Suggestions for the USPS

[Pilgrim]

In the spirit of providing customer feedback, my suggestions...

1. Drop Saturday delivery. No one really needs it, and you can't afford it. Case closed.
   
2. Forget this "next day delivery" for in-town first class. No one has believed that claim for 30 years, and if it's critical it goes FedEx.
   
3. Eliminate all possible package handling at the counter. Provide machines for everything possible, including registered and certified mail.
   
4. Eliminate tracking numbers, or make them work. Right now they don't.
   
5. Charge what it costs!

[Unrepresented]

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

In the spirit of providing customer feedback, my suggestions...

1. Drop Saturday delivery. No one really needs it, and you can't afford it. Case closed.
   
2. Forget this "next day delivery" for in-town first class. No one has believed that claim for 30 years, and if it's critical it goes FedEx.
   
3. Eliminate all possible package handling at the counter. Provide machines for everything possible, including registered and certified mail.
   
4. Eliminate tracking numbers, or make them work. Right now they don't.
   
5. Charge what it costs!

1) advertizers insist on Saturday delivery. It's how they get coupons to consumers on the days that they're most likely to use them.
2) Next day delivery is already on its way out. The USPS just announced cutting back heavily on its mail processing centers. Thousands are going to be laid off and mail will be delayed by another day or two.
3) Automation at mail centers has been increasing over the years. Humans are no longer as necessary for reading addresses. At this point it's largely done by machine.
4) Tracking numbers are an additional source of revenue for the USPS. I agree they are the least effective among the major shippers in terms of updating their tracking information (UPS and FedEX express are typically much better), but it costs them little and it makes them another chunk of change per item.
5) Congress determines the pricing that the USPS can charge.

[LiquidMidnight]

While I personally could live without Saturday delivery, many businesses may feel differently, especially if they rely on tight deadlines.

[Jinro]

3) Automation at mail centers has been increasing over the years. Humans are no longer as necessary for reading addresses. At this point it's largely done by machine.

So that's why people keep getting mail that's been shredded to pieces....

5) Congress determines the pricing that the USPS can charge.

And there's the root of our problems and what REALLY needs to be fixed.

[fuzzy beard]

I would just like to point out that USPS should be a profitable organasation. The problem is sevarel years ago congress passed a law saying they have to fund there retirement 75 years in advace! No other company private or public has to do this! If they were to be held to the same standards as the rest of us. They would MAKE money!

But that isnt happaning. Instead they are paying for peoples retirement who are not even born yet! Most goverment agencies are to be solvent for 30 years the post office was requered to be solvent for more than twice that long!

That is the reason the postal system in this countrie is in such bad shape.They are banking more than they make due to a stupid law!

[Pilgrim]

Originally Posted by LiquidMidnight

While I personally could live without Saturday delivery, many businesses may feel differently, especially if they rely on tight deadlines.

I don't care. It has to go. End of discussion. Budgets make this transparently obvious, and business isn't going to abandon mail if they stop deliveries on Sunday.

Originally Posted by Unrepresented

3) Automation at mail centers has been increasing over the years. Humans are no longer as necessary for reading addresses. At this point it's largely done by machine.

Not fast enough. You can buy a lot of technology by eliminating one employee's salary. In the post office I use which services the center of a town of 140,000 there is NO automation, NO machines. Stupid.

And Congress needs to butt out. They also need to get that message.

And for those who care - doing any of the things I mentioned originally means firing employees adding to unemployment. When you make government more efficient and reduce jobs, you put people on the street.

[fuzzy beard]

Also by removing those employes you reduce the amount of income tax to your city! Wich will affect police,fire,transit and city projects!

[fuzzy beard]

In a bad econemy we need more jobs not to get ride of good jobs when like i said they are not the problem! Congress does need to stay out of it but that wont happen.

[hdracer]

Originally Posted by fuzzy beard

In a bad econemy we need more jobs not to get ride of good jobs when like i said they are not the problem! Congress does need to stay out of it but that wont happen.

We need more PRIVATE SECTOR jobs, not government jobs!

Shut the whole darn thing down and let the private sector take over.

[fuzzy beard]

Who do you think lobbied congress for the 75 year solventcy. Private sector lobbiest! They knew it would ruin USPS. Look i am all for a smaller goverment but lets look where money is really wasted. How about congress wages and benifit packages. These peole where put in office to be are voice but time after time they do what lobbyist want and go against the public opionen!

Or the BILLIONS in forign aid for third world countries.

Or a federal reseve that is not even controlled by the goverment! Does anyone know who the feaderal reseve is made up of?

Or why not push for a simplified tax code?

Why not tax private sector companys? Instead ofall the tax amestys we hand out to them.

Why not charge hight import fees wich would raise imoprt product pricing and give American workers a chance to compete!

Why!!

