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Old 12-26-2016, 11:53 AM
 
Location: Central Mexico and Central Florida
7,150 posts, read 4,869,113 times
Reputation: 10444

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I have all my bills on ebill, autopay, etc. I haven't been inside a Post Office for years. For important documents like real estate settlements or court documents, I use FedEx or UPS. For money transfers I use wire transfers (and I do them online, not at the bank).

Yet, every day I get mail at my house, courtesy of USPS. It is nothing but grocery and store circulars, come-ons from credit card companies or insurance companies. A few holiday catalogues, some charity solicitations. NOTHING of import. When you look at the cost to fund USPS, it's staggering.

Time to get rid of USPS in my opinion...let FedEx, UPS, DHL take up the slack.

 
Old 12-26-2016, 12:00 PM
 
12,016 posts, read 12,648,130 times
Reputation: 13420
A lot of older people still pay their bills by check, and get their bills in the mail. When I ship a package I only ship with USPS. Maybe in the future we can get rid of it but not now, and what will the millions who lose their jobs if USPS shuts down do?
 
Old 12-26-2016, 12:01 PM
 
Location: Florida
7,727 posts, read 6,291,703 times
Reputation: 15701
No way, I don't do any of that online and have no interest in changing.

When the hard drive crapped out on my desktop, everything online stopped, the Mail didn't.
 
Old 12-26-2016, 12:02 PM
 
8,924 posts, read 5,580,368 times
Reputation: 12558
Improve them, don't shut them down. Want to see prices go up even more?
 
Old 12-26-2016, 12:04 PM
 
35,095 posts, read 51,005,673 times
Reputation: 62661
Quote:
Originally Posted by dothetwist View Post
I have all my bills on ebill, autopay, etc. I haven't been inside a Post Office for years. For important documents like real estate settlements or court documents, I use FedEx or UPS. For money transfers I use wire transfers (and I do them online, not at the bank).

Yet, every day I get mail at my house, courtesy of USPS. It is nothing but grocery and store circulars, come-ons from credit card companies or insurance companies. A few holiday catalogues, some charity solicitations. NOTHING of import. When you look at the cost to fund USPS, it's staggering.

Time to get rid of USPS in my opinion...let FedEx, UPS, DHL take up the slack.
Great, the way you do things works for you however, some of us have our own business and cannot rely on billpay but have to write actual checks.
Tend to your life and how you do things and let others tend to theirs and decide what is right for them.
 
Old 12-26-2016, 12:06 PM
 
Location: Florida -
10,213 posts, read 14,755,013 times
Reputation: 21845
It's probably time to make USPS less of a high-priced federal bureaucracy and more of a 'non-subsidized, pay its own way' organization. Since FedEx, UPS, DHL are more expensive than the USPS, I'm not sure how much 'slack' they will absorb. In either case, digital communications have certainly shifted the communications paradigm away from pony express days. There doesn't seem to be much evidence that the USPS has shifted with it.
 
Old 12-26-2016, 12:09 PM
 
Location: Central Mexico and Central Florida
7,150 posts, read 4,869,113 times
Reputation: 10444
Not necessary to shut it down tomorrow. But it's time to be honest and give fair warning that the USPS is archaic and expensive. Should be able to close it within .... 5 years seems reasonable.

Remember when you wanted to fly somewhere, you called your Travel Agent?? Travel agents have gone the way of the do-do bird. Now the airlines insist on e-tickets. I think soon they will not do e-tickets, just tickets sent to your smart phone.

Things change and as a society we need to embrace the change, or become a nation of dinosaurs.
 
Old 12-26-2016, 12:13 PM
 
12,016 posts, read 12,648,130 times
Reputation: 13420
Quote:
Originally Posted by dothetwist View Post
Not necessary to shut it down tomorrow. But it's time to be honest and give fair warning that the USPS is archaic and expensive. Should be able to close it within .... 5 years seems reasonable.

Remember when you wanted to fly somewhere, you called your Travel Agent?? Travel agents have gone the way of the do-do bird. Now the airlines insist on e-tickets. I think soon they will not do e-tickets, just tickets sent to your smart phone.

Things change and as a society we need to embrace the change, or become a nation of dinosaurs.
But some things change too fast. I just saw a news story that they want to remove those kiosks where you pay to park and put your space number in and make you pay for parking with a smartphone app. Not everyone has a smartphone and a lot of the older generation do not know how to use them and they should not be told they can't park downtown because they don't have a smartphone.

What USPS needs to do is cut out a day or two of normal mail delivery first and only deliver packages daily.

Corporations must get a huge discount because they offer free shipping now on many items that cost $50 or more. I got a futon delivered for free last month and it wasn't expensive, but it was bulky and heavy.

I mailed my father a gift for Christmas, I think it was under a pound and it cost $10 which is high. Parcel post was only about $1 cheaper but didn't include insurance and tracking so they kind of force you to use Priority Mail by not offering any other inexpensive options.
 
Old 12-26-2016, 12:15 PM
 
Location: Billings, MT
9,885 posts, read 10,902,658 times
Reputation: 14180
Update it and make it better, yes.
Eliminate it? No.
For the twister, I see no reason for you to have a mailbox. Take the thing down, and notify your local Post Office that you no longer want, and will not accept, any mail after a certain date. All mail addressed to your home is to be returned to sender as "Delivery refused" or placed in the dead letter file.
Good luck.

LifeisGood has the right idea. I do not have a smart phone, and do not want one.
But then, about the only time I go down town is to visit the Court House, and they have their own parking lot with old-fashioned parking meters. I drop in a quarter or two, and I'm good. The only other places I go have their own parking lots without meters. That works for me, too.
 
Old 12-26-2016, 12:25 PM
 
Location: Valdez, Alaska
2,758 posts, read 5,258,487 times
Reputation: 2806
Those of us in Alaska and Hawaii, US territories, and the US military make tremendous use of USPS. I go to our local post office several times a week, as we don't have home mail delivery in my community, and FedEx/UPS are extremely expensive outside the contiguous US. Post offices are also meeting places, where we have bake sales, community bulletin boards, and so on. If you don't use the postal service, great. And there are ways to reduce or eliminate junk mail (I personally don't get much at all). But there are plenty of people in this country who do use it.
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