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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

But I've been hanging around UPS for 24 years now........and own (soon to not) a UPS Store franchise. I sell postal services there and deal with UPS and the post office daily and have good knowledge of operations at FredEx and DHL because my UPS job is tracking the competition. The disparity between the people that have to be profitable and the Post Office isn't nearly what it was years ago. There's obviously problems with every carrier out there though. The post office has picked up ground on UPS, FedEx and what soon won't be DHL. I'm surprised the increases there haven't been escalated from what they've announced since they lost $2.8B last year. And that's without paying about 90% of the taxes that the for-profit companies have to pay. They are still incredibly inefficient.

At my UPS Store, we have mail boxes we sell similar to PO boxes. My USPS carrier, when I first opened, would drive around behind Krogers to the community boxes and open them up and put our mail in them. Jammed 3-4 boxes full, including what's normally reserved for packages and then, same deal as Rob, would take the orange slip packages back to the branch and make someone come get them. I guess because they didn't want to come in to the UPS Store which was ALWAYS staffed when they were dropping the mail off. FORTUNATELY, we got a new carrier who is the best carrier I've ever met in my life. Does EVERYTHING for us and helps us in more ways than I can count. So, good people do work at the post office. My grandmother was a postmaster in a 50 person town for about 30 years, so I guess it's in the blood........

Everyone has horror stories. I've heard them all around here--especially about UPS...........Just have to go with who serves your needs best and hope for the best.