Thread: Its the end of the world as we know it. (USPS glory days are gone)

So we end up shopping elsewhere. My most recent purchases have been on English and French Ebay. I bought some ESX collets and a Clarkson chuck from the UK and had both purchases in just over a week courtesy Royal Mail. I can't see the French being as quick to the draw as the Poms but their delivery times have to be better than the seven week USPS wait I just had. My brother in New Jersey said the USPS had dramatically cut back services. Maybe the end is nigh.

BT

Hi GQ, BT,

Similar experiences here, I get stuff from UK and EU in a week, from USPS it's 3-4 weeks+, last one from Germany was just over a week... (mini gloat.. I got 6 boxes (total of 60 inserts) of carbide inserts for 14 euro, postage included)

I recently had a lengthy email exchange with a supplier, who refused point blank to use USPS, I really couldn't get a clear answer why not, all I could get was "We use Fedex, and no-one else"... so maybe it's a fond goodbye to flat rate boxes indeed...

Maybe they are all going to go "postal"

Regards
Ray

Originally Posted by RayG

(mini gloat.. I got 6 boxes (total of 60 inserts) of carbide inserts for 14 euro, postage included)

probably all used Ray..hahaha

Going over my ebay purchases recently I see that I've bought from the US just over half the time, but half of those times were for European things undervalued there. I am having a hard time getting enthused about much on U.S. ebay any more anyway...all my fun things have come from the UK or Germany. Or the Ukraine. Or Israel.

I think that all of my future purchases I'll just run through shipito.com anyway...a minor savings but at least FedEx still gives same-week service.

It is a shame about USPS...and I wonder which US icon is next.

Originally Posted by eskimo

probably all used Ray..hahaha

Hi Eskimo, you'd be excused for thinking that, based on the price... there were a couple of larger lots that went cheap from the same seller.. but what would I do with 500-600 inserts?

eBay Australia: Buy new & used fashion, electronics & home d

Regards
Ray

The US gets mail delivered on Saturdays??!!

I really had to laugh at this quote:

As any computer user knows, the Internet revolution has led to people and businesses sending far less conventional mail.

How much mail gets sent just to Australia via USPS because of the internet, and I'm sure a lot of internal mail is created by the internet as well... Would seem to me that whatever loss in the form of letters and so forth, would be in some part compensated by the sheer volume of internet shopping that now occurs...

And I may well get flamed for this comment, but I note that unions are the same in other countries - refusing to allow job cuts, somehow thinking that its a better idea that EVERYONE lose their jobs when the company/entity goes bankrupt.

I was speaking of this with my local postie just today. He said he works extra hours all the time delivering parcels, and they had to get another driver just to service our small post code.

The USPS has other difficulties arising from some crazy levy imposed on it by Congress a few years ago. It makes money but not enough to pay its internal dividend to general revenue.

I used to sometimes envy my American friends years ago, now I just feel sorry for them.

I'll cry if they go under...I use those 20lb boxes all the time.

This makes interesting reading

US Postal Service seeks reprieve from Congress to avert 'default' - CSMonitor.com

Amazing that an organisation such as USPS is responsible for the health benefits of its' retired workers.

The article also states that wages account for 80% of the USPS budget, more than double UPS and FedEx.

They're talking about laying off 120,000 workers as well as not replacing another 100,000 they will lose through normal attrition.

Not a healthy business by the sound of it

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/09...these-closures

That feature of the US no-health-care system is very common. Since uninsured people go bankrupt for medical problems having health insurance is a must..

Workers historically had medical coverage as part of their employment and need to belong to the same fund in retirement because no other fund would accept them at that age. So...one thing leads to another and workers eventually got lifetime coverage.

This is one of the legacy costs that almost bankrupted the US auto makers in 2008. The right wingnuts over their go rabid about such costs to business, but since they don't have universal health care the workers are caught between a rock and a hard place.

The USPS's problem is that Congress required them to pre-pay all their future health care costs, as well as their pension obligations unlike any other business or government branch. The congress is trying to kill the post office, but there is plenty of blame to go around apparently.

