Posted on 09/22/2014 4:42:31 AM PDT by Kaslin
I’m glad Katie wrote this and you posted it - I get nauseated watching those ads saying putting us first....
Years ago, getting mail was a highlight of the day. Now, most people don’t get probably more than three to five important pieces of mail a week. The post office is becoming obsolete.
They have 330 million customers and still lose money.
I have been at my job for 13 years and I always have lunch at my desk. AND I answer the phone if it rings during lunch. Also, we have walk-ins that I have to take care of and do so at lunch.
I am always appalled by the behavior of USPS people.
churlish is right
One word.......Union.
Not that it helps the overriding subject, but tell you mother to soak the stamps in water overnight. It should dissolve the adhesive enough that she can peel them apart and then use a bit of glue to use them.
They tried to enlist public support. The public responded to their campaign with comments such as this:
"Are you kidding? Show me a post office where you can park off-street, walk in at 6 pm on a Saturday and still get prompt and courteous service to mail your package!"
Your an idiot - he didn’t write the article....doofus (yes I’m pinging myself....shouldn’t be too bad as long as I don’t get in a revolving, devolving pingathon with myself)
no doubt.
That is the same mentality and skill level of people who will be administering our health care.
I have received excellent service in many a post office but I have also received very poor service from just as many if not more of them. One postal employee used to assist the older customers by repackaging their stuff up for free (using their own tape and boxes)and another would help people write all the addresses on those annoying little sheets of paper you have to use to get anything done.
Then we would get those that would tell you to fix or re-write an address or relabel a package or overcharge for postage and close the door to the back-room never to return.
The primary responsibility of the USPS is not the timely delivery of printed communications and packages, it’s to manage the benefits of their employees and union retirees.
OOH, I think it’s a great deal. Attach postage to your letter or package, and it gets delivered anywhere in good time.
OTOH, their customer service has always been horrible. As an acquaintance who worked there once told me, many employees attitude wrt customers was ‘if you don’t like it, go to the other Post Office.’
We have a PO box at a rural post office. We get great service from the one guy who works there. If we didn’t, he’d probably find his house getting burned down.
It’s a blessing to live in a small, rural village in the Midwest. Everyone pretty much knows everyone, and that’s the same at the post office as at the hardware store. We go to church together, our kids are on the same teams, we celebrate the same community events. We know our rural mail delivery person who drives up to the house and honks her horn when she has a larger package. And we know the people at the counter in the post office.
Do they have lunch at noon? Yep...but the put a big hand-written sign on the door saying so. And we know Jake and Mary, and we don’t care that they close out to eat lunch. We know they’re the only two or three there at the time.
And if we get a bad roll of stamps, then they know us, and they believe us, and there’s an exchange.
In colonial days, the post office was envisioned as a necessity for a mostly rural people. It is. And it works out here.
Unfortunately the places where it still is a pleasant experience are the ones taking the hit while the big post offices with multiple useless and surly employees will continue as usual.
Just last week our little post office went to 3 hour days for office access. You can get your mail all day but if you need stamps or to send packages or certified letters, you’re out of luck if you can’t get there between 8 and 11 AM. Here in town, UPS and FedEx make all their deliveries to the post office.
> They have 330 million customers and still lose money.
And it has nothing to do with not charging enough for stamps (which always seems to be their fixed response)
Well I’d say a couple things: first, your experience is absolutely the exception, not the rule. Second, there’s no reason to think that privatization would change any of this. In fact, it’s been proven that privatization improves customer service.
The USPS would still be slow if it were not from innovations brought into the industry by Fed Ex and UPS. Like any union dominated government dinosaur, it would have never changed on its on.
Try redeeming a USPS money order. Nobody but the USPS will accept it, and you have to spend three days driving to different offices in hopes they have enough cash on hand.
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