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United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

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Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#41

Post by tkahn6 »

grecy wrote: post #25

I live in a small town and recently made a trip to the big city.. I was absolutely amazed at how many advertising campaigns are based on fear. I had completely forgotten about LifeLock, Life Insurance, Home Security Systems, Health Insurance, Car Alarms ... etc. etc. Seeing ads that say "Buy this or else..." completely shocked me. It appears to be quite the norm these days.

> Seeing ads that say "Buy this or else..." completely shocked me.

Why? Those products only exist because bad things can happen. Of course their advertising campaigns are going to remind you that bad things can happen.

USPS's business model has nothing to do with safety or security and thus it is shocking to see them using fear to sell their product.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#42

Post by fishtoaster »

sp332 wrote: post #36
jonknee wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The big sell of the postal service is that it costs the same amount to send a letter from San Francisco to Los Angeles as it does to send a letter from the bayou in Louisiana to Honolulu, Hawaii. In this, physical mail is the big equalizer. That's also true of the internet. It doesn't cost anything to email someone who's right next to you or who is across the globe. There is very little demand for mail these days a…

To send and receive USPS mail, you need... a mailbox. To send and receive email you need an internet subscription and a computer. Internet access can be impossible to find, or very expensive, in many areas that are serviced by USPS. Saying "It doesn't cost anything to email someone... who is across the globe" is only true if you both have the infrastructure, equipment, and service necessary.

Well, to receive USPS mail you need an address. Permanent travelers, the homeless, people in the process of moving, moving- these people are difficult or impossible to reach by mail, but any time they pop into a library or internet cafe, they have an email address. I would say that /that/ is the great equalizer, more than remote people with mailboxes in this day and age.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#43

Post by streptomycin »

jonhendry wrote: post #10
angdis wrote: post #9

USPS blew it. They could have evolved/adapted into different businesses. Not only could they have competed with UPS and FedEX for parcel delivery at scale, but there was (and perhaps still is) an opportunity for an entity to provide 3rd party authenticated email service-- and charge for it. Instead, they got comfortable with merely existing as a junk-mail conduit. Pathetic. Sadly, in the current environment, where th…

The main problem the USPS has right now is that Congress a few years back mandated that they put aside money for pensions of USPS employees who haven't even been born yet, let alone hired. FedEx and UPS don't have that requirement.

That's not really the main problem. Their projected deficit for this year ($14.1 billion) far exceeds this excess pension payment ($5.5 billion).

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/12/who-kill...

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#44

Post by pnathan »

roc wrote: post #12
timjahn wrote: post #2

This is a perfect example of why the USPS is on its way out. People haven't forgotten about the USPS. They simply naturally no longer have a need for it. We often check our mail once a week! Why? Because we don't get anything useful in the mail. Just junk mail. Once a week, we think "Have we checked the mail this week? Hmm, better go check it." No amount of advertising by the USPS is going to save them. They're not g…

To be fair: the USPS is being rushed out the door via a legislative hit job. They've been required to accumulate a reserve of 75 years-worth of worker benefits (retirement and healthcare) -- something I don't believe any other company or government service has to do -- and build up that reserve in 10 years, on their existing budget. So the speed of their decline is greatly exaggerated by this and not entirely reflect…

> UPS and FedEx are great and all, but they've nowhere near the customer focus that the USPS has.

Wut?

The local post offices I've used are perennially understaffed, never has enough people, the workers are unbelievably slow, the paper products are overpriced. It's absolutely the consistently worst customer service I have ever used.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#46

Post by extension »

hammerdr wrote: post #16

This is something that is very close to my family so I have a bit of experience with how the Postal Service is going. The big sell of the postal service is that it costs the same amount to send a letter from San Francisco to Los Angeles as it does to send a letter from the bayou in Louisiana to Honolulu, Hawaii. In this, physical mail is the big equalizer. The USPS is also required to deliver mail to even the most re…

