A visit to the Post Office...

[4est_4est_Gump]

One clerk behind the counter and she was in no itching hurry...

They have no copy machine, go figure.

She disappears for 20 minutes looking for a package, then announces to the line that she will have to go find her supervisor to look for it, another 15 minutes. When I left 30 minutes later, the guy was still waiting for his package.

A man comes in and asks where are the change of address forms, which of course causes the clerk to stop in mid explanation of how to fill out some forms to the customer she was "assisting." We are out. We've been out of them for over a week and I have no idea when we might get some. You can fill out the form on line. The man says, I have no computer. Well you might try the post office in the next town. I have no car. She then restarts her explanation of the instructions for the customer she was waiting on ignoring the man staring at her.

Another employee sticks his head in and looks at the line. Do you need any help? No, I'm fine...

As soon as the line gets down to just me, two other people show up and make a great show of opening two more windows for zero customers...

Meanwhile, the Post Office is preparing for its second Deficit in two months...

The U.S. Postal Service will default this week on a $5.6 billion congressionally mandated obligation to pre-fund retiree health benefits, marking the second time in two months the cash-strapped agency has done this.

The Postal Service last month failed to pay $5.5 billion for its fiscal 2011 prepayment obligation, which originally was due in September 2011 but was deferred by Congress until Aug. 1. That was the first time it ever defaulted on a payment to the Treasury Department. The $5.6 billion due this week, on Sept. 30, represents this fiscal year’s obligation.

Before this year, Congress helped USPS defer pre-funding payments required by a 2006 congressional mandate. Postal reform has challenged this Congress. Lawmakers warn that when they revisit the issue after the November election they likely won’t reach agreement on as major an overhaul as some deem necessary. USPS lost $5.2 billion in the third quarter of fiscal 2012, $2.1 billion more than during the same time period in 2011.

http://nationaljournal.com/congress...res-for-second-default-in-two-months-20120926

 

[RobDownSouth]

Your life has been a Trail of Tears.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Typical USPS encounter. Our shop removed the stamp machines, copiers, etc. But theyre gonna deliver more junk mail.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

There is a good post office near the Stimulus Site. It usually is empty if I go in the morning.

 

[SgtSpiderMan]

One clerk behind the counter and she was in no itching hurry...

They have no copy machine, go figure.

She disappears for 20 minutes looking for a package, then announces to the line that she will have to go find her supervisor to look for it, another 15 minutes. When I left 30 minutes later, the guy was still waiting for his package.

A man comes in and asks where are the change of address forms, which of course causes the clerk to stop in mid explanation of how to fill out some forms to the customer she was "assisting." We are out. We've been out of them for over a week and I have no idea when we might get some. You can fill out the form on line. The man says, I have no computer. Well you might try the post office in the next town. I have no car. She then restarts her explanation of the instructions for the customer she was waiting on ignoring the man staring at her.

Another employee sticks his head in and looks at the line. Do you need any help? No, I'm fine...

As soon as the line gets down to just me, two other people show up and make a great show of opening two more windows for zero customers...

Meanwhile, the Post Office is preparing for its second Deficit in two months...


http://nationaljournal.com/congress...res-for-second-default-in-two-months-20120926

I'll call bullshit. You actually spent 30 minutes in a post office when you could have done what you needed online?

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I'll call bullshit. You actually spent 30 minutes in a post office when you could have done what you needed online?

I was there to pick up a package that needed a signature moron...

Is that all you Democrats do? Come to lit to pick a fight?

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Typical USPS encounter. Our shop removed the stamp machines, copiers, etc. But theyre gonna deliver more junk mail.

There is a good post office near the Stimulus Site. It usually is empty if I go in the morning.

The best part of it was that all of the roads were torn up around it, it had to be approached in much the same manner as outlined in Kafka's The Castle...

 

[RobDownSouth]

I was there to pick up a package that needed a signature moron...

Is that all you Democrats do? Come to lit to pick a fight?

I'm glad you found a profession where you can use your mad skillz.

"Signature Moron" will definitely stand out on your resume.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I'll call bullshit. You actually spent 30 minutes in a post office when you could have done what you needed online?

Naaah. What he reports is bizness as usual. The PO seems to attract lotsa halfwitted shitbirds who tie-up the clerk for long stretches of time.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

Children's hands tremble in peril.


Mortal peril?


Is there any other kind???


