Any Wonder Why They Are In Trouble?

[PA Reb]

I bought an item from a person that lives about 100 miles east of me in Pennsylvania. It went from him, past me, and half way through Ohio until it turned around and then came back to me about two weeks later. If I mail a birthday card to someone that lives in the same town I do, it takes a good three days to reach them. As Bill Engvall would say, "Here's Your Sign!"

CMT : Videos : Bill Engvall : Here's Your Sign

 

[brucev]

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..

The USPS does a good job. I have used it for everything from mailing correspondence, etc., to brass and small parts. I have ordered and received items such as parts for my M-1 rifles and various pistols without any problems. I always insure everything I ship. I've never had to make a claim.

The forcing of the USPS to fund pensions 75 years in advance is simply an effort to privatize the service. It is driven by those who are hostile to unions as the USPS has one of the largest unionized employee bases in the nation. If any other govt. agency, department, etc. or any other private business were required to fund pensions or similar programs 75 years in advance, they would without exception be facing severe problems if not actually bankrupted.

 

[imjin138]

USPS has lost 3 packages on me this year alone, when I called the customer service they told me to use the computer tracking number. I told them I did and it says the latest package is in transit. So I filed a complaint and my local PO called and asked me what the complaint was and I told them "well I can't tell you anymore than the tracking system can what do you expect me to do" washis answer. i told him the package was coming from Carol Stream Ill to Racine Wi and I can drive there and back in 3 hours Still no package and it was supposed to be here by 11/18.

The tracking system tells me it is in transit. My guess it is on someones desk or at someones house.

 

[Steve in Vermont]

I've always received good service from the USPO. Living in a small village I know the carriers and postmaster, good people and hardworking. And cost for shipping? As an example Midway, or other companies, will ship up to 60 pounds of bullets for $ 17.00, by the USPO. The cost by UPS? $ 43.00. If the PO goes out of business, and we have to rely on for-profit companies to deliver our mail, the costs will go through the roof. Be careful what you ask for, you might get it. Remember the cost savings promised when they deregulated the telephone companies?

 

[brucev]

"Be careful what you ask for, you might get it. Remember the cost savings promised when they deregulated the telephone companies?" And... at least in my area, remember the savings that were supposed to result from deregulating the natural gas industry? I may be using the wrong terminology. But I know the cost have greatly increased.

 

[TIMETRIPPER]

I bought an item from a person that lives about 100 miles east of me in Pennsylvania. It went from him, past me, and half way through Ohio until it turned around and then came back to me about two weeks later. If I mail a birthday card to someone that lives in the same town I do, it takes a good three days to reach them. As Bill Engvall would say, "Here's Your Sign!"

FedEx and UPS do the same thing. Nothing will go straight from point A to point B. Everything is shipped through a system of "hubs" and , depending on where you live and where the package is coming from, it can make for some interesting travel routes! Usually the USPS does a good job by me but there are times when a local letter gets side tracked and goes out to a hub instead of staying in town.
As far as bad employees goes, it's next to impossible to fire an employee in the USPS. Like in many other civil service jobs, it's usually easier to shift them into a position where they do the least damage.
Personally, I think the USPS needs to do away with Saturday deliveries and close some of their offices. They can also raise the rates for bulk mail, AKA junk mail. Up in the area of my deer camp in northern Pa, many of the local post offices are still in private residences or stores. Some have very limited hours of operations. Not a very efficient system. The biggest problem with the USPS, as I see it, is that they are overseen by the government and must go begging to congress every time they need to make any kind of major change. And we all know how well the US government runs things!
John

 

[everReady Rob]

I didn't read all the posts so someone may have mentioned this. I wonder why when I buy something from an eBay seller it almost always takes 7-10 days and some retailers mailing USPS it seems to take longer than when I mail something, which as a general rule takes 3-5 days (I'm talking packages). I suspect that when I get notified from a eBay seller that my package has shipped, it hasn't really, the seller has filled out the paper work and electronically it is noted as sent, but I would be willing to bet that often it may take 2 days to get to PO or even longer if seller lets USPS pick package up at house/business.

Last time I checked, USPS supported itself with postage sales, none of my tax money goes to USPS. I don't know of another government agency that does that. I've never had a lost or damaged item with USPS, can't say that about UPS or FedX.

 

[7tenz]

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.

I had the same prob when I ordered a Schrodinger cat.

 

[mkk41]

The service is not the problem , it's the waste , mismanagement and the union.

I've bought things on Ebay and the tracking number showed they were accepted , but never delivered. With that evidence , Ebay and PayPal made good on it

 

[7tenz]

FedEx and UPS do the same thing. John

Some years ago I used to get something to/from cross country in one or two days for a ground rate, via UPS. They knew we had it figured out and it was biting into their Next and Same Day Service that they charge a whole lot extra for. Now they spend more to route them less efficiently to make sure I have to wait the required 8-15 days.