#&@!#*!! USPS and Customer Service

[Nzoner]

As some of you know I'm in the direct mail business,well last March we get a letter from the USPS business center about the new postage rates.Two sheets of rate increases and nowhere is my type of mail(3rd class flat DDU) listed so I'm thinking good we're not affected by todays increase.

Just get back from the post office and are informed that my overall rate is jumping $3800+ over the coming year and my rate wasn't listed on the sheets because there wasn't enough room,are you focking kidding me?

Note to whomever is in charge of this crap,you might want to try a little customer service and contact a customer who spends well over $100,000 per year in postage to let them know there wasn't room on your rate sheet increases and prepare them for the jump in postage costs!!!

But no you add a line on the sheet that reads visit our website for a complete list of rate increases.Well excuse the hell out of me but I'd think your larger bulk mail clients deserve a little customer service or at least add another sheet with ALL the rates on them!!!

I don't know what the hell business is coming to but there is no excuse for this kind of half assed service and believe me I've got accounts that invest a whole helluva lot less with me and if I treated them like this would be told no thanks and they'll take their business elsewhere,unfortunately my hands are tied because I'm dealing with the damn post office.

Sorry for the length but thanks for letting me vent.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by Nzoner

I mail an advertising booklet to every home in my area twice a month,the USPS has me by the balls.

And they know it.

One of my best friends works at the regional post office in Columbia. Says the amount of waste and bullshit is simply staggering; like when every cleaning machine that used to blow stuff off/out of the equipment had to be replaced with machines that sucked (after the anthrax scare), at every post office, everywhere.

The cost - untold millions. Probably billions at this point.

That's right, the post office went from blow to suck, over one actual incident and a handful of hoaxes.

[|Zach|]

Recent e-mail exchange between my friends and I.

Guys,

I realize that none of us send a whole lot of letter via regular mail these days, but an increase in the price of a stamp is scheduled for May 12th. This price increase is only $0.01, bringing the new total to $0.42 for a first-class letter, but it also marks the last opportunity to purchase Forever Stamps (at $0.41).

The USPS has printed an estimated 5 billion Forever Stamps to meet their "expected demand", and May 11th will be the last day you can purchase them.

http://www.usps.com/prices/

-Danny

--------------------------------

The moral of the story: For those of you who mail out (on average) 3 checks a month, get in your car and drive to the post office to get your forever stamps NOW! It’s a total savings of 36 cents per year! Also, please disregard the cost of the time you spent getting there and the gas you used.

This also goes to my aunt, who enjoys calling my mom to tell her that she saved 4 cents/gallon at XXXX gas station in Liberty, which is a good drive north and costs at least a gallon of gas just to get there…

-Cam

--------------------------------

Seriously, though. This isn’t a joke, Joel.

If I were you guys, I’d get on this fast. You might think it’s really funny now, but this reminds me of around 10-15 years ago. There were these things called the internets. Well, these internets came together to form this really big thing called ‘The Internet.’ A lot of people thought it’d get pretty crazy and actually save people money and at first it did. The problem was that people thought it would never get ‘too big.’ Unfortunately, the ‘proverbial’ bubble burst, and people lost millions of dollars because of their over-investing. Well, as it turns out, it hasn’t been that great for the economy or people in general. Just look how much people are spending nowadays. I mean, billions of dollars are spent on the internet?! If it didn’t exist, people wouldn’t have to shell out that much money!

I’m telling you, this may look really stupid, but as you know, history has a tendency to repeat itself. Get on this bandwagon NOW. Before you know it, the internet will be history and the crazy new thing will be parcel mail. Trust me, this industry isn’t going to crash like the internet. Hell, if the rising stamp prices are any indication, this thing is just getting started!

That being said, anyone want to carpool to the post office?

