Not Sucky, Just...Odd

[Becks]

I went to the post office today and in line ahead of me was an older gentleman. Why was he there? He bought a single stamp yesterday and couldn't remove the backing. He made his way to the post office, stood in line and got the backing removed from the stamp.

I just thought it was unusual.

[katie kaboom]

That reminds me...the other day i heard the price of stamps is going up AGAIN! and they wonder why no one sends letters in the mail anymore.

[Becks]

Yeah, prices went up Monday.

I actually bought stamps today while I was there. (I went there for a money order. Gotta support my AnAkA gods...)

I want to know how many years before the PO decides that the Forever stamp won't be forever anymore.

[Sofar]

I think the price of stamps is going up because no one sends letters anymore. 'Sides, people stopped sending letters to each other thirty years ago. Who cares? It's another few pennies.

[Becks]

I must be one of the few people left in the US who consistantly uses snail mail. I don't LIKE online bill-paying. Blah.

Hey, we make up for the lack of mail at holiday time!!

[katie kaboom]

I must be one of the few people left in the US who consistantly uses snail mail. I don't LIKE online bill-paying. Blah.

nah you're not the only one. i pay my bills the old fashioned way too. I'm just really leery about paying bills online.

[Becks]

Well, at least there's two of us.

[coldcupofjoe]

Three, I do everything else electronically, but I pay all my bills snail mail. The few that I can scrape up the dough to pay that is.

[Andara Bledin]

Well, even with the rate hike, the US postal service is still one of, if not the, least expensive for what you get and the most reliable of any service in the world. Scary thought, isn't it?

As for online bill payment: It's safer than using the mail. And it's safer than using a point of sale ATM. Seriously.

Most people don't think about it, but if your identiy is going to be stolen or your credit/debit card used fraudulently, there are very few ways that it will be taken.

The most likely is that the theives will have a bunch of cards that they've uploaded new numbers to and they will try a couple of passwords daily until they get the right one. This is called "brute forcing" and I've had it done to me. Bank of America gave me no trouble about reversing everything.

The second most common is that the information files will be stolen from whatever company handles the data for the point of sale machines, whether that is the store itself or an outside agency. Whenever you hear about companies sending out thousands of notices and offering a year of credit monitoring to its customers, it's because they in some manner lost possession of the transaction data. These are almost invariably physical copies of the data, and are almost never stolen through electronic means. In other words, companies rarely lose data due to hackers.

Third is that it is taken directly from your financial institution. This happens in a manner very similar to the one above.

Finally, it's actually easier to steal your information by stealing your postal mail than by trying to hack a computer system.

I do everything online and the only time I've ever had a problem was once, long before I paid for my first item through the Internet and then when the guy brute-forced my info at an ATM machine. And if I didn't keep track of my bank balance through the bank's website, I wouldn't have noticed the activity at all until I started getting overdraft notices in the mail, which always take about 2 weeks to get to me.

^-.-^

[SuperB]

Price isn't the only thing changing. How something is priced has also changed. (part time post office here) Now, packages are priced by their "dimentional weight" and if it's higher than the actual weight, that's the price you pay. It's a real pain in the butt to figure out too considering it applies to certain zones while the balloon rate pricing applies to the rest. And if you don't want something folded you have to put a rigid piece in otherwise, from what I've read, there is no guarantee that it won't be folded. I highly recomend using the flat rate boxes.

[Dragon_Dreamer]

Actually. SuperB, that's also how UPS does things. A huge box full of feathers still takes up the same amount of room as one of the same size holding books, after all!

- Cygnata, former UPS tech support employee

[Pagan]

I know everyone bitches about how bad the USPS is, but I don't see it. I can put a package in the mail to my parents (or vice-versa) and it gets from Albuquerque, NM to Las Cruces, NM (about 225 mi) in two days. I put my da's Father's Day present in the mail on Thursday and it got there Saturday.

Of course, I've also heard horror stories about the Royal Mail. But, we had a bottle of scotch shipped from Edinburgh to Las Cruces about 5 days before we got back and it beat us home. And my friend, a kiltmaker, is always sending stuff back and forth to Scotland and has rarely ever had a problem!

Some people just gotta find something to complain about.

[tollbaby]

My boyfriend (who lives in the UK) and I (who live in Canada) have decided since his last visit to start sending postcards to each other. We want to have a tangible way to remember the long-distance part of our relationship in the years to come after he's moved here It's cheap, it's a thrill to see one in my mailbox, and we'll have them to remind us of the crap we went through to be together

[SuperB]

Actually. SuperB, that's also how UPS does things. A huge box full of feathers still takes up the same amount of room as one of the same size holding books, after all!

- Cygnata, former UPS tech support employee

It does make sense for the USPS to go the same route. I've seen the oddest packages, in the oddest shapes come through our office. And it helps push the flat rate boxes.