OT -- slow post office

Had a friend who bought 100 rolls two increases ago. He plans on funding his retirement by holding on to them. So far it hasn't been a terrible return on investment (grin).

Reply to
Kurt Ullman
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When I joke with mail men or retired mail men about taking all the fliers they deliver and just dumping them in the creek and not delivering to me, they go crazy, as junk mail is the main source of their income.

Reply to
Frank

I've heard that the junk mail subsidizes the first class. Junk mail is presorted, and labelled, and scan barred, and so on. It slides through the system, where hand written first class is more work.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Very common. Or they just lied as that happens too.

When I was turning 65, I had mail every day from various insurance companies trying to sell me Medicare supplements. I tossed most of them, but decided to look at one. It was the second notice from a major insurance company that had my pension money from a job I left in 1970. Never realized it was there and I moved to another state since then.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Was it NYLIC? They followed me from job I had in 1969. I was floored.

Reply to
Robert Green

feel like I am

Yes, it does seem that way. I knew when I saw those stamps that the Post Office was likely doomed. It's the same as when a business you've never heard of offers a lifetime guarantee on something. They know that they're planning the business to have a very short lifetime.

As for being slow, I find it just the opposite. Stuff I buy from Amazon often shows up the next day delivered by USPS. I am on the eight disk program with Netflix and they always arrive on time - haven't lost a single disk in the last three years and it was three years before that.

I've always had a soft spot for the USPS since readings David Brin's sci-fi epic, "The Postman" about a post-apocalyptic world where one man decides, after finding a dead mailman and a sack of undelivered mail to begin mail delivery again. The Founding Fathers were quite prescient in realizing how important a public postal service is in a free nation.

Reply to
Robert Green

"I ordered anthrax and you sent me tweezers!" :-)

Reply to
hah

Stormin Mormon wrote in news:wGsju.347617 $ snipped-for-privacy@fx25.iad:

I sent my sister a birthday card from AZ to VA a few weeks ago. Took a full week to get there. Used to take three or four days.

Reply to
KenK

I had to go to Europe on some business recently. Just before I left I got m y electric bill in the mail, so I wrote a check but didn?t have time to m ail it when the shuttle came to pick me up. I figured I?d mail it from th e airport. Surely I figured there must be a mail box there. I get to the a irport and ask a security officer for the location of a mail box. He gave m e a look like you would a naïve child. We don?t have mail boxes here at the airport he said. Why not I asked. We?re concerned that people may th row a bomb in it he replied. What were you planning on mailing he continued . My electric bill I replied, feeling stupid. Can I give this to someone to mail it for me I asked. He gave me a look as if I had asked him if there w as a flight to the moon. One of our employees did that a few months ago an d he got fired he said. The letter that he mailed never reached it?s dest ination and the person he mailed it for sued the airport he said. After giv ing up all hope of mailing my electric bill from the airport I figured I? d mail it from Europe. After getting to my destination I go to a post offic e and mailed it the old fashion way, Par Avion. After returning home today I got my electric bill again. Three weeks and they still haven?t received it.

Reply to
recyclebinned

It's a matter of who does the accounting. It can be shown either way. If you assume that first-class has to be delivered anyway, junk mail more than pays its way. If you do the opposite, not so much. Reality is somewhere in there. Junk mail will be paying more and more of the bill because first class volume is dropping like a rock. I think we mail one bill out a month now (can't figure out how to pay it online) and send a few dozen (birthday/Christmas) cards a year.

Reply to
krw

Taxes 2x a year, water bill 4x a year Used to be the oil bill but they just went to on line payment. In the past year, I think I wrote two other checks, one for a washing machine, the other a gift. I'd not want to be int he check printing business either. Went from about 10 to 12 a month to about 10 a year.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

We receive a number of payment checks from the US mailed to us in Canada. We find that mail from major hubs arrive in a few days, while I have had mail from small centers have taken up to 20 days to mail to us. This is checking the date on the envelope to the date of arriving, not the date on the check. Mail from LA or San Diego or New York can get to us in 3 to 4 days, mail from Charlotte NC took the 20 days.

Reply to
EXT

Nov 22, check still not arrived. I'm going to inquire about direct deposit, and avoid the PO altogether.

Orders arrive by email, invoice by fax, and payment by direct. No snail in that equation. And that will cause the price of stamps to go up again.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

St. Mormon, allow to express my confusion. Other's may or may not feel the same way.

At one point in this thread, you said: "I asked a question, I didn't blame the PO."

Here's how it looks from where we're sitting...

Your subject line didn't include a question mark, so it kind of reads like blame.

"OT -- slow post office" portrays a very different meaning than "OT -- slow post office?" The former could be considered blame at first read, the latter is obviously a question.

Now, in your OP you really did ask a question: "Is the the PO slowing down?" No direct indication of blame there.

However, in this latest post you said "... avoid the PO altogether" and "No snail in that equation." That sure sounds like blame. Have you determined that the PO is actually the problem or are you just performing an experiment by "avoiding the PO" altogether?

Keep in mind that by going to direct deposit you are eliminating more than just the PO. You are eliminating the entire check production process and going straight to a computer based transfer. You will certainly get it quicker, but it wouldn't be fair to then say "The PO was at fault" since more than just the PO is avoided when using direct deposit.

Not that _you_ would actually blame the PO when it all sped up after switching to direct deposit, I'm just saying that it wouldn't be fair if someone did. :-)

Reply to
DerbyDad03

Thank you for that detail. It's amazing, the difference in meaning that a punctuation mark makes.

I'm glad you took the time to discuss this, instead of the usual Usenet techniques.

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I'll take more care, to punctuate.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Now I expect you to back up your statement with fact. Name a cheaper service. Or, are you one who just blurts out anything, without thinking?

Reply to
George

He's not capable of comprehending. I suppose that's why he's known on Usenet as a joke.

Reply to
George

Four and a half minutes of some very funny stuff and not one second of vulgar language. Yep, those were the days...

Reply to
DerbyDad03

Email.

Reply to
krw

You and me both. I really love some of the old comedians, who were funny but not vulgar. Not sure that anyone these days can match that skill.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

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