United States Post Office...

BOSS

BOSS

FlowerChat Administrator
Oct 31, 2002
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Well here we go again, the USPS will be out of money by the end of August, having already lost $2,000,000,000.00 so far this year, and a total of $8,000,000,000.00 last year. To their credit they did slice 130,000 jobs in the last 14 months with another 7500 on the block for this summer.

The losses come from the huge payments they must make into the employee pension funds, and ongoing union battles trying to get more all the while they are not profitable. Also, they will not be paying back the $15,000,000,000.00 the already owe the US Taxpayers.

I ask, is the USPS still relevant?

For me business wise, 3 days a week service would be sufficient, and personally one day a week would work if I had mail delivered to my home. I do have PO Boxes....

What say you?
 
well I am in Canada but I have often said we do NOT need mail delivery every day.
When we had a box on the house it often was empty all but say 10 day or less a month when the bills came. and we all know they all arrive at the same time.
The post box we have now we check tues and Thursday, and thats it.
 
I would happily cut down on the days we get mail....especially if it keeps those friggin' credit card companies from sending so much crap!!! Chase has been sending both my husband and I a credit card offer in the mail about 3-4 times per week for the last 6 weeks!!! Same piece of mail every time....between the two of us we have received about 30 of them. I called them and told them to stop sending them to us....but it will take 90 days to go into effect. I can't believe how much it must cost them to keep sending those out...not to mention the amount of resources it's using. I makes me FURIOUS!!! There should be a law against it. Sorry for the rant.....
 
I talked to our carrier she said another issue is the rural post offices. They pay a post master general to sit in each location, they make around 100k per year. Could you afford to pay someone 100k per year to sit in a store that did less then 1 sale per day? Cut the pork and it would save them a fortune. Personally I would be fine with Mon, Wed, Saturday mail service. The post office needs to be open on Saturdays for people to come mail junk in my opinion but that could be because I sold on eBay for so long. It is by far the cheapest way to send anything under 1 lb in the US so they have some room to raise prices and still stay competitive with the UPS, FedEx types.
 
Boss. That's a lot of zeros, went cross-eyed trying to count them!

Just another example of our efficient government at work. So, cut the jobs, cut the service, and charge more for less. Yes, makes sense to me.
 
MWF is fine. Keep a Post Office Open on Sat.

But... Wait... THAT would mean that a LOT of UNION Post Office Employees would have to be laid off.

And we couldn't have THAT, could we?

THAT would be "draconian." (Or hvae they come up with a replacement for that stupid catch-phrase yet?)
 
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Just playing devils advocate here, but with all those postal workers laid off and collecting unemployment would there be any savings? Then there would be a lot more people sitting on their butts getting paid to do nothing. Plus who wants to work 3 days a week? ( well, me actually, but that's besides the point.) But I could definately live with out mail 6 days a week. My mail is boring.
 
Have to agree, three days a week would work for me too, I never use my mailbox to actually mail stuff, I don't trust anyone. I pretty much only get bills too, the phone and the internet is much better.
 
I personally think they have way to many middleman. To many companies selling their stamps. I buy the same amount of stamps every month since 2003. Nothing has changed at least when it comes to buying stamps. I have turned away those stamp machines offered by other companies only looking for the piece of the pie and those online scams (I mean partners). Its clear to me that they are having the same problems we have and any other business out there. Too many hands in the cookie jar I feel is the problem.

I know that paying online is hurting them but I have to ask my fellow consumers why is better paying bank of america $6 to pay our bills online when it only cost .44 to mail it in.

Are UPS and Fedex ready to step up to the plate and are they really doing most of the work? I would bet these two companies ride for free with the USPS and when that ride comes to a hault you wait and see how much its going to cost to send that box of roses through Fedex or UPS.

The companies that have pushed us all into paying bills online are going to be in for a big surprise when they can't get their account payments recieved in a timely matter.
 
Eric S said:
I know that paying online is hurting them but I have to ask my fellow consumers why is better paying bank of america $6 to pay our bills online when it only cost .44 to mail it in.
Click to expand...
Hmmm... it's a free service my bank provides... I save the $0.44 ;)
 
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secretgarden said:
I talked to our carrier she said another issue is the rural post offices. They pay a post master general to sit in each location, they make around 100k per year. Could you afford to pay someone 100k per year to sit in a store that did less then 1 sale per day? Cut the pork and it would save them a fortune. Personally I would be fine with Mon, Wed, Saturday mail service. The post office needs to be open on Saturdays for people to come mail junk in my opinion but that could be because I sold on eBay for so long. It is by far the cheapest way to send anything under 1 lb in the US so they have some room to raise prices and still stay competitive with the UPS, FedEx types.
Click to expand...

At the same time, ebay sellers would get bad flack if the mail was 3 days a week. How do you off priority services? I just started (and actually am closing down now too) an eBay business. Since January I have spent $1,000 on postage...not a lot but I am only a 60 item a month seller.
 
I use the shipping calculator in all of my listings and charge the buyer that fee. Then I use paypal to print my labels so I never have to go to the post office, (unless it is a rare case of first class international shipping). I use the free boxes provided by USPS and that makes it easy for me. 60 items a month is a pretty good business you have there! I was up to a good click too when I sold items on consignment. That is how I got roped into to owning this shop :) Sold for her and her hubby and we started talking shop and now it's mine hehe.
 
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