ZzeusS: You'll have to explain to me how moving boxes around, driving a car, and carrying a bag around all day entitles you to $20+/hr and monthly benefits for the rest of your natural life.

Is $20/hr a lot of money now?

It's a sad state of affairs when we adopt the attitude that only highly skilled workers are entitled to a standard of living that used to be considered lower middle class. The majority of jobs do not require much more skill than that of a postal worker. If we're ready to send all those folks down the river... well, goodbye, middle class.

My mail carrier is a lazy worthless POS. He won't take any outgoing mail unless he has something to deliver, even if the flag is up. Say I don't get any mail for three days, my letter sits there for three days until his lazy ass shows up. He used to deliver wrong mail all the time until I found a letter destined for the United Kingdom. I attached a note saying "NOT EVEN CLOSE" and put it back in. He seemed to have improved on that part at least. So the post office goes under, big deal. Who else is going to lose my important shiat like tax bills?

Quantum Apostrophe: Hey subby, how am I supposed to get my goodies from eBay and Amazon into the wilderness known as Canada? Both our postal services are great IMO.


/subspace hiway?
//I hear it's not used very much in Canada as most of you guys don't know about it.

Kittypie070: AFTER STICKIN EVERYTHING EXCEPT OPS IN 75 YEARS' WORTH OF PENSION FUNDS FOR POSTAL WORKERS THAT HAVE NOT EVEN BEEN GESTATED YET, said regulation having been mandated by Congress in TWO THOUSAND MUTHA F*CKING SIX under exactly whose Administration pray tell!!??

Fark thread: Truth comes out in teh boobies.
NY Times: Buried at bottom of article in a quote.

madgonad: thecpt: the occasional letter and card which UPS can do and is far better at it.

I am going to skip over the fact that UPS has currently lost my Nexus 7 and instead ask you what planet you live on that UPS can handle LETTERS in an economic fashion. They charge at least 10x the price as the USPS.

Also, FYI - UPS and FedEx don't service Alaska (and many other rural areas). They just hand them off to the USPS. Must be nice to have someone to handle all of your non-urban/suburban tasks.

I used to load trucks as a summer job at ups. We got items from usps too including letters. Quite frankly, I don't care about Alaska and have never had a package "lost." I live in a sub-urban area and everything I send via USPS is snail-like compared to everything sent and/or delivered by UPS. More over I have been extremely impressed by how quickly I receive orders from China and Taiwan through UPS and found the UPS payscale for drivers to be extremely fair.

I wanted to send my friend a CD I made for him, so I took it to the UPS store. I bought a box to put it in and the guy behind the counter said, "Do you want me to tape that up for you?" I figured that would be a reasonable service, so I agreed. He rings it all up and it comes out to like $20 to send a CD along with the $2.25 "Packaging Fee" that dumbass got for slapping a piece of tape across the box. I paid that time but I haven't been back to one since. In fact, I burned the motherfarker to the ground.

Gwendolyn: Kittypie070: GEE YA FARKIN THINK!!??!1!eleventy!?

AFTER STICKIN EVERYTHING EXCEPT OPS IN 75 YEARS' WORTH OF PENSION FUNDS FOR POSTAL WORKERS THAT HAVE NOT EVEN BEEN GESTATED YET, said regulation having been mandated by Congress in TWO THOUSAND MUTHA F*CKING SIX under exactly whose Administration pray tell!!??

And they did it so the USPS would implode on itself and private businesses could take over. Look at the big campaign donors and lobbyists who pushed for this.

THIS TIMES INFINITY PLUS ONE

I mailed a DVD. It came back 3 months later, "Postage Due, 5 cents" - 3 months later!!!!

It had $1.90 on it, needed one more nickel.

shortymac:
Since I'm a US citizen and my loans are Sallie Mae I have to mail a check back home every month to pay off my loan. Sallie Mae will not except checks from foreign banks even if it is in US currency.

Maybe I'm not understanding something....but why not just pay online through sallie mae's website? I've been doing it that way for years.

KatjaMouse: madgonad: I am going to skip over the fact that UPS has currently lost my Nexus 7 and instead ask you what planet you live on that UPS can handle LETTERS in an economic fashion. They charge at least 10x the price as the USPS.

UPS can EABOD for all I care. The only time I use FedEx is if I have something that needs to be next day.

