Any Wonder Why They Are In Trouble?

[boykinlp]

I am speaking of the USPS. I won 2 items on ebay on 11/15. Each item is shipped using the USPS.

Item #1 - Ships from Bell Gardens, CA on 11/17. It arrives at my door in Greenville, SC on 11/22. A 2330 mile trip by Mapquest.

Item #2 - Ships from Atlanta, GA on 11/17. It arrives at my mailbox in Greenville, SC on 11/25. It goes from Atlanta to Memphis (460 miles), then Memphis to Greensboro, NC (660 miles), then from Greensboro, NC to Greenville, SC (190 miles). Total travelled 1320 miles.

The kicker is that Greenville is only 150 miles from Atlanta!! I realize that there was a Thanksgiving holiday in there, but the one from Cally got here before the holiday. I think that the postman carried my package with him on his visits, with his extended family for Thanksgiving.

OK, rant over. Really, I am not mad, I just thought it was an interesting way of doing business.

 

[johnsonl]

The USPS is not "in business". Their sole aim is to deliver mail and employ postal workers, in that order. If they were "in business" and their goal was to make a profit, they'd have half the employees, no union and they would still be foundering because of the internet. It's faster and easier to deliver and receive information electronically than through the mail. True, they could adapt to the market more easily, cut their staff as needed and modernize more quickly if they were a private entity.

 

[diamonback68]

Just got back from dropping off a package at USPS. I commented to the clerk that there was no line and they didn't look very busy like I remember in the past. His reply was "Yea, not as many people using USPS anymore". Didn't seem the least bit concerned either. Guess he doesn't care if he has a future there, sad.

 

[roarindan]

Last year, my brother and sister in law in a town 25 mi. south of me sent me a birthday card. It went from their post office into a truck,,that stopped at my post office and picked up mail, up the road 14 mi. to a processing center. from there it was flown 120 mi. south, sorted and post marked,trucked back. put on the same delivery truck that picked it up originally, delivered to my post office and finally to my mailbox!!!.

 

[Bicky Robby]

Why should they care about business or not, they just get bailed out by taxpayers money regardless. More fleecing of Americans.

 

[-db-]

Happens all the time, watching tracking can be funny and, yes, it makes you wonder what the heck they're doing at USPS. I'll buy something from someone in Texas and my package goes to California, or Utah, before going back the other way to me here in Michigan.

I bought something the other day from someone 50 miles north of me in mid-Michigan and the package got routed down to Ohio before coming back up here to the Detroit area. Makes no sense.

 

[perrazi]

watching the tracking can be hilarious of you buy something from europe or china and have it sent postal air. better to pay the outrageous cost for fedex from those places if you need it within a month.

 

[Capt Steve]

Straight as a dogs hind leg....

Clearly the USPS never heard that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. My new Kindle Touch left South Carolina, two days later arrived In Illinois (why did they send it to Illinois???) Two days later it is somewhere between Illinois and Tucson, where I live with an eta of 3 or 4 days from now, arrrrg! I could have read three books in the time it takes to get here.

 

[Sprefix]

Are you for real?? I didn't know they still printed the National Enquirer

Why should they care about business or not, they just get bailed out by taxpayers money regardless. More fleecing of Americans.

You should do some research before making such a post. The USPS gets their money from POSTAGE!!! Period!! They petition congress for a raise in the price of stamps and last I checked you were not forced to buy a stamp. Why do you think the FED fleeced the USPS for $75 million dollars by forcing them to forward fund the retirement system for the next umpteen years? Simple...the USPS is solvent or was before the FED decided it needed its hands on the money setting there for the future retirees. The leaders at the USPS need a serious lesson in economics just like the entirety of D.C. The lines are long and people leave for lunch with 40 customers waiting. To streamline, they CLOSE offices so they can't make money from those customers!! Hello? McFly??? Then they cut routes and carrier jobs while management(you know, the people that don't move or touch the mail) keep all of their jobs(at a very healthy payrate). If you are all chiefs and no Indians, how does the work get done? I get it. It irritates me as well. I go only when I have no other choice. Do yourself a favor and educate yourself about a very old and very proud business establishment before you slam it with nonsense spoutings. Do you verbally assault your mechanic after years of great service over one small mistake? Do you throw him under the bus because your latte' wasn't properly foamed that morning? They need serious change, but so does most of the rest of the country. Rant over---out here..

 

[Stevens]

I think the first thing they should do is cut home delivery to Mon. Wed and Friday. They will collect the same amount of money in postage but should spend less on delivery. Is there anyone who cannot stand to wait another day for the usual pile of junk mail and bills?

Keep the offices open daily but train the staff to speed things up and be a bit more pleasant, ours are the most sullen, slow bunch you could imagine.
Steve W.

 

[Texas Star]

I think my favorite postal story is what happened when I went to mail a couple of paperback books to a friend in Austria.

The woman at the window told me that I was out of luck, as there are no post offices in AUSTRALIA!

I got her to go consult a manual and a supervisor,and finally mailed the books by air. My friend got them about a week later.

