disturbing Hilo Airport USPS issues

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

P.S. I would not mind paying a fee to receive my mail.

You already are. Sometimes you even pay a fee to not receive your mail.

“Facts fall from the poetic observer as ripe seeds.” -Henry Thoreau

[1voyager1]

quote:

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... Not when it's the only way to pick up your packages. ...

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I will have to admit that I do not interact with the P.O. much any more other than saying hi to the carrier as they deliver our mail and packages to our home.
I so enjoy my interactions with the P.O. people now, just as much as with UPS and FedEx, but more often.
It's like Christmas morning every time I see them.
Home mail delivery was a conscious decision in deciding where we would live here on B.I.
If you don't have home mail delivery then you made the conscious decision that it wasn't important, that you could live without it.

But, through the last 20 years or so, every P.O. I can remember visiting has a dutch door where you can pick up missed deliveries by presenting your delivery attempt receipt.
Those doors have a sign with the time they are open, usually a few hours just before the lobby opens and a buzzer to call for help.
Time your visit to the P.O. to that time period to collect missed packages.
The longest line I've ever had to stand in using that service was 1 person ahead of me.
If you commute to town regularly, all you might need to do is get up and leave a few minutes earlier.
Probably still a lot less time than standing in line for it.
The lack of aggravation will probably extend your life many times beyond the time saved from standing in line.
Sounds like a win-win-win to me.


Welcome to Puna, the land of the Vocal Lunatic Fringe.

[Lodestone]

I'll second the kudos for the friendly and fast Pahoa PO, as well as our carrier here in HS and the UPS and FedEx guys. We've ordered hundreds of packages from Amazon and such, and none have gone missing. Sorry to hear that there is trouble in other parts.

The biggest financial burden these days for the USPS is the extinction of "flyers" which used to litter our mailboxes with ads from the grocery stores, departments stores, local restaurant specials, etc. While annoying "junk mail" for us, this was a steady cash stream for the postal service.

It is the US Constitution itself, oddly enough, that requires maintenance of a postal service AND that it be financially independent AND that the postal service can only rates via a literal act of congress. (Mail was VERY big deal in the days prior to telegraphs/phones/internet.) So yes, there is genuine financial pressure felt by the USPS.

[leilanidude]

The biggest financial burden these days for the USPS is the extinction of "flyers" which used to litter our mailboxes...
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That isn't happening on the mainland. My home there is flooded with as many as 2 dozen pieces of bulk mail a day. When the post office delivers my held mail - it comes in multiple boxes. That could be from just 2-3 weeks.

[Chas]

I was going to suggest signing up for the Direct Mail Organization's opt out mail preference list. I signed up about 10 or 15 years ago and hardly get any junk mail at all.

However it appears the organization has morphed into something else. Now they want to charge you for the service

[David M]

I recently had a Priority Service package (Amazon Prime) mailed from Kansas. Took 8 Days. USPS tracking showed it departed Honolulu 3 different days at various times. Day after last departure it finally showed up at the proper zip code PO here on BI. Now where it went the other two times and how or why it got back to Honolulu are a mystery. To my knowledge next stop after Honolulu is the Hilo Airport PO for further delivery, although tracking doesn’t annotate this. While I’m always hopeful to see tracking that an item has departed HNL PO, I’ve no confidence in how soon it leaves Hilo.

Ninole Resident
Please visit vacation.ninolehawaii.com

[Kapoho Joe]

I also had a strange USPS Amazon delivery recently - tracking showed it went Nevada to HNL to ITO, back to HNL and then ITO again and then my house.

Sounds like a surefire way to save money, typical government logic!

[Lodestone]

quote:

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Originally posted by leilanidude

The biggest financial burden these days for the USPS is the extinction of "flyers" which used to litter our mailboxes...
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That isn't happening on the mainland. My home there is flooded with as many as 2 dozen pieces of bulk mail a day. When the post office delivers my held mail - it comes in multiple boxes. That could be from just 2-3 weeks.

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Yeah, I can't back that up; it must vary locally. Assertion withdrawn.

This article points out a similar issue: volume of 1st class mail. As more and more people pay bills online (and hardly anyone corresponds by snail-mails anymore), the number of envelopes delivered dwindle, but the number of mailboxes serviced remains the same.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/10/us/pos...arter.html

My father was a "carrier", so maybe I have a soft spot for the USPS. People love to kick the USPS around, but as far as government/socialist type entities go, you could do a lot worse. You see mailmen in their trucks driving around as fast as they safely can; it's not like they spend any time goofing off. For as little as 49 cents buys anymore, I think it's kind of a miracle that it gets an envelope delivered to a specific address thousands of miles away in a few days.

[MarkD]

Since this thread is going on and on we might as well listen to Jerry Seinfeld's take on the Post Office. Start at 3:05.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR1ckgXN8G0

[terracore]

An interesting twist to my tale:

The USPS called me this morning and told me that somebody had given them back my package, and that they were putting it into my box as soon as they got off the phone with me. They did, and I have it.

I would have been happy just to receive in my box, but the fact that they were tracking my "situation" close enough that it resulted in a courtesy call impressed me.

"Agreed! Grumbly wheel gets da greasy kine stuffs..."

Apparently!