This. Last time I sent something UPS, paid for insurance and 3 day delivery, took it 8 days to get from Illinois to Arizona. Ordered a somewhat fragile package from Amazon and shipped UPS. Never arrived, never heard anything was wrong. ask Amazon "what's up?" "Oh, according to UPS it was 'destroyed by conveyor'." Ordered some books that shipped from the publisher in California. UPS's map from California to Illinois includes being sorted in Illinois to be shipped on to Georgia, to be resorted then back to Illinois. I emailed the publisher (Slave Labor Graphics) and showed them the tracking info for a laugh, knowing they had nothing to do with it. They still refunded me the shipping.

I've had less problems shipping with USPS. If only they would stop putting misaddressed mail into my PO Box (that's why I got the damn thing) or learn some retail skills. Like when you have a line out the door, that's not the time to close a window to take a break.

verbaltoxin: I much prefer the USPS because it is simply far cheaper and they get the package to the door. Not a depot that's only open between 12:02-3:05 pm.

Which is great if you have a door.

If you live in a complex where mail is delivered to a set of tiny mail cubbyholes, you'll still have to go pick most packages up from a USPS distribution center.

The nice thing is that USPS distribution centers are located in a central location right in your neighborhood, rather than in a dirty industrial park way over on the dangerous side of your metropolitan area.

madgonad: thecpt: the occasional letter and card which UPS can do and is far better at it.

I am going to skip over the fact that UPS has currently lost my Nexus 7 and instead ask you what planet you live on that UPS can handle LETTERS in an economic fashion. They charge at least 10x the price as the USPS.

Also, FYI - UPS and FedEx don't service Alaska (and many other rural areas). They just hand them off to the USPS. Must be nice to have someone to handle all of your non-urban/suburban tasks.

first, private companies are forbidden by law from competing with the usps in letter carrying. That is why they only offer one day and two day letters with tracking and garanteed service. The rates they charge are also affected by that law.

Second, ups and fedex and others contract with the usps for local delivery for packages using low cost services. They drive a truckload up and drop them off at the local p.o., and they do this all over the u.s., not just ak.

And they both service ak directly as well.

Kittypie070: GEE YA FARKIN THINK!!??!1!eleventy!?

AFTER STICKIN EVERYTHING EXCEPT OPS IN 75 YEARS' WORTH OF PENSION FUNDS FOR POSTAL WORKERS THAT HAVE NOT EVEN BEEN GESTATED YET, said regulation having been mandated by Congress in TWO THOUSAND MUTHA F*CKING SIX under exactly whose Administration pray tell!!??

*sigh* this again?

Go back and do so research on the 75 year myth.

The article itself presents a very viable solution. The USPS overpaid by 11 billion from past years. Refund that amount to the USPS and they can suddenly cover both the July and August payments on the Pension funds. Seriously, why does it have to be more complicated than that?

kidgenius: DoBeDoBeDo: Sent 2 packages of equal size and weight from the same post office to the same address at the same time.

1 arrived in 2 days
the other in 5


WTF?

I'm still confused how last year I mailed a small package from Phoenix to Tucson (2 hour drive) and the postal service decided to get it there by way of LA. Oh, and letting it sit in an LA warehouse/center for two days... Hard to believe there isn't a regular truck between phoenix and tucson.

I bought something off eBay several years ago, that didn't arrive when it was supposed to. To make a long story short, after much back and forth, and fraud claims from both parties we both gave up. (Me on the package and the guy on his money). A farking year and a month later the package shows up on my door. Postmarked for the day he said he was sending it. Were the fark was it for an entire year? did it hit some temporal anomaly?

The USPS needs a system that allows senders to put a barcode, or something similar, on letters and packages so that they can be sorted by automated equipment. If the sender doesn't use it, he pays more for sorting.

Also, they should charge more if an item goes farther, based on zip code differences or zones. Flat rate, 45 cents across the street, or across the country, makes no sense.

It ain't rocket surgery.

MythDragon: kidgenius: DoBeDoBeDo: Sent 2 packages of equal size and weight from the same post office to the same address at the same time.

1 arrived in 2 days
the other in 5


WTF?

I'm still confused how last year I mailed a small package from Phoenix to Tucson (2 hour drive) and the postal service decided to get it there by way of LA. Oh, and letting it sit in an LA warehouse/center for two days... Hard to believe there isn't a regular truck between phoenix and tucson.

