Printing postage does not prove anything was ever mailed. Until the post office accepts receipt of the letter/package/whatever you cannot prove anything other than you printed postage. I can print postage all day and never mail anything. I no longer trust dropping things into unattended box since I had bill payments (including mortgage) lost when a mailbox was vandalized years ago.
Your argument is pointless anyway. The original thread was a rebuttal to the assertion that the USPS does a better job than UPS or FedEx. You want to split hairs about avoiding counter service as though it somehow makes it alright. It is demonstrable that the USPS customer service is worse and apathetic. Their "tracking" system is nearly worthless. Their endpoint carriers frequently shirk their responsibilities in order to save time. The lines in their offices at all hours of the day are long and much slower compared to both UPS Stores and Kinko/FedEX. Their "open" hours are much fewer than UPS Stores or Kinko/FedEx. The only bright spot is that they are cheaper. For now...
I could tell easily a dozen more stories about the five post offices I have used over the past 20 years. I could tell a dozen more from complaints I hear from my boss. You want to argue that I don't "have to" go inside the building. BFD. I still have to deal with everything else including lost/damaged mail, hit and run carriers not knocking on the door, misdelivered mail, refusal to answer the phones, incorrect/non-updated tracking, missed deadlines, ad naseum.
The USPS is a SERVICE company and their service sucks. We use it because we have to, not because we want to. No other service company could survive with customers that feel that way.
There is almost NO reason to stand in a Post Office's line anymore. If you do, it's by CHOICE...
You are HALF correct. There is ALMOST no reason to stand in line the the post office (not that it excuses their service). I almost exclusively end up waiting there to send and retrieve registered mail and to retrieve packages that have to be signed for. As I said in another thread, my carrier is in too big a hurry to ring the doorbell or knock on the door. It's MUCH easier to just drop off a card and make me pick it up at the P.O.
Secondly, I NEVER go to the P.O. by choice. I avoid it like the plague. If I had the same level of customer service (or more accurately, apathy) from any entity I deal with, I would drop them like a rock. Unfortunately, I am forced to use them for legal proof, and for vendors who don't know better.
Ironically, my sister works for the USPS as a carrier. She sympathizes with me at the apathy level there.
It's absolutely true. And my ex-wife would have to be dating the whole branch office for that to be the reason. Hmmm... Maybe she is.
If you want to read about some more shenanigans perpetrated my my local USPS against their customers and myself, read my reply to a troll that responded to me in an alternate thread.
You got only twelve pieces of mail during an entire year? You mean they lost/mangled two pieces of mail out of hundreds or thousands they delivered normally.
No. First I doubt I get more than a 100 pieces of "real mail" per year. I do get junkmail and advertisements. I don't care if that crap gets shredded or lost. They screwed up two out of twelve paychecks for the year. Those are the important ones. Screwing up one is unacceptable. I've had bills lost in the mail. Before I moved to my current home, they misdelivered my mail to the wrong address all the time. It was a running joke that at 5:00 everybody in the neighborhood was out RE-delivering the mail to the correct addresses. A couple years ago, I got a large tied bundle of presorted letters addressed to people all over the neighborhood. It was stilled tied together. I just do not count on anything sent by USPS as reliable. period.
I have to drive ten miles to the nearest UPS office to pick up an envelope, compared to five blocks downtown to the post office.
And my UPS Store is two blocks away. The Post Office is 2 miles. What's your point?
Let me tell you about my USPS Office.Their service is so bad and had so many complaints that the postmaster put up signs all over the lobby. It said "If you have to wait more than 5 minutes, call this number." My usual wait time is over 30 minutes on a good day. One day the mail carrier left a "I can't deliver this" card on my door. (They didn't knock or ring the doorbell). I started calling the local branch office when I got to work. The line was busy all morning. At lunch, it mysteriously wasn't busy anymore; it rang and rang, but nobody would answer. Right after lunch it went constantly busy again, and so I left work early and to pick up my package in person. When I showed up, I saw the signs up everywhere about wait times.
