USP"S"

"How can there be any 'sin' in sincere?

Where is the 'good' in good-bye?"

Meredith Willson, The Music Man

And what, exactly, is the "Service" rendered by the United States Postal Service? 

Two or three years ago, some Village residents complained bitterly about the removal from the Village of a public mail box. The box, one of those large blue ones, was in the perimeter around the park, and it was for anyone to use to deposit mail to be sent.  What we were told from USPS is that the box was very minimally used, and USPS was having to make cutbacks in various services, for financial reasons.  But some around here felt underserved by the USPS.

I've been compiling a list of observations about the "service" the USPS "provides." Some of the observations are mine directly, and some are observations told to me by others.

The basic service the USPS is supposed to provide is delivering mail. My best estimate is that that usually happens. But not always. From time to time, I am asked about a piece of mail I never received.

I can't say I know what ever becomes of these phantoms, but I do know I sometimes get mail addressed to someone else. Maybe that's where some of my mail goes: to someone else.

Some pieces of mail are considered so important to the sender that the sender pays extra to have me sign for the mail, and the green card I have to sign is then sent back to the sender. I have a small collection of these green cards that the mail carrier never asked me to sign, and that were simply left on the mail I received. Thus far, no sender has complained to me that they never got the green card back. Of course, if I have the card, then I got the mail, so "no harm, no foul."

Often enough, I have a piece of mail to send, and I just leave it sticking out from behind the mail box on the wall next to my front door. The mail carrier, who couldn't really miss this piece, or these pieces, of mail usually takes them. But again, not always. Sometimes, it appears he's so busy talking on his cell phone that he can't really do three things at once. He can deliver my mail, and talk on the cell phone. But he can't simultaneously see and take the mail I want to send.

What is supposed to happen to these pieces of mail I leave is that the carrier is supposed to put them in his truck, take them back to the post office, and turn them in for processing. As best I can tell, that's what happens to most of them. But one of my friends told me he occasionally receives mail the carrier apparently just picked up from someone else's house. So the carrier picks up outgoing mail from one house, then, absent-mindedly, and maybe busy on the cell phone, simply "delivers" it to the next house.

The last two times I was out of town, I set up a hold for my mail. I want it held starting the day I leave, then delivered en masse on the day I get back, which is maybe 1-2 weeks later. The last time I was away, the mail was delivered to my house every day. Fortunately, one of my friends came by every day to pick up FedExes, so he took the mail, too. The time before that, the mail was delivered on some days, but not others, during my time away. Rhyme? Reason?

This was a bit much, since the mail is not only exposed if it builds up in the box, but it also signals I'm not home. So I decided to complain to the supervisor of our post office: 33161, at 140th and Biscayne. I waited as long as I could after the supervisor was called to come out and talk to me. Coffee break? Too busy? Not that interested? Busy telling jokes, or looking at pornography? Anyone's guess.  But I have a life to live, and it does not include camping out at the post office for who knows how long, waiting for an audience with the supervisor.

And one reason it costs me as much as it does to send mail is that others get a deep discount to send me mail I don't want. It's "junk." I don't want it, and I'm subsidizing someone else to send it to me?

I never really cared that the large blue mail box was taken out of the Village. If it wasn't used, there was no need to "empty" it. But frankly, I wonder if we need the USPS at all. If they do a poor job, and companies like FedEx and UPS do better, should the government "privatize" the postal system? Generally, I'm very opposed to privatization of public functions, but if the government isn't assuring us of good service, for which we pay, maybe it's worth a thought.