{"id":2914,"date":"2011-06-05T10:39:40","date_gmt":"2011-06-05T14:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/?p=2914"},"modified":"2011-06-05T10:39:40","modified_gmt":"2011-06-05T14:39:40","slug":"2-2-billion-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/?p=2914","title":{"rendered":"$2.2 Billion! Really?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States Post Office is reporting a $2.2 billion loss for the second quarter.\u00a0 And yes, that is billion, not million, as in nine zeros and three commas.\u00a0 It is a horrific loss\u2014for one quarter<\/em>.\u00a0 Officials say they may not be able to borrow money for operating expenses by the end of September. \u00a0In 2010, the agency posted $8.5 billion in losses, their fourth straight year of losses.<\/p>\n

How can the post office lose this much money?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now the post office leadership is calling on Congress to cut Saturday delivery in an attempt to save money.\u00a0 Other actions by the post office, announced last March, include the elimination of 7500 jobs and the closure of 2000 post offices.\u00a0 They are also considering higher postage fees.<\/p>\n

The question remains \u2013 why?<\/p>\n

Why is the post office not competitive?<\/p>\n

Why do other carriers get more business at higher rates?<\/p>\n

Why are they losing so much money?<\/p>\n

Why can\u2019t they be competitive in the industry they essentially created?<\/p>\n

Why do postal workers go \u201cpostal?\u201d<\/p>\n

Why are postal customers unhappy with the agency?<\/p>\n

I found some of the answers to these questions yesterday.\u00a0 We paid a premium fee to get a package to a customer who needed it by Friday.\u00a0 Not only did the post office not deliver, they would not start investigating until five business days had passed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their online tracking system was inadequate; then we had to work our way through a myriad of automated telephone prompts to find there was no additional information available than online.\u00a0 Then it was through another set of prompts to get to talk to a human.<\/p>\n

When we finally reached the human, apathetic is the best description of her service.\u00a0 She was going to collect her guaranteed paycheck, regardless of the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of customers.\u00a0 It showed in her attitude.<\/p>\n

Her supervisor was no different.\u00a0 It showed in his manner also.<\/p>\n

For the actual guarantee offered, we should have shipped the package by normal first class postage.\u00a0 It would have arrived in the same period offered by the service for which we paid a premium fee.\u00a0 And for a couple of bucks more, we could have shipped with one of the PO\u2019s competitors.<\/p>\n

For those extra couple of bucks, we would have had a guarantee of delivery when we required the delivery.\u00a0 We also would have had capability to track our package in real time. \u00a0And, as business owners trying to do the right thing for our customers, we would have had peace of mind.<\/p>\n

All of a sudden, I now understand why the post office is in difficulty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

-30-<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2011 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States Post Office is reporting a $2.2 billion loss for the second quarter.\u00a0 And yes, that is billion, not million, as in nine zeros and three commas.\u00a0 It is a horrific loss\u2014for one quarter.\u00a0 Officials say they may … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9,10],"tags":[23,110,155,424,456,902,921,1075,1650,1835,2657,2838,2859,3646,3910,4016,4096],"class_list":["post-2914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-in-general","category-personal","category-publishing","tag-2-2-billion","tag-a-2-2-billion-loss","tag-a-guarantee-of-delivery","tag-apathy","tag-automated-telephone-prompts","tag-closure-of-2000-post-offices","tag-collectin-a-guaranteed-paycheck","tag-cut-saturday-delivery","tag-getting-to-talk-to-a-human","tag-higher-postage-fees","tag-online-tracking-system","tag-post-office-leadership","tag-premium-fees","tag-the-elimination-of-7500-jobs","tag-the-united-states-post-office","tag-tracking-packages-in-real-time","tag-unhappy-postal-customers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}