I went to the Post Office last night to mail a letter. I could not find my book of stamps and they seem to change the prices at will so i decided to buy one there. Much to my horror, the USPS no longer SELLS stamps in a manner that a lot of people can buy them.
I made sure that I had about 50 cents worth of change with me and I was all ready to put it in the little machine as I had done before. ALL that they have in the Louisville Kentucky area post offices is some computer operated machine that will ONLY sell you books of stamps and ONLY accept a debit card. I don't know, "maybe" a credit card too.
Not EVERY American has a debit card! It is NOT required. COINS and CASH are STILL legal tender in the US! That machine refused to take it from me! Hence, I was not ALLOWED to mail my letter (which were taxes - which must be post marked by today).
I am not sure if this practice is quite "unconstitutional" or not (but it got your attention). I know that the Post Office is a US Governmental agency (a. Gov on the internet) and that the office was probably formed as one of the first US services. It is darn near the "right" of every American to be able to use it.
Even if you DID have a debit card, the minimum amount of stamps that they would sell you was an $18 (US) book. I don't think it should be a "requirement" for someone to have $18 to send a $0.41 letter! If it were me, I wouldn't use anywhere NEAR the rest of the book before the price of the stamps went up yet again. Oh yeah, I guess you could buy a book of "makeup" stamps at that point - for another $18...
I know a lot of people that wouldn't be driving their cars in this day and age if you were REQUIRED to buy $18 worth of gas everytime you pulled up at a station...
I am not a homeless or destitute person, but I can imagine the scenario of a person walking for miles through the snow and 18 degree weather last night to mail an important document that HAD to be postmarked by yesterday. There would be NO WAY that they could do that! I DO find THAT to be unconstitutional. This hypothetical person could lose their home, car, job... Over TYPICAL GOVERNMENT BS!!!
Oh, for those of you that might think of some smart-aleky response like "why didn't you go during business hours?" Well, I did. MY business hours. It IS unconstitutional for them to impose their hours upon me. "Life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness" IS the constitution. For the hour that I spent trying to deal with their "reality" I can't say that I was pursuing any of the above 3. Just taking hours OFF of my life in frustration.
The Post Office used to be gold! Through rain, sleet, snow - however that rhyme USED to go. Now, I find another service that they don't seem to offer on almost a daily basis. They used to have a 24/7/365 office on Crittenden Drive. It now closes at 9PM (I think). I don't know. I have no reason to go there. The Gardner Lane Office used to be open until 9PM. It is now 7PM. I had entirely another issue with the USPS last Friday night. A Postal employee told me that they were open the next day, Saturday from 7-7. I got there at 5PM, they had closed at 3PM!!! I guess the famous "post office test" is now to weed IN the idiots...
There seems to be no accountability - try making a claim if you have to! The online tracking is a FARCE! I have had 0% luck with EVER finding out where a package was - until LONG after it was delivered. For these "services" they charge on the order of FOUR TIMES AS MUCH AS UPS! I have proof from just a week ago - $54 (for a customer to send a package to me) vs. $13 (for me to ship it back). I get complete tracking through UPS and know within an hour where my package is and when it was delivered.
No, I don't work for UPS. If the USPS ran as tight of a ship as UPS, I would never have had a reason to search out this site.
The USPS is now also taking out most of our corner mail boxes. Everytime I turn around, I get less from them. But everytime I WANT to mail a letter, it costs me more.
Listening to BO's first Presidential Address right now. He was elected for CHANGE! I just heard him swear to uphold the Constitution. I sure hope he can do something with the idiotic, unconstitutional Post Office.
Jaded
Louisville, Kentucky
U.S.A.
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