Minor things that bother you

[Molandfreak]

I had to return/exchange a large DVD set because some of the discs were defective.  The replacement is on track to arrive tomorrow - when I'll be out of town most of the day for a roadmeet, and have essentially no time to check the discs (there are 50 of them, so even just looking at the back and testing to see if they're recognized/play if they have scratches will easily take a whole hour) in the limited evening hours when I'll be home.  I can't find a way to force the post office to hold the package until Monday so I can deal with it then.

If you have home delivery of your mail, you can always request a hold on your mail. When I had home delivery, I did it a couple of times.

(Realizing that you'll see this too late to actually arrange the hold.)

He said its being delivered Saturday. He can go to his postoffice right now and put the hold on.

I'm sure this is unintentional, but vdeane uses she/her pronouns.

[1995hoo]

You can request a hold through the USPS website. I've done it many times, although it looks like they now require a login. A request submitted this afternoon is supposed to be timely for mail due to be delivered tomorrow—the site says you have until 2:00 AM for tomorrow's mail.

[vdeane]

You can request a hold through the USPS website. I've done it many times, although it looks like they now require a login. A request submitted this afternoon is supposed to be timely for mail due to be delivered tomorrow—the site says you have until 2:00 AM for tomorrow's mail.

They do, and I have one from when I was at my previous apartment (my current apartment requires a key to get regular mail, so I don't bother with anything less than a week now).  They also require that holds be a minimum of three days long (unless that changed again), enforced by the date picker, so unless I want to stop all mail until well into next week, that's not really an option.

[gonealookin]

They also require that holds be a minimum of three days long (unless that changed again), enforced by the date picker, so unless I want to stop all mail until well into next week, that's not really an option.

"Not really an option"?  You can't go three days without getting mail delivered?  I get all my mail delivered to a PO Box because USPS doesn't do home delivery here (they do give us the PO Box for free, with annual proof of current residency like a utility bill), and two visits a week is plenty often.

With so many items that formerly went via USPS now delivered via the Internet, I don't see why residential delivery needs to be more than three times a week at most.  Businesses should get mail every day, but not every single house.

[Rothman]

They also require that holds be a minimum of three days long (unless that changed again), enforced by the date picker, so unless I want to stop all mail until well into next week, that's not really an option.

"Not really an option"?  You can't go three days without getting mail delivered?  I get all my mail delivered to a PO Box because USPS doesn't do home delivery here (they do give us the PO Box for free, with annual proof of current residency like a utility bill), and two visits a week is plenty often.

With so many items that formerly went via USPS now delivered via the Internet, I don't see why residential delivery needs to be more than three times a week at most.  Businesses should get mail every day, but not every single house.

Internet, but no home mail delivery...methinks your neck is quite red. ;D

[mgk920]

Political powers-that-be who have conveniently forgotten that the 18 Amendment was repealed over 90 years ago.

Mike

[gonealookin]

"Not really an option"?  You can't go three days without getting mail delivered?  I get all my mail delivered to a PO Box because USPS doesn't do home delivery here (they do give us the PO Box for free, with annual proof of current residency like a utility bill), and two visits a week is plenty often.

With so many items that formerly went via USPS now delivered via the Internet, I don't see why residential delivery needs to be more than three times a week at most.  Businesses should get mail every day, but not every single house.

Internet, but no home mail delivery...methinks your neck is quite red. ;D

Heh.  Congress is the entity that has prevented USPS from downsizing in response to Internet delivery.  This is an area where Trump could use his power over the current Congress to do something I would fully support, which is to reduce USPS service to five days a week and have each residential delivery route run only on alternate days.

I would probably eliminate Monday service, so as to allow people who work Monday through Friday to easily be able to access full USPS service on Saturdays.  One week a particular residence would get mail delivery on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and the next week just on Wednesday and Friday.  It would eliminate a lot of make-work jobs that were necessary 50 years ago but just contribute to USPS bloat today.

[vdeane]

They also require that holds be a minimum of three days long (unless that changed again), enforced by the date picker, so unless I want to stop all mail until well into next week, that's not really an option.

"Not really an option"?  You can't go three days without getting mail delivered?  I get all my mail delivered to a PO Box because USPS doesn't do home delivery here (they do give us the PO Box for free, with annual proof of current residency like a utility bill), and two visits a week is plenty often.