Their solution to angry customers in long lines was to take the phone off the hook. I laughed when the people in line waiting said to me that we should all call the number on the sign. I told them to go ahead, but I had been calling it all day.
The Post Office consistently does a better job than FedEx or UPS.
I could agree with you if I didn't receive (portions of) mangled letters in plastic baggies with half assed apologies written on the sides. Or just not receive them at all. Or if I didn't regularly receive my neighbors' mail and packages. UPS and FedEx may not be perfect, but at least their tracking software works and I actually GET what is addressed to me delivered to me.
I had to have two paychecks reissued over the last 12 months because one never arrived and one arrived shredded. That's two out of twelve. I had to request my employer not mail them. (And before you ask, No. Direct deposit is not supported by them. Not that it would excuse it anyway.) And if you want to see Amazon blow their two day shipping, watch when they decide to ship FedEx Smartpost. The USPS leg always misses the deadline.
And next time you are standing in line at the Post Office, think about how much better it is than standing in line at the UPS Store. You'll have LOTS of time to think about it.
You are telling me that during all your target shooting and hunting, you fired only single shot, lever action or bolt action rifles? Take a look at your local Dick's Sporting Goods or even Wal-Mart and you will see how much the market values your 19th century firearms.
You have recycled the SUV debate with the same old tired argument. "You can't prove a need for it and I don't like it, therefore you shouldn't be allowed to have it." Unfortunately conservative and liberals alike seem to love to ban things, albeit different kinds of things. It sickens me to see how intolerant and controlling we as a people have become of each other. Whatever happened to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? When did that pursuit of happiness become the blocking of others' pursuits?
The IBM PC was expensive too. Real expensive... Maybe you are thinking of the Edsel of computing which came two years after after the IBM PC. The Apple Lisa which was as much as a nice car.
In reality, the failure of Apple was the closed architecture. The IBM PC was completely open and even published BIOS source code in their tech reference manuals. The bus specifications were published and open for anyone to build hardware for it. This allowed competitors, (CompaQ etc) to enter the market with clones and expand it. Ironically, we are seeing history repeat itself as Apple slides again due to the openness of Android.
Most self-published content is of negligible interest to people outside of a closed group, and if that was actually *all* that there was, there'd be a correspondingly smaller amount of content intake, leading to cultural stagnation. When civilizations get bored, they do crazy shit.
That has got to be the funniest justification for copyright I have ever heard. "We need copyright, for our own safety." LOL
Would you expect your grocery store to suddenly stop charging you tax?
Uhh... They don't charge me tax for groceries right now.
As for your other example, with the proposed tax, Amazon will sell you a modem for ~$90 with tax and Best Buy ~$130. How exactly does that improve Best Buy's competitiveness? Best Buy and many B&M stores are the "gotta-have-now" stores of last resort to me now. I pay the B&M premium only when I can't wait 48 hours. Most of the time pricing is so different, sales tax makes no difference. What does make a difference is the vast selection available and the convenience of ordering 24 hours a day and having it dropped on my front patio in two days.
Even mighty Wal-Mart can't get it right. They refuse to honor their web prices in the store. I would pay sales tax and pick up myself if they let me. They get it so wrong. They want ME to pick up to get free shipping AND wait for "shipping" too. Sorry Wal-Mart, I'll let Amazon get it to me for free and for less money.
Item X costs $10.
Mom and Pop store doesn't have item, but can get it in a week; Trip #1 wasted
When it eventually shows up, you pay $10 + tax ~ $11
Online megastore sells item X for $5
Online megastore has item in stock
Online megastore has 50 closely similar items in stock in case you don't exactly need item X
Online megastore will ship overnight for a small charge, or two days for free if you buy $25 total on your order
Online megastore lets you order at 2AM instead of rushing to Mom and Pop after work before they close
Result: -> Online megastore haters complain that sales tax prevents Mom and Pop from competing fairly
Moral of the story: Amazon's customer experience is far superior. Local stores cannot simply add online shopping and hope to provide a better experience. Sales tax is a red herring. If Mom and Pop have sales tax issues tying their hands, it's a problem caused by their local taxing authorities.
