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I've never had problems with bad mail service, but my parents are having the same problems you are.  Plus, when they go to the post office to get their mail, the people are surly and stupid.

I can understand the complaints about bad service. However, the fact that you can send a letter across the country for under 50 cents (less than the price of a pepsi) is still pretty good.

I got a ton of Christmas cards for the people that used to live here.  All of the sudden.

My mom's gift to me didn't come until today - 11 days it took to send something priority mail.

Plus, I constantly get someone else's mortgage - the same person, the same bill, every single month.

Last month I got someone else's MacAddict™ magazine!

I have decided to cut out all ties with the post office, and have all of my bills sent electronically whenever I can.

Malkin wrote:

justine wrote:

I'd like to know where the smurf these increases are going to.

This rate increase - the first since 2002 - is needed to fulfill the requirement of a federal law passed in 2003. That law requires the Postal Service to establish a $3.1 billion escrow account, with use of the funds to be determined by Congress at a later date. Without this federal mandate, it would not have been necessary to raise rates in 2006.

That just irritates the crap outta me.

As some others have mentioned, the USPS is the best in the world.  Which makes its current level of "service" even sadder.  Ask any "senior citizen" and they'll tell you about TWICE A DAY delivery, being able to get letters to the next city by tomorrow and stuff like that.  Sort of like being a 'C' student in a group of 'D' students, but you used to be a 'B+'.  Part of what caused this state of affairs is that the USPS used to be a govt agency, but was then spun off into a quasi-private company, thus having all the disadvantages of a government agency along with all the disadvantages of a private company.  (One of the biggest is that staff is still essentially under federal hiring & firing guidlines (i.e. the onyl reason you can be fired outright is by treating a customer like a human being)).  The only reasonable solutions I see to its problems (completely privatize or bring it back as a govt agency) are both politically unplatable to large enough groups that neither will occur. 

Jyri

Privatizing the USPS would in all likelihood mean large swatches of rural America would lose mail service.

A private company that would be seething with corruption.

Ever dealt with a Telephone Co-Op?

drfishy520 wrote:

Pariah wrote:

Privatizing the USPS would in all likelihood mean large swatches of rural America would lose mail service.

If there's a niche in the market, rest assured a private company would cover it.

Sure, just keep telling yourself that.

benightedbastard wrote:

Our letter price went up from 45 to 50¢ recently.

That's all I've got for this conversation.

Whats that in real money?

Last edited by Pariah (2006-01-01 8:34 am)

Damn it.  That sucks.  I've got an almost new roll of stamps. 

TheConfuzed1 wrote:

I've got to find a way to benefit from this somehow... I should find a way to pass a law so that the cost of postage is one penny more than the going rate, and have that penny deposited automatically into my bank account.

If I could have a penny for every piece of US postage, I'd have a lot of pennies.

Actually, you can.

Non USPS authorized postage sellers can sell stamps for whatever they want. Doesn't mean you'll have buyers, though. Costco sells them for less.

Completely privatizing mail service is the dumbest idea I've heard all day.

Like I really want to pay $2.99 for letters during "peak times" and have to calculate the price depending on what city I'm sending it to, which would always be MUCH higher than the current 39 cents.

Oh, and just wait until the mail companies start purposely withholding service to certain areas as an excuse to gouge up rates.

The nation would be far worse off, all so that a few corporations could make a killing.