- Cam

--------------------------------

Ok, now that Cam has talked some sense into me I am ready to get on board. I am openly inviting all of you to invest in my new company. With all the money that we pool together, I will buy as many forever stamps as possible. I will store these stamps in a fire proof safe. Then in 20 to 30 years, I will sell these stamps for slightly less than their current price at that time. If history is to repeat itself, we should see the prices of stamps raise $.20 every 20 years*. So if we could only get $20,000 together we could buy 48,780 stamps. I will absorb the cost of maintenance on these stamps to keep them in like new condition. Then if history is on our side, the cost of a stamp in 2028 will be $.62. So in order to entice people to purchase our stamps, keeping in mind that at lease 2 of the stamps they buy will be used to ship the product, we will set our price $.05 less than the current price or $.57. That will net us a profit of $.16 per stamp. If we move all 48,780 units we will get a profit of $7804.80. This will give us a return on investment of 39%. But not so fast, this 20 year investment has a Compound Annual Growth Rate of only 1.6%**. In hind sight, you might want to just hold on to your money and invest it in something a little more lucrative.

-Joel

--------------------------------

pwn pwn pwn

-Chris

[Nzoner]

Originally Posted by |Zach|

Recent e-mail exchange between my friends and I.

LOFL

Too bad they didn't offer companies like mine a forever stamp

[vailpass]

No offense to Nzoner, I respect that you are making an honest and good living.
It's just that I hate that junk mail and I get it every day. Coupons, ads, etc. I have a recycle basket next to my mailbox, dump all that crap in it straight from the mailbox.

Anyway, my point is this: I asked my mailman ( we shoot the sh*t on a regular basis) if he could quit leaving that stuff for me. He laughed and said no can do, this is where the USPS makes their money. He said the USPS is investing over 2 Billion dollars in new machines/technology to further automate the junk mail process.

Guess that $ has to come from somewhere eh 'zoner? I had no idea your industry was such a large chunk of the USPS revenue stream.

[Nzoner]

Originally Posted by vailpass

No offense to Nzoner, I respect that you are making an honest and good living.
It's just that I hate that junk mail and I get it every day. Coupons, ads, etc. I have a recycle basket next to my mailbox, dump all that crap in it straight from the mailbox.

Anyway, my point is this: I asked my mailman ( we shoot the sh*t on a regular basis) if he could quit leaving that stuff for me. He laughed and said no can do, this is where the USPS makes their money. He said the USPS is investing over 2 Billion dollars in new machines/technology to further automate the junk mail process.

Guess that $ has to come from somewhere eh 'zoner? I had no idea your industry was such a large chunk of the USPS revenue stream.

I respect the fact that you don't want that stuff in your mailbox,however,I've never understood why someone wouldn't want a buy 1 get 1 free meal.My publication(although junk mail to some) is full of local business offers and not that get your pictures developed,have you seen this missing child stuff.

As for you not wanting it I'd call the companies mailing it to you,we are more than happy to remove an address if requested to do so.

Lastly,the USPS keeps hiking postage and small direct mailers like me are going to have to say goodbye and they're going to lose a major chunk of that revenue.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Nzoner

I respect the fact that you don't want that stuff in your mailbox,however,I've never understood why someone wouldn't want a buy 1 get 1 free meal.My publication(although junk mail to some) is full of local business offers and not that get your pictures developed,have you seen this missing child stuff.

As for you not wanting it I'd call the companies mailing it to you,we are more than happy to remove an address if requested to do so.

Lastly,the USPS keeps hiking postage and small direct mailers like me are going to have to say goodbye and they're going to lose a major chunk of that revenue.

Sounds like your stuff is better than what I get. There are pizza coupons included but also plenty of missing kid stuff and unwanted ads galore. No exxageration I get 15-20 pages every day of that stuff. I'm one of those weirdos who worries about too many trees getting chopped down each year and hate paper waste.
OTOH I am all for someone making an honest living and wouldn't want anything to impinge on the rights of folks like yourself who do so in this manner.

[Brock]

That's the government that wants to control your access to health care.

[teedubya]

Perhaps, you could put an ad in your booklet, allowing people to recieve your Adventure booklet via email through a PDF each issue? say 10% of the people do that, you would cut costs by a substantial amount.