A few years ago, Wal-Mart was the company that people loved to hate. Wal-Mart stumbled, or more accurately, reached their natural maximum growth rate and penetration, so the small business lovers trained their sites on Amazon instead. It's the Wal-Mart hate all over again. We hear more tired arguments.
Amazon is killing some small business because they are inherently more efficient in delivering their products. It has NOTHING at all to do with sales tax. This is the same reason Wal-Mart grew so quickly and bankrupted even the once-mighty Sears. No great business model is impervious for long. Sooner or later, Amazon's successor will rise with a better, cheaper, or more convenient model to deliver their products and the haters will complain anew.
Which is precisely why you are an idiot for approving of it for Obama. Do not permit ANY president the power and authority to do what you wouldn't give to EVERY president....because that is exactly what happens.
If it is REALLY about "supporting" smartphone users without a data plan, why not do the following:
I'm sorry. Your contract does not support smartphone usage. If you are having issues outside the scope of voice calling, please contact your smartphone vendor for technical support. Goodbye...
AT&T doesn't do it because they would rather stick their customers for a $30 per month unencumbered profit increase. I was stuck with AT&T due to my specific coverage areas, and left for a Straight Talk AT&T SIM card so I could use an iPhone. I ended up paying $5 more per month for unlimited data, voice, & SMS vs. 450 minutes per month and NOTHING ELSE! If Tracfone/Straight Talk can do it and make money, AT&T should be able too. It's their own damn towers...
Congratulations! You get the EcoFriendly Award of 2013. You managed to recycle the SUV debate argument and thus saved vital thinking energy. "I don't like them and you can use something else so nobody should be able to have one."
So yes, you do need to justify why a conflict of interest should be resolved in your favour, even in a free society. And the anti-gun people need to justify their position. Then we'll see who has the strongest point.
Because your "conflict" is some nebulous, nonspecific and inconequential worry about the possibility that someone's property could be used to injure you. The "conflict" on my part is the appropriation, confiscation, or deprivation of my property. This is independent of the my rights as confirmed in the Constitution. Since you spelled favor as favour, you need not argue the second point.
You're a fucking coward. That's right, a fucking coward. You're such a weak, mewling shit that you need an assault rifle to protect yourself, endangering others in the process.
Does anyone else think it hilarious that this brave gun control zealot posts as an anonymous coward while calling his opponents the same?
So many gun control advocates want to play this card when it is in fact themselves that are cowards. They quake in their boots and wet their pants at the mere mention of assault rifles. Anyone who has grown up with families that hunt have no irrational fear of firearms. The problem is that this is no rational debate. It is an irrational emotional fear which drives one segment of the electorate to seek to deprive the other of its rights. While I don't hunt, many of my family and friends do, and I shudder at the whining I've heard the past two weeks over guns.
The GP claimed that "cost" had been dropping. Not true. The "down payment" has been dropping, but it is no different than $0 down offers on new cars. I made no claims regarding the suitability of Walmart to sell anything. I only made the observation that very high end TV sets are not often seen/sold at Walmart. In fact, if Walmart wanted to discount a contract free, unlocked iPhone, I would consider buying one.
Spoken like a person who doesn't realize people have been dropping several times the cost of an iPhone on televisions from Walmart for the past decade or so.
Spoken like a person who doesn't understand the difference between price and cost.
An iPhone 5 retails for $650 - $950 depending on the model without the monthly subsidy of a contract. That is the COST regardless of the "under contract" PRICE Walmart sells it. I don't see many $3,000 TVs flying off the shelves at Walmart. People dropping that kind of dough tend to buy their TVs elsewhere.
Imagine a World War I commanding officer that orders wave after wave of soldiers to run into the meat grinder of overlaid and well protected machine gun fire, and when it disastrously fails, they do it again.
