they would do it before the delivery which of course is a no-no. I think they have fixed that problem.

When companies upload tracking information into their system it does seem that for some companies and systems it takes 1-2 or more days to see the number go live in the postal system. Sometimes the parcels are already delivered by then.
That is what the "no tracking information available" means.

The UPS and FedEx systems are more mature when it comes to tracking and on time deliveries.

Some will remember that not that long ago the post promised 2-3 day service on Priority Mail but that has changed in many areas despite the yearly price increases. FedEx just resigned a contract with them for interstate Priority and Express mail transport so that is good.

The service is decent but the cost to ship over a pound parcel from one coast to the other is out of hand now.

To piggyback on extra crispy and mako's posts, years ago I wanted to mail a large box of Geo Hex to California; UPS wanted to charge me $150 USD to ship $300 USD worth of product while the USPS shipped it for 30 or 40 bucks.

I could tell it was a rant without the warning. One giant paragraph :-)

Like you I hate it when you see the delivery van driving away from your house and find a "come and collect this package" note in your letterbox. That happens to me quite often. The flat I stay in when I am away from home is upstairs so the lazy bastards often wont make the effort to walk up a flight of stairs to the front door to get the required signature.

Then again – I do live in a Third World country – New Zealand.

Hate to see the day we no longer have USPS. It has been a constant since I was a child. Without USPS we would all be more beholden to large corporations whose only concern is their bottom line, is it profitable or not.

Yep, without them, rates would skyrocket even more.

UPS is fun for a few grins though.

I still recall the large 35" TV monitor we received at work one day. It was marked "Monitor" and "Glass – Fragile" all over the place, and was bolted to a small pallet.

Had a big hole in the middle of the box, like they aimed for it, where some forklift driver had skewered it with one of his forks.

Probably playing "air-hockey" with the small pallets, and a couple of forklifts, while on break, somewhere in the warehouse, or out on the dock.

Needless to say, we refused the shipment.

The look on the customer reps' faces were classic, when we brought them in to look at the damage.

They (USPS)do what they do, it just costs more than they earn, UPS & FEDEX earn a profit.

USPS has been extremely reliable and cost efficient for me both domestically and internationally for me for the last 20+ years and thousands of packages.

The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 ended the Postal service being part of the Federal budget. NO TAX DOLLARS The PRA 2006 started sucking the money out of the postal service link Most offices are now under staffed with employees working 6 days a week. so your carrier is probably cutting corners to get 1 and a half routes done or they are a Temp Employee . And the window section are way under staffed.

Wonder what the "private" sector would charge for the same "horrible" service?

I've had VERY few problems with the USPS over nearly five decades of using them.

That said, like EVERY other outfit in the USA which employs a large staff of unionized workers, they're a perennial target for disaffected folks.

Go figure.

I heard the following stat once (not sure if it is accurate):

If gas goes up $0.01 USD per gallon, it costs the USPS $1,000,000 USD daily.

Gas has gone from $3 USD to $4 USD, stamps from $.44 USD to $.46 USD….