Have you ever had a piece of mail ruined? A letter crunched or a poster bent? Chances are that the culprit behind such destructive negligence was someone employed or some machine used by the United States Postal Service. I cannot tell you how many issues of my Transworld subscription have been destroyed by poor handling or how many packages have ended up in wrong states only to be told that an error had an occurred and, “We’re sorry.”
You would imagine that these errors could be blamed on an insufficient receiving and collection processes. It must be so disorganized and out of control at your local post office that it is no surprise that there is such bad service, right? Wrong, the post office actually runs one of the tightest and mind numbing bureaucratic systems. It is the customer service that is really hurting them. The post office generally doesn’t care about problems with your mail or how long you had to wait, they would rather you leave then be satisfied.
What frustrates me the most about the USPS is how I can go to a competitor like the United Parcel Service, and get better service and care for me and my package while paying just a little bit more. So why keep the old system?
Many politicians are starting to think the same way and have been calling for a revamp of the old ways. Privitzation of Post offices, removing offices and reducing the sacale has been effective but more is going to be needed.
There is still time to save the USPS from its fate of mass-Privatization or obliteration. Instead of raising the price of stamps and relying on laws that monopolizes mailing letters, the post office needs new ideas like federally protected email, or even actually controlling inter office emails which has been a growing demand for large companies.
The post office may be very lacking but it certainly isn’t out of the game yet. It wouldn’t be the end of the world to see it gone but it sure would make sense.