Not just WWI. See the Battle of Gettysburg and Robert E. Lee. Look in particular at Little Round Top and Cemetery Ridge. Hubris cost a lot of men their lives. It may have been the determining factor in the end.
Slashdot Mirror
Printing postage does not prove anything was ever mailed. Until the post office accepts receipt of the letter/package/whatever you cannot prove anything other than you printed postage. I can print postage all day and never mail anything. I no longer trust dropping things into unattended box since I had bill payments (including mortgage) lost when a mailbox was vandalized years ago.
Your argument is pointless anyway. The original thread was a rebuttal to the assertion that the USPS does a better job than UPS or FedEx. You want to split hairs about avoiding counter service as though it somehow makes it alright. It is demonstrable that the USPS customer service is worse and apathetic. Their "tracking" system is nearly worthless. Their endpoint carriers frequently shirk their responsibilities in order to save time. The lines in their offices at all hours of the day are long and much slower compared to both UPS Stores and Kinko/FedEX. Their "open" hours are much fewer than UPS Stores or Kinko/FedEx. The only bright spot is that they are cheaper. For now...
I could tell easily a dozen more stories about the five post offices I have used over the past 20 years. I could tell a dozen more from complaints I hear from my boss. You want to argue that I don't "have to" go inside the building. BFD. I still have to deal with everything else including lost/damaged mail, hit and run carriers not knocking on the door, misdelivered mail, refusal to answer the phones, incorrect/non-updated tracking, missed deadlines, ad naseum.
The USPS is a SERVICE company and their service sucks. We use it because we have to, not because we want to. No other service company could survive with customers that feel that way.
You are HALF correct. There is ALMOST no reason to stand in line the the post office (not that it excuses their service). I almost exclusively end up waiting there to send and retrieve registered mail and to retrieve packages that have to be signed for. As I said in another thread, my carrier is in too big a hurry to ring the doorbell or knock on the door. It's MUCH easier to just drop off a card and make me pick it up at the P.O.
Secondly, I NEVER go to the P.O. by choice. I avoid it like the plague. If I had the same level of customer service (or more accurately, apathy) from any entity I deal with, I would drop them like a rock. Unfortunately, I am forced to use them for legal proof, and for vendors who don't know better.
Ironically, my sister works for the USPS as a carrier. She sympathizes with me at the apathy level there.
It's absolutely true. And my ex-wife would have to be dating the whole branch office for that to be the reason. Hmmm... Maybe she is.
If you want to read about some more shenanigans perpetrated my my local USPS against their customers and myself, read my reply to a troll that responded to me in an alternate thread.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3482929&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&cid=42973043
No. First I doubt I get more than a 100 pieces of "real mail" per year. I do get junkmail and advertisements. I don't care if that crap gets shredded or lost. They screwed up two out of twelve paychecks for the year. Those are the important ones. Screwing up one is unacceptable. I've had bills lost in the mail. Before I moved to my current home, they misdelivered my mail to the wrong address all the time. It was a running joke that at 5:00 everybody in the neighborhood was out RE-delivering the mail to the correct addresses. A couple years ago, I got a large tied bundle of presorted letters addressed to people all over the neighborhood. It was stilled tied together. I just do not count on anything sent by USPS as reliable. period.
And my UPS Store is two blocks away. The Post Office is 2 miles. What's your point?
Let me tell you about my USPS Office.Their service is so bad and had so many complaints that the postmaster put up signs all over the lobby. It said "If you have to wait more than 5 minutes, call this number." My usual wait time is over 30 minutes on a good day. One day the mail carrier left a "I can't deliver this" card on my door. (They didn't knock or ring the doorbell). I started calling the local branch office when I got to work. The line was busy all morning. At lunch, it mysteriously wasn't busy anymore; it rang and rang, but nobody would answer. Right after lunch it went constantly busy again, and so I left work early and to pick up my package in person. When I showed up, I saw the signs up everywhere about wait times.
