The post office workers keep telling me that Media Mail is going to be discontinued because it's not financially advantageous for the PO to continue to offer it.  This would seriously cripple how much swapping I do because the Media Mail prices really do save me alot of money.  Has anyone else heard this or been told about it??

I don't know if that's true or not???  I took some books today to be mailed & the postal worker actually asked me if I wanted media instead of me having to tell her first.  Sometimes the PO tries giving me a hard time to keep me from using media, such as by saying it takes longer to ship. So I was surprised she went out of her way to keep me from having to spend more money by shipping another way.

Hopefully they won't stop media mail because it has saved me a lot of money over the years!

They've been saying this for years now. Postal rates are not changing in 2011 (the USPS requested a rate hike but was denied), so you're good to go until at least May 2012.

The Postal Service is challenging the rate increase denial by the PRC.  Have to as in this economy it can't sustain itself.  Current projection is that as of Septemebr 2011 they will not be able to make the $5.5 billion dollar payment to the government to pre-fund retirement benefits, nor will they be able to make payroll. 

USPS is the only government agancy that has been require for the past several years to pre-fund retirement benefits at $5.5 billion per year - why is that?  Also an Office of Inspector General report noted that in prior years USPS had overpaid by about $55 billion into retirement funding (before this yearly $5.5B pre-funding came into place) - but that over funding will not be refunded.

Volumes are down by approximatley 30% and associated revenue - yet the USPS has a very fixed cost system.  Still have to deliver to every house every day whether they are bringing one letter to your box or 12 - takes a lot of gas and vehicles to visit every house every day and maybe just for the one 44 cent letter you receive.  Email, electronic banking, and overall downturn in economy has been a huge impact.

USPS cannot operate as a true business and shrink as economy does.  That's why items such as 5 day delivery are on the table - but to shrink the business in that fashion it requires Congressional approval which doesn't occur quickly.  And to try and shrink and close down offices meets with a ton of local political pressure and in many cases offices can't be closed due to politics.  So You have a business losing volume and revenue but yet you can't shrink it to close smaller offices to save costs.  Plenty of private sector companaies shrink - USPS can't.  Without a rate increase or a turn around in economy to start mailing again (as the email and electronic backing losse to mail volume will never come back) what can USPS do - hands are kind of tied to perform like a sustaining business but everey time they try to do so they aren't allowed to.

In my opinion, we don't need a rate increase, five day delivery,or closing offices.  What we need is relief from the obligation to prefund retiree health benefits, and to have the payment for future pension benefits recalculated.

The PMG issued a press release on 9/30/10: 

http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2010/pr10_pm0930.htm

It included this statement:  The Postal Service ends the current fiscal year with approximately $2 billion cash and available credit, meeting all our end-of-year financial obligations, including a $5.5 billion payment to the Retiree Health Benefit Fund as required by law.

That doesn't sound so awful to me.

Still have to deliver to every house every day whether they are bringing one letter to your box or 12 - takes a lot of gas and vehicles to visit every house every day and maybe just for the one 44 cent letter you receive.  Email, electronic banking, and overall downturn in economy has been a huge impact.

Maybe a bit of there customer service should change.  For me going to the post office is on par with going to the dmv or the dentist.  Recently I had the person at the post office refuse to believe I was sending a book and even threatened me with a fine if i was sending something media mail that didnt qualify.  If I went into a store and got treated the way i get treated at the post office I would go out of my way to avoide that store.  At work i deal with the post office delivery person, ups and fedex five days a week.  We get the same postal carrier 99% of the time and she is always unplesant, we get the same 3 fedex drivers most of the time and they are professional but not exacly friendly and we get a different person each time ups shows up, cycling through about 10 drivers, and while they are in a hurry they are always plesant and will take a moment to chat.  Now I know these three companies dont match up completley on there services they are pretty close and getting closer.  As a company if you raise prices, make it unplesant to do buisness with you and are unreliable there is only going to be one end result.

