Oh, gosh. I want to love my United States Post Office. At one point in my life, growing up in a town in Wisconsin, I remember going to the PO with my Dad, waiting in line, seeing all the special stamps the guy at the window had at his disposal to make it clear to the world that this was SPECIAL DELIVERY or that it was FRAGILE.
But oh, dear, it is not my father's post office anymore. Actually it appears to be just about nobody's post office these days. I know they are trying to pull themselves up to today's date from their troubled past as a badly run enterprise.
At one point in the last decade the USPS was a client of mine. We were doing a special program for small business owners and the USPS was a delight to work with. They were good people, meant well, and they did what they said they would do and generally do it on time. But the wheels moved ever so slowly on decision making to put a program into play.
The piece I got in today's mail made me almost cry. It is addressed to me "OR BUSINESS OWNER" at this address. And it says on the package "Don't go to the Post Office...We'll bring it to you." Inside the package (lots and lots of text to wade through on this package) is a special offer to try stamps.com for four weeks with NO RISK and NO UPFRONT COSTS. And they'll give me FREE POSTAGE to use during this trial. It is all explained on the CD-ROM that is included in the package.
C'mon, Guys. Are you serious? A CD-ROM? No one uses a CD-ROM these days. I have a feeling this idea to reach small business owners was hatched several years ago and although it was a good idea--maybe--then, it took so darn long to make the decision to go ahead, and then to make the CD-ROMS and agree on the language of the packaging and all the other assorted decisions that get made for something like this (are you exhausted yet?), time literally passed them by. So lots of people are throwing this CD-ROM in the trash basket today. It is already out of date and their intended market will assume that whatever this new promotion is must be out of date, too.
It's just too painful to talk about this. My old USPS is no more. But it appears not to have been replaced by anything useful..
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