dick ranez

Any organization that has a personal interface with the public has good people and bad people who do it. The USPS is no different, and like most organizations, the people who attempt to do a good job, are friendly and helpful far outnumber the ones who don't. How the folks at my local post office manage to smile and be helpful is a mystery to me after observing some of the idiots who cross their paths.

PRETENDER Loc: Micanopy,Florida

Some of our fellow members of humanity will complain if they were to be hung with other than a new rope.

Cameraman

Hi RiderXLX:
I completely agree with you and here are a couple of examples of the poor postal service in India. In 1969 I send a few slides of moon landing to my mother who would have loved to see them. Of course they ewer stolen by someone in the post. I sent another set and even that was stolen in the post office. Finally I had to send one with someone who was going to India. Another example – one of my seniors at the engineering college got his admission at a Canadian university and he mailed the final forms to the university but he never received the agreement/acceptance letter back from the university in time but in October - a month after the Fall term had started - he received a letter saying they never received his final forms. What had happened was that he had attached enough stamps to his letter to go via airmail but someone at the post office removed some stands and left just enough for the letter to go via sea mail. As a result, his forms never reached in time and he has to waste one year of his life and went to the university the next year. So it became a common practice to get the post office to cancel the stamps in front of you when you posted it so they cannot remove them and reuse (resell) them.
In 50 years I have lived in the US, I have never had a problem with the postal; service except once. A letter was all wet and was inserted by the US post office in a plastic envelope and delivered it to me. Apparently the original envelope was too week and got wet in the rain in India before it even left India.
Folks who complain about the USPS need to really look at other countries to be convinced we have one of the best postal service.

Cameraman

KillroyII Loc: Middle Georgia

We also get good service here in middle Georgia. This comes as we are missing the post-lady we had for several years... then has recently retired. We knew when to expect our mail, she was friendly, and she chatted with us briefly when she saw us outside... and checked on how we were doing and how/where was the last trip. Since she retired, they have been crazy late (up to 8 in the evening) getting mail for a while... but I don't blame the person delivering... I have guessed they have doubled up on someone while they get a new employee. At 1st I thought we had a new guy that was slow... then noticed a couple of others delivering late. In the last few days, saw a new young lady that was much earlier in the day... hope she is the replacement... I greeted her as she placed mail in the box. She had a friendly smile and a cheerful reply. I am a grumpy old man that goes out of his way to be nice to people and appreciate someone returning the favor.

I do have a story from the past though... lived in Germany (on a military base) in late 60s and early 70s. Had a subscription to Saturday Even Post and when it came time for the last issue to arrive... it didn't. Other friends commented that theirs never came either. I guess, somewhere in the chain, someone thought those would be keepers.

riderxlx Loc: DFW area Texas

AMEN Brother

baggit Loc: Buffalo New York

You are spot on Bruce Thank you !

Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

You're the only one who made a political comment. So, according to you the USPS didn't have any problems, except for the last three years. I've followed many of your postings, and expected better from you.

ClarkJohnson Loc: Fort Myers, FL and Cohasset, MA

Yes, you’re right. I did more research and found out that the new guy has given millions of dollars to Trump and the Republicans. Should have known this before. Man, talk about draining the swamp! So his job is not only to push privatization, but to prevent voting by mail in the upcoming election. The USPS is still in a tough spot, but politicizing the top management won’t improve the situation.

Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

Very interesting, that Trump is the ONLY President who put a relative, supporter, or an incompetent friend into a Government position.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

The Indiana primary was pushed back from early May to early June. Normally I could vote by mail because simply being over 65 is a reason for doing so by state law; our Secretary of State eventually allowed anyone to do so, and {only 10% of the polls in my county were open - shortage of poll workers} many did. No one is willing to say how the general election will be run around here, but I plan to vote by mail again, and - as was the case with the primary - I expect it to be handled well. The upper echelons handle money, but the lower echelons deliver the mail {and usually do a good job of it}.

