I would like to address some issues (pardon the pun).
Regarding retirement, one can retire with 20 yrs of service but they must meet the minimum age requirement to do so, which under the current system is 59 1/2 yrs old.
On getting returned mail that is months old, mail cannot be returned (even if not picked up) until the box rent expires and is not renewed. So, that mail must be held as long as the rental period has been paid. This sometimes appears rediculous to the sender when it has been months sitting in an abandoned po box.
Regarding refused "junk" mail. IF there is an endorsement on the mail, then the piece or address service is sent to the sender (which the sender pays for). Any other junk mail (with no endorsement) is disposed of.
All employees hired after 1982 pay into social security (just for the record).
On the stamp sale of priority stamps, I can only guess at the reason for such. So here's my best guess depending on what level office it was. In the bigger offices, a clerk is only allowed to submit a stamp requisition weekly. Each clerk has an alloted amount they can have in their supply.
They must go through their inventory to see what they need to order. If someone else had been in earlier and purchased an unusual quanity, then it throws everything askew. Same goes for the main stock in the office. They can only order so many $$$ worth of stamps for the entire office, once a month. Used to be able to order up to a 3 month supply at a time, not so anymore. Another requirement that was passed down. Thus, everything upper management deems appropriate, seems to shoot themselves in the foot regarding customer service.
I've been retired a little over 3 yrs now so I'm unfamiliar with WTF. There are many abbreviations used on forwarded mail, but this one is new to me.
I wouldn't say the post office is private. They are their own entity, yet regulated by the government. They receive no tax dollars and are wholly dependent on postage sales for revenue.
For one, I'd sure like to see it continue for a few more years at least. My mom orders stuff from Swanson's, and has been waiting on her order for days now. In the mail today was a post card from UPS, saying her package was being held 60 miles away from us at their center, because something was wrong with the address. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the address. I called and they said we could come by and pick it up. Like I want to drive 120 miles to pick up a package that should have been delivered?
Don't think so. If we didn't have mail delivery, we wouldn't even have known....Needless to say, their call center heard a few things from me.
I do agree that most of the problems stem from upper management, and many of them don't want to lose their cushy jobs so they create work for the lower lever managers (stupid stuff) just to attempt to justify their jobs.
Thanks for the opportunity to try to set the record straight.