Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

The United States Postal System is still having problems:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/In ... =1,1387596

Do you think eliminating Saturday mail deliveries will help?

What are other ways that might help the USPS?

Also, do you think the internet has created to these problems due to more people using email instead of regular mail, and more people paying bills online instead of mailing their payments in, etc.?

I guess we've come a long way from the days of the Pony Express mail deliveries.

I don't think the internet has hurt the mail service that much. More people may be using it instead of mailing envelopes, but consider all the online purchases at places like eBay or Amazon. Those have to be mailed to the customer, many of them through USPS. It should balance out pretty well, I would think.

I think it has more to do with the postal workers not caring if something happens to your package. Then when you call the "help line" they essentially tell you it's not their problem and have you do all the leg work in tracking down the package. I certainly have no sympathy when it comes to their problems..

The problem with the USPS is that they've been counter productive by raising their shipping to such exhorbenet rates that they're no longer competitve with FedEx and UPS for packages. Furthermore, inspite of E-mail taking away the bulk of thier stamp sales, they still raised their postage prices causing them to loose even more mailing business.

If there was a FedEx office closer to where I work or live I wouldn't even go to the post office anymore. When I ship FedEx I'm not only getting roughly the same rate that USPS now charges, but I'm also automaticly getting $100 of insurance and a tracking number on the package! That's stuff the USPS charges extra for! And I'm also helping support my brother-in-law's paycheck, as he's a FedEx employee.

But yeah, USPS works backwards from any normal business. Demand drops so they raise their prices? In retail, if demand drops you try to figure out ways to regain market which usually involves lowering prices.

More news on the troubles of the US Postal system, etc.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35661462/ns ... ?GT1=43001

Do you think dropping Saturday mail delivery will help?

Do you use the postal system more now, or less now, than you used to?

Do you use online emails more now, or less now, than you use regular postal mail?

Dropping Saturday might help since it would reduce fuel costs, but at the same time there will be more to deliver on the remaining days. I'm not sure how much benefit will come from it.

I've actually been using the postal service more than usual recently, but for sending packages. I haven't mailed an actual letter via USPS in years.

I use them far less than ever before. But that's mostly due to me selling far less stuff online than in the past. As for letters though, I don't recall having mailed a letter since the previous millenium, have no one to mail a letter to.

On the whole though, fewer people send letters than would simply because the postage is so steep. Sure an e-mail doesn't convey the personnal touch that a written letter would, but it's free and instant.

i think what would help usps is if they decided they wanted to be an actual postal service. i can't tell you how many things i've had lost in the mail, sent back to me, broken, etc. their online tracking system is a joke. by "tracking" they basically mean, "your package has been mailed" with no up-to-date information on where it might be within the last day or two.

The US postal service may announce a postage price increase today:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industrie ... ates_N.htm

If there is a postal increase, how will it affect the way you use the postal system?

Will you continue to mail as usual, or will you mail less?

Maybe this wouldn't be necessary if people would stop sending junk mail. Half the mail I get just goes straight into the garbage. No people, I don't want to switch to an overpriced service at another company...

I don't send much mail, so it won't affect me too much. This will make it harder to sell stuff online, though. Selling anything of a decent size is crazy expensive on the shipping alone.