USPS Visit

Yesterday when I was mailing a package to Europe at the Post Office I saw just how poorly organized it has become. I had the Customs Form all written out and the USPS employee (there used to be several I knew that had been there for years, but lately it seems to have new people all the time) had to hand type the whole name and address and then fill  the Customs Form electronically which was then printed and put on the box (along with my Customs Form.) Then the USPS employee had to figure out the cost of the postage on her computer and then kept looking through her collection of stamps to scan the different prices for her computer and then had to physically put all the stamps on the box (the total amount was $61 so the box now looks cheaply plastered with tons of stamps.) It seems the USPS has moved backwards in time rather than into the 3rd Decade of the 21st Century with these new “improvements” – a term the USPS employee used yesterday. I know people are saying I should just do everything on-line (the postage, the Customs Form and even having the USPS pick-up my package from my house) but the USPS does not go up my mountain – only FedEx and UPS do. I have to drive a mile down my mountain every day – except on Sunday – to a row of 10 mailboxes (not the secured kind the Post Office provides in some cities and towns, but whatever regular mailbox each owner decides to put up.) When I first moved here the USPS would leave any box that didn’t fit in my mailbox just sitting on top of the mailbox – in the rain and snow and for anyone to take. That stopped after I got the local Post Master transferred for his dumb ways of doing things. A few years ago I got the largest regular mailbox you can legally have and so with that (and using Amazon Prime where FedEx and UPS deliver everything to my doorstep) I have cut my trips to my Post Office from going at least once a week to sometimes not going for several months (usually only in June for my birthday and in December for Christmas.) So while I could fill everything out online I would still have to drive into the next town to drop the package off at the Post Office.