Off to track the Comancheros . . . .

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Granny says keep the sun at your back.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Naaah. What he reports is bizness as usual. The PO seems to attract lotsa halfwitted shitbirds who tie-up the clerk for long stretches of time.

And it's in that part of town. As I left, a cop was on the corner hassling an ancient drunk while two urban Utes in prison pants watched in merriment...

 

[Adre]

Most of the employees of my local post office are older angry white guys with Romney buttons on their shirts. I'm not sure why.

 

[kbate]

Typical USPS encounter. Our shop removed the stamp machines, copiers, etc. But theyre gonna deliver more junk mail.

They removed the stamp machines and instead you can buy them online, at Walmart, at the grocery or at the window. Less theft, more available and less need for a person standing at a window.

Buy your own copier, it costs $79. Why should the post office spend personnel time making copies for you when you'll only pay $0.15 per page?

Junk mail pays the bills and makes you buy things when you read it.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I kinda see the copier as a money-maker taking advantage of the desperate and unprepared.


Charge $.50 a copy.

 

[kbate]

I kinda see the copier as a money-maker taking advantage of the desperate and unprepared.
Charge $.50 a copy.

And the machine sits quietly gathering dust, but still on the ledger.

People have smart phones and can photograph their paper, mail it home and so on. Buying a copier is a loser today.

The post office is now for the first time in its history, being permitted to make the personnel and infrastructure cuts that it should have been permitted to make 30 years ago. It won't help as long as they have to fund pensions for 35 years in advance.

 

[sigh]

Congress should get out of it. The mandate for the Post Office to prefund their retirement program places an enormous burden on them that their competitors (or no one else) are required to bear. They must prefund 80% of their retirement program for the next 75 years and were given only 10 years to do it. That means they are prefundiung retirement for employees that haven't yet been hired, or even born. What rational company would set that as their highest priority?

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

And the machine sits quietly gathering dust, but still on the ledger.

People have smart phones and can photograph their paper, mail it home and so on. Buying a copier is a loser today.

The post office is now for the first time in its history, being permitted to make the personnel and infrastructure cuts that it should have been permitted to make 30 years ago. It won't help as long as they have to fund pensions for 35 years in advance.

You would think, but let me tell you, from personal observation yesterday, that it is not true for everybody and even those with camera phones might be too stupid to think about that.

There's a lot of Obama voters to be found at the Post Office.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Congress should get out of it. The mandate for the Post Office to prefund their retirement program places an enormous burden on them that their competitors (or no one else) are required to bear. They must prefund 80% of their retirement program for the next 75 years and were given only 10 years to do it. That means they are prefundiung retirement for employees that haven't yet been hired, or even born. What rational company would set that as their highest priority?

Obviously one connected at the hip to government.

That was what the whole Wisconsin battle was about.

 

[miles]

If you want a preview of healthcare in the US take a trip to the post office. Worn out facilities, unmotivated employees, and a long wait for routine services. Anyone who thinks otherwise is well...a liberal.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

If you want a preview of healthcare in the US take a trip to the post office. Worn out facilities, unmotivated facilities, and a long wait for routine services. Anyone who thinks otherwise is well...a liberal.

Already got a taste of it via the VA...

 

[kbate]

You would think, but let me tell you, from personal observation yesterday, that it is not true for everybody and even those with camera phones might be too stupid to think about that.

So, you want government to purchase a machine, hire a worker and assist those who are 'technology impaired'.

Right. Welcome to the Democratic party.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

So, you want government to purchase a machine, hire a worker and assist those who are 'technology impaired'.

Right. Welcome to the Democratic party.

I seriously doubt if a worker would ever be available to assist with a copy machine after observing how underutilized the six service windows were...



It would be the Republican Party that would see an opportunity for profit; the Democrats would gleefully run it at a loss.

 

[kbate]

I seriously doubt if a worker would ever be available to assist with a copy machine after observing how underutilized the six service windows were...

It would be the Republican Party that would see an opportunity for profit; the Democrats would gleefully run it at a loss.

If the windows were underutilized, why the wait? Appears that they have exactly the staffing required. The only problem being that the person working the window did not have the sense to say, "We cannot locate the package, Next"?

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

If the windows were underutilized, why the wait? Appears that they have exactly the staffing required. The only problem being that the person working the window did not have the sense to say, "We cannot locate the package, Next"?

Huh?

You lost me sister...