I bought something off eBay several years ago, that didn't arrive when it was supposed to. To make a long story short, after much back and forth, and fraud claims from both parties we both gave up. (Me on the package and the guy on his money). A farking year and a month later the package shows up on my door. Postmarked for the day he said he was sending it. Were the fark was it for an entire year? did it hit some temporal anomaly?

Did you let the seller know?

Inflatable Rhetoric: The USPS needs a system that allows senders to put a barcode, or something similar, on letters and packages so that they can be sorted by automated equipment. If the sender doesn't use it, he pays more for sorting.

You realize that the USPS uses automated sorters that read the addresses of the letter via OCR, right? A majority of letters are sorted that way. They've been doing it that way for at least 20 years.

kidgenius: Inflatable Rhetoric: The USPS needs a system that allows senders to put a barcode, or something similar, on letters and packages so that they can be sorted by automated equipment. If the sender doesn't use it, he pays more for sorting.

You realize that the USPS uses automated sorters that read the addresses of the letter via OCR, right? A majority of letters are sorted that way. They've been doing it that way for at least 20 years.

But some %age still have to be hand sorted. If a uniform code were used, the sorting equipment would be less complex, cost less, and be more reliable.

thetubameister: Gee... maybe if they understood customer service in some small way. There's a reason the term "going postal" started with them... I consider it every time I have to walk into a 30 person line with one person on duty working slower than I'd be able to function while 3 others shoot the shiat in the corner avoiding eye-contact with the line... Or when I see someone come in 20 minutes before the posted Passport Application Time and see them be told their too late because it takes too long to complete before closing.

They COULD earn that pension... but they don' t; instead, they treat us like shiat and I avoid the place like the plague. I WANT to support them... but entering the place risks my having an aneurysm from ire.

\would pay twice as much if they actually fixed this.

Have you seen the some of the people that are in line in front of you at the PO?
It's amazing that some of these folks can breathe on their own much less know how to send a package or fill out a change of address form.
After dealing with these characters every day, all day, I'd be ready to shoot someone, too.

I's not even that they want to enrich private contractors! Gwendolyn: Kittypie070: GEE YA FARKIN THINK!!??!1!eleventy!?

AFTER STICKIN EVERYTHING EXCEPT OPS IN 75 YEARS' WORTH OF PENSION FUNDS FOR POSTAL WORKERS THAT HAVE NOT EVEN BEEN GESTATED YET, said regulation having been mandated by Congress in TWO THOUSAND MUTHA F*CKING SIX under exactly whose Administration pray tell!!??

And they did it so the USPS would implode on itself and private businesses could take over. Look at the big campaign donors and lobbyists who pushed for this.

It's not even that privatizers would benefit that much! A USPS that functions efficiently conflicts with free-market fundamentalist ideology. And when reality conflicts with ideology, reality must be destroyed.

This one time I ordered a CD of underage farm porn(guys farking lambs and calfs) from this friend of mine who specialises in that sort of thing. (Stars AND directs!) I got it next day from UPS. I've never had that good of a turn around from the post office. Plus the package was taped very nicely. Costs 22.25 for shipping, but it was worth it.

Strange thing was, a couple of days later, the cops came to talk to me. I thought it was about the porn and I started to say I was sorry and I wouldn't do it again, but they just gave me some strange looks. Turns out some guy burnt down the store that sent my package, and mine was one of the last ones out of that location. The cops didn't find the connection they were looking for, but they said I was a 'sick sick man'.

ZzeusS: You'll have to explain to me how moving boxes around, driving a car, and carrying a bag around all day entitles you to $20+/hr and monthly benefits for the rest of your natural life.

Because that's the salary you (collectively) negotiated? Or does that only work for CEOs?

Kit Fister: I didn't know Child protective services delivered packages...

They do, but you have to go through 20+ hours a training, a background check and a home study.

Inflatable Rhetoric:
But some %age still have to be hand sorted. If a uniform code were used, the sorting equipment would be less complex, cost less, and be more reliable.


They offer lower rates for barcoded mail

Kittypie070: GEE YA FARKIN THINK!!??!1!eleventy!?

AFTER STICKIN EVERYTHING EXCEPT OPS IN 75 YEARS' WORTH OF PENSION FUNDS FOR POSTAL WORKERS THAT HAVE NOT EVEN BEEN GESTATED YET, said regulation having been mandated by Congress in TWO THOUSAND MUTHA F*CKING SIX under exactly whose Administration pray tell!!??

Not to mention the health insurance. Better than the military. The only one better is for members of Congress.

