liars!

checking a tracking number, they said they left me a delivery notice at my pob yesterday around 6am.

I was there checking my pob at around 12pm, NO notice!   I could have picked it up!

%^&**(   it was a new rifle too, now I have to wait till monday [:(]

And to top it off there are always 20 people in line.  Don't these boZo's know you can buy stamps in the vending machine and the supermarket?

The gall of some people to actually buy stamps at the post office [%|]

Oh yeh, I'm one of the people that do crazy things like utilizing the PO to get my stamps. [rolleyes]

Jamie

I have had problems with all of the last five packages I've sent.

LOL!  

Unless of course they're commemerative special edition stamps which are not available in the grocery store, vending machine or ATM machine.[BD]

Here is at least a partial answer - but it's just off the top of my head, I'm no expert on the business.

Part of the problem is that while they are expected to be run as a business, they are still subject to government controls.  For instance, they need Congressional approval to raise stamp prices (and the process takes a while), so they are always "behind" on what they need to charge in order to break even.  Imagine how well a normal business woudl do if they needed permission to change their price to meet market conditions.

Second (and I think this is the biggest problem) - they deliver practically everywhere.  A true private business could decide "we don't feel like delivering to remote areas of Montana, and we don't feel like delivering to the Robert Taylor homes in Chicago because it's not profitable" - but the USPS pretty much has no choice.  By the same token, the USPS operates post offices in lots of small towns where it's just not viable from a business perspective to keep a facility open, but they have little choice.

Another factor is that they are no doubt constrained by all sort of civil servant rules, which private businesses are not.  I imagine it's a lot harder to fire an incompetent letter-carrier than it is to fire a UPS driver.

USPS tracking sucks.  It's incomplete.
I about blew my stack one time when there were long lines and one of the po guys at the counter was reading the po/union labor agreement book right while people were waiting.
I should have asked to see a supervisor.  That guy still works there and if I ever have a problem with him, the supervisor will hear about it from now on.

HELLO!!!!!!! --> UNION!!!

That aside, the USPS is having a hell of a time keeping up with the internet, cell phones, and Fed Ex/UPS...

Business growth is a very very slow curve...and among other things, it's not keeping up with cost of living OR the economy.

It's still the best deal going.  For 37 cents you can send a letter from your house all the way to a shack in the middle of nowhere Montana.  Plus those poor bastards will walk through any weather to make sure you get your Victoria's Secret catalog.  That's pretty cool.

But it really boils down to ... say it with me...

UNION!!!

"I'm sorry, I can't transport that letter from this desk over to the bin across the room...it's not my job."

The post office ought to kiss almost every seller on ebay, because most stuff sold by individuals is sent first class or expensive Priority Mail to buyers.

USPS complains about being short of money all the time, but they are only open from 9 to 4 in a lot of places.  I work from 7 to 4:20, how am I supposed to send anything through the post office?  Now they are talking about reducing mail delivery to only 5 days a week.  How many businesses that are trying to increase their market share cut back on their service and have inconvient hours?  If they actually stayed open until 6pm, then there wouldn't be 20 people in line at ten minutes till 4.

the USPS makes enough money let me tell ya.  the UNIONS used to post articles in the lunch room about the abuses and downright criminal activities of upper management. [b](one article was about the amount of moving expenses a manager got [approx.$100,000] to move 50 miles to a new home)[/b] how's that for a benefit huh?

the USPS also deals in volume. do you think they actually care about individual mailings? if 98+/-% of the mail goes out of the processing plant, its acceptable to them. too bad if your package, letter, bills, divorce papers, box, etc...gets lost, smashed, ripped, destroyed, wet or broken. the 98+/-% acceptable to them has been loaded on contractor driven trucks for delivery to the individual post offices.

quote from DK-Prof:
[b]By the same token, the USPS operates post offices in lots of small towns where it's just not viable from a business perspective to keep a facility open, but they have little choice.[/b]

i beg to differ. the PO does run as a business and have closed post offices in little towns where they deem its not necessary to have one.  trust me on this one. i live in one of those litte towns that used to have a post office. now we share with the next town over, in a different county.

the USPS has grown way beyond its own control.  like most big BUSINESSES, they are purely [b]PROFIT[/b] motivated and could care less about the very thing that put them in business in the first place.  this is another branch of the Fed that should be looked into and re-organized, if not privatized altogether.

I hate it when people point out my ignorance!  [:D]

Don't think the Post Office is obligated to deliver the mail. It is considered a priveledge. If you piss off your mailman, you could find yourself driving to Post Office to pick up your mail.

One of the reasons the Post Office keeps raising the price of stamps is to subsidize their growing package delivery. The PO charges half of what UPS/FEDEX has to charge. However, they have a monopoly on letter delivery, so they can always raise the price of stamps to generate more profit.