USPS... of course it's broken! But what the hell?

[Ronin13]

Before I begin, yes I'm aware it's a government entity and that explains about 80% of why it sucks, but I'm wondering seriously lately, what the bloody hell is going on with the postal service? It used to be that I would head over to the Post Office every day between 1200-1230 to get the mail out of our PO Box for the office/father's/my mail. I'm guessing they sort and it staggers in throughout the morning because by noon it usually contains all of our mail for the day. Not so fast. Lately it seems that the mail has been getting slowed. Today for instance, I know all of the mail wasn't in the box by the time I went in, at 1245! Because it's Wednesday and today is the day the weekly Evergreen newspaper goes out. Not in there. Are they slacking or just incompetent? It used to be they were really good at having our mail in the box by noon like clockwork. Now it seems they have taken on the malaise of "good enough for government work." What gives? Not that I'm upset, it's just puzzling that these wonderfully motivated human beings can place next to no pride in their work anymore.

My apologies to anyone who works or has a family member that works for the USPS...
I wonder... can we just hand over the mail system to private industry now? At least the private sector will actually do good work with delivering mail.

[Colorado_Outback]

Wow, that was a lot of ASSumptions for one post..

A privatized postal system sounds great until you find out how much they would charge to mail a letter.

[clodhopper]

Lower your expectations to getting today's mail tomorrow. Reduce your stress, live longer. Assimilation is inevitable.

[Lurch]

Lower your expectations to getting today's mail tomorrow. Reduce your stress, live longer. Assimilation is inevitable.

and just remember if you need to get your letter somewhere in the next 10 days don't use the USPS.

[hatidua]

.5/10

[Ronin13]

A privatized postal system sounds great until you find out how much they would charge to mail a letter.

Not if there was direct competition. Look at waste disposal... a lot of areas don't charge that much because there are only two companies that operate there and have direct competition.

You do know they're having major budget problems right now, right?

Not an excuse to do a piss poor job though.

and just remember if you need to get your letter somewhere in the next 10 days don't use the USPS.

Ain't that the truth.

[BuffCyclist]

Actually, Congress told them they have to deliver on Saturdays, they can't stop.

Didn't know that, I just heard about it a while back and never cared to look into it anymore.

Not an excuse to do a piss poor job though.

Perhaps not, but if you have 5 guys doing the work of 25 guys, its going to take them longer to get things done. So what if your newspaper isn't in your mailbox at noon, 5pm is still considered "delivered today".

For what its worth, I used to get my mail in a PO Box, while living in a 700 person town. They had 2 employees and many times they were still there past 8pm sorting mail into the boxes. Since the post office was not even a half mile from me, I got in the habit of walking to get the mail in the evening, around 9pm to get my mail, or I'd wait until the next day headed to work. No big deal. Except for the days when I ordered gun parts or ammo, then I wanted it ASAP!

[Colorado_Outback]

Not if there was direct competition. Look at waste disposal... a lot of areas don't charge that much because there are only two companies that operate there and have direct competition.

You mean like UPS and Fedex? Price how much it costs to send a letter from Springs to Denver. I just did, its $9 for UPS and $11 for fedex, and that's with discounts if you walked up to a retail counter it would be slightly more.

How much are stamps now a days?

[BuffCyclist]

You do know they're having major budget problems right now, right?

I don't remember the date, but they're going to stop Saturday mail delivery soon because of budget concerns. I have also heard in new development areas, business parks and malls, they are moving towards a central mail pickup instead of curbside delivery. That all probably explains why its slowing down, because they're way in the red and don't have enough employees to do the work that is needed.

eta: The USPS is having budget problems. Not the .gov, although that actually goes equally as well for them

[Dave]

You do know they're having major budget problems right now, right?

I don't remember the date, but they're going to stop Saturday mail delivery soon because of budget concerns. I have also heard in new development areas, business parks and malls, they are moving towards a central mail pickup instead of curbside delivery. That all probably explains why its slowing down, because they're way in the red and don't have enough employees to do the work that is needed.

eta: The USPS is having budget problems. Not the .gov, although that actually goes equally as well for them

Actually, Congress told them they have to deliver on Saturdays, they can't stop.