With so many items that formerly went via USPS now delivered via the Internet, I don't see why residential delivery needs to be more than three times a week at most.  Businesses should get mail every day, but not every single house.

Why should I have to wait for Wednesday when this saga has already gone on for far too long?  And hold up all other mail too (which, until this afternoon, included a baby shower invitation that I've been waiting all week for, seeing as Mom got her's Monday morning!)?  I find it ridiculous that the USPS doesn't have a way to say "please don't deliver a day early because it's not a good day for me".  And before you say "well you should have waited to order then", ironically I did.  I'm only in this situation because of the return/exchange process, since apparently DVDs can't be consistently made correctly.  I actually did wait to order until after I got back from the Maryland roadmeet specifically to avoid a worse situation - which, it turned out, was never even a possibility at all given the number of days this took to be delivered.  In hindsight, I should have ordered before I left for Maryland, and this all would have never been a problem.  Silly old me for thinking that the nearly two weeks between the two roadmeets would be enough time to have something shipped.

Quite frankly, stuff like this makes me wonder why online ordering is so popular.  It's such a hassle.  The ordering part is easy, but then you have to wait several days for delivery, deal with unboxing and disposing of packaging material (which in this day and age includes unfolding packing paper to go in the recycling bin, and boy is there a lot of it...), checking everything, printing return labels and hoping you can re-use packaging if there's any issues (and then taking it to a UPS store to be shipped), and having to stare at the collapsed box for a week until you take the recyclables out (at least for us apartment dwellers - homeowners may have the luxury of a bin in the garage, but I have to stare at things next to the basket in my living room/office).  It's a huge hassle, and this return/exchange process already had my blood pressure way up even before the slight chance of huge inconvenience became near certainty.  I already favored buying things in person before this, which has only increased, but sadly, there are many things that aren't available except online.

I truly wish I didn't have the worst luck like this.  It feels like the universe is against me.  The more I wish for it to not be delivered tomorrow, the more certain it will be.  The more I wished for clear weather on the day of the eclipse, the cloudier it got.  The more I wished for a dry move to my current apartment, the rainier it got (and my favorite umbrella got ruined that day too...).  I feel like I'm cursed.  Wanting something only decreases the likelihood that I'll get it, or increases the chance that it will be tainted like the medium place on the TV show The Good Place.

"Not really an option"?  You can't go three days without getting mail delivered?  I get all my mail delivered to a PO Box because USPS doesn't do home delivery here (they do give us the PO Box for free, with annual proof of current residency like a utility bill), and two visits a week is plenty often.

With so many items that formerly went via USPS now delivered via the Internet, I don't see why residential delivery needs to be more than three times a week at most.  Businesses should get mail every day, but not every single house.

Internet, but no home mail delivery...methinks your neck is quite red. ;D

Heh.  Congress is the entity that has prevented USPS from downsizing in response to Internet delivery.  This is an area where Trump could use his power over the current Congress to do something I would fully support, which is to reduce USPS service to five days a week and have each residential delivery route run only on alternate days.

I would probably eliminate Monday service, so as to allow people who work Monday through Friday to easily be able to access full USPS service on Saturdays.  One week a particular residence would get mail delivery on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and the next week just on Wednesday and Friday.  It would eliminate a lot of make-work jobs that were necessary 50 years ago but just contribute to USPS bloat today.

Or we could do things like bringing back postal banking (increasing banking access for undeserved communities and allowing the post office to make more money - win-win!) or admitting that government services shouldn't be run like a business or expected to turn a profit.

[gonealookin]

Holy smokes.  Nice rant!

I might come across as insensitive because I've been dealing with the nonexistence of USPS home delivery for 16 years now.  Sure, there was an adjustment period, but once I got used to the idiosyncracies I came to like not having the home delivery.  It certainly reduces the likelihood of porch piracy by 100%.

Per my current experience, when I leave this place and go some place where USPS delivers to residences, I expect I will pay to subscribe to some PO box service such as "The UPS Store" which gives you a street address for delivery and eliminates the occasional problem I have with "This item cannot be delivered to a PO Box".  Ways around that include using the full nine-digit zip code, which tells USPS which PO Box the street address is associated with, having the item delivered to Amazon Locker if it's an Amazon item, or having it delivered to the local store e.g. Home Depot, Ace Hardware etc. and picking it up at the counter there.