Their solution to angry customers in long lines was to take the phone off the hook. I laughed when the people in line waiting said to me that we should all call the number on the sign. I told them to go ahead, but I had been calling it all day.
The Post Office has a systemic problem.
I could agree with you if I didn't receive (portions of) mangled letters in plastic baggies with half assed apologies written on the sides. Or just not receive them at all. Or if I didn't regularly receive my neighbors' mail and packages. UPS and FedEx may not be perfect, but at least their tracking software works and I actually GET what is addressed to me delivered to me.
I had to have two paychecks reissued over the last 12 months because one never arrived and one arrived shredded. That's two out of twelve. I had to request my employer not mail them. (And before you ask, No. Direct deposit is not supported by them. Not that it would excuse it anyway.) And if you want to see Amazon blow their two day shipping, watch when they decide to ship FedEx Smartpost. The USPS leg always misses the deadline.
And next time you are standing in line at the Post Office, think about how much better it is than standing in line at the UPS Store. You'll have LOTS of time to think about it.
You are telling me that during all your target shooting and hunting, you fired only single shot, lever action or bolt action rifles? Take a look at your local Dick's Sporting Goods or even Wal-Mart and you will see how much the market values your 19th century firearms.
You have recycled the SUV debate with the same old tired argument. "You can't prove a need for it and I don't like it, therefore you shouldn't be allowed to have it." Unfortunately conservative and liberals alike seem to love to ban things, albeit different kinds of things. It sickens me to see how intolerant and controlling we as a people have become of each other. Whatever happened to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? When did that pursuit of happiness become the blocking of others' pursuits?
The IBM PC was expensive too. Real expensive... Maybe you are thinking of the Edsel of computing which came two years after after the IBM PC. The Apple Lisa which was as much as a nice car.
In reality, the failure of Apple was the closed architecture. The IBM PC was completely open and even published BIOS source code in their tech reference manuals. The bus specifications were published and open for anyone to build hardware for it. This allowed competitors, (CompaQ etc) to enter the market with clones and expand it. Ironically, we are seeing history repeat itself as Apple slides again due to the openness of Android.
That has got to be the funniest justification for copyright I have ever heard. "We need copyright, for our own safety." LOL
Uhh... They don't charge me tax for groceries right now.
As for your other example, with the proposed tax, Amazon will sell you a modem for ~$90 with tax and Best Buy ~$130. How exactly does that improve Best Buy's competitiveness? Best Buy and many B&M stores are the "gotta-have-now" stores of last resort to me now. I pay the B&M premium only when I can't wait 48 hours. Most of the time pricing is so different, sales tax makes no difference. What does make a difference is the vast selection available and the convenience of ordering 24 hours a day and having it dropped on my front patio in two days.
Even mighty Wal-Mart can't get it right. They refuse to honor their web prices in the store. I would pay sales tax and pick up myself if they let me. They get it so wrong. They want ME to pick up to get free shipping AND wait for "shipping" too. Sorry Wal-Mart, I'll let Amazon get it to me for free and for less money.
How about instead:
Item X costs $10.
Mom and Pop store doesn't have item, but can get it in a week; Trip #1 wasted
When it eventually shows up, you pay $10 + tax ~ $11
Online megastore sells item X for $5
Online megastore has item in stock
Online megastore has 50 closely similar items in stock in case you don't exactly need item X
Online megastore will ship overnight for a small charge, or two days for free if you buy $25 total on your order
Online megastore lets you order at 2AM instead of rushing to Mom and Pop after work before they close
Result: -> Online megastore haters complain that sales tax prevents Mom and Pop from competing fairly
Moral of the story: Amazon's customer experience is far superior. Local stores cannot simply add online shopping and hope to provide a better experience. Sales tax is a red herring. If Mom and Pop have sales tax issues tying their hands, it's a problem caused by their local taxing authorities.
