“I’m operating right now with a week’s worth of cash,” Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe told Senators on Tuesday. After the Postmaster General went to Capitol Hill to pass the hat around, the White House announced it’s a few weeks away from developing a plan to save the USPS from bankruptcy. [More]
Ideas For Saving USPS From Bankruptcy
By 9.6.11
Before it even has a chance to deliver the next letter to Santa, the US Postal Service could be bankrupt. The USPS might not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment it owes this month. Lawmakers will hear all about it and ideas for staving off default in a Senate committee hearing today called “U.S. Postal Service In Crisis: Proposals To Prevent A Postal Shutdown.” [More]
Can My Co-Workers Rightfully Steal Mail I Have Sent To Work?
By 3.16.11
If you have a regular 9-5 job, one way to be sure that you receive your personal deliveries safely is to have them sent to the office. Unless you’re reader A. and her husband. They work for two different small companies, and have discovered that any items mailed to them at work end up in someone else’s hands. Both A. and Mr. A have been told that all mail addressed to the office is company property, and belongs to either whoever finds it first, or management. This seems wrong to them. [More]
Woman Who Tried To Air Mail Puppy Won't Get Dog Back
By 2.7.11
Many of you have been following the saga of the Minnesota woman who was charged with animal cruelty after trying to ship a four-month old poodle-schnauzer mix puppy to Atlanta via air mail. The latest update: Officials in Minneapolis have shot down her appeal to get the puppy back. [More]
Accused Puppy-Mailer Wants Dog Back
By 2.4.11
The woman who tried to ship a four-month-old puppy from Minneapolis to Atlanta in an airless box using Priority Mail earlier this week reportedly would like the dog back. Will her request be granted, or will the puppy be made available to the numerous people all over the country who actually know how to keep an animal alive and have inquired about adopting him? [More]
Save Money On Postage By Buying Old Stamps At Discount
By 1.21.11
If you send out a lot of physical mail, you probably won’t mind stumbling upon a way to shave 10 percent off your postal expenses. One labor-intensive yet effective method to trim your stamp expenses is to hook up with a stamp and coin collector shop and buy old postage at a discount. [More]
My Very Important USPS Package Is Doing Laps Around New York City
By 12.24.10
A piece of registered mail left Hong Kong on December 7th, and is on its way to Michael in Manhattan. While it has reached the correct city, tracking information shows that the envelope is currently doing laps from Queens to Manhattan. Michael just wants to show up at a post office and pick the darn thing up, but no one can intercept it or even tell him where it is until his neighborhood mail carrier attempts to deliver it at least once. [More]
Credit Bureaus Can't Keep Me And My Doppelgänger Separate
By 12.8.10
An anonymous reader says credit bureaus can’t keep her identity separate with that of another woman with the same last name who used to live in her building. The reader says the bureaus won’t resolve her complaint, insisting the other woman has to take the initiative to fix the errors. [More]
DHL Pays Urban Denizens With Coupons To Deliver Packages
By 12.3.10
DHL is trying out a new program called bring.Buddy where regular people can pick up and deliver packages along their daily route that they’d be traveling anyway. In return, the recruits earn free train tickets, coupons and carbon offset credits. And, of course, badges. The goal is to reduce costs and carbon emissions within dense urban environments. [More]
If You Want An Apple Store Gift Card, Don't Order It Online
By 11.17.10
We at The Consumerist are known for our anti-gift card stance, but sometimes you find yourself in a situation where a gift is required and cash seems tacky. Vivian writes that she got an Apple gift card for her sister as a nice present, and it disappeared from her sister’s mailbox. Unlike other high-value items that they sell, Apple mails gift cards using U.S. Postal Service first class mail, and someone stole and spent the card. [More]
Tipsy Angry Man Dumps 32,000 Pieces Of Mail
By 10.27.10
The check might be in the mail, but the mail is in the woods. [More]
New UPS Envelope Has 2nd Tape Strip So You Can Use It Twice
By 8.10.10
From the department of “of course!” UPS has introduced a new reusable express envelope. It’s got a second adhesive strip that lets the recipient reuse the same envelope on a new shipment. [More]
Blockbuster Chases GameFly, Offers Game Rentals By Mail
By 8.10.10
Yesterday we noted that Blockbuster was launching a new DVD-by-mail rental service (which Netflix promptly one-upped by announcing a new streaming agreement), and today we’re getting tips from people that the beleaguered brick and mortar movie rental company is throwing games into the offer as well. FastCompany notes that GameFly offers around 7,000 game titles compared to Blockbuster’s library of 3,000 titles. On the other hand, Blockbuster’s rental plans start at $9/mo compared to GameFly’s $16/mo (both for one disc at a time). [More]
USPS Sends Your Package 5,586 Miles To Travel 120
By 6.25.10
Jonathan is trying to figure out why the box of records he sent from Bell to Bakersfield, CA somehow took a 5,000 mile detour across the country and back first. [More]
USPS Thinks Everyone Lives With Dan
By 5.3.10
Dan can’t get his postal carrier to understand the concept of people moving away–if you’ve ever lived in Dan’s apartment, you’ve always lived in his apartment. [More]
If We Do Nothing, Taxpayers Will Be Bailing Out The USPS
By 4.13.10
The USPS is an independent agency of the US government that is self-sufficient and has not received tax dollars since the early ’80s, but according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), taxpayers will be stuck with a bailout if something isn’t done about the recent shortfalls. [More]
Postal Service's Saturday Cuts Will Hurt Netflix
By 3.31.10
Ethan Epstein of Slate’s The Big Money draws the natural conclusion that the USPS’s plans to stop Saturday service won’t work out so well for rent-by-mail companies such as Netflix. [More]
