'Still makes me angry... The post office
Lets go ahead and round this topic out so I can go on to greater and more diverse topics next week.
The employees of the U.S. postal service are some of the most miserable people in existence. Ask yourself, have you ever dealt with a pleasant postal worker? No you haven't. And why is that? No, seriously, I'm asking, Why is that?
If you have a job at the post office you have absolutely no right to be angry about anything. Yes, you are going to deal with annoying people but you have probably one of the cushiest jobs in the U.S. You are a federal employee which means...
You get paid WAY too much for what you do.
You have some of the best health benefits in the country.
You have more paid sick and vacation time then most people at your stage in life.
You have probably the most secure career possible, you won't get fired. You might get relocated but the odds against you being fired are astronomical.
When any of us citizens steps into the post office we get treated with attitude, when we call the post office on the phone we get attitude and when we see our local mail carrier we get attitude. They act like they are doing you a favor but they work for us! Their services would not exist without us, so we as a populace need to fight back and let them know that we won't take it anymore.
Or better yet I propose this. Let's rip down the post office and start from scratch. Fire everyone involved in it's running and hire a successful business man to start from scratch and make it a for-profit business. Who knows, it might get run correctly.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
You're going there anyway...
Know what STILL makes me angry? The post office
The other day I started on a rant against the post office and got into the subject of the increasing price of stamps when I had to go do something else, so I am going to pick up where I left off...
There are several problems I have with the post office constantly raising the price of stamps.
1. The price raises are too frequent... Rather then just make a price that will last for a while, they raise it a cent at a time making all of your old stamps insufficient. They do sell one and two cents stamps that people can put on in addition, but most people will just get new stamps. And, the post office knows that the likelyhood of people just deciding to trash the stamps they had before is high. Which means what? That's right pure profit for them.
2. You know all that junk mail you get? (heck most of my mailbox is filled with junk mail on a daily basis) Well, they get to pay less to send that because it's metered mail. That's right, each of those six credit card offers you got this week got to pay less (I think it's three cents less) then you did when you sent that card to grandma on her birthday. If they want to make things better they should charge MORE for commercial mail. That way there will be less for them to process (the credit card companies will balk at a higher and send out less "pre-approved" offers) and they will make more in volume (because most of the mail is commercial anyway).
3. They charge way to much for packages. If you compare what UPS/FEDex/DHL charges and what the Post Office charges you will be surprised. The post office charges what they would consider to be a competitive rate. It's slightly lower then then box movers but not by a lot. Well, it should be a LOT lower because their going there anyway. The recipient of your package will already be getting bills or something that day. That means a postal worker is going to have to stop in front of that house today no matter what. Why they need to charge a bunch more just because something is in a box rather then an envelope is beyond me.
oh, and a side-note... You may not know this but they expect you to pay for any cards/letters you put in a package. That's right... if you send your aunt Millie and afghan for her birthday and put a card in the box you need to put a stamp on the box to pay for the card inside! Well I say screw that, and everyone else should too!!!
4. They are federally funded!!! Both my and your tax dollars are already paying for the post office to be in business. But anytime we want to use any of their services we need to pay an additional fee. What kind of crap is that? It's like paying a cable bill once for having it and then again if we want to tune in and watch TV. Nobody else on this planet could get away with this kind of S* but we let them? No wonder people are switching to online bill-pay and e-mail in record numbers.
5. Their customer service stinks! And I will continue with this thought in another rant...
The other day I started on a rant against the post office and got into the subject of the increasing price of stamps when I had to go do something else, so I am going to pick up where I left off...
There are several problems I have with the post office constantly raising the price of stamps.
1. The price raises are too frequent... Rather then just make a price that will last for a while, they raise it a cent at a time making all of your old stamps insufficient. They do sell one and two cents stamps that people can put on in addition, but most people will just get new stamps. And, the post office knows that the likelyhood of people just deciding to trash the stamps they had before is high. Which means what? That's right pure profit for them.
2. You know all that junk mail you get? (heck most of my mailbox is filled with junk mail on a daily basis) Well, they get to pay less to send that because it's metered mail. That's right, each of those six credit card offers you got this week got to pay less (I think it's three cents less) then you did when you sent that card to grandma on her birthday. If they want to make things better they should charge MORE for commercial mail. That way there will be less for them to process (the credit card companies will balk at a higher and send out less "pre-approved" offers) and they will make more in volume (because most of the mail is commercial anyway).
3. They charge way to much for packages. If you compare what UPS/FEDex/DHL charges and what the Post Office charges you will be surprised. The post office charges what they would consider to be a competitive rate. It's slightly lower then then box movers but not by a lot. Well, it should be a LOT lower because their going there anyway. The recipient of your package will already be getting bills or something that day. That means a postal worker is going to have to stop in front of that house today no matter what. Why they need to charge a bunch more just because something is in a box rather then an envelope is beyond me.
oh, and a side-note... You may not know this but they expect you to pay for any cards/letters you put in a package. That's right... if you send your aunt Millie and afghan for her birthday and put a card in the box you need to put a stamp on the box to pay for the card inside! Well I say screw that, and everyone else should too!!!
4. They are federally funded!!! Both my and your tax dollars are already paying for the post office to be in business. But anytime we want to use any of their services we need to pay an additional fee. What kind of crap is that? It's like paying a cable bill once for having it and then again if we want to tune in and watch TV. Nobody else on this planet could get away with this kind of S* but we let them? No wonder people are switching to online bill-pay and e-mail in record numbers.
