OK, the Post Office Still Sucks
I had been lulled into thinking maybe the US Postal Service was modernizing, but I was wrong. I have a PO Box in Colorado where I have my mail for our business forwarded to our Phoenix office for the winter months. However, there is apparently absolutely no way to have all the mail coming to that box forwarded. It can only be forwarded by name. So, if I have 7 business names and 12 employees with mail in that box, I have to submit 19 change of address cards. And, if anyone makes a typo in mailing to one of these 19 names, it won't get forwarded - only if the letter is addressed to the name exactly as it is written in the change of address card will it get to me. Anyone want to guess how often that happens?
Rob:
I still don't know why the post office is the only entity legally allowed to put mail in a mailbox on a street. Is gov't purposefully holding a monopoly on the small mail business?
October 24, 2006, 6:38 pmScott:
Funnily enough the situation is exactly the same with Australia Post - it must be a Western liberal democracy post office "thing".
October 25, 2006, 2:26 pmKyle Bennett:
The PO has improved dramatically over the past few years. They've especially sucked up to us eBay sellers. However, they still haven't got the hang of consistency. The level of service varies widely, and, as you point out, certain services just don't exist. The problem is that even though they've had to respond in a general way to external threats such as FedEx, they still have no real market discipline.
As to your forwarding problem, why not get a messenger service in CO to do it. Have them pick up the mail every so often, put it all in a Fedex box (or a USPS Priority mail box) and overnight it to you. Sure, it's more expensive, and there's a delay, but that's only because the subsidized monopoly can't do what you need. And if you set it up as a regular run, with liberal time constraints (i.e, doesn't have to be done precisely at 9 AM every day), you should be able to negotiate a pretty cheap deal.
And, in the future, get a private mailbox (Such as the UPS Store), instead of a PO Box. I do all my mail through them, and while I haven't needed this kind of service, I'm certain they would do it in house for very cheap, probably even free aside from shipping charges if you are a good customer - they never even have to leave the store to do it.
October 26, 2006, 7:59 amMike:
The Post Office is terrible. I routinely ask clients, vendors and so forth to never send me anything via USPS. I have had packages refused (of which I never refused) and lost. Good luck having them try to find it for you. They appear helpful and kind take your number and say they'll get back to you but never do.
Kudos to UPS and FED-Ex. Maybe someday they'll will take over all the overnight and express mail deliveries.
November 7, 2006, 9:58 am