Evening gents. Before I begin, let me say that I have always sort of given the USPS a break. Honestly, where else can you get something sent across the country for 42c? Well that covers a first class letter but not much else.
My wife went to Virginia for a business trip and she is away without the webcam she uses for keeping in touch with our young daughter whilst she is on such junkets. I told her I would send it priority mail to her hotel. Then I remembered we really didn't like the thing too well. It has poor resolution, does not focus well, etc. It was dirt cheap and it shows. So I went to Best Buy last night and what do you know? They had a number of web cams on sale. One was a HP with 1.3mp resolution, built in microphone, and just right for clipping to a notebook. It was $32.99 on sale and with the $15 rewards coupon I had it dropped the price to $17.99. A right nice savings on something we really did need. Now enters our illustrious post office. We have the automated kiosks available in ours which is convenient since there is normally a line a mile long at the normal service desk and it is always SLOW. I step over to the priority mail packages and stop cold. What the heck is this? A medium priority box at a flat rate of ten dollars and thirty five cents? I don't want this I thought to myself. So I started looking for the "regular" priority boxes. You remember the ones. About 8x8 inches and something like $4.50 for the first pound of weight and usually about $5.00 total with confirmation unless you really get heavy with the package. This was not to be. I couldn't find them because they aren't there to find! At least not in our store. This is crazy. I would have had to pay fifty percent of my purchase price in shipping! I promptly put the thing away and left. I haven't any idea if UPS or FedEx are any better but this is starting to really jaundice my opinion of the USPS. The small box, which would accommodate a medium sized paperback novel was four dollars and change. There was nothing in between it and the medium box which was a bit large for my camera box. This is just silly and in my opinion an attempt to gouge customers. At this rate, the USPS may go bankrupt before Medicare. What a joke. I am no skinflint but I will tell you this little bit of chicanery left me a bit hot around the collar. Is there any decent option?
Regards, Todd
My wife went to Virginia for a business trip and she is away without the webcam she uses for keeping in touch with our young daughter whilst she is on such junkets. I told her I would send it priority mail to her hotel. Then I remembered we really didn't like the thing too well. It has poor resolution, does not focus well, etc. It was dirt cheap and it shows. So I went to Best Buy last night and what do you know? They had a number of web cams on sale. One was a HP with 1.3mp resolution, built in microphone, and just right for clipping to a notebook. It was $32.99 on sale and with the $15 rewards coupon I had it dropped the price to $17.99. A right nice savings on something we really did need. Now enters our illustrious post office. We have the automated kiosks available in ours which is convenient since there is normally a line a mile long at the normal service desk and it is always SLOW. I step over to the priority mail packages and stop cold. What the heck is this? A medium priority box at a flat rate of ten dollars and thirty five cents? I don't want this I thought to myself. So I started looking for the "regular" priority boxes. You remember the ones. About 8x8 inches and something like $4.50 for the first pound of weight and usually about $5.00 total with confirmation unless you really get heavy with the package. This was not to be. I couldn't find them because they aren't there to find! At least not in our store. This is crazy. I would have had to pay fifty percent of my purchase price in shipping! I promptly put the thing away and left. I haven't any idea if UPS or FedEx are any better but this is starting to really jaundice my opinion of the USPS. The small box, which would accommodate a medium sized paperback novel was four dollars and change. There was nothing in between it and the medium box which was a bit large for my camera box. This is just silly and in my opinion an attempt to gouge customers. At this rate, the USPS may go bankrupt before Medicare. What a joke. I am no skinflint but I will tell you this little bit of chicanery left me a bit hot around the collar. Is there any decent option?
Regards, Todd
