US Priority Mail. Negative Experience

[Jonathan Pletzke]

I have to say that our local post offices have very knowledgeable and friendly people working at the counter. It's incredible. I've been to different locations up and down the coast, but the folks in Chapel Hill and Carrboro North Carolina are great.

I have had good experience with Priority Mail in comparison to Media Mail. The Priority Mail seems to get to locations from Chapel Hill with no major delays. However, my experience with Media Mail is crazy. I've had a book go to San Francisco in about 4 days, but it has taken a month to get to Boston. My wife makes granola, and they send it Fedex ground, and it gets most places with no problem, except in Florida where it goes missing for a few days and also can be delivered to the wrong store.

I guess nothing is perfect, and the variability between services and locations is surprising, considering that a Big Mac or Marriott Burger is so predictable and uniform everywhere.

[Texas Proud]

It is part of the game to only tell the bad side... but they do good most of the time.. but even if that is 99.99... there are many millions (?) of misplaced mail...

But, I will give an example of what they can do... this was awhile ago, but one of my co-workers got a complaint letter from a customer... received it Monday morning... so, he shot off a response to the customer on what had happened and put it in the mail on Monday... Tuesday the customer got the letter and shot off his response... Wednesday the co-worker got the customer's letter and responded again with a proposal... Thursday the customer got that letter and responded back... and Friday the co-worker received the customers final letter and then did what was asked....

Now, today it would be in emails... but with different people reading the response and not doing what the other had said or thought... and it would take many weeks to get what you wanted (if you ever could)....

So, are we better off today or not??

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I actually did a pretty good study once that showed that improving speed in communications is counter productive, and the faster and more available the communications, the worse it gets.

Principally for the very reason you note. When it had to be put on paper and mailed, more thought was put into the content, the implications, etc. Less emotion. Frequently written and delivered communications also go through proofreaders or at least an administrative examination.

Fast and highly available communications more frequently result in half baked ideas, angry retorts, and things that require damage control. Its also way too easy to cc: a shitload of people and take time out of their day to examine and critique, and to become 'stakeholders' in a decision or action process that they dont belong in.

Faster response times also produces higher error rates in data entry.

Oh yeah...I didnt publish that study...

[Nords]

Originally Posted by cute fuzzy bunny

I actually did a pretty good study once that showed that improving speed in communications is counter productive, and the faster and more available the communications, the worse it gets.

So quantity sucks down quality?

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quantity, quality, cost. The same triangle seems to apply...

[Nords]

A friend of mine is always refining her billion-dollar service-franchise idea, which I'll reveal here for free:

"Good, cheap, fast: You choose which one."

She claims she'll make a profit on every choice.

[TromboneAl]

Fast and highly available communications more frequently result in half baked ideas, angry retorts, and things that require damage control.

Bullshit!

[MikeD]

Originally Posted by TromboneAl

Bullshit!

Link?

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Everythings debatable Al, but the findings of a number of decent studies have shown that the distractions of reading/listening and responding to peppered communications cause huge reductions in attention and quality of work.

Heres an example: CNN.com - E-mails*'hurt IQ more than pot' - Apr 22, 2005

There were further evaluations of the longer term implications of high speed electronic messaging which found that many times people were launched into efforts only to be recalled later when more thinking was put into a matter. One study showed that each average employee sent out at least one email per year which consumed an average of two man-weeks of aggregated wasted time in an organization. Another showed that the majority of 5 minute telephone calls turned into hours of back and forth electronic communication.

My study attempted to determine if speeding up the device and/or the communications link made any difference. It did. Error rates went up and overall productivity went down with the increase in speed of the device OR the communications link. We also determined that slow but predictable response times improved overall productivity vs a faster but variable/unpredictable response time.

[REWahoo]

Originally Posted by TromboneAl

Bullshit!

Good one, Al!

[Nords]

Originally Posted by cute fuzzy bunny

Another showed that the majority of 5 minute telephone calls turned into hours of back and forth electronic communication.

"Thank you for calling; your business is very important to us. Please listen to this entire recording as our menu options have changed. If you know the extension of the party you're trying to reach, press '1' for English. Otherwise for our directory press '2'..."

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Originally Posted by REWahoo

Good one, Al!

Oh crap, I just got it.

Eh, seems to have helped prove my point. I wasted 3 good minutes on more detail when that was probably unnecessary.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Originally Posted by Nords

"Thank you for calling; your business is very important to us. Please listen to this entire recording as our menu options have changed. If you know the extension of the party you're trying to reach, press '1' for English. Otherwise for our directory press '2'..."

"We are experiencing an unusually high call volume at this time!"

I always yell back "You're experiencing an unusually low level of spending money servicing the customer!!!"

[TromboneAl]

Oh crap, I just got it.

Eh, seems to have helped prove my point.

Ah, the wonderful symmetry of life!

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Wasnt that a song in one of the Mel Brooks movies?

[novaman]

I don't trust priority mail- about 10 years ago my accountant priority mailed all my end of the year tax stuff for my business to me....and it didn't show up. He ended up duplicating everything and having a courier deliver it to me so I could beat deadlines......oh, that priority mail package did actually get to my office....about 2 months later!

[Dog]

I never really gave it much thought until I joined NetFlix and noticed how quickly they recieve the movies I mail back. Pop it in the mail on Monday and Wednesday I have an e-mail from NetFlix confirming they recieved it. Impressed with USPS and with NetFlix.

[tryan]

Yeah, the post office is putting themselves out of business ... had a tenant mail a life jacket back to the lake house using priority mail; the post office sat on the package (1 mile from the house !!) for a few days then RETURNED it to the sender. Called them to say WTF? And was told they don't deliver to "rural" areas. WTF?!?! ONE MILE FROM THE HOUSE!

FedX and UPS have delivered many, many times. Easy to see why the cost of a stamp keeps increasing ... volume is decreasing and they're still the same bloated organization.