A few years ago, Wal-Mart was the company that people loved to hate. Wal-Mart stumbled, or more accurately, reached their natural maximum growth rate and penetration, so the small business lovers trained their sites on Amazon instead. It's the Wal-Mart hate all over again. We hear more tired arguments.
Amazon is killing some small business because they are inherently more efficient in delivering their products. It has NOTHING at all to do with sales tax. This is the same reason Wal-Mart grew so quickly and bankrupted even the once-mighty Sears. No great business model is impervious for long. Sooner or later, Amazon's successor will rise with a better, cheaper, or more convenient model to deliver their products and the haters will complain anew.
Are you suggesting that spraying Roundup is a patent infringement? Did Monsanto patent that too?
Which is precisely why you are an idiot for approving of it for Obama. Do not permit ANY president the power and authority to do what you wouldn't give to EVERY president. ...because that is exactly what happens.
If it is REALLY about "supporting" smartphone users without a data plan, why not do the following:
I'm sorry. Your contract does not support smartphone usage. If you are having issues outside the scope of voice calling, please contact your smartphone vendor for technical support. Goodbye...
AT&T doesn't do it because they would rather stick their customers for a $30 per month unencumbered profit increase. I was stuck with AT&T due to my specific coverage areas, and left for a Straight Talk AT&T SIM card so I could use an iPhone. I ended up paying $5 more per month for unlimited data, voice, & SMS vs. 450 minutes per month and NOTHING ELSE! If Tracfone/Straight Talk can do it and make money, AT&T should be able too. It's their own damn towers...
Once again, the anti-gun advocates are ALWAYS the ones who know absolutely nothing about them. Zero experience. Zero knowledge.
And their phobia and hysteria regarding firearms is supposed to give their arguments credence?
Congratulations! You get the EcoFriendly Award of 2013. You managed to recycle the SUV debate argument and thus saved vital thinking energy. "I don't like them and you can use something else so nobody should be able to have one."
Because your "conflict" is some nebulous, nonspecific and inconequential worry about the possibility that someone's property could be used to injure you. The "conflict" on my part is the appropriation, confiscation, or deprivation of my property. This is independent of the my rights as confirmed in the Constitution. Since you spelled favor as favour, you need not argue the second point.
Sounds like it's working!
The greatest problem with anti-gun activists is they are know nothings. Their only knowledge of firearms is what the media spoon feeds to them.
Does anyone else think it hilarious that this brave gun control zealot posts as an anonymous coward while calling his opponents the same?
So many gun control advocates want to play this card when it is in fact themselves that are cowards. They quake in their boots and wet their pants at the mere mention of assault rifles. Anyone who has grown up with families that hunt have no irrational fear of firearms. The problem is that this is no rational debate. It is an irrational emotional fear which drives one segment of the electorate to seek to deprive the other of its rights. While I don't hunt, many of my family and friends do, and I shudder at the whining I've heard the past two weeks over guns.
The GP claimed that "cost" had been dropping. Not true. The "down payment" has been dropping, but it is no different than $0 down offers on new cars. I made no claims regarding the suitability of Walmart to sell anything. I only made the observation that very high end TV sets are not often seen/sold at Walmart. In fact, if Walmart wanted to discount a contract free, unlocked iPhone, I would consider buying one.
Due to the generous Microsoft investment seeking to avoid monopoly intervention from the government, all while they languished near death.
Spoken like a person who doesn't understand the difference between price and cost.
An iPhone 5 retails for $650 - $950 depending on the model without the monthly subsidy of a contract. That is the COST regardless of the "under contract" PRICE Walmart sells it. I don't see many $3,000 TVs flying off the shelves at Walmart. People dropping that kind of dough tend to buy their TVs elsewhere.
Not just WWI. See the Battle of Gettysburg and Robert E. Lee. Look in particular at Little Round Top and Cemetery Ridge. Hubris cost a lot of men their lives. It may have been the determining factor in the end.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gettysburg
Still... Looking at his Wikipedia entry cases, it's no better than flipping a coin. He's either Don Quixote or very overrated.