Well, I suppose I should respond. Everyone always knows how to do your job better than you do. Anyone who has ever worked a job knows that.
Firstly-spin4cards, the Post office is a business saddled with a Congress mandated retirement system that requires pre-funding of retirees 75 years in advance. That's right, those not yet born are required to be funded. There is no other business in the world with such a requirement. That's simply a matter of record. It's easy enough to verify that. Please take the time to do so. Why such an absurd pre-funding requirement? Ask your people in Congress. That's why the yearly tally sheets look the way they do. Yes, preposterous but not for the reason that you surmise.
Now, I'm reluctant to go into Postal business here, not only because I'm retired and not able to speak on behalf of the firm any longer, but because it's so terribly boring. Since I retired I've been trying to leave all that behind.
As I understand the premise advanced by spin4cards, everything mailed should automatically carry insurance commensurate with the value of the item sent. Supposedly, that would be for UPS, FedEx, what have you but let's confine the discussion to the Post Office.
Premium services such as Priority, Express, COD, and such all do include insurance, and Insurance is the correct term, for a specified amount depending on type of service used. Should all of them have included insurance automatically covering whatever is inside the box?
How about goldfish marked this side up? "It's marked this side up, can't your people read?" How about expensive jewelry? "What do you mean I won't be covered for the full amount if I don't buy extra coverage?"What about a motorcycle frame, no box, just tags with the postage tied on?What about a full size collectors print with a glass overlay like the Mona Lisa with glass ready to shatter and destroy the item? What about Human Remains? What about a bomb?
Those aren't examples drawn from a book. I've encountered all of those. I had a customer that collected ceramic cookie jars. Every week she would get a couple of them. Half had no packing and were cracked. She would try to file claims. Then there was the guy that sent me the Hammond Organ amp that I bought on eBay. 50 pounds and he just threw it in a box. No packing at all. The amp was fine but the box was lacerated from the sharp edges so the parcels around that package were damaged.
Then there was the company in Maine that deals in Maple Syrup. They can fit two gallon jugs of the stuff in a big Priority box just fine. No room for packing though. That means that when a gallon jug breaks, all the other parcels in the hamper get soaked in maple syrup.
Then there was the time that I had to call the local bank to come and pick up all the statements that they had mailed. Some guy had boxed a bottle of red wine, no packing, and dumped it in the parcel drop. Of course the bottle broke. Red wine on everything.
Those are just a few anecdotes. I get nostalgic. Still, should all of those parcels have carried automatic insurance to the value of the contents?Should an old pillow be mailed at a higher rate because the mailer of the jewelry does not want to pay for the insurance to cover the specific value of what she was mailing? Should postage for all rise to cover those few that mail high value items and don't want to bear the burden of shouldering the responsibility for their own actions? Should people that don't need or want insurance pay a higher freight to cover others that should but don't want to?
Let's look a little deeper. The original complaint was regarding not services that already carry some insurance, it was about items at minimal postage rate. We're talking first class letter rate. There has never been insurance on first class letter rate or first class small parcel rate. No country in the world does that unless you add optional extra services. Go to the internet, find the Universal Postal Union in Bern Switzerland. Have a look. Every country is there. The UPU governs all that. Try to find one that offers free insurance for letter rate. Be my guest.
Let's not stop there though, where indeed does this stop? First class letters and first class parcels are one thing, do we then carry the idea to cover newspapers, magazines, Dollar Shave Club? See where this goes?
Now it has been stated that when one mails something, a contract is established between the mailer and the company selling the product. Effectively true but, every contract is spelled out in specific verbiage of some sort. The mailing contract is right on the website, on the placards on the walls, and so forth. While one may by imputation think that there should be insurance included in mailings at a basic rate, such has never been the case. Honestly, if I ran a card shop and mailed a Honus Wagner card or a mint rookie Mickey Mantle and didn't ask for insurance commensurate with the value of the item that I was mailing, I would be considered rather foolish, wouldn't I?
Let's forget about corner card shops for the moment and consider how the professionals look at this. The largest single mailer that uses the Post Office is Amazon. Amazon uses a form of bulk business mail. That's a bargain basement rate. Why do they do that? Well, it carries no insurance but it's cost effective. The loss they realize because of uninsured packages either being damaged or lost is trivial compared to the money that they would spend if they had a rate that included a factored in insurance. Don't think for a moment that they haven't considered it both ways and come to a conclusion as to which is the superior method for their business model.
Jeff Bezos is worth about 150 billion.
Get the picture?
Remember, in no fashion do I speak for the Post Office. I'm retired. I'm just a guy now. Spin4cards asked me a question and didn't like my answer. Well that kinda too bad. I don't set the rates. If you've got a problem with how things have been done since 1775 or so, please contact the Postmaster General, Washington D.C. 20265.
Over and out.
