Who’s the new character? And I don’t mean the mailman. It’s been so long that I forgot there are others besides Slim, Clovia, Rufus, etc. It’s seemed like “forever” (pun intended!)
I think we’ve got a generally effecient post office, too. Competition (email, UPS, FedEx, etcetera) isn’t the only think that’s killing them. They’ve got all those retiree pensions to pay, too. The Baby Boomers are starting to retire and that’s a LOT of people expecting pensions, Social Security and Medicare.
The USPS has been forced to fully fund pensions – current and for the next 75 years (no other Federal agencies have to d this ). The USPS works very well. I have made some only line purchases recently and got one from Florida in 2 days and one from Puerto Rico in 3 – and I am north of San Francisco.
Actually, this strip appears to be for the USPS showing what will happen when the cutbacks really start in. Our local mail distribution hub is consolidating with another 75 miles aways. Ah well.
I’m sure all the USPS defenders have valid points, but I’m also sure I’ve read that the USPS is getting a smaller slice (competition) of a shrinking pie (internet). There is of course more to the story, and I agree that our delivery service here is great compared to my small experience with the service in other countries (though the very worst customer service people I’ve ever encountered were postal employees— and please don’t read that as ALL postal workers are terrible).
The down-sizing is sure to make lines longer. Neither banks nor post offices seem to want people to visit, as both cut staff while amping up “get out of line” campaigns.
I handle some of the returned mail by the USPS, and found that 1/3 have a bad (old) address, 1/3 have a mostly correct address (missing Apt # ) and the rest have a entirely correct address. Before any one says that a missing Apt # is huge gaff, please note that the overwhelming number of these are two to four unit buildings. Many Postal employees have ceased to make a good faith effort to deliver the mail, and use any reason to return mail wither for good cause or not. Once when I tried to complain that a monthly bill that had been delivered to the same address for a couple decades was returned and my account as a result was suspended I was treated as if the Spanish Inquisition had been revived.
Skeezix doesn’t wear glasses and the face is different. Check the strips from September 2011 and October 2011 for the last time we saw Skeezix and compare them to today’s.
I did a chart showing the price of first-class letter stamps adjusted for inflation. As it turns out, the price of letter postage peaked in 1978, when it was 50 cents (in 2012 pennies). For the last twelve years, the price of a stamp has held faily steady and between 42 and 45 cents. The next time you feel like bad-mouthing the Postal Service for a price increase, remember that in 1917 it cost 55 cents to mail a letter and in 1855, it was $1.98.
I had one outfit, a phone company, who didn’t accept online payments and always sent the bills so they’d arrive after the due date so they could apply late fees (it wasn’t a postal service thing – the postmarks proved it). After the second time they did that, I dropped them and let them know why.
We traveled this past Christmas. We tried to enter a request to stop our mail via the USPS web page, but were never able to get the page to fully process our request. Since it was still early, on December 1 we sent letters to our local station manager and our local postmaster, requesting that they hold our mail from December 15 through January 9. On December 22 (after we had been out of town for seven days!), we received a call on our cell phone from the local postmaster. They had JUST received our letter, requesting that our mail be stopped on December 15. They wanted to verify our request! Our local post office is about ten miles from our home! So it took twenty-two days for the letter which we mailed on December 1 to travel the ten miles distance from our home to the local post office! I was watching an old Western movie the other day and they were bragging that the pony express could get a letter from New York to California in only ten days! That was about 12 days faster than it took the letter we mailed on December 1 to reach our local post office on December 22! Fortunately, since this type of thing has happened often enough before, we had invested in a Mail Boss Security Locking Mailbox. Sure enough, when we returned home, there was about seven days worth of mail which had been deposited in our mail box. THEN – getting the post office to resume deliver took us another week. We returned home on January 8 and fully expected that, since the Post Office had received our letter, requesting that our mail be held from December 15 through January 9, that our mail delivery would resume on January 9. It took four telephone calls and two trips to the local post office to get our mail deliveries to resume by January 16. Then, the kicker – we received an E mail from the post office which said something like: “Wow! You requested a vacation stop for your mail. How did we do?” Then there was a link to a survey. We really enjoyed filling out that survey. In the meantime, we had also requested our local newspaper to hold the delivery of our newspaper while we were away. We filled out one form on the newspaper’s home page. Our newspaper stopped being delivered on December 15 – and delivery was resumed on January 9. The post office is in a losing battle because too many layers of bureaucracy make it impossible for the system to work efficiently. Back when I was growing up, I could write to my cousins in Scott City, Kansas and put a three cent stamp on the envelope, with nothing else on the envelope except my cousins’ names and Scott City, Kansas and the letter would be delivered efficiently to them. Didn’t need an address or a zip code. The postman knew every single person on his route. Even though they had other relatives with the same last name in Scott City, Kansas, the mail carrier never got any mail addressed to my cousins delivered to any of the other families in Scott City with the same last name! The post office has pretty much wrecked itself.
