Post Office quietly removes all vending machines. - CR4 Discussion Thread

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nofineprint Commentator Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: New York City (West End Ave.) Posts: 68	Post Office quietly removes all vending machines. 02/27/2009 8:12 PM
	As engineers, do you expect this is really justified ? I noticed yesterday that my neighborhood Post Office no longer had the vending machines for stamps and postcards. I was told that Post Offices all over the country had removed them, leaving only the new high tech machines that using your credit card will weigh a package and create a mailing label with postage attached. I checked and this seems to be the case throughout the country. What forces do you think are at work here, that this labor and time saver for the public is being done away with ? Do you think this will be indicative of what we can expect relating to "change" in the future ? Is it "a step forward", assuming new machines will not be replacing the ones removed ?
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Chris Leonard Friend of CR4 Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 1776 Good Answers: 35	#1 Re: Post Office quietly removes all vending machines. 02/27/2009 8:21 PM
	Let's not jump to insidious conclusions. This news article from 2007 points up a number of rational reasons why the Post Office is changing the types of machines they use. Specific points from the article: Many of the machines are 20 years old, having increased breakdowns. We've seen declining use, and interestingly customers are using alternate services like online, grocery stores, phone and rural carriers to purchase their stamps Only 7 percent of customers throughout the United States use the stamp vending machines When U.S. currency is changed, the bill reader in the stamp vending machines must be altered, often resulting in expensive upkeep. __________________ Off to take on other challenges. Good luck everybody! See you around the Interwebs.
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lyn Guru Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 42355 Good Answers: 1693	#2 Re: Post Office quietly removes all vending machines. 02/27/2009 11:15 PM
	These machines make no money. How can they be justified?
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Glenn Summers Commentator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Kennedy Space Center Posts: 87 Good Answers: 6	#3 Re: Post Office quietly removes all vending machines. 02/28/2009 7:02 AM
	New Postal Facilities being constructed are just one more demonstration of how out of control government has become. To see a multi million dollar facility that looks like a Hallmark Card shop is a shame. The post office should be a logistics support operation. You bring in a package or letter, they affix the required postage, put it in a vehicle to transport[air or ground],and the next thing you know-- Walla, it's at Grandmas house. Who In Washington decided we need to be able to buy cute little bears, wall plaques, miniature mailbox's and countless other trinkets in a damned post office? Cost of fixtures and equipment in one of these places is Way out of hand. Maintenance of these toys is a nightmare. Put more stamp selling people to work, if needed, but Stop competing with retailers who already sell all the cutesy stuff. Would be willing to bet the cost of a bill validator or credit card terminal is a lot more than a person[maybe even a nice one] that does the same thing. Oh. I almost forgot! When the price of a stamp goes to 75 cents, we'll be in the black again.. Until the next price Hike?? This kind of waste has to stop!! __________________ Cost Effective Answer to Concrete Corrosion
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PWSlack Guru Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: In the bothy, 7 chains down the line from Dodman's Lane level crossing, in the nation formerly known as Great Britain. Kettle's on. Posts: 32175 Good Answers: 839	#4 Re: Post Office quietly removes all vending machines. 03/02/2009 11:14 AM
	Ah! The Post Office. The last bastion of non-plastic payment systems, and The Queue. Post Office has occupied the rear of the top floor in WHSmith in Chelmsford of late, and the queues are backing up into the product display areas, limiting access to those products by those who do not wish to use the Post Office counter. It's a wonder why WHSmith allows the Post Office to continue, moan groan, grumble... __________________ "Did you get my e-mail?" - "The biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place" - George Bernard Shaw, 1856
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Transcendian Guru Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Transcendia Posts: 2963 Good Answers: 93	#5 Re: Post Office quietly removes all vending machines. 03/08/2009 5:26 PM
	Those vending machines were often weird, or out of order from the get go. Somebody once said, "What do you expect from the Lowest Bidder?" Somebody else told me the "Mob" had gotten the contract to make them, and that that was why they were so lousy. I'd pretty much given up on using them. Personally I love the Post Office, and think over the years they have done a great job. It is impressive to me that the US Post Office seems to have good relations with Postal Services in most every Country in the World. I'm sorry to see the Post Office having a hard time. If I was President I'd give them the job of protecting our computers from Malware, spam, and all the viruses and worms and all that industry of extortion that feeds on internet connected computers used now for email, which has cost the Post Office money, market share. Certainly in the past I have thought it would be interesting, and possibly very useful to know how come the US Postal Service, seems able to get along with all the other Postal Services, since it seems that if you mail something through them, about anywhere in the world, it gets to whomever you mailed it to. As far as models for Diplomatic Relations between nations seems to me we might learn some significant things from studying why it is that if you mail a letter to France or China, or Germany, it gets there. These days when I write a Politician, I use Postcards. It's not like the recipient has to open it. I figure there is so much email it is a miracle if any of it is actually read. And by the way, did you know that during the US Civil War, the only institution of the Confederacy that functioned throughout the conflict, was the Confederate Postal Service? Further did you know that the Head of the Confederate Postal Service, told General Lee not to go to Gettysburg, but to go to Vicksburg, saying that if the Confederacy lost control of the Mississippi, it would lose the war? I'll mark this as off topic. __________________ You don't get wise because you got old, you get old because you were wise.
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Users who posted comments:

Chris Leonard (1); Glenn Summers (1); lyn (1); PWSlack (1); Transcendian (1)

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