Opinion USPS needs to be completely dismantled or rebulit from the ground up

[stalehotdog]

I hate going to the post office but you know what I hate more? Going to a fedex or ups store. They’re more expensive with even shittier service.

 

[Darkavius]

I dont think it should. It's a service. I dont mind a negligible about of tax dollars so people in fricken Tonopah, Nevada can get their medicine on a Sunday. What I DO mind is the idea of sending my Mother a Birthday card costing $1.50 instead of $.35 because we privatized the mail, and that cost continue to increase geometrically because some monopoly thinks profit needs to be ever-increasing.

People may hate USPS but they don't think how bad things could get if USPS went private. I'm not sure where this whole concept of private is better came from but can that be put to rest? Hell, it's not hard to make an argument that privatization is worse.

 

[chardog]

I dont think it should. It's a service. I dont mind a negligible about of tax dollars so people in fricken Tonopah, Nevada can get their medicine on a Sunday. What I DO mind is the idea of sending my Mother a Birthday card costing $1.50 instead of $.35 because we privatized the mail, and that cost continue to increase geometrically because some monopoly thinks profit needs to be ever-increasing.

I dont mind the service, however, the price is continuing to rise, to the point that postage no longer has a price on it, how much does a forever stamp actually cost? that's kind of shady that they stopped including the price...... it's 78 cents in my area

USPS is optimized for small mailers, they work well for that (UPS and FEDEX would be horrible by design), however it's mostly junk mail these days, the one important mail often gets lost or tossed out with the junk..... the thing is that we're going digital for most mail, and as great as it is, digital has issues as well if the company involved isnt very competent. Old fashioned mail can be more trustworthy because it's going in the hands of a person rather than an algorithm.

USPS has gone towards delivering a lot of packages now, and I'm questioning if that's the right move, since they're not built for that. They certainly price large packages forcing to look for alternatives, and that's the right thing to do, however the way it works now, it's just handling a whole lot of fluff mailers and seems to be wasteful for that. I guess businesses using the service will disagree. I'm not no logistics guy, but I think USPS would be more useful for official mailers, medication, higher importance commerce that is small.

 

[NickNick]

USPS has been perfectly fine here for me. I ship stuff I sell on ebay using USPS and it always gets there fast, sometimes ahead of time. Fuck privatizing everything.

 

[HomeCheese]

The USPS flat rate shipping boxes are awesome, cheapest way to mail stuff to the mainland. It's like $22 for a decent size box stuffed with as much as you can.

 

[deviake]

They keep losing so many packages. I ordered a nice expensive belt online and it never showed up. They keep losing my packages. Nobody's stealing them, we have a camera pointed at the mailbox and this is the only service that keeps losing packages. Not FexEx, not UPS, not Amazon. It's not just me but millions of other Americans. They've been shit for a very long time. Their employees make good money but they're stealing packages, losing them or they just plain don't give a shit. How are they so bad but other services are so much better while making a lot less money?

Just get rid of them. Have Amazon or something take over where if you fuck up, you get FIRED. If you steal a package, you get FIRED and you get arrested.

What does it say on the tracking? Where was it delivered? How many have they lost and in what time frame?

 

[F1980]

What does it say on the tracking? Where was it delivered? How many have they lost and in what time frame?

Yeah, it was "delivered" but not. I contacted Hank's, the business I bought it from, and they said, "I am so sorry to hear that you have not yet received your order from USPS/UPS. Due to delays, postal workers have started scanning packages early and marking them as "Delivered" before they have actually done so. Oftentimes, this means that your order is still on the delivery vehicle and will be delivered within 1-3 business days of being scanned. "

 

[deviake]

Yeah, it was "delivered" but not. I contacted Hank's, the business I bought it from, and they said, "I am so sorry to hear that you have not yet received your order from USPS/UPS. Due to delays, postal workers have started scanning packages early and marking them as "Delivered" before they have actually done so. Oftentimes, this means that your order is still on the delivery vehicle and will be delivered within 1-3 business days of being scanned. "

Did you contact USPS? USPS, UPS and I believe all delivery places track where packages are scanned

 

[Yehudim]

I wonder what state OP is from. It might be a problem with workers from your state. The thing that bothers me with conservatives is that they are still using arguments that Reagan ran on.

Well guess what? We won those battles in the 80s and 90s and reformed a lot of our government, so those arguments don’t hold water anymore, which is why DOGE barely did anything.

 

[cooks1]

People may hate USPS but they don't think how bad things could get if USPS went private. I'm not sure where this whole concept of private is better came from but can that be put to rest? Hell, it's not hard to make an argument that privatization is worse.

To put it in perspective, just the residential surcharge of a UPS or Fed Ex shipment (not the cost of the actual shipment, just the cost of taking it to a residence) varies between $4.00 and $7.70. Compare that to a $.78 stamp.

 

[Source]

TS doesn’t know how to start a credit card charge back.

 

[SoSo]

Just a quick google search proves that you are lying.

• The term "defunded" isn't quite accurate in describing the situation with the Postal Service. There wasn't a specific act of "defunding" in the way that term is typically used, such as cutting off all funding. However, the USPS faced financial challenges and experienced policy changes that impacted its operations and financial health.
• Initial Financial Strain:
  The USPS faced significant financial challenges, including large unfunded liabilities and a requirement to pre-fund retiree health benefits.
  
  
• DeJoy's Changes:
  Postmaster General Louis DeJoy implemented changes to postal operations, which were seen by some as attempts to cut costs and improve efficiency, but were also criticized for potentially slowing down mail delivery and affecting services.
  
