USPS rates went up another 5 %

[habu2]

51 minutes ago, GW8345 said:

Now, when I order something on line, if I have a choice of shipping services, I never choose the USPS, .

This is how we as consumers voice our dissatisfaction.  We have the power of choice. B!tching and moaning about price increases won’t make USPS lower their prices or give you a better deal. Taking you business elsewhere is how you ultimately get their attention. 

[Dave Williams]

35 minutes ago, habu2 said:

This is how we as consumers voice our dissatisfaction.  We have the power of choice. B!tching and moaning about price increases won’t make USPS lower their prices or give you a better deal. Taking you business elsewhere is how you ultimately get their attention. 

Unfortunately, there is no chance they they will get the message and lower prices.  UPS and Fedex are almost always higher, and really don’t have any equivalent for envelopes or small packages like first class mail or priority mail.  They have a high infrastructure to support, and high personnel costs, especially pension obligations that Congress forced on them.  They simply can’t drop prices enough to gain enough business to generate the revenue they need.

[jeffryfontaine]

On 2/2/2020 at 9:28 AM, habu2 said:

Does your driveway connect your house to the main road?  Why not put up a mailbox at the end of your driveway?  Or do you never ever leave your house?

My house is one mile/1.6km from the main road.  There is no "turn around" for the USPS Minion vehicle so they will not deliver to my residence or to any of my neighbors on the shared access road.  I am not alone in this predicament as all of my neighbors are subject to the same stupid policy.  We have a big metal community mail box on the main road where the USPS Minion does deliver to and a large rural delivery mail box for some packages.  The down side to this is thievery as we have some meth fans in the neighborhood that love to go around taking things out of mail boxes. 

 

Yeah, this is quite irritating to deal with but Big Mail is just getting bigger and less effective each year.  Now with the recent hike in postage we are getting more than just the tip (if you know what I mean) without a complimentary kiss on the cheek or the courtesy of a reach around. 

 

Most of my on-line purchases usually involve UPS or FedEx but in the case of those wankerz at Amazon you are betting against the odds of ever seeing your purchase getting delivered by anyone other than USPS so I have to drive in to town to pick up my package.  So much for trying to reduce my carbon footprint. 

[11bee]

36 minutes ago, jeffryfontaine said:

My house is one mile/1.6km from the main road.  There is no "turn around" for the USPS Minion vehicle so they will not deliver to my residence or to any of my neighbors on the shared access road.  I am not alone in this predicament as all of my neighbors are subject to the same stupid policy.  We have a big metal community mail box on the main road where the USPS Minion does deliver to and a large rural delivery mail box for some packages.  The down side to this is thievery as we have some meth fans in the neighborhood that love to go around taking things out of mail boxes. 

 

Yeah, this is quite irritating to deal with but Big Mail is just getting bigger and less effective each year.  Now with the recent hike in postage we are getting more than just the tip (if you know what I mean) without a complimentary kiss on the cheek or the courtesy of a reach around. 

 

Most of my on-line purchases usually involve UPS or FedEx but in the case of those wankerz at Amazon you are betting against the odds of ever seeing your purchase getting delivered by anyone other than USPS so I have to drive in to town to pick up my package.  So much for trying to reduce my carbon footprint. 

That’s a lot of pent up anger there!  If it’s that big of a deal, scratch out a turnaround so the minions can deliver your packages from the wankerz before your meth head neighbors can steal your stuff (undoubtably without even the courtesy of a reach-around).   

[habu2]

Methinks you need to leave a glitter bomb for your local meth fans...

[dnl42]

1 hour ago, habu2 said:

Methinks you need to leave a glitter bomb for your local meth fans...

For those who don't recognize the above reference, please watch this video (part 1) and this video (part 2). If you do recognize the reference, you'll want to watch them again.

 

Mark Rober is one of my personal heroes!

 

Edited February 4, 2020 by dnl42

[Whiskey]

This sucks. I can't move a couple kits for sale because no matter what I do shipping is outrageous. 4.5lbs cost $35 to ship, and that's the cheapest between USPS and UPS. I didn't even bother with FedEx. I tried one box with no wiggle room, and three separate boxes to see which was more cost effective. The one single box was actually the least. Insane.

[Dennis in Houston]

I sent 2 Squadron Walk Around books to Canada. It was 50% cheaper to send tow separate envelopes than it was for both books in one envelope. Go figure.

 

I have spoke to a person who is well versed with the U$P$ and was told that the Federal Government made them fund future retirement liabilities from their revenue stream. These retirement plans are left over from when the government operated the postal service. Instead of providing continued funding for the plan in place, the U$P$ had to take on the "bloated" plans and pay for it from new revenue. The email took over and people stopped writing letters and sending cards. U$P$ got caught in the downturn and had to make the shortfall some where, so parcel post is where the cash cow now resides.

 

I, like many others, am disgusted with this turn of events.

 

Dennis

[zerosystem]

$47 to ship a Monogram B-17 to California from Mass

$30 to ship a 1/32 Tamiya Spit from Oregon to Mass

 

That was one hell of an increase. 

[Dennis in Houston]

15 FEB 20  11:48 am  1/48 B-29 from Dayton TX to PA  $41.55

 

Two weeks ago, same model, from Dayton TX to North Tonawanda NY  $71.25  deal killed.

 

The U$P$ has killed 8 deals for me in a little over 40 days.

 

I have over 60 models at reduced prices that I cannot sell because of the U$P$.

