Warning - USPS sucks

[Biggs]

It does however receive many indirect taxpayer subsidies including not paying property taxes and getting taxpayer funded services such as police and fire etc.

Just like churches, private universities, the Boy Scouts, etc. I don't think subsidization causes all that laziness and arrogance though.

[tofu]

It does however receive many indirect taxpayer subsidies including not paying property taxes and getting taxpayer funded services such as police and fire etc.

Just like churches, private universities, the Boy Scouts, etc.

You read into things what you want to. You assume I'm in favor that these organizations should be subsidized. You have nothing upon which to base this assumption.

I don't think subsidization causes all that laziness and arrogance though.

So you do believe there is laziness and arrogance - would that cover all of government or just the USPS? You just don't think it's caused by being subsidized.

a lot of true things, without expressing a bizarrely passionate blanket contempt for government employees

Folks who work in the private sector understand that they must compete and strive to be better to make their business profitable or else they go out of business. Government and quasi-governmental agencies don't have to compete - they just raise taxes/prices with no fear that failure will impact them.

Fortunately, as a government employee, I have lots of experience helping obnoxious jerks so it is no trouble for me to step in.

Of course it bizarrely makes sense that you would have vast experience with obnoxious jerks as you work with lots of governmental employees.

[tbn.al]

The USPS just increased it's postage rate to $.49 for the first ounce of first class. Gotta love it! Since postage is my 2nd highest category of business expense that is a major concern for me. Interestingly, I only have to pay $.48 since I use a postal meter. I wonder when Pitney Bowes will start using that as a selling point? Never mind, I just checked and the adds are already out there. Seriously, the law stipulates that certain insurance related documents must be sent by USPS First Class Mail. It appears to me that one part of the government is propping up the other.

[bbocaner]

49 cents to come to your house or place of business, pick up your mail, take it all the way across the country, and deliver it to its recipient in a few days with astonishing reliability is an absolute bargain. Everyone I have dealt with at the postal service is honest and hard-working. I can't say the same for either UPS or FedEx. At UPS I recently have experienced employees who tried to close the customer counter 20 minutes early and then wouldn't help me because their system was already shut down when I arrived on time to send out an urgent package that needed to go out that night. At FedEx I have more than once had packages get lost and they have refused to cover shipping damage on musical instruments because they claim it is 'impossible to verify the value' despite having paid for a particular level of insurance. Yes, both of those things happen at the postal service, too... but I see absolutely no evidence that they are any worse just because it is a quasi-governmental job.

[tbn.al]

49 cents to come to your house or place of business, pick up your mail, take it all the way across the country, and deliver it to its recipient in a few days with astonishing reliability is an absolute bargain.

If the law would allow, I would just email it, thus saving my business thousands of dollars a year. I do email a lot of stuff, and fax, but when the law specifies that hard copy documents be mailed, I just have to write the check. I would much rather email or fax leaving more to spend on tubas and such.

[Biggs]

Tofu -

I didn't mean to step on your toes and apologize if I came off that way - I just wanted to contrast your polite, correct, and informative statement with trnewcomb's unprovoked attack on all government workers, a group to which I belong. If you took offense, the fault lies with my poor communication and I regret not expressing myself more clearly.

I did not assume you favor government subsidization and I don't care one way or the other if you do. Again, my argument is with trnewcomb and, as his initial attack leads me to think he is uninformed, I did not want him believe the government benefits extended to USPS are not also being extended to a large, diverse group of other organizations.

Of course there are lazy and arrogant government workers - much like there are lazy and arrogant private sector workers. Laziness and arrogance are not endemic to government employees, nor are those traits any more prevalent among government workers. I know you did not state this, but trnewcomb did, and I apologize for roping you into our dispute.

I will take issue with one of your statements, however. You stated:

Folks who work in the private sector understand that they must compete and strive to be better to make their business profitable or else they go out of business. Government and quasi-governmental agencies don't have to compete - they just raise taxes/prices with no fear that failure will impact them.