As I noted, I"m a big fan of PO Boxes. 

It does seem antiquated that in this day and age, the post office has to stop at every single house even to deliver one measly letter.  Back in the day there were a lot less houses and people. 

I am also a fan of the post office.  I think it is pretty amazing what they do, overall.  I see my rural mail carrier in her truck plodding thru ice storms and gutted county roads to get stuff delivered. 

I'm sure there is a flip-side to this.  A lot of people treat their carriers like pack-animals and/or servants.  I have always helped them if they struggling with a heavy package or too many pieces of mail.  I have friends who are carriers, they have been bitten by dogs.  People half a$$ shovel a tiny footpath of their sidewalk (least they have to do under the law) and expect the carrier to trudge up that.  They also have tons of shoulder problems/surgery, foot problem/surgery, and other related over-use syndromes from doing the job.  When I wasn't rurual and actually HAD a carrier, I treated them very nicely and if they were in a bad mood or tired I would give them a brownie or something. 

If you have a carrier who is surly, you'd be surprised how much it means to just feel appreciated...that's what Christmas tips/presents, a brownie for the road, or some other token of your appreciation is for.  We all like to be appreciated.

I am retired now, but I gotta say, as someone who had to work full time all their lives, and most often a 2nd job on top of that, work-life is tough, esp. these days when many people are doing the jobs of 2-4 people!  It was already that way when I retired.  On Friday, I was so exhausted it was all I could do to just get in my jammies and relax until I had to do errands and housecleaning on SAT.  LOL

At any rate,  I think you can bring anybody *around*.  I think somebody said in another topic how they are receiving more complaints in their business, etc.  That's a shame.  I believe we are all here to make life better for each other, not worse.  That is just my spiritual philosophy.

I used to have to argue with telecom engineers in one of my jobs, when they just could have done the thing I needed and then BOTH of us would have less stress.  I used to tell them that:  we can do this the hard way or the easy way, otherwise, we're going to be talking about this "ordeal" at the dinner table tonight when we both get home from work. 

If you have a carrier who is surly, you'd be surprised how much it means to just feel appreciated

It literally took YEARS of me speaking and smiling at my surly mailman for him to even say hello to me.

The ONLY thing he said to me in 5 years was "I don't pick up packages of any size, unless you schedule a priority mail pick up!"    Until then I didn't know the man could talk!  My neighbors and I have had a "let's be nice to the mailman" campaign going for a long time.  He now speaks, at least part of the time, to one neighbor.  Some people are just surly - mailmen or not.

BTW - I'm a huge fan of USPS and use it often!

We used to have a . . . less than stellar rural carrier.  He fibbed on the salmon 'pick-up slips' because he didn't want to come up to the house, and our mail gradually came later and later in the day. Neighbors experienced similar and different problems.  Finally delivery time had shifted from about 4 pm to after 6 pm on a regular basis.  After much complaining (by many of us on his route) we received a new mail carrier!  She's deathly afraid of my dog, but that's ok...she at least attempts to the door delivery when necessary (too large for box or signature required).  She honks from my yard, so if we're home I just go out and see her in the little truck.

We're very happy with our current mail carrier   and the local branch staff is awesome!

Wouldn't Ben Franlkin be upset to hear that media mail would be discontinued. (It was his idea in first place!)

"Postal rates are not changing in 2011 (the USPS requested a rate hike but was denied), so you're good to go until at least May 2012."

As people may know, this is not true.  Some Priority Mail rates went up in January, and Media Mail rates go up April 17 (2.38-2.41 for the first pound, etc.).  The rate that is not changing is the First Class rate, which is what gets the most press, so you may have seen a headline saying "Postage Rate Not Chnaging in 2011" that referred only to that.

I stopped worrying about things that "might happen" a long time ago.  I guess I've lived too long LOL

They keep threatening to close my PO.  

But until it actually HAPPENS, I really can't *do* anything.

ditto, "if" media mail goes up.   When and if it does, I can make a decision about my activities then.  Not now.