  
• Congressional Action:
  Congress passed the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022, which provided some financial relief, including addressing the pre-funding requirement.
  
  
• Financial Improvements:
  The USPS has also worked to improve its finances through rate increases and operational adjustments, including changes to service standards.
  
  
• No Specific Defunding Act:
  There wasn't a single piece of legislation that "defunded" the Postal Service; rather, the situation involved a combination of financial challenges, policy changes, and legislative actions to address those issues.
  
  The postal accountability act that was signed in 2006 required the post office to pre fund about 75 years worth of retirement benefits for it's employees. That was the majority of the post office's financial issues. No one cut their funding.

From what I remember about from looking into USPS funding years ago, this is correct. The 75 years of pre funding, instigated by Republicans, led to USPS almost tanking. Which was the goal of the 75 year thing. So the repubs could say "see, look at how mismanaged they are! We need to privatize!" After they were the ones that put USPS in the predicament in the first place.

 

[Sinister]

I dont mind the service, however, the price is continuing to rise, to the point that postage no longer has a price on it, how much does a forever stamp actually cost? that's kind of shady that they stopped including the price...... it's 78 cents in my area

USPS is optimized for small mailers, they work well for that (UPS and FEDEX would be horrible by design), however it's mostly junk mail these days, the one important mail often gets lost or tossed out with the junk..... the thing is that we're going digital for most mail, and as great as it is, digital has issues as well if the company involved isnt very competent. Old fashioned mail can be more trustworthy because it's going in the hands of a person rather than an algorithm.

USPS has gone towards delivering a lot of packages now, and I'm questioning if that's the right move, since they're not built for that. They certainly price large packages forcing to look for alternatives, and that's the right thing to do, however the way it works now, it's just handling a whole lot of fluff mailers and seems to be wasteful for that. I guess businesses using the service will disagree. I'm not no logistics guy, but I think USPS would be more useful for official mailers, medication, higher importance commerce that is small.

Wait what? USPS was always in the market of delivering packages, just mainly domestically. You can mail almost anything at a good rate, that was one of its primary features. There used to be this tiny Ma and Pa package/mailbox store by my old house and I'm sentimental about small businesses that carry the air of Americans, I have a lot of out-of-State business and used to ship things to clients fairly regularly (mostly merch). The dude at that place almost always sent me to the Post Office instead. That's an anecdote, of course, but what I'm saying is I dont think comparing USPS to private parcel companies makes much sense. It's like comparing welfare to payday loans. Sure they're in the same market but payday loans are unequivocally worse and the ONLY people who would want welfare eliminated (aside from people who just hate the poor) are payday lenders seeking to monetize poverty.

 

[UFCUCF]

They keep losing so many packages. I ordered a nice expensive belt online and it never showed up. They keep losing my packages. Nobody's stealing them, we have a camera pointed at the mailbox and this is the only service that keeps losing packages. Not FexEx, not UPS, not Amazon. It's not just me but millions of other Americans. They've been shit for a very long time. Their employees make good money but they're stealing packages, losing them or they just plain don't give a shit. How are they so bad but other services are so much better while making a lot less money?

Just get rid of them. Have Amazon or something take over where if you fuck up, you get FIRED. If you steal a package, you get FIRED and you get arrested.

In my experience, if you send me 100 items through USPS I will likely get 99 or all 100. Does anyone want to make a bet and test the postal system? As a law firm we send out pleadings and other notices through the mail constantly. It is much more common to catch a witness lying about something getting lost in the mail, than something actually getting lost.

Also, in my experience, people who order from Hanks deserve what they get.

 

[PainIsLIfe]

They keep losing so many packages. I ordered a nice expensive belt online and it never showed up. They keep losing my packages. Nobody's stealing them, we have a camera pointed at the mailbox and this is the only service that keeps losing packages. Not FexEx, not UPS, not Amazon. It's not just me but millions of other Americans. They've been shit for a very long time. Their employees make good money but they're stealing packages, losing them or they just plain don't give a shit. How are they so bad but other services are so much better while making a lot less money?

Just get rid of them. Have Amazon or something take over where if you fuck up, you get FIRED. If you steal a package, you get FIRED and you get arrested.

You know that most of you Amazon packages come by USPS?

 

[Stoic1]

I hate their little cars. And their shitty uniforms.

 

[TYR-I]

They keep losing so many packages. I ordered a nice expensive belt online and it never showed up. They keep losing my packages. Nobody's stealing them, we have a camera pointed at the mailbox and this is the only service that keeps losing packages. Not FexEx, not UPS, not Amazon. It's not just me but millions of other Americans. They've been shit for a very long time. Their employees make good money but they're stealing packages, losing them or they just plain don't give a shit. How are they so bad but other services are so much better while making a lot less money?

Just get rid of them. Have Amazon or something take over where if you fuck up, you get FIRED. If you steal a package, you get FIRED and you get arrested.

They are incompetent

 

[jk7707]

It's not profitable to deliver mail to rural areas. So what happens when you privatize the postal service? Either those people lose their service completely or the cost goes through the roof. Either way a ton of people in the country get royally screwed.

The postal service is just that, a SERVICE to the American people.

 

[Belaya Smert]

As soon as it becomes private those forever stamps are gonna be worthless.

 

[cincymma79]

Just remember that USPS is a service, a.pubkic service. Business is not, nor should ever have been, a priority. USPS has reliably kept people alive for decades due to very cheap and consistent (albeit slow over the years) delivery of things like medicines in areas it wouldn't make fiscal sense for profit-driven businesses to operate.

Yeah that’s the only reason to keep them around. They do suck but they fill a role