This is not true - at least not in my governmental agency. I work at a flagship state university and I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that we must constantly compete and strive in order to attract the most desirable students, the most desirable faculty, the most lucrative research grants, and many other organizational assets. We are competing with other governmental agencies (other state universities) and subsidized private organizations (private peer institutions) for the same limited resources. In the last fiscal year, only 18% of our budget was provided by the state (I don't have a figure for any federal help) but rather than 'raise prices' (we're in the second straight year of an undergraduate tuition freeze) to make up the difference, university leadership opted to work toward becoming more efficient (being better, as you said) and this ethos has been adopted at all levels, including even down at my peon level.

Again, I apologize for involving you in my own defense against trnewcomb's blanket assertion that all of us "taxpayer-paid knaves" are lazy, arrogant, and ignorant. Have a great weekend!

[pgym]

At FedEx I have more than once had packages get lost and they have refused to cover shipping damage on musical instruments because they claim it is 'impossible to verify the value' despite having paid for a particular level of insurance.

Perhaps you should actually READ FedEx's Terms and Conditions, in particular the section "Declared Value and Limits of Liability (Not Insurance Coverage)", which explicitly states, in capital letters:

WE DO NOT PROVIDE INSURANCE COVERAGE OF ANY KIND.

[bbocaner]

sorry, paid for a particular level of "declared value." Their terms pretty much make them useless for shipping musical instruments.

[tofu]

Tofu -

I didn't mean to step on your toes and apologize if I came off that way -

We're good.

There are indeed many great folks who work in many of the different levels of government. A funny anecdote: Many years ago I had a married couple who were clients of mine - both had worked at a senior management level for the postal service. One left to join FedEx in the early stages of the company and rose to become a VP - the other stayed with the USPS and rose all the way to become assistant postmaster general. Everything I received from them came via FedEx so I eventually asked why and the reply was - "honey - we know how the postal service works!" It was funny, but it also showed how the smart folks at the USPS were frustrated and stymied by the system from really fixing it.

I have a close friend who after he got out the Marines became an auto mechanic, but after a few years got a chance to become a State Trooper where he retired after 25 years. He soon got bored being retired so he took the USPS test for working on the various sorting machines and got hired. He is a mechanical wiz and soon rose to the rank of running one of their largest regional sorting facilities. The stories he tells are hilarious and sad at the same time in regards to what he has to deal with. The crux of the problem being that it is near impossible to get rid of bad and incompetent employees. The best he can do is to try to minimize their effect on other workers and the machines. He really turns purple when he starts talking about the bonuses the senior managers award themselves even for bad results.

I do think it is the difficulty of removing employees who won't or can't do the job that makes improving governments operationally a challenge. I think it also makes retaining really good people difficult as folks doing exceptional work get frustrated by those not pulling their weight or worse throwing the proverbial monkey wrench in the sorting machine. That's what frustrates my friend the former state trooper when some knuckle head manages to bring the entire system to halt by doing something stupid or worse on purpose.

[tbn.al]

Insightful comments!

[trnewcomb]

Tofu -

I didn't mean to step on your toes and apologize if I came off that way - I just wanted to contrast your polite, correct, and informative statement with trnewcomb's unprovoked attack on all government workers, a group to which I belong. If you took offense, the fault lies with my poor communication and I regret not expressing myself more clearly.

I don't assume all government employees are knaves - most of the folks I served with were not. However, the facts are that most non-uniformed service personnel in government bureaucracy are not only immune from the competition that private industry requires, but they also are far better paid than their fellow citizens - who ironically are the same people who pay their salaries. We also all know that the USPS' and most other agencies' idea of 'service' is a standing joke. And we all know there are many instances of government workers (the TSA is particularly infamous) stealing people's belongings.

I'm sorry you are offended. Perhaps if more government employees actually made an attempt to act as honorable public servants instead of modelling themselves after the USSR's apparatchiks, the public would view them more positively. I have extensive experience with a wide variety of government agencies. Very few have impressed me positively. This is especially true when I contrast the US bureaucracy's level of efficiency and service with those of other countries I have dealings with.

