Why does the US postal service suck so much?

I have been waiting a week for a certain letter to arrive from a place I could drive to in less an a day. How can that even be possible? And I know it can be "overnighted" but it cost 40 dollars extra, and was told it would take 36 to 48 hours...this ois not overnight. What the hell is going on here?

The USPS had been nothing but efficient for me. No complaints here.

a reply to: Restricted

Maybe it is a regional thing...this is not the first time this has happened. I have Sent letters to myself from work, less than 5 miles away from home, and it has taken over a week to get it. Or maybe its our letter carrier.. Can't seem to have the same person doing it for more than a couple days at a time. It is almost always a different person dropping the mail off.

At least your postal service still delivers to your home. Here in Canada they decided to install community boxes where everyone gets their mail. They do not deliver even the simplest of letters and bills to your door.

I don't think they suck at all. I always get my mail super quick. They are the only federal institution that I trust nowadays.

I recently ordered something and had the package delivered via US postal service. I live in Dallas and the store I bought it from was also in Dallas. I received a tracking number and after a few days of waiting I checked on the delivery status...my package was in Indiana...it eventually arrived after 9 days...it should have been here the day after I placed the order.

Another thing that grinds my gears about the US postal service is that my delivery guy(s) apparently do not have to wear uniforms; they just wear regular street cloths with no identifying marks. They very easily could be burglars casing my neighborhood and I'd never know the difference.

Lastly, EVERY single day when my mail is delivered, my delivery guy is on his cell phone...not paying attention to what he is doing, just chatting away. This probably explains why I regularly get my neighbor's mail and vice versa. This becomes particularly troublesome when I don't get my bills on time and end up with a late charge.

I have called the local post office and filed numerous complaints only to get the runaround and no resolution, so I completely understand your frustrations.

a reply to: bananashooter

Again. Maybe it is regional, or maybe it just depends on which idiots work in the local offices.

a reply to: Benderisfunny

Federal Spending Cuts

Lack of Use

Email.

Basically the 21st century happened.

~Tenth

a reply to: Benderisfunny

More than likely, the letter was not sent as you believe or it was incorrectly addressed.
Less likely, is that it got misdelivered, lost or stolen.
It is not likely that it simply takes that long for a typically delivery.

Since the letter seems important to you, I suspect it was not sent as you evidently were told.
The old phrase "The check is in the mail." is almost always a lie.

I was with the POD for right at 15 years. It isn't that slow.

I find the US Postal Service amazingly competent considering the logistical nightmares they must have. I would rate them a solid 'A' or excellent.

originally posted by: Metallicus
I find the US Postal Service amazingly competent considering the logistical nightmares they must have. I would rate them a solid 'A' or excellent.

Ain't that the truth.

~Tenth

a reply to: Aliensun

It is not just this instance. I routinely get mail that is postmarked 2 weeks or more before it gets to me. I get other peoples mail that I have to deliver to them, because the postal worker refuses to pick up out going mail and just puts new stuff on what we try to send out. Does the flag being up on the mail box mean nothing? Anyway, everyone wants to believe that because they do their job correctly, everyone else does too.

And its not a check.

a reply to: tothetenthpower

Regardless, if we pay for something, should we not get it the way it should be done?

a reply to: Metallicus

I wish I got the same level of service you do in your area!

I always used to use the USPS, but no longer. I have been on the phone with fedex and ups and they can call their drivers and tell you without a doubt where your package is. The USPS tracking number means nothing. They don't know where your things are at all times, they file all complaints through email, their sorting facilities are unlisted.

This was seriously rage worthy to me last week. Forget the USPS. You get what you pay for. These are cut rate delivery prices for a reason.

Because it was never intended to be solely - self-supporting. It was mean to be a 'service' not a profit center.

So - now that they have to provide a service without a minimum level of public support (infrastructure - you think FedEx could deliver a letter for $.52 next door let alone across the country) they're had to take up the 'austerity shuffle' and close offices and processing centers, hire low wage - auxillaires with no traning.

Here's some background:

Until 1971, mail delivery was handled by the Post Office Department, a Cabinet department in the federal government. Postal worker strikes prompted President Nixon to pass the Postal Reorganization Act in 1971, transforming it into the semi-independent agency we now know as the United States Postal Service. The USPS in its current form runs like a business, relies on postage for revenue and, for the most part, has not used taxpayer money since 1982, when postage stamps became “products” instead of forms of taxation. Taxpayer money is only used in some cases to pay for mailing voter materials to disabled and overseas Americans.

www.pbs.org...

The current problems stem from:

But what has been lost in the political debate over the Post Office is why it is losing this money.

Major media coverage points to the rise of email or Internet services and the inefficiency of the post model as the major culprits.

While these factors may cause some fiscal pain, almost all of the postal service’s losses over the last four years can be traced back to a single, artificial restriction forced onto the Post Office by the Republican-led Congress in 2006.

At the very end of that year, Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA).

Under PAEA, USPS was forced to “prefund its future health care benefit payments to retirees for the next 75 years in an astonishing ten-year time span”

— meaning that it had to put aside billions of dollars to pay for the health benefits of employees it hasn’t even hired yet, something “that no other government or private corporation is required to do.”


As consumer advocate Ralph Nader noted, if PAEA was never enacted, USPS would actually be facing a $1.5 billion surplus today:

thinkprogress.org...

Republicans (or rather their owners) are why the United State Postal Service sucks.

a reply to: FyreByrd

thinkprogress.org

It cracks me up each time I see 'think progress' as a legitimate source. Not to mention you somehow managed to turn a non-partisan discussion into a partisan one. When you were offered the Kool-aid you drank the whole pitcher.

uSPS is cheap. i give them that. At least when you use it

a reply to: Metallicus

I agree...this was a rant about bad service, I mean we get mad at McDonalds for messing our order up, and it doesn't matter who the president is or who controls the congress. Whether you pay .52 cents or 52.00 dollars, you paid for it. That's what pisses me off about the whole thing. they set the price, not me. I looked on the postal service website, and they are not following their guidelines for how fast, or slow, pieces of mail should be delivered. There is a grid that displays times by type of mail. in my experience over the last few years, this schedule is laughably incorrect. I believe this may be a local problem, as I realize not everyone has the same experience that I do.

a reply to: Benderisfunny

Any entity that starts with "United States..." is bound to suck.

While I have never had any real issues, the constant operation in the red and raising of postal prices is enough to validate my point.

But I've seen a few vids of USPS workers being too lazy to deliver mail and just tossing stacks in dumpsters--time to go dumpster diving?