USPS - Page 4

proudlyfromNJ · ‎05-01-2010

My Father retired from the Post Office. He never made 60 thousand. When he was done on his route in the truck, he had to stay till 6PM to sort mail.

OnlyShopsOnline · ‎03-09-2010

@PINKdogWOOD wrote:
Go out of business? Really? @willdob3 If this happened no one would get anything - no mail, no bills, no packages, no birthday cards, no christams gifts - nothing. How would you remedy this, curious minds want to know.

@PINKdogWOOD I get very little mail, other than junk mail. I pay all of my bills online and my bills come by email. There are plenty of other companies that deliver packages, that I much prefer than the Post Office. All of my doctor bills arrive in an online portal, and I pay them online. Banking and statements are online. Taxes are done and paid online.

I dont think we need to keep the USPS in business for birthday and Christmas cards. I can certainly live without those. I’d rather get a phone call or Skype with distant family members.

"I've been here since October 2006. Wow!"

proudlyfromNJ · ‎05-01-2010

@OnlyShopsOnline wrote:
@PINKdogWOOD wrote:
Go out of business? Really? @willdob3 If this happened no one would get anything - no mail, no bills, no packages, no birthday cards, no christams gifts - nothing. How would you remedy this, curious minds want to know.
@PINKdogWOOD I get very little mail, other than junk mail. I pay all of my bills online and my bills come by email. There are plenty of other companies that deliver packages, that I much prefer than the Post Office. All of my doctor bills arrive in an online portal, and I pay them online. Banking and statements are online. Taxes are done and paid online.

I dont think we need to keep the USPS in business for birthday and Christmas cards. I can certainly live without those. I’d rather get a phone call or Skype with distant family members.

@OnlyShopsOnline. Here we go again. Just because one person doesn't use the PO, then the heck with everyone else. And posters here call millenials selfish.

OnlyShopsOnline · ‎03-09-2010

@proudlyfromNJ wrote:
@OnlyShopsOnline wrote:
@PINKdogWOOD wrote:
Go out of business? Really? @willdob3 If this happened no one would get anything - no mail, no bills, no packages, no birthday cards, no christams gifts - nothing. How would you remedy this, curious minds want to know.
@PINKdogWOOD I get very little mail, other than junk mail. I pay all of my bills online and my bills come by email. There are plenty of other companies that deliver packages, that I much prefer than the Post Office. All of my doctor bills arrive in an online portal, and I pay them online. Banking and statements are online. Taxes are done and paid online.

I dont think we need to keep the USPS in business for birthday and Christmas cards. I can certainly live without those. I’d rather get a phone call or Skype with distant family members.
@OnlyShopsOnline. Here we go again. Just because one person doesn't use the PO, then the heck with everyone else. And posters here call millenials selfish.

@proudlyfromNJ She asked for a remedy. I gave her one, lol.

"I've been here since October 2006. Wow!"

willdob3 · ‎11-01-2010

@PINKdogWOOD wrote:
Go out of business? Really? @willdob3 If this happened no one would get anything - no mail, no bills, no packages, no birthday cards, no christams gifts - nothing. How would you remedy this, curious minds want to know.

@PINKdogWOOD

Seriously? The only reason they are still in business is that they are being given work that other companies could do better and faster. Pass my package off to USPS and add 2-3 extra days till I receive them. Let them go out of business and stop being a drain on us. Let companies that have proven they can do the job correctly take over.

software · ‎06-08-2016

I've been where you are!!

Not at my current location but in a subdivision years ago. My house number was 321, on another street with a completely different name was a 321 house. The lady at that house would be so hateful when she gave me my mail, like I was the one who mis-delivered it. This was back in the day before all the online banking & bill paying.

The more I complained-- officially-- the worse it got

I finally had to rent a PO box.

Years later, the houses were re-numbered.

@OnlyShopsOnline wrote:
I think the USPS has stopped providing liability insurance for their drivers, which I think is crazy. The driver’s now have to pay for their own, and are rebelling by refusing to do anything they deem as “risky.”

I can’t describe how much I hate the USPS. I complained about our lousy service and missing deliveries for years. Every time, I would get a nasty call from our local branch manager. Lo and behold, back in April, we got a stack of mail delivered that should have been delivered in December! No call or explanation for that one!

Miss Shelly · ‎03-28-2011

I have to jump in here. My husband has been a City Letter Carrier for 30 years. He doesn't make $60,000 a year so I think the person who said they did 20 years ago was either embellishing the tale or had a high position. No matter where you live the pay for the position/classification is the same so it doesn't have to do with geography.

