USPS Final Appeal ?

[RandyM]

I really question the utility of the USPS, seems like all they do is deliver a constant stream of junk mail which I'm obligated to clean out of the mailbox to make room for more junk mail. They've really been made obsolete by the internet.

Junk mail is not the fault of the USPS. They just deliver what their customer bought and paid for. Your complaint is with the person/business that sent it.

 

[CJ5Dave]

We can put a spam blocker on our email and phone. Wouldn't it be great to put a junk mail blocker with USPS? However, I use all mine up in the hardy heater and it helps heat the house and the water. Have barely any trash to take to town.

 

[D.sebens]

We can put a spam blocker on our email and phone. Wouldn't it be great to put a junk mail blocker with USPS? However, I use all mine up in the hardy heater and it helps heat the house and the water. Have barely any trash to take to town.

To be fair you have access to your junk mail folder. There’s times my email puts important stuff in the junk mail. Even if usps had a “junk mail blocker”. You would still need access to it in case they messed up filtering and put something important in it.

 

[rabler]

Junk mail is not the fault of the USPS. They just deliver what their customer bought and paid for. Your complaint is with the person/business that sent it.

If my phone, or internet connection delivered such ratio of junk to useful content I would disconnect them. Legally I pretty much have to have mail service. My point is that I feel it is based mostly on legacy reasons that have outlived it's usefulness, and it is a dying service that is sustained more on tradition than utility. This in turn results in the poor service we see.

 

[matthewsx]

It's in the constitution.

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S8-C7-2/ALDE_00000076/

Also, they could totally make it profitable if congress would stop messing with them.

Any more would get into politics....

John

 

[RandyM]

If my phone, or internet connection delivered such ratio of junk to useful content I would disconnect them. Legally I pretty much have to have mail service. My point is that I feel it is based mostly on legacy reasons that have outlived it's usefulness, and it is a dying service that is sustained more on tradition than utility. This in turn results in the poor service we see.

Again, it is not poor service. The USPS is providing a delivery service that they are getting paid for. Delivering junk mail is not poor service. You are conflating two entirely different issues. Being outdated as you call it is not bad service. I rely on it for bill payment, celebration cards, and other transactions. Call me a "dinosaur" or "fossil" to which I fully embrace. I don't see condemning something just because you deem it outdated, useless, and impractical. I see discarding any junk mail as just an extremely small inconvenience not worth noting. And, believe it or not, I have found the occasional piece of "junk mail" useful. Most recently my need for Medicare information. I have a feeling this is something more than the issue raised.

Next you'll be going on about me not being able to have my landline phone services (No cell phone).

 

[rabler]

Again, it is not poor service.

If I am required to maintain something that I don’t find useful, that is an obligation not a service. The fact that you find it useful doesn’t change that. Nor does it change the viability of modern alternatives.

 

[rabler]

Next you'll be going on about me not being able to have my landline phone services (No cell phone).

I apologize if I have offended you. I disagree with your definition of a service, but that is a semantics issue. I am in no way trying to dictate what services you use or don’t. I ask you extend me the same courtesy.

 

[extropic]

I also primarily have paperless billing and pay bills via autopay services or online, so mail delivery isn't as important to me as it used to be.
However, the idea of loosing USPS Flat Rate services is chilling.
I don't consider myself a "lucky" person. I seem to commonly get in the slowest line or happen to be there when someone, ahead of me, is taking a length of time beyond reason. However, the Flat Rate services have saved me a bunch of time and $$$ relative to UPS or FEDEX. FRBs have arrived badly damaged but I attribute that to poor packaging. Unless the box has been pierced by a fork truck, shows tire tracks or some other outrageous violation, I consider any lost or damaged contents to be the fault of inadequate/incompetent packaging.
Regardless, it sounds like Dave is getting a raw deal and I hope he will eventually recover his lo$$.

 

[David2011]

The fact that it sold on eBay and there is proof of the selling price is all you should need. Separately, that they accepted your money to insure it for an agreed upon amount is all they should need. Those two combined SHOULD be more than enough for any "reasonable person" in legal language. I shipped some clothes to a friend for my wife using USPS. The two boxes were never delivered. The recipient lives in a relatively rural area so porch piracy was unlikely. USPS wanted the purchase receipts for each lost article of clothing in order to even consider a claim. Two medium packing boxes of nice clothes were lost and they denied a claim of only $200 because there were no receipts. Their standards of proof are unreasonable. They also have a clause that requires a higher burst strength of boxes than that to which most commercial boxes are built. I ran across that regulation one time a few years ago. It is buried well among their regulations. Seems like their burst strength requirement was 25 pounds higher than common cardboard boxes; an easy out to decline claims for boxes damaged in shipping.

That reminds me. I need to box up some cast lead bullets and send to a friend. They'll love the density of that package. I line the box with thin plywood and pack it to eliminate any shifting of the contents. Yeah, it will be a flat rate box.