[fdeck]

USPS is great for my small business. They are the only ones who charge by the ounce for packages under a pound. I have had zero problems with them.

Their tracking service isn't perfect, but it meets the requirements set by PayPal.

[bassguppy]

It makes a great soundbite to disparage the USPS.

How about anyone who is against the USPS in the US Congress or Senate (we know who they are) give up their cheap/no cost postage to mail informational updates (political garbage) to their constituents?

Tell me anyone who will deliver a letter across the country for less than 50 cents in 3-4 days?

THE USPS SHOULD BE FUNDED FULLY BY THE US GOVERNMENT WITH AN ANTICIPATED LOSS AS SOME THINGS IN LIFE SHOULD NOT BE EXPECTED TO MAKE A 500% PROFIT AS IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR. THIS IS WHAT WE PAY TAXES FOR.

THE US POSTAL SERVICE BENEFITS ALL AMERICANS.

long live the concept of something that benefits the whole rather than the individual.

[bassguppy]

Originally Posted by hdracer

We need more PRIVATE SECTOR jobs, not government jobs!

Shut the whole darn thing down and let the private sector take over.

So are you saying you want grandma to pay $6.00 for postage to send her minimum payment in to Woolworths every month?

Or Aunt Ethel to pay that same $6.00 for postage to send a Christmas card to say she's thinking of you?

[Gard]

Sink or swim.

I'm sick of the USPS, their crappy attitude, and crappier service. I refuse to allow anyone to send an instrument to us for repair using them - I will refuse delivery on any USPS package, insured or not, because even if it IS insured, they will do everything they can to delay and irritate you, and will eventually not pay off without you constantly staying on their @$$.

1) They damaged an instrument coming to us for a minor repair, 2 years ago. At least communication, they have STILL not made the shipper whole, despite the instrument being insured for more than 5 times the repair cost.

2) They flat LOST (translation: a USPS employee figured out what it was and stole it, almost certainly) a brand-new instrument being sent to an APO, after calling and hounding every and any USPS employee for over 6 months, they finally paid off on the insurance.

As annoying as UPS and FedEx have been, they never give anything approaching the negative attitude I receive from almost every USPS employee I interact with, and when you make an insurance claim, they pay in a timely manner. They also have done far less damage to stuff than the USPS has in my experience.

If they clean up their act, get customer service fixed, fix their "tracking" system (biggest joke I've ever seen in a delivery service), and stop being the biggest conglomeration of lazy screwups with bad attitudes I've ever dealt with, they MIGHT survive the next 5 years. If they don't...GOOD RIDDANCE.

[hdracer]

Originally Posted by bassguppy

So are you saying you want grandma to pay $6.00 for postage to send her minimum payment in to Woolworths every month?

Or Aunt Ethel to pay that same $6.00 for postage to send a Christmas card to say she's thinking of you?

Grandma can use the internet for FREE and pay all her bills!!!!!!!!!!!!

and I should pick up the tab on the postage for Aunt Ethel???????

[Unrepresented]

Originally Posted by hdracer

We need more PRIVATE SECTOR jobs, not government jobs!

Shut the whole darn thing down and let the private sector take over.

Why create low paying private sector jobs when the public ones you're looking to eliminate offer middle class wages and benefits?

[Unrepresented]

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

Not fast enough. You can buy a lot of technology by eliminating one employee's salary. In the post office I use which services the center of a town of 140,000 there is NO automation.

Chances are that mail center will be closed soon and with it many additional workers will be added to your local unemployment lines.

[hdracer]

Originally Posted by Unrepresented

Why create low paying private sector jobs when the public ones you're looking to eliminate offer middle class wages and benefits?

Because public sector jobs take money OUT of the economy and private sector puts money IN the economy.

[electracoyote]

So sad what our federal government has done to our postal service in this country. But, without getting too politcal, the damage is done, and USPS now needs to make some serious adjustments.

Frankly, considering how the majority absolutely hates junk mail to the point of considering it a violation on par with telemarketers, USPS should cut itself loose from the burden of sorting and delivering a lot of that crap. Their work load lightens, our mail boxes are free of junk, Win/Win.

And I can live without Saturday deliveries, and some of those express deliveries can be lengthened by one day, which will save a lot of man power and expense.

If you can't go one extra day without receiving a letter or package, all is not lost. That is what the private delivery services are for.

[bassguppy]

Originally Posted by hdracer

Grandma can use the internet for FREE and pay all her bills!!!!!!!!!!!!

and I should pick up the tab on the postage for Aunt Ethel???????

You subsidize and pick up the tab on lots of things that you are unaware of in both the government and private sector. We all do.

Hard to believe but many fellow Americans cannot afford a computer and have no idea how to use one even though some of have 3 or 4 in our homes and the latest iPhone 4S (like me).