Nearly all my mail ends up at addresses from my past. If it wasn't for e-bills, I would never receive (my own) bills. And I have received mountains of mail from countless former tenants at every place I've lived, mail they will never see. The post doesn't seem very reliable to me.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#47

Post by Groxx »

sp332 wrote: post #36
jonknee wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The big sell of the postal service is that it costs the same amount to send a letter from San Francisco to Los Angeles as it does to send a letter from the bayou in Louisiana to Honolulu, Hawaii. In this, physical mail is the big equalizer. That's also true of the internet. It doesn't cost anything to email someone who's right next to you or who is across the globe. There is very little demand for mail these days a…

To send and receive USPS mail, you need... a mailbox. To send and receive email you need an internet subscription and a computer. Internet access can be impossible to find, or very expensive, in many areas that are serviced by USPS. Saying "It doesn't cost anything to email someone... who is across the globe" is only true if you both have the infrastructure, equipment, and service necessary.

It's rapidly becoming that you only need a cell phone, which would potentially make the internet much more feasible than snail-mail; owning a cell phone is far easier than owning a house and staying in a single location.

I'll grant that it's not there yet - plenty of places aren't covered by cell towers. But they're diminishing, and plenty of places aren't on postal routes either. If anything, cell towers will soon cover more area, as I can get reception miles from any road, but USPS won't deliver to where I'm standing.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#48

Post by timbre »

fishtoaster wrote: post #42
sp332 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To send and receive USPS mail, you need... a mailbox. To send and receive email you need an internet subscription and a computer. Internet access can be impossible to find, or very expensive, in many areas that are serviced by USPS. Saying "It doesn't cost anything to email someone... who is across the globe" is only true if you both have the infrastructure, equipment, and service necessary.

Well, to receive USPS mail you need an address. Permanent travelers, the homeless, people in the process of moving, moving- these people are difficult or impossible to reach by mail, but any time they pop into a library or internet cafe, they have an email address. I would say that /that/ is the great equalizer, more than remote people with mailboxes in this day and age.

Permanent travelers, the homeless, etc. can receive mail at the post office by general delivery. (Letters addressed to

J. Doe

GENERAL DELIVERY

Anytown, Anystate 12345

are held for pickup at the post office for 30 days.) This was once common knowledge, but seems to be less so these days.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#49

Post by beambot »

extension wrote: post #46
hammerdr wrote: post #16

This is something that is very close to my family so I have a bit of experience with how the Postal Service is going. The big sell of the postal service is that it costs the same amount to send a letter from San Francisco to Los Angeles as it does to send a letter from the bayou in Louisiana to Honolulu, Hawaii. In this, physical mail is the big equalizer. The USPS is also required to deliver mail to even the most re…

Nearly all my mail ends up at addresses from my past. If it wasn't for e-bills, I would never receive (my own) bills. And I have received mountains of mail from countless former tenants at every place I've lived, mail they will never see. The post doesn't seem very reliable to me.

USPS needs to implement a form of indirect addressing. The basic premise: Assign recipients a unique ID. The physical address is then a single indirect lookup (ie. from a database, which can be altered by the recipient ad nauseum).

For obvious reasons, SSN as a unique ID is out. Given the (relative) portability of phone numbers, these might be a good option. Alternatively, allowing users to employ their email address as the unique ID would be awesome! I'd pay an annual fee to USPS if senders could just write my email on an envelope and it would get to me (bonus points for selective digitization).

I think this is one of the beauties of Google Voice service: It's indirect addressing for my phone number. If USPS took some initiative, they could really invigorate their service and bring it into the technical age.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#50

Post by beambot »

dwiel wrote: post #34
gerggerg wrote: post #6

Mail theft exists. In fact it's one of the leading causes of identity theft. And computer viruses? Any one ever been delivered anthrax through email?

Also, I see way more junk mail in my mail box than I do in my email inbox ...

What about in your spam folder? You sure it isn't just a case of good Bayesian filtering?

Cool business idea: Bayesian filtering for snail mail.

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