[Demonpenz]

Originally Posted by Teh Douch3

Perhaps, you could put an ad in your booklet, allowing people to recieve your Adventure booklet via email through a PDF each issue? say 10% of the people do that, you would cut costs by a substantial amount.

I would love the pdf files. I would copy the bottoms up ones and live off of tenderloins forever!

[Nzoner]

Originally Posted by vailpass

Sounds like your stuff is better than what I get. There are pizza coupons included but also plenty of missing kid stuff and unwanted ads galore. No exxageration I get 15-20 pages every day of that stuff. I'm one of those weirdos who worries about too many trees getting chopped down each year and hate paper waste.
OTOH I am all for someone making an honest living and wouldn't want anything to impinge on the rights of folks like yourself who do so in this manner.

Sounds like you're describing ADVO or the like,a glossy folder full of loose crap that ends up everywhere.Ours is an actual newsprint booklet all stapled together with pizza inserts and the like tucked into the pages so everything stays together not creating a mess.

[Nzoner]

Originally Posted by Demonpenz

I would love the pdf files. I would copy the bottoms up ones and live off of tenderloins forever!

stjoeads.com

print away

[FAX]

The coupon booklets we receive have some pizza ads, but it seems like it's mainly spa stuff. $20 off a facial. $25 off hair removal. Stuff like that. Oh, and carpet cleaning. I guess you need that after all your hair is removed and your face if all fixed and everything since you'll be so super sexy your partner can't wait to make it to the bedroom and you've gotta do the big nasty right there on the rug and all.

FAX

[Nzoner]

Originally Posted by FAX

The coupon booklets we receive have some pizza ads, but it seems like it's mainly spa stuff. $20 off a facial. $25 off hair removal. Stuff like that. Oh, and carpet cleaning. I guess you need that after all your hair is removed and your face if all fixed and everything since you'll be so super sexy your partner can't wait to make it to the bedroom and you've gotta do the big nasty right there on the rug and all.

FAX

Here's our booklet

[xbarretx]

Originally Posted by Nzoner

As some of you know I'm in the direct mail business,well last March we get a letter from the USPS business center about the new postage rates.Two sheets of rate increases and nowhere is my type of mail(3rd class flat DDU) listed so I'm thinking good we're not affected by todays increase.

Just get back from the post office and are informed that my overall rate is jumping $3800+ over the coming year and my rate wasn't listed on the sheets because there wasn't enough room,are you focking kidding me?

Note to whomever is in charge of this crap,you might want to try a little customer service and contact a customer who spends well over $100,000 per year in postage to let them know there wasn't room on your rate sheet increases and prepare them for the jump in postage costs!!!

But no you add a line on the sheet that reads visit our website for a complete list of rate increases.Well excuse the hell out of me but I'd think your larger bulk mail clients deserve a little customer service or at least add another sheet with ALL the rates on them!!!

I don't know what the hell business is coming to but there is no excuse for this kind of half assed service and believe me I've got accounts that invest a whole helluva lot less with me and if I treated them like this would be told no thanks and they'll take their business elsewhere,unfortunately my hands are tied because I'm dealing with the damn post office.

Sorry for the length but thanks for letting me vent.

NZ... remember your thread about trying to hire the sales guy but failing and how we discussed what is and IS NOT... good customer service.. that is bad CS. i wish i could say im surprised. .. :shake

[luv]

Sorry you had a bad experience with your rate increase not being listed. But didn't you say there was a website listed that you could go to to view the complete list? Wouldn't that tell you that the list on the paper was not complete?

Anyway, the post office was the only federal agency that was self-sufficient. They get they're money from postage. With the increase in gas prices, the betterment of equipment, etc, they have to increase postage in order to compensate. From my understanding, the post office is no longer a federal agency, though.

Just a note. Letter carriers do not get raises every time the postage rate goes up. No one has said that, but I thought I'd throw that out there anyway.