Rant-Post Office

[Michael Waldo]

I support the idea of a national Post Office. Hell, it is mentioned in the constitution. I still pay bills by mail to help support them. But they need to do a lot better if they want people to use them. I went into a post office yesterday, Saturday, and there were 20 people in front of me in line. There was one clerk helping. What the…? By the time I got toward the front of the line, the line was literally out the door. And yes, I used literally correctly. The PO must do better then that if they want to survive. They act like there are still the only way to send messages.

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[clulessinws]

I’ve noticed that as well. Steadily increasing population along CA Ave and a lot of e commerce but the same PO with no expansion of space or operating hours and too few clerks to handle the flow. The self service machine is broken sometimes so people have no choice but to wait in line for certain services. I try to avoid the POs and print postage at home or buy stamps at the grocery store. Then, drop letters/packages in the drive thru or one of the now hard to find blue, stand alone boxes.

Even though letter/bill paying by mail is probably down due to online bill pay and email, e commerce shipping costs so much more than a letter/bill and it is way up. I don’t see how USPS is loosing so much money each year.

I’ve filled out forms with suggestions and talked with clerks in person over the years. They seem sympathetic and nice but either their hands are tied or they don’t understand the customer’s concern.

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[JayDee]

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2014/08/29/postal-service-outlook-broke-again-4-years/

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[trickycoolj]

I highly recommend the Georgetown post office. Closes at 5 but it’s not too far, it’s at 6th and Orcas St

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[anonyme]

Postal service at all levels has become horrendous. My paycheck is mailed from Federal Way, and takes 3-4 days to arrive. It used to be one day, two if mailed in the evening. My former carrier told me confidentially that the Westwood PO holds back mail, which is illegal.

A Westwood supervisor told me that the PO does not pick up outgoing mail. I demanded to know where that rule was described in official policies. I contacted the DC office, who sent me elsewhere, and they sent me somewhere else. Eventually, I got an email stating that only the local office could answer my question accurately – the very office that I wrote to complain about. The email also said I’d be contacted by that office within 48 hours. That was over a year ago.

I do think snail mail is still a necessity, but these days it’s a wonder we get mail at all. Maybe instead of donating $6m to Lance Armstrong, they should fix their own house.

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[miws]

anonyme, does your company offer Direct Deposit? I was *very* resistant to it, when first offered by the company I worked for at the time, and would have refused, except they said they wouldn’t be able to guarantee getting a paper check, right on payday, if we chose to stick with that.

Ended up *loving* it, and when I hired on at McLendon’s, I barely let the Manager finish the sentence “Do you want Direct Deposit?”, before I said “YES!!”.

One of the best benefits, was it let me grocery shop at 5:30-6:00 in the morning on payday, before heading out to work, so got that sometimes bothersome chore (especially after a hard day at work) out of the way, and eliminated the stress of whether the paper paychecks would make it in before the lunchbreak, and then hopefully having time to get to the bank and get lunch on the lunchbreak.

Mike

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[dobro]

“I don’t see how USPS is loosing so much money each year.”

The USPS is losing money because Republicans passed a bill requiring it to fully fund retirements 75 years into the future, a requirement no other federal agency or, in fact, any private corporation is forced to implement. You can Google it for more details. There has been a campaign going on to hamstring the post office and prop up private carriers for several years now.

When it costs you 5 bucks for FedEx to deliver a letter from here to Spokane, you’ll miss the USPS.

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[anonyme]

Mike, I love direct deposit, but my employer doesn’t do it. And it’s not just the paycheck; I was waiting for some documents mailed from Tacoma recently, and they took 4 days to arrive as well. The standard used to be 3 days from the east coast. And this refusal to pick up outgoing mail is ridiculous.

I know that there are those who love to slam any government entity as inefficient, but I can tell you from vast experience (yes, literally vast), that service was infinitely better before the PO became partly privatized.

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[metrognome]

‘The USPS has not directly received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980s with the exception of subsidies for costs associated with the disabled* and overseas voters. Since the 2006 all-time peak mail volume, after which Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, (which mandated $5.5 billion per year to be paid into an account to fully prefund both employee retirement health and pension benefits, a requirement exceeding that of other government and private organizations), revenue dropped sharply due to recession-influenced declining mail volume, prompting the postal service to look to other sources of revenue while cutting costs to reduce its budget deficit. The USPS lost US$5.5 billion in fiscal 2014, and its revenue was US$67.8 billion.’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service

*by ‘the disabled,’ I assume Wiki means ‘persons with disabilities’ who are unable to ‘use or read conventional reading matter’ and are therefore eligible to receive or send certain mail without postage.

http://pe.usps.com/text/csr/ps-254.htm

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[clulessinws]

Just wanted to add that I filled out some online forms for lost mail that had tracking numbers. Never heard a reply despite follow ups. Clerks at the PO weren’t able to tell me anything more than what I could see online when I looked up the tracking number (which was blank). Luckily my clients didn’t hold it against me but it is kind of frustrating when the product they offer doesn’t deliver – paying for tracking but if they don’t scan it, then it’s worthless to the buyer and seller. My feedback or online intergirty level could have suffered. I’ve heard people comment on this forum about hours long hold times when calling the 1 800 number for USPS customer service. If I had included insurance with my items, I wonder if I would ever be able to file a claim or if I was able, would it just go into a black hole like my other on line forms?

Thanks everyone for the heads up and links to good info! Peace.

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[wakeflood]

The GOP plan has been in place and working relentlessly since Reagan took office:

Complain that gov’t doesn’t work. Work hard on breaking gov’t. Point to the thing you just broke and say, “SEE?!” Shovel public money to private entities to replace public version.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

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