HotWingConspiracy: A) "DEY SPENDIN ALL MAH TAX DOLLERS"

B) "Ok, we'll close under performing offices. There are two in your district."

A) "WHAT?! THIS IS TYRANNY! DENIED. BUT STILL, STOP SPENDIN' TAX DOLLERS"

Isn't the US Postal Service set up so it doesn't use taxpayer money?

They keep saying government should run more like a business. So why do they let government impose things on the USPS that no other company in the world has to do? Because its just talk. It doesn't mean anything, they don't really believe that. Like regulations. They say its evil, bad, and that government doesn't have the right. Yet they're perfectly happy when creating impossible to follow regulations aimed at forcing medical clinics that provide abortions to shut down.

I'd call them hypocrites but they don't know or even care about what the word means anymore.

Steve McQueen's Motorcycle: Did you let the seller know?

Yeah, I thought it would be the right thing to do. I still had his info and I called him up.
Hey remember that box you said you sent?
yes....
I just got it.
WTF, really?
Yeah, I figured it was only right to pay you for it. It was 100 bucks, right?
116.34
Wow, you have't forgotten that, have you? Lets just call it 100 since you're lucky I called you in the first place.
Fair enough.

kidgenius: Inflatable Rhetoric:
But some %age still have to be hand sorted. If a uniform code were used, the sorting equipment would be less complex, cost less, and be more reliable.


They offer lower rates for barcoded mail

Yea, to bulk shippers with a contract. Not to the general public.

Also, whenever I have to go to the PO for something (seldom), I always have to wait in line. Why is that?

When unemployment falls under X% then privatize and sell the post office to the highest bidder and be prepared for the layoffs.

MythDragon: This one time I ordered a CD of underage farm porn(guys farking lambs and calfs) from this friend of mine who specialises in that sort of thing. (Stars AND directs!) I got it next day from UPS. I've never had that good of a turn around from the post office. Plus the package was taped very nicely. Costs 22.25 for shipping, but it was worth it.

Strange thing was, a couple of days later, the cops came to talk to me. I thought it was about the porn and I started to say I was sorry and I wouldn't do it again, but they just gave me some strange looks. Turns out some guy burnt down the store that sent my package, and mine was one of the last ones out of that location. The cops didn't find the connection they were looking for, but they said I was a 'sick sick man'.

GET THE fark OFF HERE
biatch!

RembrandtQEinstein: In my neighborhood there are these awesome people called trashmen who take the garbage away. And here are crappy people called postmen who without fail deliver garbage every day.

Since they refuse to give me the option to turn off the junk mail the post office can go to hell.

Pretty much this. I go my mailbox (mind you, right at the end of my driveway) maybe every other week. Without fail, virtually all the contents of my mailbox go straight into the recycling bin and never into my house. It's all junk mail. People are getting paid to literally deliver garbage to my house. Think about that.

burning_bridge: They keep saying government should run more like a business. So why do they let government impose things on the USPS that no other company in the world has to do? Because its just talk. It doesn't mean anything, they don't really believe that. Like regulations. They say its evil, bad, and that government doesn't have the right. Yet they're perfectly happy when creating impossible to follow regulations aimed at forcing medical clinics that provide abortions to shut down.

I'd call them hypocrites but they don't know or even care about what the word means anymore.

I'll agree the USPS has some serious uphill battles that no-one should have to face. Postage rates and closings getting congressional approval are pants on head retarded. The pension funding at the actualized rate instead of the projected rate I have no sympathy for.

Inflatable Rhetoric:
Also, whenever I have to go to the PO for something (seldom), I always have to wait in line. Why is that?

I dunno? Because the post office is filled with people that don't know how to ship a parcel? You could use one of the automated machines at the post office (if yours has em)

Hell, I haven't stepped foot in a post office in years. I go to those pac-n-ship places. Prices are good, and if you need a box or fill material, it's not nearly as expensive there as at a post office.

Not only do the braindead leftists (or should I just say Fark) want to continue the ponzi scheme that is retirement benefits for the USPS, but they want to do so knowing that we are at the tail end of the ponzi scheme and that the USPS will become less relevant as time goes on.

So the leftist approach results in either 1) current and future USPS workers having paid into their retirement funds and getting little or nothing back OR 2) another taxpayer bailout.

RedTank: When unemployment falls under X% then privatize and sell the post office to the highest bidder and be prepared for the layoffs.

the answer your looking for is THETA.
fibonacci sequence, stock market, etc..