I am a HUGE fan of the USPS. I don’t recall ever having ANY problem re: delivery to me and from me to other parties. To be on the safe side, I always allow about 5 business-days-worth of time for a bill to get where it’s going. That way, the postmark proves it was sent prior to the due date. I date the check the same as the day sent so I know. It’s been my experience that counter clerks are friendly and helpful if YOU as the customer really know what you want – ie: cheap or fast. It also helps if you’re ready by the time you reach the counter!
Mineola about 12 years ago
Who’s the new character? And I don’t mean the mailman. It’s been so long that I forgot there are others besides Slim, Clovia, Rufus, etc. It’s seemed like “forever” (pun intended!)
Buzza Wuzza about 12 years ago
Skeezix? Skeezix Wallet? The guy left on Uncle Walt’s doorstep back in 1892? Wow! Great to see you again! How are you? Where ya been?
Hillbillyman about 12 years ago
Isn’t that Uncle Walt?
axe-grinder about 12 years ago
The once mighty USPS, brought low by competition and the internet… it is sad and a sign of the times.
oldbooger about 12 years ago
Welcome home, Skeezix!
ewalnut about 12 years ago
I agree with Davepostmp. It’s very rare that a bill sent by USPS is late, and I’ve had email messages get lost a LOT more often than snail mail.
Guilty Bystander about 12 years ago
I think we’ve got a generally effecient post office, too. Competition (email, UPS, FedEx, etcetera) isn’t the only think that’s killing them. They’ve got all those retiree pensions to pay, too. The Baby Boomers are starting to retire and that’s a LOT of people expecting pensions, Social Security and Medicare.
imrobert about 12 years ago
The USPS has been forced to fully fund pensions – current and for the next 75 years (no other Federal agencies have to d this ). The USPS works very well. I have made some only line purchases recently and got one from Florida in 2 days and one from Puerto Rico in 3 – and I am north of San Francisco.
Actually, this strip appears to be for the USPS showing what will happen when the cutbacks really start in. Our local mail distribution hub is consolidating with another 75 miles aways. Ah well.
Stagger Lee about 12 years ago
That is Walt not Skeezix.
MelvinLott about 12 years ago
Stay right there, Skeezix. I’ll send out the waaaa-mbulance
axe-grinder about 12 years ago
I’m sure all the USPS defenders have valid points, but I’m also sure I’ve read that the USPS is getting a smaller slice (competition) of a shrinking pie (internet). There is of course more to the story, and I agree that our delivery service here is great compared to my small experience with the service in other countries (though the very worst customer service people I’ve ever encountered were postal employees— and please don’t read that as ALL postal workers are terrible).
The down-sizing is sure to make lines longer. Neither banks nor post offices seem to want people to visit, as both cut staff while amping up “get out of line” campaigns.
jollyjack about 12 years ago
I handle some of the returned mail by the USPS, and found that 1/3 have a bad (old) address, 1/3 have a mostly correct address (missing Apt # ) and the rest have a entirely correct address. Before any one says that a missing Apt # is huge gaff, please note that the overwhelming number of these are two to four unit buildings. Many Postal employees have ceased to make a good faith effort to deliver the mail, and use any reason to return mail wither for good cause or not. Once when I tried to complain that a monthly bill that had been delivered to the same address for a couple decades was returned and my account as a result was suspended I was treated as if the Spanish Inquisition had been revived.