[JayhawkCO]

Late to the plastic bag conversation, but the entire country of Tanzania has banned them.

[Scott5114]

"Not really an option"?  You can't go three days without getting mail delivered?  I get all my mail delivered to a PO Box because USPS doesn't do home delivery here (they do give us the PO Box for free, with annual proof of current residency like a utility bill), and two visits a week is plenty often.

With so many items that formerly went via USPS now delivered via the Internet, I don't see why residential delivery needs to be more than three times a week at most.  Businesses should get mail every day, but not every single house.

Internet, but no home mail delivery...methinks your neck is quite red. ;D

Heh.  Congress is the entity that has prevented USPS from downsizing in response to Internet delivery.  This is an area where Trump could use his power over the current Congress to do something I would fully support, which is to reduce USPS service to five days a week and have each residential delivery route run only on alternate days.

I would probably eliminate Monday service, so as to allow people who work Monday through Friday to easily be able to access full USPS service on Saturdays.  One week a particular residence would get mail delivery on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and the next week just on Wednesday and Friday.  It would eliminate a lot of make-work jobs that were necessary 50 years ago but just contribute to USPS bloat today.

Both my wife and I rely on USPS for medication delivery—it is the only way we can afford our medication (my wife has hers mailed from a pharmacy in Oklahoma that is paid for by her tribe out of their casino profit, and we cannot get it locally without paying an amount of money that doesn't exist). Alternating days would make it impossible to actually coordinate a prescription refill so that it arrives without a gap of a few days, especially if a delay were to occur.

UPS is not an acceptable replacement for this because it is considerably more expensive than USPS at this package size (UPS is most cost-efficient for very large packages). If the tribe were to have to pay UPS prices to ensure the medication went there on time, they would most likely just start to require pickup in Purcell, Oklahoma...which is a bit far from Las Vegas.

[Max Rockatansky]

I'm not saying the USPS should be run for profit (it shouldn't).  I am little amused though given that my own department is NF pay band and has operated off the revenue we've generated for five decades.  Pretty much any excess profit we do get (70% to be exact) gets handed over to MWR.

[SEWIGuy]

I had to return/exchange a large DVD set because some of the discs were defective.  The replacement is on track to arrive tomorrow - when I'll be out of town most of the day for a roadmeet, and have essentially no time to check the discs (there are 50 of them, so even just looking at the back and testing to see if they're recognized/play if they have scratches will easily take a whole hour) in the limited evening hours when I'll be home.  I can't find a way to force the post office to hold the package until Monday so I can deal with it then.

If you have home delivery of your mail, you can always request a hold on your mail. When I had home delivery, I did it a couple of times.

(Realizing that you'll see this too late to actually arrange the hold.)

He said its being delivered Saturday. He can go to his postoffice right now and put the hold on.

I'm sure this is unintentional, but vdeane uses she/her pronouns.

Ah. My apologies vdeane.

[kkt]

"Not really an option"?  You can't go three days without getting mail delivered?  I get all my mail delivered to a PO Box because USPS doesn't do home delivery here (they do give us the PO Box for free, with annual proof of current residency like a utility bill), and two visits a week is plenty often.

With so many items that formerly went via USPS now delivered via the Internet, I don't see why residential delivery needs to be more than three times a week at most.  Businesses should get mail every day, but not every single house.

Internet, but no home mail delivery...methinks your neck is quite red. ;D

Heh.  Congress is the entity that has prevented USPS from downsizing in response to Internet delivery.  This is an area where Trump could use his power over the current Congress to do something I would fully support, which is to reduce USPS service to five days a week and have each residential delivery route run only on alternate days.

I would probably eliminate Monday service, so as to allow people who work Monday through Friday to easily be able to access full USPS service on Saturdays.  One week a particular residence would get mail delivery on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and the next week just on Wednesday and Friday.  It would eliminate a lot of make-work jobs that were necessary 50 years ago but just contribute to USPS bloat today.

Cutting mail deliveries would be a death spiral for USPS.  With even local deliveries taking 3 days, people would be more motivated to switch to electronic services or other carriers.  USPS's competitive advantages are delivering to every household 6 days a week, plus packages, plus the recipient being able to have it held if they will be away.