Leo Perez

Thank you Bruce, Postal retiree. Where else in this green earth, deliver a letter for 54 cents any where in the good ole USA. Try that with UPS, FEDX.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

And my experience has been that packages are much less expensive to send with USPS than UPS or FedX for equivalent service. You can buy and print postage on your computer using the USPS ap, and your mail carrier will pick up your package at your home, so no trip to a UPS or FedX store or facility or post office.

Scottty Loc: Portland,Oregon

OK, some input from someone who's been there, done that. I'm a retired letter carrier. Retired in 2015 after 24 years as a carrier. 1) In the lame duck session, before the Bush administration lost it's majority in congress, they passed a law which mandated the USPS set aside 5.5 billion dollars every year for 10 years to pay for 75 years of future retiree benefits. No other government agency does that and no private company would think of doing that. This law also prohibited the USPS from making it's own policy changes to adapt to the changing world. Any proposed changes are now subject to the approval of the Postal Board of Governors, who are appointed by the President, and the majority of whom are proponents of privatization. Prior to this law the USPS operated in the black. Now it's in the red because the law makes it so. 2) As others here have mentioned, you have good and bad in all industries. That includes management. As we've all seen over the years, too often someone who can't do the job goes into management and now they are telling people how to do a job they themselves couldn't do. Now with their new position of authority they end up being the kind of person nobody wants to work for. Nepotism is also alive and well in USPS management. Hiring someone who doesn't know the job to be the boss of the people doing the job? What could go wrong with that? 3)When I started in the USPS it was as a PTF(part time flexible). After 90 days, if you didn't mess up and showed you could do the job, you pretty much had the job. As regular-full time carriers retired and positions opened up the most senior PTFs would by promoted to fill those positions. Now, new hires are CCAs(career carrier assistants. This position is for 1 year. At the end of that year, if the CCA hasn't been made a regular, they can be re-hired for another year. However, not only do CCAs not have the same benefits I had as a PTF, they can be fired any time during the whole year of service. A supervisor doesn't need a reason, any reason, to fire a CCA. I've seen it happen more than once. To say this creates an atmosphere of stress and anxiety would be a vast understatement. When in a job where the bosses show they don't care about the workers it's no surprise the workers don't care about the job other than getting a paycheck. 4) Management decides how work is to be done. This is part of their job. However, to do so without input from the people doing the work is just asking for problems. Many times craft is instructed to do something which is not only not an improvement but is also counterproductive. And when following instructions does not provide the improved outcome management anticipated it's the craft workers fault. A saying in the USPS is "management has the right to manage poorly and they exercise their right to the fullest extent." Now, I could go on & on & on & on about the workings of the USPS, both good and bad, but I'll just leave you with these thoughts. Not all the problems you see are the fault of the people you see. I've been to the UK and Germany recently and talk with both carriers and customers. The vast majority feel their postal systems were better before privatization. Is the USPS perfect? Of course not, nothing is. But considering the work, pressure, weather, the cost, going the last mile other companies don't, the fact that the USPS connects people and communities in a way a computer never can and the 99.99% of the people who show up every day to do the best job they can, I feel the USPS does a pretty damn fine job. Just remember, I wouldn't pretend to know enough about your job to criticize you unless I walked a mile in your shoes. I only ask you to do the same.

baggit Loc: Buffalo New York

Exactly

Tdearing Loc: Rockport, TX

Have to agree with you Bruce. Speaking from Rockport, TX our USPS people are wonderful. Maybe it's the small town touch that makes the difference. They know who I am, go to great lengths to make sure I get my packages, even at the marina. By contrast, a month ago purchased a Coach bracelet for my sweetheart that disappeared for a few weeks after UPS dropped it with USPS Houston, for final delivery - additionally, on the eventual delivery a hole manifested in the package and the bracelet went missing - the empty package did however make it. So, back to my initial observation, perhaps there is a small town advantage.