USPS to slow shipping speed, increase shipping costs.

[Dragon Lord]

The US Postal Service implemented new service standards on October 1, which will slow mail delivery times across many parts of the country. First-class mail traveling longer distances will now take three to five days to arrive as opposed to the previous two days, according to The Washington Post. Temporary price increases will begin October 3 on all domestic commercial and retail packages through the holiday season, reports USA Today. The changes are part of embattled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's 10-year plan to cut costs that was unveiled earlier this year, CNN reports.

So, this is wonderful. As if USPS wasn't already absolute shit enough, they're now going to keep your packages running through that system even longer, and charge you more for it. I'm mainly making this a topic of its own because I actually just received a package through USPS yesterday that was beat up to hell. I showed Monocle a bunch of pictures of it. Sides were torn the insides of the box were exposed, one side of the box had a huge rip in it, making it apparent that it had been thrown against something else hard enough to puncture the box. 

I can't imagine what packages are going to look like when they go from a week in that system to 2-3 weeks. Thankfully nothing in mine was damaged, but still, the increased lack of care the USPS continues to show for packages + this new development of slower shipping and increased cost just makes me hope that more and more companies start to go with UPS and FedEx for shipping instead. At least they can get packages to where they are going without any major damage to them most of the time (obviously some exceptions depending on driver, but I've personally never had a package arrive from UPS/FedEx with any major tearing/denting/damage like I have constantly through the USPS). 

So yeah, expect even more bullshit than before through USPS now if you ever have to ship something through them, or having something shipped to you through them.

[Moonface]

Wasn't there at some point an intent to try and make the USPS undesirable so as to either sell it, get rid of it, or just try and justify increasing prices when it's supposed to be affordable for everyone compared to the other options? I might be remembering wrong because it could have been one of those things being used as a political weapon to fling mud and make accusations against particular candidates but I feel like I did at least see something along these lines.

[Dragon Lord]

Yeah, they were trying to drastically cut funding for the USPS... last year, I think? Or maybe it was late in 2019, I can't quite remember. Then there was that whole thing where the CEO of the USPS shut down a large number of post offices, I think. I'd have to do some digging to refresh on all that crap that actually happened, but this is just another step in the USPS going down the drain even more than they already were.

They claim this is all part of a plan to cut costs, but I think we all know where those cut costs are going (directly into the CEO's pocket, I'm sure). I have a feeling the next thing we'll see from them is that they're going to drastically lay off workers.

Like I said, hopefully this kind of thing will make more companies start shipping with UPS or FedEx instead of the USPS. I'm tempted to email the pictures of my box to Idea Factory, International and tell them this is what kind of shape your games are arriving in through USPS. Thankfully nothing was ruined inside, like I said, but it was raining and if my postman didn't care about his job as much as he does, he could have just left it on the steps where it would have gotten soaked, and all of that water gotten inside.

[Mr EliteL]

Geez, such deplorable conditions the USPS must be in, and sounds like hopefully they are removed as a postal service in the near future, and less companies use them in the meantime. Thank goodness your package contents was OK even after being in a state like that, DL. Luckily I haven't had a bad delivery in that way before, I know I'm not using USPS but damn if other services start dwindling like that.

[Karo]

Honestly I believe the whole situation with the USPS is the people in charge have for quite a while been trying to kill it off. It used to be ran a lot better and people were thinking about expanding it uses in way such as the idea of giving every US citizen an email address during the early days of the internet and it was even proposed that post office function as a money account for US citizens and these honestly all sound like great idea to me.

This was a big thing during the whole founding of America and the post office was established to make sure everyone could stay up to date with the current going ons even if your in the middle of no where like some of us. At this point we don't even pay for the USPS with our taxes anymore and it subsist on stamps and other services, but things are always trying to privatize things and make them shittier.

If your interested in the history of the USPS and its long history since America's founding:


Bottom line for me is I honestly believe its just the current Post master general just trying to ruin the post office and kill it from within. As for beaten up packages I honestly feel like its a combination of the workers at the post office and whether or not they aren't being rushed to ship your items fast without a care in the world. I would honestly like to see it being ran not by a CEO of some freighting company, but an actual post office worker that legitimately cares about the system and its employees..buttt at this point it might just be dead and not be savable with our lovely government!

[Moonface]

Geez, such deplorable conditions the USPS must be in, and sounds like hopefully they are removed as a postal service in the near future, and less companies use them in the meantime. Thank goodness your package contents was OK even after being in a state like that, DL. Luckily I haven't had a bad delivery in that way before, I know I'm not using USPS but damn if other services start dwindling like that.

Unfortunately the USPS going away would not be good. They are supposed to be the cheapest way to deliver mail in the US and also are one of the only companies that will ship mail to remote locations without charging a fortune for it, if they do it at all. It's supposed to be the way any American can get affordable postage so it going away would mean that people could be locked out from shipping mail or receiving it based on their income and/or location. What makes the service bad is the stupid decisions like the one this thread is about that serve to turn it into a money machine that lines a CEO's pockets at the expense of everyone else.

[Monocle]

I still don't understand how people don't get that it's a service not a business. United States Postal Service. It's not meant to be profitable or make money. No one expects the military to make money. It spends money. Military SERVICE. move on from the fact that it costs the country a lot and cut down all the other service expenses that drain us. Ridiculous.