barbarake
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posted on February 6, 2001 12:48:22 PM
No, I didn't make this up. The post office is already working on it. Here's the url
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/02/06/postal.rates.ap/index.html
(Hope I did that right.)
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jayadiaz
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posted on February 6, 2001 01:23:34 PM
I guess it would never occur to a government agency that it was the increase in rates that decreased volume in priority and first class. I noticed they didn't mention decreased volume in media mail, or parcel??
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mrlatenite
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posted on February 6, 2001 01:27:38 PM
[ edited by mrlatenite on Feb 8, 2001 09:07 AM ]
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mrlatenite
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posted on February 6, 2001 01:33:32 PM
[ edited by mrlatenite on Feb 8, 2001 09:07 AM ]
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RB
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posted on February 6, 2001 01:43:15 PM
"I guess it would never occur to a government agency that it was the increase in rates that decreased volume in priority and first class."
Does this sound like Yahoooooo logic???
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chum
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posted on February 6, 2001 01:45:30 PM
I dont see how raising the rates will help. I cannot afford to ship priority anymore, and my customers refuse to pay that much shipping for a item that sells less than $9.95. If their business is slacking why not reduce the work force? Looks like parcel post will soon be as high as priority.
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reamond
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posted on February 6, 2001 01:45:57 PM
Even another 15% increase is still a deal. We've got the least expensive mail delivery in the industrialized world.
The service is better than Fedex and UPS to boot.
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december3
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posted on February 6, 2001 02:02:39 PM
Well, not all the service. A package for my address was delivered to the same house number a block over. The streets are not spelled anything alike and the other house is vacant. My regular carrier said that they had hired some temp help over the holidays who coulden't read english very well.
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hopefulli
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posted on February 6, 2001 02:04:35 PM
Can I nominate a candidate for the work force reduction plan? Yesterday I spent an hour in the post office. Huge line at 4:30, and one of the two clerks proceeded to total out his register and then STAND there for an hour watching the other clerk process everyone through the line. Of course, by 5:30 he was totally grouchy because he was 1/2 hour late in leaving. Well, perhaps if he had helped......talk about dead wood. The other clerk was angry too (at him), and told all of us to write to the local postmaster.
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Empires
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posted on February 6, 2001 02:34:57 PM
I doubt that the second increase will be allowed.
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twinsoft
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posted on February 6, 2001 02:51:15 PM
"The service is better than Fedex and UPS to boot."
Wot a laugh. I mailed 75 packages at Christmas and 20 were lost by USPS. No doubt they were stolen by PO employees and temps stuffing their own stockings at my expense.
Forget about their doctored figures. They know how many people are going into mail order. We need to cut USPS out of the equation completely. Perhaps UPS will find their way clear to offer cheap residential delivery. I am totally fed up with the post office.
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quickdraw29
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posted on February 6, 2001 03:05:16 PM
Double post. But argh anyway!
[ edited by quickdraw29 on Feb 6, 2001 03:07 PM ]
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quickdraw29
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posted on February 6, 2001 03:05:50 PM
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!
 
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chum
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posted on February 6, 2001 03:10:25 PM
Wot a laugh. I mailed 75 packages at Christmas and 20 were lost by USPS. No doubt they were stolen by PO employees and temps stuffing their own stockings at my expense.
Well now I know I wasnt the only one that had items stolen. Probally my items are for sale on the auction block. Anyone remember the movie "The nightmare before Christmas?" lol. That was my experience last year.
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reamond
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posted on February 6, 2001 03:48:16 PM
Lost - Stolen ?
No, what happens to the vast majority of these packages is the mailing label wasn't secure, the box wasn't properly sealed etc.
The USPS moves more items than the other shippers added together, and has fewer problems as a percentage than the other shippers.
The real problem is that the USPS doesn't have a bulletin board to post the stupid things that their customers do in packaging and addressing items, e.g.,
Recycle boxes ? Why don't you completely remove the old address labels and bar codes ?
Zip code one number off ? That shouldn't be a problem, as there are only 9,9999 different zip codes it could have been - so why did the USPS return the package ?
My hand writing ? Why I have no problem reading it.
Long line at the Post Office ? That's because no one can weigh or put postage on the package themselves or visit USPS web site to figure the destination postage, so they need an adult at the post office to figure it for them, then complain when rates are raised to pay these people to perform this service.