[gonealookin]

Both my wife and I rely on USPS for medication delivery—it is the only way we can afford our medication (my wife has hers mailed from a pharmacy in Oklahoma that is paid for by her tribe out of their casino profit, and we cannot get it locally without paying an amount of money that doesn't exist). Alternating days would make it impossible to actually coordinate a prescription refill so that it arrives without a gap of a few days, especially if a delay were to occur.

I wonder how you deal with the situation where a federal holiday falls on a Monday.  There's already a gap from Saturday to Tuesday without any delivery in that case...and as you mention, what if there's a delay?  It probably requires a bit of advance planning.  Or the situation where you're out of town for a few days when the prescription runs out?  Maybe some advance planning is involved there, too.  People would adjust to alternate-day delivery.

Cutting mail deliveries would be a death spiral for USPS.  With even local deliveries taking 3 days, people would be more motivated to switch to electronic services or other carriers.  USPS's competitive advantages are delivering to every household 6 days a week, plus packages, plus the recipient being able to have it held if they will be away.

I can think of another reason why people are already motivated to switch to electronic services...



Picking that 50-cent price as the arbitrary start date, the increase in CPI from 1/21/2018 to 7/13/2025 was 30.16%.  The cost of a Forever stamp has increased by 56% in that same time span.

[Scott5114]

I wonder how you deal with the situation where a federal holiday falls on a Monday.  There's already a gap from Saturday to Tuesday without any delivery in that case...and as you mention, what if there's a delay?  It probably requires a bit of advance planning.  Or the situation where you're out of town for a few days when the prescription runs out?  Maybe some advance planning is involved there, too.  People would adjust to alternate-day delivery.

We generally get a 30 to 60-day supply, so it's fairly uncommon that a refill would fall on the week of a federal holiday anyway. My wife generally can't travel due to the conditions she needs the medication for.

As for this "people would adjust if the mail were shittier"...that's bullshit. Why should we have to adjust? Why don't you adjust to six-day delivery and leave the rest of us the fuck alone?

[Rothman]

Both my wife and I rely on USPS for medication delivery—it is the only way we can afford our medication (my wife has hers mailed from a pharmacy in Oklahoma that is paid for by her tribe out of their casino profit, and we cannot get it locally without paying an amount of money that doesn't exist). Alternating days would make it impossible to actually coordinate a prescription refill so that it arrives without a gap of a few days, especially if a delay were to occur.

I wonder how you deal with the situation where a federal holiday falls on a Monday.  There's already a gap from Saturday to Tuesday without any delivery in that case...and as you mention, what if there's a delay?  It probably requires a bit of advance planning.  Or the situation where you're out of town for a few days when the prescription runs out?  Maybe some advance planning is involved there, too.  People would adjust to alternate-day delivery.

Cutting mail deliveries would be a death spiral for USPS.  With even local deliveries taking 3 days, people would be more motivated to switch to electronic services or other carriers.  USPS's competitive advantages are delivering to every household 6 days a week, plus packages, plus the recipient being able to have it held if they will be away.

I can think of another reason why people are already motivated to switch to electronic services...



Picking that 50-cent price as the arbitrary start date, the increase in CPI from 1/21/2018 to 7/13/2025 was 30.16%.  The cost of a Forever stamp has increased by 56% in that same time span.

With a public irrationally screaming for the USPS to turn a profit, who would expect less?

[Scott5114]

With a public irrationally screaming for the USPS to turn a profit, who would expect less?

Why doesn't anyone ever demand that the State Department turn a profit?

[kkt]

With a public irrationally screaming for the USPS to turn a profit, who would expect less?

Why doesn't anyone ever demand that the State Department turn a profit?

Or the Defense Department.  We could have them invade random rich but poorly-defended countries and loot their treasuries and put the Department on a profit-making basis!

[mgk920]

And from what I figure as 'real' inflation from a century ago, a First Class letter stamp SHOULD be about $3.25-$3.50 or so in today's money.  (A First Class letter stamp was 3¢ in 1925.)  That is how much the politicians have trashed the dollar since then.  The official government stats on 'inflation' are beyond absurdly low.  On that scale, mailing a letter is the greatest modern day bargain of all.

Mike

[hotdogPi]

Quoting from a prior thread since many people here haven't seen it regarding different inflation calculations:

A few notes:

-Inflation from long ago to today is grossly under reported by the feds.  From 1933 (end of the gold standard) to 2014, the 'true' rate has been about 80:1 - it's the only figure that works when running comparable things.