5. Their customer service stinks! And I will continue with this thought in another rant...
Monday, October 20, 2008
A to B! That's your friggin job man...
Know what makes me angry? The post office.
Now, your probably saying to yourself "Wow, someone who doesn't like the post office? I've never heard of such a thing". Well, screw you, I need to rant against it.
A little while back (this past June) I tried to be a good son and sent a card to my father. Later I was distressed when I got an e-mail from my mother declaring I had hurt my fathers feelings by not sending anything. I called and assured him that I had indeed sent something and we decided either the post office lost it, or they delivered it to the wrong house and the person who got it by accident decided to just chuck it.
Now, the fact that we decided that it could be easily be either of these options does not bode well for the post office in general. It shows that everyone in my family (and probably the U.S. as a whole) thinks that the USPS is incapable of doing its job. Because, really, what is it they do? They get a piece of mail from point A to point B! And, there really should be no excuse for screwing that up when it's all they do.
Let's break this down with a little more scrutiny shall we? We decided he thing that could have gone wrong was...
A: A piece of mail that I (or anyone else for that matter) had paid them to take care of, and entrusted to get to its destination was dropped on the floor of some warehouse, hangar-bay or vehicle and just got ignored and kicked under a crate or something...
or B: A piece of mail that I (or anyone else for that matter) had paid them to take care of, and entrusted to get to its destination, and, had clearly been marked with where it needed to go, was bundled in with someone else's load of mail from trusting sources and was completely ignored.
The fact that it could be either of these options without anyone giving it a second thought tells me that the post-office should not be in business.
Why am I bringing this up now you ask? over 4 months later? Well, I recently got an envelope in the mail with a big stamp on it saying "return to sender insufficient postage" and I got pissed for several reasons, not just one.
1. Tt took months for the card to make it back to my house! As if it had gotten all the way to Maryland, and, just as it was about to be delivered, the guy said "oh, not the right stamp" and sent it back. I live about three miles from the mail processing center for not only the city but the central portion of the state, it should have been back in my mailbox the very next day so I could tell my dad ahead of time, that his card was going to be late.
2. The stamp I put on my card said "First Class" there is no way I could have known it was an old stamp. Can't they assume that I didn't try to short-change them on purpose? I mean, if I had known the stamp was worth the 1 cent less then it needed to be, I would have done something about it. So, if something says "First Class" on it they should honor it no matter how old it is. Which, leads us to point three.
3. The price of mailing things keeps going up. If they didn't keep changing the price of mailing things they could actually print the value of a stamp on the stamp. But, since they make it more expensive every six months to mail a letter, they have just decided to print "first class" on all stamps. I mean... Know what? There are so many things I don't like about them making mail more and more expensive! I think I am going to make this rant a two-parter!
Now, your probably saying to yourself "Wow, someone who doesn't like the post office? I've never heard of such a thing". Well, screw you, I need to rant against it.
A little while back (this past June) I tried to be a good son and sent a card to my father. Later I was distressed when I got an e-mail from my mother declaring I had hurt my fathers feelings by not sending anything. I called and assured him that I had indeed sent something and we decided either the post office lost it, or they delivered it to the wrong house and the person who got it by accident decided to just chuck it.
Now, the fact that we decided that it could be easily be either of these options does not bode well for the post office in general. It shows that everyone in my family (and probably the U.S. as a whole) thinks that the USPS is incapable of doing its job. Because, really, what is it they do? They get a piece of mail from point A to point B! And, there really should be no excuse for screwing that up when it's all they do.
Let's break this down with a little more scrutiny shall we? We decided he thing that could have gone wrong was...
A: A piece of mail that I (or anyone else for that matter) had paid them to take care of, and entrusted to get to its destination was dropped on the floor of some warehouse, hangar-bay or vehicle and just got ignored and kicked under a crate or something...
or B: A piece of mail that I (or anyone else for that matter) had paid them to take care of, and entrusted to get to its destination, and, had clearly been marked with where it needed to go, was bundled in with someone else's load of mail from trusting sources and was completely ignored.
The fact that it could be either of these options without anyone giving it a second thought tells me that the post-office should not be in business.
Why am I bringing this up now you ask? over 4 months later? Well, I recently got an envelope in the mail with a big stamp on it saying "return to sender insufficient postage" and I got pissed for several reasons, not just one.
1. Tt took months for the card to make it back to my house! As if it had gotten all the way to Maryland, and, just as it was about to be delivered, the guy said "oh, not the right stamp" and sent it back. I live about three miles from the mail processing center for not only the city but the central portion of the state, it should have been back in my mailbox the very next day so I could tell my dad ahead of time, that his card was going to be late.
2. The stamp I put on my card said "First Class" there is no way I could have known it was an old stamp. Can't they assume that I didn't try to short-change them on purpose? I mean, if I had known the stamp was worth the 1 cent less then it needed to be, I would have done something about it. So, if something says "First Class" on it they should honor it no matter how old it is. Which, leads us to point three.
3. The price of mailing things keeps going up. If they didn't keep changing the price of mailing things they could actually print the value of a stamp on the stamp. But, since they make it more expensive every six months to mail a letter, they have just decided to print "first class" on all stamps. I mean... Know what? There are so many things I don't like about them making mail more and more expensive! I think I am going to make this rant a two-parter!
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