Stagger Lee about 12 years ago
Skeezix doesn’t wear glasses and the face is different. Check the strips from September 2011 and October 2011 for the last time we saw Skeezix and compare them to today’s.
runar about 12 years ago
I did a chart showing the price of first-class letter stamps adjusted for inflation. As it turns out, the price of letter postage peaked in 1978, when it was 50 cents (in 2012 pennies). For the last twelve years, the price of a stamp has held faily steady and between 42 and 45 cents. The next time you feel like bad-mouthing the Postal Service for a price increase, remember that in 1917 it cost 55 cents to mail a letter and in 1855, it was $1.98.
tcambeul about 12 years ago
I have received packages from the Left coast, that arrived in less time, than with fed-up or ups
runar about 12 years ago
I had one outfit, a phone company, who didn’t accept online payments and always sent the bills so they’d arrive after the due date so they could apply late fees (it wasn’t a postal service thing – the postmarks proved it). After the second time they did that, I dropped them and let them know why.
EstrelitaH about 12 years ago
We traveled this past Christmas. We tried to enter a request to stop our mail via the USPS web page, but were never able to get the page to fully process our request. Since it was still early, on December 1 we sent letters to our local station manager and our local postmaster, requesting that they hold our mail from December 15 through January 9. On December 22 (after we had been out of town for seven days!), we received a call on our cell phone from the local postmaster. They had JUST received our letter, requesting that our mail be stopped on December 15. They wanted to verify our request! Our local post office is about ten miles from our home! So it took twenty-two days for the letter which we mailed on December 1 to travel the ten miles distance from our home to the local post office! I was watching an old Western movie the other day and they were bragging that the pony express could get a letter from New York to California in only ten days! That was about 12 days faster than it took the letter we mailed on December 1 to reach our local post office on December 22! Fortunately, since this type of thing has happened often enough before, we had invested in a Mail Boss Security Locking Mailbox. Sure enough, when we returned home, there was about seven days worth of mail which had been deposited in our mail box. THEN – getting the post office to resume deliver took us another week. We returned home on January 8 and fully expected that, since the Post Office had received our letter, requesting that our mail be held from December 15 through January 9, that our mail delivery would resume on January 9. It took four telephone calls and two trips to the local post office to get our mail deliveries to resume by January 16. Then, the kicker – we received an E mail from the post office which said something like: “Wow! You requested a vacation stop for your mail. How did we do?” Then there was a link to a survey. We really enjoyed filling out that survey. In the meantime, we had also requested our local newspaper to hold the delivery of our newspaper while we were away. We filled out one form on the newspaper’s home page. Our newspaper stopped being delivered on December 15 – and delivery was resumed on January 9. The post office is in a losing battle because too many layers of bureaucracy make it impossible for the system to work efficiently. Back when I was growing up, I could write to my cousins in Scott City, Kansas and put a three cent stamp on the envelope, with nothing else on the envelope except my cousins’ names and Scott City, Kansas and the letter would be delivered efficiently to them. Didn’t need an address or a zip code. The postman knew every single person on his route. Even though they had other relatives with the same last name in Scott City, Kansas, the mail carrier never got any mail addressed to my cousins delivered to any of the other families in Scott City with the same last name! The post office has pretty much wrecked itself.
Barbaratoo about 12 years ago
I am a HUGE fan of the USPS. I don’t recall ever having ANY problem re: delivery to me and from me to other parties. To be on the safe side, I always allow about 5 business-days-worth of time for a bill to get where it’s going. That way, the postmark proves it was sent prior to the due date. I date the check the same as the day sent so I know. It’s been my experience that counter clerks are friendly and helpful if YOU as the customer really know what you want – ie: cheap or fast. It also helps if you’re ready by the time you reach the counter!