Six days a week, universal first class service, best and least expensive delivery service in the business, and less than $1 increase in fees. And yet you complain. I'll bet those 20 undelivered items were indeed the USPS's fault.
If Fedex and UPS take over, what are you going to do when your buyer has to be home to take delivery ? Your business will go down the tubes.
Competition is good for the USPS, but thus far they have no competition.
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jrb3
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posted on February 6, 2001 04:09:06 PM
REAMOND
I agree 100%!
I sent over 4000 USPS padded mailers last year.
6 went missing with 4 eventually showing up months later.
Ever mail a package inside Italy?
It's over twice USPS Rates.
Stop complaining people USPS is not stealing your packages to auction, they are much too big for such petty persuits.
Joe B
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zkatt
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posted on February 6, 2001 04:12:16 PM
If they raise it again I'll have to switch all boxes to UPS---this is ridiculous.
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Crystalline_Sliver
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posted on February 6, 2001 04:34:35 PM
At least they aren't shooting at us. Then we'd be Screwed.
BTW, has anyone of the Postal Commission Idiots took a Business Class in life??
Recycle boxes ? Why don't you completely remove the old address labels and bar codes ?
Sometimes, you cannot rip off the labels without destroying the box in the process y'know.
edited for a ENTER button mistake
:\\\"Crystalline Sliver cannot be the target of spells or abilities.
[ edited by Crystalline_Sliver on Feb 6, 2001 04:37 PM ]
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reamond
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posted on February 6, 2001 05:48:09 PM
JRB3- You're right about Italy. The other industrialized countries are up to 400% more expensive than USPS and do not cover near the territory.
I must also commend the USPS for their International service. I have sent over 100 parcels over seas in the last year and not one lost, stolen, or late.
All this harping about the USPS rate increases is the most irrational and spoiled assertions I have ever heard.
Could customer service at the USPS be better- sure could, but the USPS has found out just like any other business- people would prefer a better price than more customer service. Nearly all retail outlets are practically self service anymore.
Could delivery rates be better- sure could, but a company can not hire thousands of high quality employees for just the Xmas season in this labor market, which is the only time of the year I noticed any delivery slow down at the USPS.
The USPS is one Federal entity that has always out performed the privated sector.There is nothing even close to it right now, especially for small businesses.
[ edited by reamond on Feb 6, 2001 05:49 PM ]
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uaru
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posted on February 6, 2001 07:28:01 PM
Unless your life expectancy is short I think the accurate title should be "Postal rates will rise again..."
Postal rates is something I accept along with higher gasoline prices, higher utility prices, a nagging spouse, and expensive medical bills. The nicest thing about getting old is more and more eventualities are accepted in stride. 
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chococake
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posted on February 6, 2001 07:59:38 PM
Oh no not mail delivered only three days a week. When there is a non-delivery holiday for the two days following it, I don't get my mail until 7 or 8 o'clock. The mailman is delivering mail with a flashlight, and I almost always get a few of my neighbors mail.
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quickdraw29
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posted on February 6, 2001 11:16:35 PM
Other countries may cost more for postage and have less coverage, but this is America. We buy more, and the whole ball starts rolling where we have better roads to move these goods. I don't think we should compare the U.S. to countries that appear to be from another era in the far past.
I'd sure like to know what the USPS outperforms the private sector at. I ask myself that everytime I stand in line for forty minutes with two clerks at the window who move at the speed of a turtle. The packages I get from UPS are never damaged, but the USPS packages I get are almost always bent or smashed.
Also I really need to know why it's irrational to harp on USPS for these rate increases. They're billions of dollars in the red then they realize oops, we need to raise the rates. They should have been figuring out ways to give more value that people were willing to pay more for, but they were bleeding (just like ebay) and the enterprise began its hemorraging. After years of operating this service, the feds just realized, oh maybe we should quicken the process of instituting raises. I really hope the PO is not a model for the private sector.
\"They say the grass is greener on the other side. But have you flipped it over and looked?
\"
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reamond
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posted on February 6, 2001 11:44:39 PM
Quickdraw- you must not have been over seas for a while.
I'll put England, Japan, Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland's road and transportation system up against ours any day. But you ought to see some of these countries postal rates.