Greg

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Amazing that an organisation such as USPS is responsible for the health benefits of its' retired workers.

It's a long held myth that the USA has no social security or free health care, it's just they do it in a very different way to us. It's a pretty insane system and I'm not at all sure I understand it, but the US has lots of "different" laws.

They always have the option of going bankrupt for example in several different ways and they just walk away from the debt, so if they slip into negative equity on a car or house they just wash their hands of it.

Then there is emminent domain, which basically means the government can take your house anytime it wants. Yeah they have to pay, but the yanks seem to have less rights than us to kick up a stink, "castle" style. They also levy rates based on the purchase price you paid, so if you've lived in the same house for 40 years your taxes are trivial....

As said it's quite common to package salary/wages with a whole load of ongoing benifits.

Originally Posted by damian

...They always have the option of going bankrupt for example in several different ways and they just walk away from the debt, so if they slip into negative equity on a car or house they just wash their hands of it.

...They also levy rates based on the purchase price you paid, so if you've lived in the same house for 40 years your taxes are trivial....

As said it's quite common to package salary/wages with a whole load of ongoing benifits.

Home loans are generally non-recourse, so you can walk away leaving the bank to hold the bag. In fact, many people are trading up right now: getting a mortgage on a better house then defaulting on their original house. All you lose is a credit rating.

Home taxes are much higher there than here, and it depends on the municipality/state as to how they are calculated. Since everyone is hurting there right now most states/locales are trying to hike taxes.

They do have Social Security, may even have invented it, but that too is bankrupt and the Republicans are actually trying to cut it. The GOP seems to be hell-bent on setting the stage for the next revolution.

Originally Posted by Jekyll and Hyde

And I may well get flamed for this comment, but I note that unions are the same in other countries - refusing to allow job cuts, somehow thinking that its a better idea that EVERYONE lose their jobs when the company/entity goes bankrupt.

I can agree with you on that one. The last company I worked for went into liquidation partly due to the fact they didn't cut any jobs when things started to go downhill. In the end a lot more people lost thier jobs anyway.

Originally Posted by Jekyll and Hyde

And I may well get flamed for this comment, but I note that unions are the same in other countries - refusing to allow job cuts, somehow thinking that its a better idea that EVERYONE lose their jobs when the company/entity goes bankrupt.

Don't be too quick to blame the unions, some of the most successful companies in their relevant sectors are highly unionised. To give you an example, Southwest, the airline to which most "low cost" airlines model themselves, is almost 100% unionised. It's highly successful and the relationship between the employees and management is excellent. It is too simplistic to simply blame unions for the woes of an organisation when in fact the problem is almost always far more systemic. For what it's worth, I can assure you I am definitely NOT pro militant union, I dedicated almost a decade of my life studying to sit on the other side of the desk! I'm definitely not having a go at anyone here, but in general I'm getting a little tired of hearing that unions are somehow the work of the devil when the current trend is in fact quite the opposite, with executive remuneration having grown exponentially over the past 10 years despite a contraction in company performance. In general companies have far greater resources to promote their own interests and it's somewhat frustrating to see people getting sucked in by the one-sided spin.

With regards USPS, the US is essentially bankrupt. Around a month ago congress approved the increase of national debt but few hold much hope that will do anything other than delay the inevitable. As a Federal Agency the USPS is also in precisely the same position, with massive cutbacks in an attempt to sustain some form of service. Fortunately it's one of the few US agencies we need to deal with, but the same story can be seen across the whole Federal sector. It's generally regarded by economists that the US population is under-taxed (Federal revenue) however increasing taxation is always politically very difficult. Their "answer" is to reduce Federal services (costs) in an attempt to reign back the economic woes. It's a little like watching a train wreck in slow motion at the moment.

That's a very simplistic attempt at an explanation of both the union situation and the US economic woes. The latter is, unremarkably, very often a topic of discussion in The Economist magazine. For those interested they publish a free Podcast several times a week that's very interesting. Economics isn't always boring

Pete