Business with the Post Office

I had a little business online with the Post office today. I ended up with a question that couldn't be answered by the faq. So I found an email address for questions. It says,

"You can expect a response within three (3) business days."

Government at it finest!

MikeK

Reply to
amdx
Loading thread data ...

It's a good thing you don't have a broken leg.

Reply to
krw

I have to agree this is too long to wait.

For years now the P.O. has had to cut back on workers and finally they have cut back too far. Its time to get our senators on the telephone and demand that some of those lost jobs be replaced with new hires.

There are plenty of people willing to work and the P.O. (and many other government agencies) are now so short of low level workers that they can't get their assigned work done.

Enough is enough.

Wilby

Reply to
wilby

NXP promised me an answer about ARM processor clocking within 5 days. It's been about 7 so far. I have a strong feeling that, eventually, they may come up with some words that aren't the answer.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

that's why they are planning to lay off even more employees.

--
You can't fix stupid. You can't even put a band-aid on it, because it's
Teflon coated.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

formatting link

-loss-jobs/1 The U.S. Postal Service revealed Friday a larger than expected loss of $8.5 billion for its 2010 fiscal year. Earlier estimates put the figure between $6 billion and $ 7 billion.

"we don't expect to have sufficient cash to pay all of our obligations, primarily the $5.5 billion retiree health payment due at the end of the year."

-- Cheers, James Arthur

Reply to
dagmargoodboat

Who wudda ever thunk that they wouldn't be able to make its health care payment. Someone call Obama! He should take them over. ...or give them a waiver, or sumthing.

Reply to
krw

d

They need to can those "if it fits, it ships" ads on TV. Who are they kidding? Unless you're shipping concrete, or lead, it's almost always cheaper to ship via UPS, especially with a corporate account.

They must think that folks will be swayed to pay extra just because it's a fixed price. Any (OK, most) idiot business folks will know enough to shop their shipping around. So I guess, the conclusion is that the US Postal Service's business plan relies upon selling overpriced services to dopes. Usually, that's a good business model, except this is the government, so it MUST run on deficit spending.

Reply to
mpm

d

I suppose 1 Billion of that went to design this year's commerative stamps? Of course, they do have the Buzz Lightyear series coming out later this year so it's not like our tax dollars are totally wasted. (I know, I know... the USPS is supposed to be self-sufficient on its own revenues.)

Reply to
mpm

Commemorative stamps are a money-maker, probably the only one they have.

Reply to
krw

Why can't the PO give out some kind of lottery ticket with every $10 a customer spends there? I just thought of this and I'm already liking the idea. Gotta ship something now!

Wilby

Reply to
wilby

Why would you go to the post office with a broken leg ??

Where did you want to send it ??

hamilton

Reply to
hamilton

It can save you money, but only when properly applied.

Some people waste so much time packing things that it cost more to weigh things and print labels. Not a good business model.

That's +75% of the population on earth. :(

THe USPS isn't government or private business. It's worse. It's both.

--
You can't fix stupid. You can't even put a band-aid on it, because it's
Teflon coated.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

The PO is going out of business because there's UPS, FedEx, DHL, and probably others for packages, and why write a letter, address an envelope, affix a 40-something cent stamp, and have your message get there anywhere from the next day to a week from now, when email is instant?

I suspect the crack about the leg is about Obamacare - imagine if the ER was run like the DMV!

Thanks, Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

Around here it usually takes less than 10 minutes to do business with the DMV from the time you walk in, till you leave. Try that at the ER.

--
You can't fix stupid. You can't even put a band-aid on it, because it's
Teflon coated.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

USPS pretty much self-operated. What would the Senate do?

Service is bad so people don't use USPS. When people don't use USPS, the funds per mailbox and per postal office fall. When the funds fall, service gets worse. It's a death spiral that started years ago. There's probably no saving them as long as they're delivering postcards and envelopes.

I'd rather ask the government to improve Internet services so that USPS can be more of an on-demand service like FedEx or UPS. Upgrading to IPv6 and slapping around the greedy Telcos a bit would make peer-to-peer data transfer as easy as a phone call. It's impossible for the general population now because NAT, dynamic address allocation, and draconian Terms of Service Agreements make it all too complicated.

--
I will not see posts or email from Google because I must filter them as spam
Reply to
Kevin McMurtrie

It's part of a test program to find the best country to get medical care if Obamacare becomes a reality. Mikek PS. Just added Obamacare to my spellchecker.:-(

Reply to
amdx

On a sunny day (Tue, 11 Jan 2011 18:32:54 -0600) it happened "amdx" wrote in :

Oh well, I bought a super filter on ebay in early december 2010. Posting via UPS, they charge me 275 USD to send it to the Netherlands (from Miami). OK, I want this, so anyways, ordered around December 12, arrived in Europe customs December 22 (well track and trace, did not know flights took 10 days, wonder how much fuel that takes to stay up in the air that long). Nothing heard until last week, then January 6 2011 I got a form from the Dutch postal service, I have to fill in: What exactly is it. What did I pay for it. Copies or receipts, email, all required. So I did some printing of web pages, put it in the FREE return envelope and mailed it last Friday. Was expecting an other month for processing time, but no, just found a note in the mailbox today (Jan 12 2010) that they were here, and I was not home, and will be back tomorrow, and I have to have an other 100 Euro in cash available for the mailman. that is probably customs. At least I hope it is my filter, and not 100 Euro for some other 20 Euro stuff I bought from ebay. Now if a return flight to Miami drops to 400 USD I know what to do, fly, and look happy and walk through customs 'nothing to declare'. Anyways with some luck I have my 70 K cooler tomorrow, will stay home for it. The posting + customs was a lot more then I payed for the thing though. And that was after I negotiated the ebay shipment cost down from 500 USD with the seller. So with a bit of luck 1 month, not bad for a small package from US to Europe. I was really pissed at one point, wanted to write to the US embassy that somebody is f*cking up their US exports.

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

Ok, which UPS and which postal service do you use? Maybe corporate rates at UPS are lower, but for two day shipping, Priority Mail is about 30-100% cheaper than UPS or FedEx for normal folks. I know, I do a lot of shipping via USPS!

Charlie

Reply to
Charlie E.

Priority Mail has no _guaranteed_ delivery date.

Interesting factoid: FedEx "home delivery" for some Christmas packages was about $1 cheaper than USPS. ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Jim Thompson

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.