 

Dennis

[Dave Williams]

It’s become almost impossible to sell a large kit, like 1/32 Trumpeter jets such as the MiG-29 or Su-27.  There is no way to compete with commercial volume pricing from places like Sprue Brothers or Scale Hobbyist, which charge about $10, regardless of the size of the box.  No one is going to buy my kit and pay $30- $40 shipping, unless the sale price is drastically reduced.  At those rates, they can buy a brand new kit cheaper.

[habu2]

3 hours ago, Dennis in Houston said:

The U$P$ has killed 8 deals for me in a little over 40 days.

I have over 60 models at reduced prices that I cannot sell because of the U$P$.

 

Dennis and I talked about this when I visited him a couple of weeks ago.  The only realistic option is to forego shipping kits and get a vendor table at local shows/contests.

 

.

 

Edited February 18, 2020 by habu2

[ElectroSoldier]

On 2/1/2020 at 6:22 PM, 11bee said:

This^

 

For reference, go to Europe and see what the rates are over there. 

Well I can honestly tell you I ship packages and parcels between Germany, Denmark, France, Russia and America and USPS is just about the worst rates you can get from what is a none express parcels service.

They are killing trade coming out of America.

 

There is a model I want on ebay, its in the USA, the seller uses USPS.
The cost of the model is £20.74, which is nice its worth £20.74

 

Shipping is £12.29

Its worth £20.74  not £33.03, and that is before import tax and sales taxes are applied my end.

 

USPS did not introduce the rates because the service warranted it, it was just easier for them to calculate it all. USPS service is average at best.

[Dennis in Houston]

I believe habu2 is probably correct in setting up a table at a meet.

My hesitation in doing that, is I would have to do cash only transactions because I do not have a cell phone and have zero interest in acquiring one. My wife does, but I doubt seriously she would want to go to a model airplane buy and sell meet. But, when push comes to shove (and we are heading in that direction) I will most likely bite the bullet and follow habu2's suggestion. I left Houston for a reason and I really, really do not want to go back.

 

Dennis

[Whiskey]

Crap. I don't wanna do all that as I don't have the time nor energy as a single parent in school. And I need to offload a large portion of my kits sooner rather than later. I haven't been able to sell anything because of shipping lately.

[Dennis in Houston]

Whiskey,

I don't WANT to either. But habu2 does have a point. If people like you and me and hundreds of others cannot get our models sold because U$P$ prices are killing the deals, then the only three choices are 1) keep the stash, 2) give the stash away, 3) find a place to sell them off line.  I suppose we could offer to pay 1/2 the postage.

 

U$P$ wins, we lose and there is nothing we can do about it.  It would be nice if the A.R.C.  could step in and negotiate a lower rate with U$P$ because of the amount postal business we collectively generate.

 

Dennis

[Whiskey]

Are you proposing we form a lobbying organization haha?

[Dennis in Houston]

I don't how we should go about it, but if PayPal can give a 17% discount on postage when Service and Goods is used to complete a transaction, there is some merit in TRYING to get A.R.C. members a "corporate" discount. I have no idea what the volume is, but I imagine there is quite a bit of traffic generated by our membership. It never hurts to ask.

 

Dennis

[Dave Williams]

I’ll bet the actual number of transactions completed daily on ARC are only a couple.  Not even close the volume that places like Sprue Brothers, Scale Hobbyist, or even Squadron do to get their rates.  Plus, it would be asking USPS to give the discount to hundreds or thousands of people, instead of one place.

[Camus272]

On 2/13/2020 at 6:53 AM, Dennis in Houston said:

I sent 2 Squadron Walk Around books to Canada. It was 50% cheaper to send tow separate envelopes than it was for both books in one envelope. Go figure.

 

I have spoke to a person who is well versed with the U$P$ and was told that the Federal Government made them fund future retirement liabilities from their revenue stream. These retirement plans are left over from when the government operated the postal service. Instead of providing continued funding for the plan in place, the U$P$ had to take on the "bloated" plans and pay for it from new revenue. The email took over and people stopped writing letters and sending cards. U$P$ got caught in the downturn and had to make the shortfall some where, so parcel post is where the cash cow now resides.

 

I, like many others, am disgusted with this turn of events.

 

Dennis

Right, this is public knowledge - the Post Office is required by law to pre-fund retirement up to 2056 at $5 billion per year.  No other agency, or anyone else, has to do this - it's insane. And, yeah, with no one sending actual mail, packages are all that's left. But, I don't understand why there's no one with competitive pricing.

[jpk]

On 2/3/2020 at 7:17 PM, jeffryfontaine said:

My house is one mile/1.6km from the main road.  There is no "turn around" for the USPS Minion vehicle so they will not deliver to my residence or to any of my neighbors on the shared access road.  I am not alone in this predicament as all of my neighbors are subject to the same stupid policy.  We have a big metal community mail box on the main road where the USPS Minion does deliver to and a large rural delivery mail box for some packages.  The down side to this is thievery as we have some meth fans in the neighborhood that love to go around taking things out of mail boxes. 

 

Yeah, this is quite irritating to deal with but Big Mail is just getting bigger and less effective each year.  Now with the recent hike in postage we are getting more than just the tip (if you know what I mean) without a complimentary kiss on the cheek or the courtesy of a reach around. 

 

Most of my on-line purchases usually involve UPS or FedEx but in the case of those wankerz at Amazon you are betting against the odds of ever seeing your purchase getting delivered by anyone other than USPS so I have to drive in to town to pick up my package.  So much for trying to reduce my carbon footprint. 

There you go. Blame the USPS for your choice to live where you do. I prefer to live where there are few if any meth heads and in a neighborhood where delivery is not a concern for me. Don't blame the PO for your poor choice of locale. Maybe you should get together with the other residents to pay for a road improvement or your county roads department to do something to your road that would allow a delivery closer to the residences.