The cost of a first-class postage stamp is going up to 42 cents in May. I believe the cost went up by 2 cents just last May. I think they can now review and raise the cost every year. How is it that the USPS isn't making enough money?

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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!

I don't mind the penny increase for regular mail - what I hate is that now they will hike the shipping charges again...and I'll bet it won't be a penny an ounce!

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Mary

I guess they are trying to make up for their losses from people paying bills over the internet and making phone payments. There was an article in our local paper recently about how much less mail is being sent nowadays.

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I honestly can't figure out what sense in their minds is making them think RAISING the prices will make us want to send MORE mail.

Raising them only wants to make people who use the internet, use it more. The people this really hurts are the elderly.

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I know what you mean, it will affect the elderly and the poor the most, the people that don't have computers or phones.

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all other venues of shipping raise their prices every year so I guess the PO figures it should keep up. I know that less people are paying their bills and writing letters today then say, 10 years ago BUT there is also a HUGE internet marketplace called Ebay and TONS of sellers on Ebay use USPS. So, the USPS gets less first class mail but they get A LOT more Priority and Parcel Post than they used to. You only get to hear how first class has gone down but you don't hear how they make more on parcel and priority, especially since they started dimintionally charging for priority...costs a lot more than it ever did

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I think there is a "universal stamp" available now, where you pay a set price (I think it is now $.43) but that the stamp does not have a denomination on it. That way, you can use these stamps forever, no matter what the current price of postage may be. Does anyone know any more about this? TIA

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I think you may be referring to the "forever" stamp. That is the one with the bell on it, and I think it even says "forever" on it. They sell for .41, and the idea is to hang on to them "forever" I guess, and even if postage goes up, you can still use this stamp. I think it's a bit risky myself, much too easy to lose them, misplace them, or whatever.

I would like to see them charge a fee for the "free" shipping boxes they give out. Really, how "free" is it??? The cost has to be made up somewhere. We all managed to find boxes before they gave these out. They also need to crack down on the people who turn the boxes and envelopes inside out and use them to ship parcel or a means other than Priority. I'm not talking about someone using a previously mailed box...that's fine, but, the ones that go in the post office and use a new box for this...it's wrong.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

The USPS has cracked down on supply misuse quite a bit. Unfortunately, it's quite difficult to imagine all the ways that unscrupulous people will be, uh, unscrupulous. I believe the underlying goal is to have everything go Priority and I believe that from a operations standpoint, boxes in a limited number of sizes and dimensions optimizes their handling and processes so it makes sense to them to offer the boxes for free. I don't want to be charged for these boxes, so I don't like that idea at all. I use other boxes for my media packages. Parcel post is no longer a cost advantage for me after the last rate hike.

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

I'm sure they run the numbers and account for the mis-use that will take place as they figure their costs. I am sure they also run the numbers and figure out what would happen to the bottom line if they didn't give free boxes. I know if I had to pay for Priority boxes I'd dumpster dive for plain brown ones and ship a cheaper class of mail.

And now they are doing away with ALL the stamp machines!! The first sign I saw was at work. Then I went to the post office to get a book of stamps from the machine and there was a sign up there too!!! Not only will I now have to pay even more for stamps, but now I also have to waste my time in line to purchase them!!! Definately an incentive to do the online bill paying.

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I went to the post office today and bought 6 books of the "forever" stamps. I hope to get 6 more books next month.
Those should last me a good while.
I just don't feel comfortable paying bills online---what with all the hacking and stolen ID anymore.
But if they continue to raise postage I'll just have to get over my fobia and resort to internet bill paying.
Social Security doesn't give an increase with each raising of prices.

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Barb


My GOD Bless our Country and our Troops, and rid the World of terroists.

Do you all get a lot of credit card applications in the mail with the pre-post envelope? I send it back to them with other junk mail. I told my mailman what I am doing and he told me thats a great idea. So, let those people pay for it. If everyone did this, I bet first, credit card companies and other junk mail would drop dramatically, and second, the price of stamps might not jump every year??? Plus, how interesting for the employees opening up what they thought was an application to find junk mail themselves!! It's kind of like getting back at spam email.

I used to do the same thing----for quite some time. But it didn't seem to do any good.
On the back of those applications theres a toll free number you can call to stop them from sending them to you. I did that and I don't get NEAR as many of them anymore.
From all the junk mail I do get, if the return envelope is blank on the back side--I save them for note paper and they're great for writing shopping lists. Just tuck the coupons you're planning to use inside.

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Barb


My GOD Bless our Country and our Troops, and rid the World of terroists.