Bad - Usps

Originally posted by Knife Outlet
Here are some comments from someone who does many, many shipments per day. USPS isn't using airplanes since 9/11. Most priority mail is taking a week or more in transit.
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Fred,
If USPS isn't using airplanes since 9/11, then how do you explain that it took my package 2 days!! to make it to me from CLEAR ACROSS the country? (The package was mailed to me on 12/3/01 from Reston, VA, and I received it here in Washington State on 12/5/01...That USPS truck must have averaged better than 150mph, with no stops!).:).
 
I noticed recently that there was a FedEx box out in front of my local post office! And the same in front of another nearby post office.

I asked my letter carrier yesterday, and he told me it's a new contract: FedEx gets to put its boxes in front of post offices and USPS gets to fly mail on FedEx planes.

Sleeping with the enemy :eek:
 
Sniper:

There is no $500 limit on UPS insurance. We regularly insure packages for over $1000. I don't know what the upper limit is because we've never hit it. Let me know if you have ever tried to make a claim against postal insurance. We have tried a few times and basically gave up. It was more costly to go through the hoops than the package was worth so we just eat the losses now and don't insure anything that goes by mail. The losses are manageable truthfully or we would simply refuse to send to PO Boxes. UPS insurance is quick and easy. We make a claim, they do a trace, they send a check.

Dann, I believe the post office is now using one of the private carriers to fly mail from one city to another. I think it's Fedex. After 9/11 Fedex wouldn't take the packages for fear of anthrax and that went on for about a month. Apparently it is better now. We had 14 packages last week that took more than 5 working days by Priority Mail so to expect 2 day delivery all the time would be optimistic. Before 9/11 Priority Mail averaged about 2 1/2 days for us (some 2 days and some 3) excluding Alaska, Hawaii and the territories. Since 9/11 the average has been about 4 days and continues to be a problem right up to last week as I mentioned above.

I'm not against the Post Office. I'm disappointed as a taxpayer that they don't use their size and economic power to become an effective package delivery service for businesses. They continue to specialize in junk mail even as junk mail seems to be getting replaced by e-mail spam. They could give UPS and Fedex a run for their money if they would try but, apparently, they won't. If you saw it from our perspective you would understand what I mean. Take care.
 
I would think this is as bad as it gets! I mailed a knife, airmail, insured to a very patient guy in AL. on Dec 3/01 and this is Dec 20/01 and still no show. If I need to claim they will not even deal with it for 60 days so I have sent a refund to the buyer and I need to thank him for his patience. I must admit I don't have many problems with the combined post offices but it just so happens that both major problems were with the same knife, once when I bought it and now again that I've sold it. BAHH HUMBUG!!! PS> Thanks notdos
 
As an aside, I would be happy as a kitten if USPS would adopt the same sort of "package tracking" that UPS has! I have sent packages, via USPS Priority Mail, with "Delivery Confirmation", and the person emailed me to say that he had received the package, but in checking the "Delivery Confirmation", it showed that the package had not even been logged-in to start with, or just showed that the package had been accepted for delivery. This has happened quite a few times.:mad:.
 
Dan,

of the 25 or 30 delivery confirmations we've tracked this year to deal with credit card chargebacks only one was in the system and available on the web site. We ate all but one of them. In order to be an effective service the post office needs to:

1. make insurance effective. i.e. make it possible to make a claim
2. pick up packages. UPS is here twice per day. The post office comes occasionally.
3. provide a true tracking system like the private services have.
4. Provide mechanised input to create shipping documents and manifests like the private services have.
5. Provide a guaranteed delivery date for air shipments, not just "it's usually 2 days but occasionally 3."

Seems like a lot but the both UPS and Fedex provide it.
 
Originally posted by Knife Outlet
I'm disappointed as a taxpayer that they don't use their size and economic power to become an effective package delivery service for businesses. They continue to specialize in junk mail even as junk mail seems to be getting replaced by e-mail spam.
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Fred, as a customer, your suggestion has merit; as a taxpayer, it does not: USPS is not supported in any way by taxes, and has not been since the '70s.

"Junk" mail is being augmented by spam, not replaced. It is still a big moneymaker, and if it disappeared, I think the Postal Service would fold up and blow away.

To compete with UPS and FedEx parcel delivery would require an immense truck fleet and sorting facilities that USPS does not have the capital budget to provide, and with its income held hostage to the concept of 'break-even' public service economics it will never have it. The Postal Rate Commission is a socialist conspiracy in restraint of the legitimate acquisition of capital.

All this being true, most of our problems are still a question of a day by day, post office by post office battle for dedicated personnel providing effective service.
 
I disagree Esav. The postal service is an agency of government. It's employees are government employees. As a taxpayer I have an interest in everything the government does. It is admirable that the USPS hasn't received any subsidies from the federal government but neither has the federal reserve and a few other agencies. I'm still a U.S. citizen and a taxpayer and I'm interested in what government does. What UPS and Fedex decided to do to run their businesses is none of my business. I can just buy it or not. What the USPS does is my business because it is part of the federal government.