Examples:
-Decent room in a downtown hotel: 1920 - $2 -- 2014 - $100-200
-A really nice room:  1920 - $3 -- 2014 - $250-300
-Good beer in a bar:  1919 (*illegal* in 1920) - $0.05 -- 2014 - $4-5
-A decent lunch:  1920 - $0.05-0.10 -- 2014 - $5-10
-Dinner in a restaurant for the family:  1920 - $0.40-0.50 -- 2014 $30-40
-Daily newspaper: 1920 - $0.02-0.03 -- 2014 $1.50-2.00
-Snailmail letter stamp: 1920 - $0.03 -- 2014 - $0.49 (snailmail is an absolute *BARGAIN* today!  If adjusted for 'true' inflation, a First Class letter stamp should now be about $2.50.)
-etc.

[post continues with discussion about changing what denominations we use]

Mike

[gonealookin]

Volume of first-class mail has declined by about 50% over the last couple decades.

Market Dominant mail — a category consisting primarily of First-Class Mail, Marketing Mail, and Periodicals — accounts for over half of the Postal Service's revenue, but volume of these mail classes have been falling for nearly two decades.
 
Annual Market Dominant mail volume fell by 46 percent between fiscal years (FYs) 2008 and 2023. First-Class Mail volume fell 50 percent over that period, from 92 billion pieces to 46 billion. Marketing Mail volume decreased 40 percent, from 99 billion pieces to 59 billion. Periodicals volume fell 65 percent, from 9 billion pieces to 3 billion.

Source:  Sept. 2024 white paper

It's not like the decline is slowing, either.  USPS quarterly financial results released this past week showed a further 5.4% drop in First Class Mail volume from April-June 2024 to the same period in 2025.  And yet people see the 6-day delivery service as a necessity, entitlement, whatever.  It seems odd to expect the same level of service to be maintained when demand for the service has dropped by half and continues to plunge.

As for this "people would adjust if the mail were shittier"...that's bullshit. Why should we have to adjust? Why don't you adjust to six-day delivery and leave the rest of us the fuck alone?

I get the vehement opposition to my one-size-fits-all proposal, so let me suggest an alternative.  I will voluntary opt into getting USPS deliveries only two days per week for the current no-charge.  You may continue with six-day delivery service...but you would pay a subscription fee for that level of service.

[hbelkins]

The current level of ineptitude with USPS delivery is begging for it to be privatized. When has the government ever been truly responsive to consumer complaints?

Local mail (from one PO box to another) now goes to Louisville to be sorted before it's delivered. In the past, a piece of local mail was sorted in-house and ever left the county. Then, it started going to the regional post office (Campton, KY 41301), then to Lexington, now to Louisville. That's ridiculous and inefficient.

Last week, I got a newspaper from the first week of July. If a private business ran so poorly,it would go out of business.But since the post office is a government operation, it just chugs along and there's nothing anybody can do.

And don't get me started on the redundancy and inefficiency of there being a post office every five miles in some rural areas of Kentucky and West Virginia, that aren't open but a couple of hours each day with the federal government renting space in a country store somewhere.

[LilianaUwU]

Yes, privatize governmental postal services so they can charge even more than they already do.

Canada Post sucks too, but it's good to have an alternative that's not owned by a trillion dollar corporation.

[Scott5114]

As for this "people would adjust if the mail were shittier"...that's bullshit. Why should we have to adjust? Why don't you adjust to six-day delivery and leave the rest of us the fuck alone?

I get the vehement opposition to my one-size-fits-all proposal, so let me suggest an alternative.  I will voluntary opt into getting USPS deliveries only two days per week for the current no-charge.  You may continue with six-day delivery service...but you would pay a subscription fee for that level of service.

I see now why your county thought it was a good idea to hire Joey Gilbert as general counsel (who of course then promptly drained the county coffers dry). If this is the electorate...

Local mail (from one PO box to another) now goes to Louisville to be sorted before it's delivered. In the past, a piece of local mail was sorted in-house and ever left the county. Then, it started going to the regional post office (Campton, KY 41301), then to Lexington, now to Louisville. That's ridiculous and inefficient.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_DeJoy

Gee, who would have thought that putting a guy in charge of the post office who also owns a competitor to the post office was a dumb idea.