Someone made a remark about the USPS being a "drain to us". However, the Post Office is not tax or government funded. It runs entirely on the cost of stamps/products. I admit is nice to have a pension, but, it is no better than any other industry and we also contribute to the pension as it is not all provided.

In today's world the USPS rarely hires regular full-time employees with all the benefits. Unfortunately they have lowered themself to hiring Part Time or Casual employees who can be making $12 an hour based on the position. It can take a year to become eligible for medical benefits, etc.

As far as handing packages off from UPS, that is an agreement between the companies as UPS can't serve all the public so contracts the end of the journey to the USPS who does. There may be other reasons, but, that is one I know of.

My husband is one of the "good" carriers. The people on his route love him and give him water, snacks, etc. His truck has no a/c and we live in SW FL where the temps are currently almost 100 with 90% humidity. He comes home drenched. The customers always groan when he tells them he will be on vacation. It is not necessarily that whoever covers for him is terrible, but, they don't know the route, etc. There is more to the job that people realize.

Everything he does is timed and now there is a GPS attached to every Carrier. He isn't supposed to run regular mail to the door, but, does so because some of his customers are very old and it is hard for them to walk out to the box by the street. When he returns he can be chastized for spending too much time on the street although he is providing good service.

Before he hits the street to deliver he spends a few hours in the office, sorting the mail on his route for delivery. A computer now tells those in charge how long it should take him because they have a "count" of the mail from the "sorting" center. However, it is often wrong as they haven't factored in the local grocery fliers, political mail, and such. Most of the time they say he has only half the packages he actually takes out. He is wise and keeps his own records to prove what he actually did compared to what the automated system said he did.

Unfortunately the Post Office has become automated so the Carrier doesn't have the control over the job they used to have. Forms must be filed online to hold or forward mail, etc. This doesn't go to the local office, but, to a centralized location in the region and then is forwarded to the local Post Office. Most mail is pre-sorted by zip in centralized facilities and trucked to the local Post Office. If the address isn't 100% correct, the system will kick it out. If there is a wrong zip code, a letter will often take a trip around the country until it finally gets fixed. These are the times we live in

We are very fortunate my husband has this job and even when he complains he knows it is a good opportunity. Just realize it isn't the "gold mine" people think it is and requires work the public doesn't realize.

software · ‎06-08-2016

@Miss Shelly

Your DH sounds a lot like the carrier I had before he retired.

He knew all the people on his route, one day I saw him stop & help a neighbor with her lawn mower.

He delivered packages up my driveway and up my stairs right to my front door.

His replacement complains about delivering a package, she's always leaving me the card to come pick up mail at the post office, even flat envelopes! I have one of those huge rural boxes but I've given up on online shopping. It's not worth the hassle.

UPS does just fine but I rarely have that option.

I don't send or receive birthday cards or Christmas cards.

I do everything online or in person.

lmt · ‎05-19-2010

@Miss Shelly I applaud your husband and the many other carriers out there doing a good job.

I imagine it can be a very difficult. Lugging around not only the mail but also small packages. If I have a medium or large size package, our mailman will drive up to our house and drop off the package and our regular mail before he delivers to the rest of the street.

I feel sorry for anyone who has to work in extreme weather. Downpours, broiling heat, freezing cold days, trying to walk through snow. Plus getting in and out of a vehicle several times a day, going up and down steps, watching out for animals.

When I was growing up, we always had the same mailman everyday - for years. Back then it seemed that the carriers were a little bit older, like in their 50's and early 60's. Today, we have the same mailman for maybe a few months and then we get a new one. And they all seem to be very young too.

My husband is good friends with our UPS driver. He said the same thing about being timed and tracked with GPS. I can't imagine the pressure!! We asked him quite a while ago why UPS hands off packages to the USPS and he stated that it's cheaper for UPS to pay the USPS to deliver the packages for them. Sometimes when I'm tracking a package and it starts out with UPS, but will be delivered by the USPS, I'll get an update saying that since UPS will be in my neighborhood, they'll be delivering my package instead.

CelticCrafter · ‎03-09-2010

I love our regular mail carrier, his substitutes when he has his day off or is on vacation - not so much.

If it's a junk mail only day, they will not deliver it. They walk right on by.

For a couple of months, our regular carrier was either reassigned to a new route or was out on disabilty and we would go days without getting anything.

Once I signed up for Informed Delivery it was like they knew they were being watched because we got something every day.