The USPS can not get a rate increase overnight like private sector business, as example eBay. The USPS must go through a commission, fraught with political agendas.
As example, Congressional Representatives from the states where Fedex and UPS have large main hubs are constantly trying to sabotage the USPS through legislation. Why ? Not because anything the USPS did, but just to get more political contributions and get more jobs in their state by bribing their way to take away business from the USPS by hamstringing them in any manner possible.
With the commission system for rate increases, the USPS can not immediately cover increased fuel costs as the airlines did with a "fuel surcharge". The USPS can not get immediate relief from any cost increases like the other businesses can. But when the USPS asked Congress to allow it to regulate its own rates to better manage costs and customize rates for large customers, the delegation from the main hub competition states stopped it.
The USPS, considering the tools they have to work with, have done a tremendous job controlling costs and rate increases. There is not a CEO in the world who could do better under the circumstances.
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horizonod
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posted on February 6, 2001 11:58:32 PM
All I know is that every time the postal rate is raised my mail, both incoming and outgoing check, boxes, first class or priority, gets WORSE AND WORSE!!
How many noticed a leap in the time it took for priority and first class mail to get where it was going in the past 60 days??
I ALSO just found out that the PO does not refund POSTAL FEES on an item that was INSURED but never arrives!! HOW CAN THAT BE LEGAL??? I have to SEND it again!
If I PAY twice but it only gets DELIVERED ONCE, should I get a refund on one or the other??
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Puddy
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posted on February 7, 2001 12:30:11 AM
Yes we live in America. Everytime I hear a comparison to another country (there are children starving in China) I want to throw up. We live in the USA. Not Italy, not Russia, not anywhere but the US. It's a democracy that we supposedly have a say in. The comparisons to other incompetants running their debacle regimes has nothing to do with the way we run our country. The PO has posted huge profits in certain operations and lost money in others. Depending on who you believe and what source you derive your information from, the PO has even subsidized Social Security due to profits from recent years. Hence the lack of an increase for the past few years. The fact is when one looks at what ebay ALONE has generated in income for the PO in the past couple of years, one can't help but wonder where the hell the money went. To say e-mail has cut into letters is insane. People haven't written letters for years due to the phone company and cheap long distance (that was an excuse they already used). I live in an area where I have to drive to the PO to get all my mail, and to add insult to injury I'm charged $14 a year for the box they put it in. So how can that be fair when other people have their mail dropped right at their front door? The increase is just another tax on a new economy since the internet taxation measure failed the first time around. Not to mention the zealous reps in congress, who for years, wanted to tax interstate sales and failed. Now they have the means, and the ways.
Edit=last sentence
[ edited by Puddy on Feb 7, 2001 12:39 AM ]
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reamond
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posted on February 7, 2001 01:02:15 PM
Well .... all the industrialized nations are democracies, and have higher postal rates.
The business eBay may have generated for the USPS is not what it seems. In order to meet increased demand, the USPS has huge expenses which eBay does not. Placing infrastructure in the shipping business is not like merely adding servers and changing software at eBay.
eBays largest expense is stock dilution and write off for the stock options for the millionaires working there.
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chum
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posted on February 7, 2001 01:12:10 PM
The problem with the increase in my opinion is what the buyers think. Sure as sellers some of us say well it isnt too much, but we arent paying the shipping the customers are, and my customers are starting to complain. To help lower the shipping fee I switched to parcel post, but soon it wont be much cheaper. If anything would put eBay in trouble it may be the postal service's rate hikes. If buyers start shopping elsewhere they may take a hit.
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cmhaas
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posted on February 7, 2001 01:23:20 PM
I posted a response on a similar thread. Think about it, with all the online auctions going on and people buying all the time on them, and a good percentage of the sellers using the USPS to ship, they have to be shipping much more than they did before auctions!
And auctions aren't the only ones shipping USPS! I've bought from buy.com on several occassions and my purchases have been shipped USPS - Priority Mail from them.
I can't help but believe that the internet and auctions have give the USPS a great deal of revenue!
Christina
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reamond
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posted on February 7, 2001 02:17:31 PM
The revenue that the USPS may get from increased internet sales does not meet the front loaded expenses for the increased volume.
However, we can choose Fedex, USPS or UPS to ship our items.
The real problem is that when eBay raises its rates, we have no competitor to go to.
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