I do apologize for the manner of my comment, but I stand by the basic opinions contained therein.

[Donn]

However, the facts are that most non-uniformed service personnel in government bureaucracy are not only immune from the competition that private industry requires, but they also are far better paid than their fellow citizens - who ironically are the same people who pay their salaries.

I guess these facts are not so well known to government employees, some of whom see private sector employment as more lucrative - but less stable, not so much because people can get fired (that doesn't happen all that often) but because the fortunes of the company or project can rise and fall. It depends on where you are, I imagine, but I doubt your "facts."

We also all know that the USPS' and most other agencies' idea of 'service' is a standing joke.

We do not all know that. I expect the postal service to deliver my mail, and attend to me when I visit the post office. They do a more than satisfactory job on both counts. Maybe the term `service' is attached to some higher expectation in your head, but I'm not in on the joke.

And we all know there are many instances of government workers (the TSA is particularly infamous) stealing people's belongings.

If there are more instances of government workers stealing stuff than is typical (for example, contrasted with the pilferage that's been reported in shipping where stuff is accessible to dock workers et al.), then we do not all know that. TSA is a somewhat exceptional case, because they were created in 2001 to immediately fill a fairly large role, so memories of an all new work force are still pretty recent - and of course if 1 in a 1000 TSA workers does wrong, you're much more likely to hear about it than if it's 1 in 100 dock workers.

[Biggs]

However, the facts are that most non-uniformed service personnel in government bureaucracy are not only immune from the competition that private industry requires, but they also are far better paid than their fellow citizens - who ironically are the same people who pay their salaries.

Here's some facts: Biggs, a government employee, is not immune from competition. At the time of Biggs' hiring, more than 30 people applied for the position he now holds. Biggs' contract expires in 2016 and he'll have to re-apply for his job. At that time, Biggs' boss is free to elect to not keep Biggs around and instead replace him with a younger, more energetic fellow. Biggs is not paid any grand sum; his salary this year was <$20,000 for 9 months. When Biggs held an identical position at a private employer, his salary was $2500 more, so you might say Biggs wishes he were paid as well as a private sector employee.

We also all know that the USPS' and most other agencies' idea of 'service' is a standing joke. And we all know there are many instances of government workers (the TSA is particularly infamous) stealing people's belongings.

I can't claim to "know" this information - my local USPS employees are kind, friendly folks that I readily turn to for all shipping needs. I think it's incredible that they will take a letter from me, in flyover country, to my friends in Massachusetts and California for $0.49. I'm sorry to hear you have had a negative experience, but I don't think your experience was universally shared. As an aside, I've also had the TSA been particularly good to me - and that includes several flights with tubas. Perhaps they were just grateful that I didn't point out how they were a bunch of ignorant, arrogant knaves.

I'm sorry you are offended. Perhaps if more government employees actually made an attempt to act as honorable public servants instead of modelling themselves after the USSR's apparatchiks, the public would view them more positively. I have extensive experience with a wide variety of government agencies. Very few have impressed me positively. This is especially true when I contrast the US bureaucracy's level of efficiency and service with those of other countries I have dealings with.

I do apologize for the manner of my comment, but I stand by the basic opinions contained therein.

You're not sorry. If you were, you wouldn't haven't followed up your apology with another insult and accused a huge number of people doing diverse jobs as being modeled after the USSR's apparatchiks.

[roweenie]

Well, the valve arrived in good shape, and it's a beauty!

I need to apologise to anyone on this board who was offended by my OP. I guess it was simply a function of my frustration at trying to obtain information about my shipment.

However, I do hope that readers have learned something from my experience. If you must know where your parcel is during all phases of its travel, you MUST ask for another method of shipment other than registered mail, especially when arriving from a foreign source. Had someone advised me of this from the beginning, I might have never started this thread in the first place.

Bob