171–180 of 293 posts
There’s an even better way to send an actual letter for free. Simply switch the destination address on the envelope with the sender address, and drop it in the mailbox. When then post office returns the letter to sender because of insufficient postage it will have delivered the letter for you.
Here in Ireland, a stamp is 1.85eur. So. Many. Possibilities.
Wow didn't realize its much more expensive in some places outside the US. I'd think the smaller land area would make it cheaper.
It's not arbitrage until you can make money by selling something that costs you less than what you bought it for. What it is is bundled product (item + shipping) being priced lower than just one of the elements in the bundle (shipping) therefore making a case that one might as well always buy the bundle.
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Wow didn't realize its much more expensive in some places outside the US. I'd think the smaller land area would make it cheaper.
In Denmark it is €3.08 for a 100g letter. This appears to be the cost without subsidy, with the mail service now run by a private company. It's fine. I receive less than the average 10 letters per year (including junk mail). I check the mail box every two weeks or so.
That just means that whatever it actually costs to deliver mail to/from whatever parts of Denmark they provide service for, the people who use the service will pay that cost plus an additional cost on top of it so that the private owner (and perhaps their shareholders) can line their pockets. The nice thing about public services is that you avoid paying that extra money just so that a small number of people can personally profit from it. You can also lose a lot of transparency and control over how the service is run.
That said, I'm a bit envious of the lack of junk mail.
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But why do you think they’re harming “local infrastructure”? The food delivery services didn’t hurt anything but their investors in the end. And they kept the restaurant industry alive during the pandemic, the fallout would have been so much worse. I work in the industry and know several bar/restaurant owners who will tell you DoorDash and competitors are the only reason they made it through 2020-21. Early on they st…
DoorDash finds a way to consistently screw up orders. Order A,B,C - receive only A+B, or A,B,D. No explanation. Tipped generously. For a long time, I myself drove and picked up my orders. The same restaurants rarely made mistakes. I never had to ask for missing item to be included. They always had everything in the bag. It’s happened so often, it has to be malice from one of the parties involved.
You shouldn't tip delivery drivers, it's literally their job.
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Doesn't seem like USPS is the spammer. They're Gmail. People send spam and USPS/Gmail delivers it.
No, it’s completely different. Gmail actively tries to prevent spam. If they catch you sending it, you will be banned, and they let individual users block whoever they want. A huge part of their product is automated spam filtering. On the other hand, spam delivery is the business model of USPS. They actively and intentionally market and sell their services to spammers, and not surprisingly, give normal users no way t…
[0] E.g. https://www.usglobalmail.com/virtual-mailbox/Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Doesn't Amazon shipping have to go to the billing address on the credit card? No, I've had stuff shipped to plenty of addresses.
It looks like the billing address restriction was a "thing" years ago, but is simply too impractical for modern day e-commerce. People want to do gifting, or get things delivered to temporary accomodations like vacation spots. They are relying on approaches like heuristics (sudden purchase for something expensive going to an unusual address), plus CVV verification to help ensure that the purchaser physically has the…
It's not arbitrage until you can make money by selling something that costs you less than what you bought it for. What it is is bundled product (item + shipping) being priced lower than just one of the elements in the bundle (shipping) therefore making a case that one might as well always buy the bundle.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
DoorDash finds a way to consistently screw up orders. Order A,B,C - receive only A+B, or A,B,D. No explanation. Tipped generously. For a long time, I myself drove and picked up my orders. The same restaurants rarely made mistakes. I never had to ask for missing item to be included. They always had everything in the bag. It’s happened so often, it has to be malice from one of the parties involved.
> Tipped generously. You shouldn't tip delivery drivers, it's literally their job.
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I agree in general, but as a one-off thing I'd very much enjoy getting a lime with a message saying "this was cheaper than sending a letter myself"
I've started sending paperbacks instead of greeting cards when someone I know needs a get-well-soon card. In stores around here, greeting cards are often $7ish + postage. I can frequently ship a paperback with a gift receipt for $5 total. I include a gift message on the gift receipt, and choose a book I think someone might like to read while they're out of commission. I guess it's a bit like postal arbitrage, if I ac…