The Absent-Minded Ex-Professor
Let's be clear: I have mixed feelings about the USPS. I've published multiple posts opposing the anachronistic monopoly, the corrupt crony unionism and its unsustainable labor costs, etc. Although it boasts a quasi-independent status, Congress shackles the USPS from operational flexibility in pricing, human resources,and cost-cutting decisions (shuttering/consolidating money-losing facilities, etc.) There are some bad personal experiences, including being punched from behind in the kidneys by a postal worker in El Paso while I was disputing a postal insurance claim with a supervisor (I had returned a piece of software for refund, and the vendor was claiming it never received the package), some hostile carriers, including one who often dumped my mail in a common bin and "lost" an irreplaceable Christmas/birthday package from my parents. Operating hours were often inconvenient; I remember while working as a road warrior for Oracle from Chicago I often flew in at 2 AM on Saturday morning and then had to set my alarm early so I could collect the mail for my post office box before flying out the next day. (Many consultants today work a flextime 4-day week with a travel day, but I had to eat travel time in flying to and from the West Coast.) It frustrates me to no end that decades after supermarkets, restaurants, and other businesses have extended retailing into hours more convenient for workers on a regular schedule, the Post Office works the same business hours, except for a partial Saturday schedule, and it's talked about eliminating that.I had to fit my schedule to the Procrustean policies of the USPS. (However, the USPS is not alone; car dealer maintenance shops, often protected against local competition, and doctors' offices also display similar behavior. One classic example (see a related discussion in a segment below) was during one of my 6 car power window failures (it's like your car windows, even ones you've never lowered like my back passenger windows, slowly sink into the car door, and you can't raise them). I was trying to get an appointment on a Thursday with heavy thunderstorms forecast over the weekend. The local Chevy dealership said they could fit me in 6 days later. I reminded them of the forecast and asked what I was supposed to do in the interim/ "Cardboard and duct tape." Let's just say I found a nearby Pep Boys that could do the same work without an appointment and much cheaper.
On the other hand, my Dad, who struggled starting a second career after retiring as an Air Force jet mechanic, finally found one at the USPS (not as a carrier), and one of my goddaughters/nieces (with a phenomenal work ethic) has found her niche as a carrier.
Interestingly, this story is somewhat connected. I decided not to do the cheaper boxed cards this year, but to do individual Hallmark cards for my 6 siblings, Mom and a close family relative. (My list has shrunk the last 2 years with the deaths of a favorite paternal aunt and maternal uncle.) I am getting sticker shock from fast food combos starting in the $7.50-10 range and greeting cards starting at over $5 (I'm not talking gimmicks like embedded objects or song clips: just full-sized cardboard ones, say addressed to brother, wife and family.) I don't think WalMart discounts the list price on the cards, although it's possible Hallmark prices the list prices for WalMart card stock. It would be nice if the envelopes, especially for larger sizes requiring extra postage, came with postage-paid. I think there was some experimentation with this concept. (It would be an interesting idea if the USPS marketed prepaid odd-size greeting card envelopes.)
WalMart was running a couple of minor promotions including a multi-card discount and a small Christmas bear stuffed animal discount. (I can recall in the past they used to give away small toys as a purchase incentive.) I have a couple of baby grandnieces and thought it might make a cute gift for one of them. I decided to use one of my Amazon boxes; I had to get some packaging tape and package labels; I also printed out labels for my Christmas cards and had my postage stamps ready for mounting on the sealed cards. The local post office was closed on Sunday, but a UPS Store was open until a rapidly approaching 3 PM. In my rush, I saw my (unstamped) cards and grabbed them on the way out, thinking I could mail them on my way out.
The small gift box for my California grandniece weighed close to nothing; I expected to pay a few bucks, maybe up to the original price of the bear (around $7-10). But I wasn't prepared for the shock of getting quoted (I shit you not) $24+ by some clerk who obsessively measured the box. We're not talking expedited shipment--he was talking 8 day delivery and their "cheapest" rate. When I objected, he said my grandniece lived in California (coast-to-coast), and when I mentioned USPS, he said I would only save like 40 cents. No sale, moron! Screw UPS! I don't think my original purchase from Amazon Prime cost $24 and it was much heavier. (If Amazon had to pay that kind of shipping cost, it would be out of business.) Preoccupied with the rain and the UPS nonsense, I dropped my cards off at the Post Office.
I then got home, noticed my stamp book out and had an "oh, shit!" moment. As my Mom would point out later, haste makes waste. The USPS wouldn't toss some $50 of cards over my bonehead mistake, would it? The postage cost was trivial compared to the cost of the cards. An attempt to contact the USPS was unsuccessful. I had a couple of days before my flight to Texas to go buy and mail out substitute cards (yes, this time stamped).
I sent out a message to my siblings saying I would cover any postage due in the unlikely event the original cards were delivered. Long story short, some of them were eventually delivered (after my replacement cards), yes, with postage due. I was suitably impressed with USPS flexibility, not that I intend to repeat my mistake. And while I visited Mom, she mailed out multiple family gift packages via USPS--which dwarfed by my stuffed animal package in size and weight--with shipping costs like $15.
So let's just say I have some new appreciation for the USPS, and UPS' mishandling of the incident has given the USPS a new opportunity to regain my business. Second chances are rare; let's hope they've learned from past mistakes.
Power Windows--Again!
I mentioned in the above segment that I've had to have my power windows repaired 6 times; each of the 4 at least once and the driver's side twice. Granted, my Government Motors car is over 15 years old, and repairs go with the territory (but overall not as high as new car payments). Not that many miles on it considering--maybe 104.5 K. What really bothered me is GM discontinued the brand a few years after I bought it, and each major repair becomes a life or death decision: are OEM parts available? Can they find parts in junkyards? In my most recent repair (which involved a part to my transmission shift mechanism), they managed to find an OEM part in Puerto Rico (all but inaccessible due to the recent hurricane) but later found the part in a local junkyard. In South Carolina, my brake line snapped just before I moved to Arizona, and it took a Chevy dealer a week to say they wouldn't do the work. I found a brakes place which fabricated its own lines (i.e., did not need OEM parts); the repair bill was hefty but cheaper than finding another car, and my bank, which financed my original car purchase, was balking at floating another car loan. (My credit rating is excellent, and my bank over the past few months has emailed a few promos for car loans, so I may consider a purchase in the near future.)More recently I have worked at a government facility with restricted vehicle access. So every day I have to hand over my ID to security guards at the facility. I've noticed that my driver's side window was starting to react sluggishly, particularly in cold weather recently. So I've frequently had to open my door to hand over my ID. Normally I would roll my window all the way down; one day I found it would only go up halfway and didn't budge. So a stiff breeze hit my face the rest of the way to work. After work, the weather had warmed up for me to close the window.
Over the following days, I was hesitant to test the window and when I did, only a few inches. The guards at my closest gate seemed to tolerate a partially open window, but when I went to another gate after running an errand, I got yelled at by the security guard who gave me 2 options: the window down all the way or open the door.
So after dropping my second round of Christmas cards (see the first segment)at the local post office, I headed back to the same major gate; this time I gambled on whether the temperature was too cold for the car window and rolled it all the way down. To my annoyance, once on the facility, the window would only go up halfway again. During my lunch period, when it hit the forecast high of 40 degrees F, I went out to my car and managed to close the window except for an inch or two. And it stayed that way until I returned from a trip to Texas, nervously watching news of thunderstorms going through the area. The window finally sealed shut, and I'm not touching it.
