8 ms·

Sadly, USPS sees bulk mailers as their customer; American citizens (and our kitchen tables) are their product. It's like the old line: if you aren't paying for

Sadly, USPS sees bulk mailers as their customer; American citizens (and our kitchen tables) are their product. It's like the old line: if you aren't paying for the service, you are the product. If curious, listen to a full story of it here: http://kut.org/post/austin-startup-says-you-ll-never-touch-snail-mail-again http://kut.org/post/austin-startup-says-you-ll-never-touch-s...

ceejayoz 13y ago
> Sadly, USPS sees bulk mailers as their customer... Not so sadly, doing so allows more reasonable rates for normal mail.
- Timothee 13y ago
  50 cents to send a piece of paper across the continent in just a couple of days is a bargain as far as I'm concerned. A dollar will even get your piece of paper across the world in just a few more days than that. It's quite unbelievable that it works so well for such a cheap price.
  - silencio 13y ago
    I'm addressing my wedding invitations and skimming through Hacker News this afternoon. $25 to mail about two dozen envelopes (invite plus stamped rsvp), and half a dozen more with international addresses or additional weight that I'm taking to the post office in half an hour. And that's the bare minimum I could get away with sending paper invites to, everyone else is getting evites. Then there's a round of rehearsal dinner invites and thank you notes going out in the next couple months... Not to mention I have two packages to return, and a bunch of my wedding accessories shipped USPS. All this week, before I consider any business-related needs (another 6-7 envelopes). Not a terrible service at all. Could be better, fairly cheap for what it is, and I wish I could pay to not get junk mail, but...not too bad. Definitely better than Ontrac ;)
    - eli 13y ago
      You can "opt-out" of quite a bit (most?) junk mail: https://www.dmachoice.org/ https://www.dmachoice.org/
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

ceejayoz 13y ago

> Sadly, USPS sees bulk mailers as their customer... Not so sadly, doing so allows more reasonable rates for normal mail.

Timothee 13y ago
50 cents to send a piece of paper across the continent in just a couple of days is a bargain as far as I'm concerned. A dollar will even get your piece of paper across the world in just a few more days than that. It's quite unbelievable that it works so well for such a cheap price.
- silencio 13y ago
  I'm addressing my wedding invitations and skimming through Hacker News this afternoon. $25 to mail about two dozen envelopes (invite plus stamped rsvp), and half a dozen more with international addresses or additional weight that I'm taking to the post office in half an hour. And that's the bare minimum I could get away with sending paper invites to, everyone else is getting evites. Then there's a round of rehearsal dinner invites and thank you notes going out in the next couple months... Not to mention I have two packages to return, and a bunch of my wedding accessories shipped USPS. All this week, before I consider any business-related needs (another 6-7 envelopes). Not a terrible service at all. Could be better, fairly cheap for what it is, and I wish I could pay to not get junk mail, but...not too bad. Definitely better than Ontrac ;)
  - eli 13y ago
    You can "opt-out" of quite a bit (most?) junk mail: https://www.dmachoice.org/ https://www.dmachoice.org/

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]