No Mail on Saturdays

[Feraud]

You know, it's funny... so many here bemoan the loss of various institutions over the decades yet are so quick to recommend the demise of one of our oldest ones.

Cheers,
Tom

No one recommends the demise of that institution.

 

[John in Covina]

OK:

Deliver only on Mondays and Thursdays.

Unless the sender has paid for a 1/2/3 day delivery then that gets delivered on the actual day including Sundays.

Best thing is to cut their retirement payments by 16%.

 

[Undertow]

No one recommends the demise of that institution.

lol :eusa_clap

Does anyone know if this is complete yet? Or have the decided to get rid of mail altogether? Or raise stamp prices to .99?

 

[Pilgrim]

95% of all my mail is bills or junk mail...heavy on junk mail, because most of the bills are managed online. i might get one personal mail piece every two weeks - except on my birthday and at Christmas. In any case, I wouldn't miss it if the mail service went to twice a week. IMO Saturday delivery can easily be dropped with minimal problems. People will adjust quickly. I do think post offices need to keep a minimal staff on Saturday for counter service and pickup, but that's it.

The post office is a commercial enterprise now, so it needs to act a lot more like one. Having tracking numbers that actually work would be a start - I've never ever had one that worked, and I've never had one from UPS or FedEx that didn't work.

I'm also an advocate of the post office raising postage rates by no less than a nickel per stamp, and then holding that rate until they need another nickel. This penny-a-time stuff is ridiculous...but at least they came out with first class stamps that are good regardless of rate changes. I know it' would create a big impact for junk mailers - big deal.

 

[Bustercat]

I do think we could get by without saturdays, but they should keep the offices open a few hours later on friday and monday night. For people who work all week, Saturday is often the only time to mail packages.

 

[WideBrimm]

Sad thing about the USPS is that the only product they have to sell is SERVICE, and they keep cutting back on that service. How are they ever going to stay in business that way? Seems like they don't know the first thing about running a business Seems that if they do cut back on Saturday delivery they ought to shut down on Monday and replace that with full service on Saturday. That way people who work on Monday (most people) could get do their postal business on Saturday. And if they do eliminate Saturday delivery, in exchange, they certainly ought to eliminate all federal postal holidays and guarantee full services five days a week, each and every week. Postal employees could even get a two day (Sunday & Monday) weekend! And if this makes SENSE, it's almost guaranteed they will hate the idea

 

[hailey greenhat]

The "WRITTEN WORD" is DEAD!

Eat your words sir, there are quite a few of us on here who wright letters, the elder generation certainly still does as well and thank-you notes, cards etc are sent out everyday.
Creating a four day work week would decrease pay for those employed, they'd cut down on workers because of the smaller schedule and it would increase the amount of mail one got on those four days. I know my mail lady, and i love going out to the mail box everyday. Mail is something from a more personal era and i'd like to keep some semblance of person to person contact, personally.

 

[Tomasso]

there are quite a few of us on here who wright letters

Do you call yourselves wordwrights?

 

[davestlouis]

At least most people have an actual post office. ZIP code 63367(Lake St. Louis, MO) never has had an actual post office. There are roughly 10,000 people in the city limits, and another 10,000 outside the city limits, but in the ZIP code, and we don't have a post office. We used to have a trailer sitting on the lot at the Shell station near I-70, open M-F 10-2, now it's gone and we have a privately-run postal desk in a consignment shop/produce stand of all things that doesn't even have consistent business hours. In short, I'm used to non-service from the USPS, I could give a hoot about Saturday delivery.

 

[hailey greenhat]

Do you call yourselves wordwrights?

:eusa_doh: what a sloppy mistake

 

[Chainsaw]

I'm the first one to say we should support government institutions over private corporations. since the introduction of needless unions (I support unions if they are necessary for the safety of the worker) many government institutions have been bleed dry, and run into the ground in cancerous states.

It's funny though, here in Canada we have "Crown Corporations" which are owned by the government, and I fully support, but the only profitable operation is the "Beer store", which is well run.

 

[Mav]

I'm the first one to say we should support government institutions over private corporations.

Couldn't disagree more, for a whole host of reasons, the discussion of which is prohibited on this forum.

As far as the USPS closing on Saturdays, I'm against it for only one reason. I have 6 days of mail delivery consisting of crap, bills, political surveys, and more crap, often delivered to the wrong address, and occasionally held for days at a time for no apparent reason. Oh, and returned outgoing mail that has been so severely damaged that it can't go any farther.
Saturday is the only day I have to actually go to my local post office to file complaints against my mail carrier, who is a blithering, freaking idiot. With his supervisor, who barely speaks English.
I look forward to that all week.

 

[docneg]

I'm glad I spotted this thread, because I have been baffled as to why I haven't received any mail on Saturdays for the past three weeks!

 

[Diamondback]

:eusa_doh: what a sloppy mistake

Happens to all of us every now and then, pretty lady... Yes, even those of us who have eidetic memory and were excused from having to do spelling in elementary school because the instructors couldn't come up with words big enough or complicated enough! "Antidisestablishmentarianism"? Slam-dunked it before the end of second grade. Yawn, stretch, "Is THAT all you got?"

 

[59Lark]

living in the past.

I must be living in the past, I recieve mail monday to friday in my rural size mail box, large percentage of junk but still some important mail. The local post office is run by two people over the age of fifty, al and marcie. The queen of englands portait which hung in the old post office is still on the wall . The radio which is a general electric wooden case retro model places soothing mellow station and both staff members speak english as their first language. I ship parcels all over north america and we are talking sewing machines not toasters, and i get good service. I pay for my postage by cheque and i pay all my bills by mail . Am I living in the past , or has the real world left behind, enjoying my bliss while it last 59LARKfftopic:

 

[Pilgrim]

Sad thing about the USPS is that the only product they have to sell is SERVICE, and they keep cutting back on that service. How are they ever going to stay in business that way? Seems like they don't know the first thing about running a business

I think that's a good analysis. They are providing a service, not a product. They should focus on the essentials of that service and do it well - and charge what it costs, without frequent cost changes.

I think their primary clients might turn out to be hevily business-oriented: the bulk mailers. However, they need to provide enough service to individuals to make them happy, and to provide a conduit from the bulk mailers to the individuals.

I don't see where 6 days of mail service is necessary to accomplish that. I think that if i'm correct (and gee, I've spent all of 90 seconds thinking about it) they should re-define their service and take some pages from FedEx's books.

What about:
- Offering official, secure, electronic transmission of documents
- Notarizing for documents received electronically
- Videoconference booths with fax transmission

Who knows what else?

 

[tuppence]

If your mail system is so bad....How come I receive parcels from America quicker than I receive them from Western Australia?

 

[lolly_loisides]

If your mail system is so bad....How come I receive parcels from America quicker than I receive them from Western Australia?

Yes, that's true. It takes about a week for me to receive parcels from the US & sometimes up to a fortnight to receive letters posted from within my own State.

 

[tuppence]

We'll have to ask Binkie!!

 

[Puzzicato]

Yes, that's true. It takes about a week for me to receive parcels from the US & sometimes up to a fortnight to receive letters posted from within my own State.

It normally takes 4 or 5 working days for me to get a parcel from the US and about 2 weeks to get one from Canada! Makes no sense at all!

I love my Saturday post deliveries.