[Cobra64]

Get rid of the friggin' junk mail, coupons and all the rest of the crap, and stop raising the cost of stamps 2 flippin cents every other friggin' year.

I truly believe that these jerks were flunkies from the school of Morons R Us.

[Jeff Chandler]

I truly believe that these jerks were flunkies from the school of Morons R Us.

Don't make them angry. For goodness sake, don't you read the news?!

[willyd]

In ten years, there will be no need for the post office. they only became profitable because they wised up and hired consultants from the retail industry to revamp their locations. Also, how hard is it to make a profit when you have unlimited funds and a monopoly on mail boxes? Companies are all switching to online billing. People send evites and ecards now instead of traditional mail. Letters are being replaced by emails and delivery for packages is much more efficient through the private sector. I predict that people will stop putting up mailboxes altogether in the near future and refuse the service since all they will be getting is a bunch of junk mail. Even magazines and newspapers are going digital. What is left? Why spend money on a fancy new computer system when the entire service will be obsolete in the next few years?

[Republican Wildcat]

The January 8, 2006 rate increase was compelled by legislation enacted in 2003 requiring the Postal Service to put aside over $3 billion each year into escrow beginning in 2006.

As you can see...this time it was Congress' fault. What is the point of this legislation anyway?

[Lokibob]

You obviously are not a user of the USPS.

I sell things on ebay, and can tell you that the USPS provides a superb service for the shipper of 10 lb and under items.

I have used UPS, FedEx, and DHL and none of them can match the service and price of the USPS.

As for the coupons etc, they hardly handle them, forcing the sender to sort according to address. They only charge for the delivery of them, and they charge well.

Let me give you an example of how the USPS works. They have delivery confirmation service (package tracking). If you bring a package into them and request DC, they charge 45 cents for the clerk to put the bar code sticker on the package and scan it. I, on the other hand, print the DC bar code on my label from my computer and it is automatically entered in the USPS data base. If it is on a package, it is free, if on an envelope, it costs 12 cents (they still have to handle envelopes manually).

FedEx charges $1.25 for the same service over the counter, or $1.75 home pickup fee (but DC is free).

My mailman visits my house every day, even if I don't have a package.

BTW, UPS has a minimum 8 lb rate for packages, which means that if my package is 2 lbs, I get charged for 8.

2 annoyances, APO packages require my taking the package physically to the P.O. because of the customs stickers, which leads to the 2nd annoyance, long lines. I only physically go to the P.O. once a week and know by experience to be there when the door opens or about 2 in the afternoon.

[Cementjungle]

My experiences with USPS lately have been at least as good as with the others lately. Well, at least since I got out of Los Angeles (where getting your own mail/packages seemed to only happen by random chance). I guess geography still makes a dif with the USPS.

[pollyg107]

I have tried several times, at post offices in my area, and online, to purchase 2-cent stamps. They have to be backordered on the web, and the local post offices have none. I think it is a deliberate ploy to make people use 2 37-cent stamps. When I told my postmaster that, he just smiled.

[Non-Sequitur]

Get rid of the friggin' junk mail, coupons and all the rest of the crap...

The Post Office doesn't generate that stuff, it just delivers it.

[VOYAGER]

"Financially, we are in the best position we've been since the 1970s," said Postmaster General John E. Potter at the December meeting of the Board of Governors>

They are much like the Hospital Districts in Texas, they complain about being in the red or even going belly-up then they hit the taxpayers who have very little to say about increasing our taxes then the next thing you hear is what a good job they are doing by getting out of debt even to the tune of a belly strutting surplus.

Then here they come again, with a plea that would make a hard nosed Chaplain blubber, about what a good job they are doing but need another influx of easy come easy go tax money.

Strange also is after they boast of their self made and to them their well earned surplus through a somewhat ethereal boast of what a good job they are doing, with no visible proof, do not offer to return their bloated and unnecessary surplus gotten through equally unecessary taxation!

I am tired of being ripped off with no effective recourse!

How about the rest of you observant taxpayers?

[tiger-one]

I have started what I call the Elvis program, (RTS) return to sender...I get more snail mail spam (SMS)than bills, mostly catalogs. I mark them with a black permanent marker, return to sender..

[muawiyah]

Postage rates have NOT been increased every other year, and without non-First-Class Mail, they'd be losing money hand over fist.

That's for the good news. The bad news is the USPS still nickels and dimes retirees to death. For example, those with a 401(k) account are supposed to receive matched contributions (according to an established scale) as they receive income. USPS, though, in its chiseling little flinty heart, says "no, we don't do that for terminal leave pay" because OPM says we don't have to make a matching contribution on accrued income.

Of course, when USPS pays it, it's "realized", and no longer "accrued" income, and the very same OPM standard requires them to pay the matching funds.

There are numerous other examples of how USPS management cheats its recent retirees and former employees, but we need not go into them here.

Potter has some criminals in his top level management and needs to prosecute them.

[pointsal]

You are right...dump the junk mail.

My bet is that a positive cash flow will only mean that Congress will "borrow" from it for some dump social program....

[toddlintown]

The "friggin' junk mail" is what seperates a 2 cent raise from a 22 cent raise. Junk mailers and magazines pay a proportionally higher postage overall than first class mailers.

BTW, what do you do for a living, flip burgers or just clean up a the "school of Morons R Us?