Stocking up means they get the money now, for service later. It's a cash flow benefit to the USPS, not a problem.

 

Actually the postal service is much better now than it was back in the 1970s and 1980s. Back then it was a disaster. Today you wonder if your mail will arrive in a timely fashion, back then you wondered if it would arrive at all. We used to include a copy of the customer invoice in the UPS package that we'd ship because we weren't sure the invoice that we mailed would reach the customer.


I don't think that the postal service wants to eliminate junk mail. I think that they make money on it even with the bulk mailing rate. The amount of junk mail that we receive is amazing. We have to go to the recycling center much more often now.

 

And my mailman is great. Delivers to the door if he sees were home. Leaves treats for the dog everyday. Mailman has broken my dog in one way- The the dog forgets the word stay when he hears/sees the mailtruck he's gone and waiting at the mailbox.

 

I'm actually in the Direct Mail business (at my job) and believe me, the USPS does an incredible job, considering the obstacles.

I've been on a few tours of the Philadelphia Bulk Mail Center, which sorts the mail before it goes to your local Post Office for delivery. The guy who runs the place is really, really good at what he does.

He showed us how incoming mail gets sorted, and the first thing we saw was how all the incorrectly-wrapped parcels fall apart and have to be taken to the re-wrap department.

Another major problem is bundles of magazines coming apart because the mailer refuses to shrink wrap them.

There are many pre-addressed envelopes that don't scan properly and have to be manually sorted.

There are letters and postcards that sometimes get shredded in a sorting machine when there's a blockage.

There are mail sacks with bad labels that fall off, or worse, fall off and get put back on the wrong sack.

With what I've seen go through the BMC, I'm impressed with the service we get for the money.

 

I may be wrong, but isn't the USPS spun out of the government several years ago? I think it is now supposed to be a government sanctioned service but no longer a part of the US government. The USPS must compete for customers just like FedEx and UPS, but they have the exclusive business of delivering the "first class" mail to the mailboxes of the residences.

What the USPS should have done is to print up stamps that say "First Class" on them with no money amount, so customers can continue to use them even when the price changes. I just had to buy a bunch of $0.02 stamps today to go with the $0.37 stamps that I still have.

 

I went to buy stamps for my office today, as well.

I then asked the clerk how much the additional ounce would be. Right now it's .23.

Her reply, "I don't know about that."

I was at a very small post office, so I asked her if there was someone there that would know.

There was, and along with my .02 stamps to I got to purchase .01 stamps to "complete" the .23 stamps I had on hand, for the occasional heavier letter.

 

Hey I bought new stamps at Costco today. Boy did I get a good deal!! I paid $38.75 for 100, 39 cent stamps.

 

My neighbors hate me for just that reason. I recently had my delivery on hold for 5 weeks, then another 4 weeks. Both times I returned to find that my big pile of mail included a lot of stuff that should have been delivered to neighbors. I'm sure they appreciated it when I hand delivered their bills that were already a week past due.