I would be the last person to suggest that, if the USPS were to develop effective package delivery services, there is no cost involved. Any business, mine included, needs to spend money to provide the product or service intended. Any business, mine included, has to find the money to do that or earn it. It can be done. The private services did it. I did it. The US Postal Service can do it.

Electronic communication has dug deeply into the postal service's business and will continue to do so. My business actually writes and mails less than 1 letter per month. We receive and pay most of our bills by mail and we receive our share of junk mail but that's about it. Everything else is electronic. We are a $multimillion business that doesn't have a postage meter or need one. When you say that, if junk mail were to disappear, it would finish the USPS I think you are correct. And I think it will decline just like all the other transactions that society now does electronically rather than by mail. I really do. I'd like to see the USPS go out and make a new market instead of just withering away. I'm a taxpayer. I care.
 
both ups and usps ups lost a 1,200.00watch it took a month but they paid another watch the post office "lost" but ended up finding i was put thru the hoops on bottom line with the post office , they will make you jump thru hoops before you see money you got to prove a lot to them !!!!! as for priority mail its a joke i just got payment for a mad dog frequent flyer sent on 12 -10 priority i checked date on usps postal money order and priority envelope i got it 12-18 8 days !!!!!not acceptable at all it would have gotten here quicker for 34cents this has happened once before you pay more for express and most times if it dont get there you get your monety back !!!! not always though they play games :( just my 2cents jaxurman
 
Is the USPS a for-profit PUBLIC Corporation? Is the USPS a NON-profit, Non-Governmental AGENCY. They appear, at times, to have a very difficult time turning a profit, and some at the TOP seem to HATE to be [Dependent] of Government. They seem to enjoy being [INDEPENDENT] of Government.
IS the USPS Tax-Payer Subsidized? Are they a MEGA-Giant in the movement of Mail and goods throughout the WORLD?
What is the USPS? Why is it that in Small Town, America, a community of 3,000 can enjoy their own POST OFFICE. How can the USPS have their own Law Enforcement arm dialed right into the system, with POWERS OF ARREST? UPS, FEDEX, EMORY, or the others have security and Loss prevention, but CANNOT ENFORCE Laws, CANNOT effect the arrest of any person who uses their service to further a criminal enterprise and Cannot arrest one of "their own" caught stealing the very goods they are intrusted to move for US, the PUBLIC?
How about one of the formites HERE that work for the USPS, UPS, or one of the "competitors" give me a hand and explain to me exactly what the USPS is.
I use them everyday to get and sent mail and goods. In my Small Town of under 7,000, I know every Postal Employee on a first name basis and they KNOW that I send and recieve KNIVES often. We even talk about KNIVES as I await them to process my package for shipment or delivery, and we talk about how common "POSTAL THEFT" is. The one thing NEVER discussed is how easy it is for a POSTAL employee, a UPS employee, a FEDEX employee, or any of the other's EMPLOYEES' to perpetrate the crime of theft while so employed.
How about an "INSIDE" perspective on how this all works? Thanks, I know this is a tough subject, but this is the HEART of many of the problems WE ALL encounter at one time or another............Ira
;) :confused:
 
I can relate to this discussion about USPS. I had a package shipped to me on Dec 8 from Discount Knives, by priority mail. As of the 22nd it has not arrived. This is my first problem with them and I've never had one with UPS--yet.
 
Dang, I don't know what USPS is doing, but I hope that they keep doing it! Just a few minutes ago, I received a Kershaw Trooper that "RJ" had sent to me on the 20th (Thanks Rich, that's a beautiful knife!.:).).

...2 day Priority Mail shipping clear across the country (PA to WA) is pretty darn GOOD "in MY book".:cool:.
 
I am a retired Postal Service manager. Any current employees are welcome to post on this also, please.

USPS is an independent operating authority, wholly owned by the Federal government. USPS not only gets no subsidy from the government, it did not always get paid in full or on time for services performed, like franked mail for the government and free matter for the blind.

Fred, employees of the Federal Reserve and other government agencies are paid from Federal revenues -- taxes. USPS income comes solely from fees for products and services.

Unlike UPS and FedEx, USPS does not have automatic access to capital, and has not always been permitted to raise money for upgrading or expanding services. It does not even set its own rates, but can only request that the Postal Rate Commission approve the rates we think we need. They don't; they generally approve a lower level, further depriving us of financial flexibility.

Ira, USPS is an organization; as such, it doesn't 'hate' or 'enjoy' anything. The conversion of the old Post Office Department into the US Postal Service, back in 1970, was done on the understanding that a truly independent Service would control its own destiny, and develop effective procedures, like any other business.

It has not been allowed to do so. It has improved a lot, by tremendous innovation in equipment and personnel policies. But it lives with constant government interference in realms that any other business would also find hampers its flexibility.

It is very easy for a Postal Service employee to steal from the mails. As a manager, I had many opportunities to work with the Postal Inspectors on this problem. I was constantly amazed at how consistent and how fast they were in catching thieves. The little creeps may disrupt the mails and cause untold suffering among our customers, but they do get caught ... and a Federal rap is no fun. I've seen long-term employees lose their pensions, too.
 
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