 

[TACC1]

I have noticed in the last couple of years, that letters I mail
take longer than packages. I wonder if they use a different
processing method for each?
We've got a good bunch at my post office, and they will many times
drop off a package at your door, rather than leave a pick-up note for
retrieval at the post office. Obviously, they've still got the right
attitude! TACC1

 

[David LaPell]

A couple of weeks back I ordered a book for myself (another Elmer Keith book). It showed that it had been delivered to my post office on a Thursday. Now this is not a big post office, fairly small. So I go there and tell the clerk at the counter, who I have known others to have trouble with, that my package had arrived according to the USPS website. She looks, can't find it. "It's not here." she says. She then tells me, "Well its here, but its not here." I told her according to the usps site it was, "Well that website is maintained by an outside company." Talk about a head scratcher. I went back on Saturday only three days later. The package was there, but again it wasn't I was told by another clerk. Low and behold I go back on Monday and there it was. It took 12 days from Ohio to me for priority mail, I wonder what parcel post would have been like. To me the Post Office is now like the DMV, they are there to just collect a check and customer service is a rarity. I remember a few months ago when I needed to send a check certified mail. I had sent two others to the same address before. The clerk, the same winner from the start of this story, told me the address didn't exist because it wasn't in her computer. I assured her it did because I had sent things there before. She got pretty snotty with me and told me "Well you're going to make me look this up and keep all these people waiting." So she went out and got the big book of zip codes and low and behold it was in there. She never apologized for being rude, so I told her that maybe she needs to look at her computer a bit less. No, the Post Office is a wonderful thing now, long lines, lousy service. It's become a typical government run institution.

 

[tomtheturner]

Good Service

Personally I get great service from the Post Office. Yep, they have screwed up big time a couple of times, but so have UPS, and Fed-Ex.

My mail carrier knows that I am home all the time, but that it takes me a long time to get to the door, she gives me the extra time & waits. Always, I get personal service. Also, postage has gone up a lot, but it is still a bargain to send a letter across the country for the price of a stamp.

To add a "funny," before I got a new letter carrier my old carrier delivered 250lbs of lead bullets, and put them all in my mailbox!! Yes, the mailbox fell over! I was mad at the time, but see the humor now. Not all the employees of any company are the "sharpest knife in the drawer."

Tom

 

[mkk41]

My local post office is right across the way. I live in a small town 3/4 mi.sq. , but the post office is large and serves several surrounding communities. It's usually quite busy , but on a busy awkward corner and across from a railroad station. Yeah , traffic around it is tricky. Ya gotta park in a small busy parking lot , with cars usually waiting , get outta your car , and drop you letters in boxes by the doors , and manuver around other parking/waiting cars to get out. So about 12yrs ago , they put some new driveways in , including an island where ya could drive up from either direction and drop your letters in a mail box. Was very well planned and executed , so it must have been expensive. It has also been chained off since it was completed!

 

[HAWKEYE10]

The USPS does a good job for me most of the time. Their delivery time for me beats UPS all the time and USPS will ring the door bell when they deliver and UPS will not. Don

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

One does not necessarily launch a career at the US Post Office with a mind full of ambition and ability.

 

[boykinlp]

We've got a good bunch at my post office, and they will many times drop off a package at your door, rather than leave a pick-up note for retrieval at the post office. Obviously, they've still got the right attitude! TACC1

This reminds me of another part from my original story. Both items that were delivered to my house were too big to fit in the mailbox. The first one is placed on my front porch by my door, the second one, delivered by the same person 3 days later, is "balanced" on top of my mailbox! This is a cardboard box left on top of the mailbox on a cloudy day, and by the way, it started raining about an hour after I retrieved it. I was lucky that this was a short workday for me so I got home earlier than usual. Otherwise, the rain would have beat me to the package.

 

[thndrchiken]

You should do some research before making such a post. The USPS gets their money from POSTAGE!!! Period!! They petition congress for a raise in the price of stamps and last I checked you were not forced to buy a stamp. Why do you think the FED fleeced the USPS for $75 million dollars by forcing them to forward fund the retirement system for the next umpteen years? Simple...the USPS is solvent or was before the FED decided it needed its hands on the money setting there for the future retirees. The leaders at the USPS need a serious lesson in economics just like the entirety of D.C. The lines are long and people leave for lunch with 40 customers waiting. To streamline, they CLOSE offices so they can't make money from those customers!! Hello? McFly??? Then they cut routes and carrier jobs while management(you know, the people that don't move or touch the mail) keep all of their jobs(at a very healthy payrate). If you are all chiefs and no Indians, how does the work get done? I get it. It irritates me as well. I go only when I have no other choice. Do yourself a favor and educate yourself about a very old and very proud business establishment before you slam it with nonsense spoutings. Do you verbally assault your mechanic after years of great service over one small mistake? Do you throw him under the bus because your latte' wasn't properly foamed that morning? They need serious change, but so does most of the rest of the country. Rant over---out here..

Maybe you should also double check your facts, the USPS does not pay federal or state tax, they are exempt from registering their vehicles, they are exempt from insuring their vehicles. They also get massive amounts of taxpayer money to offset operating expenses.

 

[sipowicz]

I never have a problem sending or receiving mail...but we do have one letter carrier on our route who can't stop chasing the dogs trying to bite them.