Friday, March 01, 2013

WTFriday: WTF is With the USPS?

In case you don't know what those abbreviations stand for, here's the skinny of it: What the fuck is up with the United States Postal Service?!

I ordered a beautiful glass bead from some wonderfully talented friends out in Port Townsend, Washington. I got a notification on February 22nd from the USPS that it had been shipped, and originally, it was slated for delivery sometime around February 25th according to the tracking.

So, naturally, when it failed to appear in my post office box again today, I checked the tracking. And saw this:

















So, it took the post office EIGHT DAYS to "accept" the package, after they originally told me it would be delivered around the 25th of February? And now the expected delivery is March 4? How does that work? Do they have Zippy The Wonder Slug sorting mail out in Port Townsend? Did it fall behind a bookcase until last night? What?

You know, I know there are some people that would have us believe that the United State Post Office is doomed, and that it needs to go away. I've never, EVER, had such problems with the USPS as I have in the last couple of years since the Men In Suits down in Washington have started fucking with it.

You know what? If Congress wants to shut down the publicly-owned USPS and privatize and let UPS and FedEx handle everything from now on, fine. But why not just tell the American public that that's what they want to do instead of making all this noise and hemming and hawing about "Oh, we can't AFFORD a public mail delivery system!"

You know what I say to that? Fuck that. You know what country can't afford a public mail delivery system? Somalia, that's who.

In order to appease Congress, the USPS has started closing down rural post offices and sorting facilities. And, yes, you guessed it, that's significantly affected my ability just to receive my fucking mail since they shut down the local sorting facility. Now, all our mail is sorted down in Albany, over two hours away, and trucked up here what seems like every third day.

Why all the sudden rush to hate on public services these days? Hmmm? Makes me wonder... I've never had problems like this with my rural mail service before, not in the 13 years since we've lived up here. Now that the USPS is under pressure from Congress, they're floundering like a perch that's just been tonked on the head and tossed on the floor of the boat.

Nothing left to do now but sit and wait and see what happens...and maybe write a letter to Congress, telling them to get their act together and save the damn USPS. We're not Somalia, in case they didn't notice.

2 comments:

Beadcomber said...

Here Here Jen!
I've never had a problem with USPS and actually prefer them wayyy over FEDEX and UPS (they are FEDUP should they amalgamate companies, old joke haha). Both charge fees such as brokerage fees across the border because they prepay sales tax for the various provinces...sometimes USPS does too, but they don't bother with small packages and let them go on their way through Customs easier. UPS and FEDEX charge brokerage fees on small packages. I remember once paying $25 extra for a $25 package :(. That's why I don't make purchases in the USA where the store only offers them as mailing choices.
USPS is much more affordable and shipping friendly.
Not sure about USPS if they charge Fuel Surcharge taxes, but our Post is doing that now. Currently our Canada Post is undergoing major changes as snail mail has drastically dropped. This is going to hurt small Businesses who can't afford the more costly 'faster' shipping methods.

If it weren't for Canada Post and USPS though, I wouldn't be able to ship back and forth between our two countries. Small businesses like us (Etsy, ArtFire etc) couldn't deal with $26 shipping on a $8 item.

Our Canada Post stopped deliveries on Saturdays in the 50's, I believe, and the sudden lag in USPS is because they too have plans, if not already implemented, to stop Saturday deliveries...to cut costs.

I'm still waiting for you know what, lol.

Tina

Kassie www.beadingbutterfly.com said...

Are you sure that the package actually shipped on the 22nd? The label states that the electronic info was received then, but at the company I work for, we can create shipping labels any time we want with whatever date on them and send the confirmation to the receiver, even if we don't actually ship it that day. So perhaps they meant to ship it out and didn't for some reason? I am not one to cheer for the USPS on any day, I just think there might be another explanation for what happened. Happy beading! :)