U.S. Post Office proposes rate increase -- and "invents" a new gimmick (1 Viewer)

[Brad Porter]

I saw the dot next to this thread and wondered if I had sleeptyped something recently without having any recall of the action. Nope - just this two year old thread... but since Jimi did address me directly, I shall respond:


This is a complete non-sequitur, and your supposition is also incorrect. If everyone who complained about inane things in the After Hours Lounge were a college professor then we could open the largest university in the known universe.

Brad

 

[Jimi C]

"I suspect that you weren't actually trying to be helpful."

You are correct. Still, you could just deliver everything yourself. Or just pay your bills online, or over the phone. Thats what I do. I havnt had to mail anything in years. USPS is worthwhile, government recycling programs... not so sure.

"This is a complete non-sequitur, and your supposition is also incorrect. If everyone who complained about inane things in the After Hours Lounge were a college professor then we could open the largest university in the known universe. "

Would that mean I would be able to check the "some college" box on my next job application?

Now NASA on the otherhand... welfare.

 

[TonyD]

i stopped mailing in payments years ago.
there is still 2 that wont accept online payments but
everything else is on the 'net.

 

[Lucia Duran]

Wow, I guess not very many of you realize what postal workers make. I have many friends that work for the USPS and they make pretty decent wages.

 

[TonyD]

I realize it.
i worked in there for 15 long years.

 

[Henry Gale]

Wow, I guess you don't have a clue what a good bending over the Rural Carriers have been getting for the last 7 years or so.
Making less every year.

 

[Brad Porter]

Did you forget a smiley there? Or are you just trying to pick fights?

Brad

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> I suspect that the recipients of my own personal mailings (such as my local water utility) would probably refuse to accept any items that aren't sent in their pre-approved envelopes.

I suspect that if you FedExed your check to the utility, they would open it and process it. I don't think they care what envelope you use as long as it gets to them.


> In fact, if I'm reading the statutes correctly, it's even illegal for me to pay someone other than a USPS employee to carry the envelope to the recipient unless it has already been stamped with the proper cancelled postage.

So private couriers are illegal?

 

[TonyD]

chris i dont know who you quoted there but you are right.
there is no utility or bill recipient that would not accept a mailed payment
regardless of the way it was mailed, fedex, ups whatever.

I'm not sure what a pre approved envelope is.
most if not all my bills come with an envelope and some of them are
pre PAID, but none of them are approved pre or otherwise.

you can use your own blank envelope as long as you put the correct mailing address on it.

sending anything can be done using other shippers besdides the post office.

hasn't anyone ever sent a birthday card using fedex when it had to be there overnight.

A bill that is due in a day or 2?
If those rules do exist i never heard of them.

"> In fact, if I'm reading the statutes correctly, it's even illegal for me to pay someone other than a USPS employee to carry the envelope to the recipient unless it has already been stamped with the proper cancelled postage."

If you send something fedex you put it on the package, how would the fedex people even know what was in the package.

 

[Brad Porter]

So they have made limited exceptions for couriers, but once again that is a different service from the delivery of first class mail.



I guess the point that I am making is that there are numerous exceptions that have been made since the inception of postal services that have allowed private business entities to provide services which are equivalent or superior to those provided by the USPS. Enabling entrepeneurs to compete to provide a service benefits the consumer, and it provides private sector jobs into which the public sector employees with similar experience can transition. I don't see why first-class mail needs to continue to be a special exception to this.



Brad

 

[RobertR]

I agree completely. The USPS is as much a relic as the phone monopoly. Who here prefers that the way it was?

 

[Mort Corey]

Well, since you asked. The service (which is now virtually non-existant) was much better, the connections more reliable, and the equipment was built like a tank. What I can't quite figure out is why there's still a "dial" tone.

Mort (who still has his ATT rotary phone that he bought from them when the evil Reagan broke up the company :;

 

[Patrick_S]

That is so true. One of the worst things that has happened in my lifetime was the break up of At&t.

 

[RobertR]

I'd say your attitude is atypical. I don't know anyone who complains about the reliability of phone service (cell phone technology is a different subject, although it's doubtful it would have even come into existence under the old monopoly), and the competition and technological innovation made possible by the breakup has made long distance MUCH cheaper, even FREE with some options. "Building like a tank" is severe overkill for electronics.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> Mort (who still has his ATT rotary phone that he bought from them when the evil Reagan broke up the company :;

It was a judge (appointed by Jimmy Carter) who did that; Reagan had nothing to do with it.