Post office losing out to email? 74
JR writes "CBC Newsworld reports that Canada Post, in an attempt to lure people back to snail mail, has launched a new advertising campaign. "I think when most Canadians sit there and watch Canada Post extolling the virtues of old fashioned letter writing, they're going to laugh," says one interviewee. "
Bell Canada? (Score:1)
Da great country of Ottawa Valley eh.
It might be fun to remind folks that Alexander G. Bell was not an American.
Ta,
-MikeR-
E-mail (Score:1)
E-mail rules
way faster and easier than regular mail
no postage charge
more reliable
just better
Letters (Score:1)
Luckily the Post Office will never stop delivering letters, becuase there will never be a lack of demand.
^~~^~^^~~^~^~^~^^~^^~^~^~~^^^~^^~~^~~~^~
ABORTED effort:
Close all that you have.
Loosing mail (Score:1)
You are the lucky one. My bills regularly disappear into the postal void. I have to take payments to work and mail them there, or they too will disappear. The junk mail seems to allways get through.
Good! (Score:1)
PS, can anyone explain to me why people constantly want to fax stuff through the Internet? Isn't this totally redundant?
Good question! The one I really wonder about is when two companies who both have email communicate as follows:
On the other end:
Repeat as necessary.
I have seen this done. Give these people a nail gun, and they'll turn it sideways and pound the nails in (making sure the compressor is turned on because it won't work without it).
Good! (Score:1)
I have never had any problems with Canada Post; On the contrary, I once had a package sent to me with my name misspelled, my street number wrong, the street name misspelled, the province and postal code both flat out wrong, and it *still* got to me eventually. The worst I can say is that they're sometimes slow, but I've never lost anything.
Canada post (Score:1)
On another point, it's interesting that sending a package to Canada via Global Priority Mail takes about 5 days to reach its destination, yet regular mail on the way back takes 7 days. Hmmm...
USPS is WORSE than SHIT (Score:1)
I was sending a computer (mistake #1) fro Puerto Rico to Pennsylvania. So I packed it up, took it to the post office (mistake #2), and sent it via Priority Mail, along with some other stuff in a separate box. When the computer arrived, its case had snapped off, the front plate was hanging from a few cables, the expansion cards were out of the slots, and one of the harddrives died. Fortunately, I had paid for insurance. So when the computer was taken back to the destination post office to claim the insurance payment, they said they had to send the computer to St. Louis (from PA), and had to wait two months to get any results.
The USPS definitely deserves the qualification of SHIT, tops.
Good! (Score:1)
PS, can anyone explain to me why people constantly want to fax stuff through the Internet? Isn't this totally redundant?
Yeah, typically Canadian (Score:1)
What will likely happen is that there will be a "tax" on email, so that the revenues can go to "protect" the jobs of the postal workers.
Canada: A nation where it is illegal to pay for health care quality when the government will provide the same service, at mediocre quality, for "free".
Whatever... (Score:1)
This is just the latest in a long trend of Canadian government screwups.
I lost my Canadian tax residency over a year ago, after a couple of years of planning, and not in response to a single incident.
Canada levies heavy taxes to support it's crumbling social safety net and other government services.
But that's not all. You very quickly find yourself in the top tax bracket at about the equivalent of US$35,000 a year income. At that point, not only do you pay high taxes (about 51%), BUT all these wonderful social services start to get clawed back from you, raising your effective tax rate even more. In addition, you pay tax on the tax you pay (5% SURtax on tax up to C$12,500 and 8% surtax on taxes in excess of that).
Professionals are leaving the country in droves because of this - the best doctors left long ago, exascerbating the health care crisis (and why not? - the government pays them per procedure regardless of how good they are).
...and we're glad you stayed. (Score:1)
Methinks it's anger that I no longer subsidize this person's education that causes him to resent my position.
Oh, and the "highest standard of living stuff"? That's according to criteria established by socialists (i.e. not how good health case is, but how cheap it is, etc.).
Canada Post Idiocy (Score:1)
Bell Canada? (Score:1)
Just wondering...
(Hardcopy) Letter writing has its own joys (Score:1)
The sending side was always harder (which is why letters are almost dead), but the feeling of having put pen to paper was also enjoyable.
I don't think I have received a personal letter in five years now, since a friend of mine returned from remote central Africa. Too bad.
sPh
France (Score:1)
Then it will forward the mail via snail.
Postal increase. (Score:1)
I'm glad to see that they're putting that postal increase to good use.
Canada post (Score:1)
Actually it is pretty good. In terms of delivery times it is supposed to be better then the USPS except for the Saturday delivery thing. Compared to European services it is pretty ammazing, as is the USPS. Canada has provinces larger then most European countries, and it still takes only 2-4 days to send a letter to about 99% of the conutry.
It does have big problems though. The union and management boses hate each other immensely. A colleague of mine once worked at Canada Post and said that it was the most hositle and worst environment he has ever worked in.
Standing in line, and Death to Sheilla Copps (Score:1)
Oh, and death to Shiella Copps, BTW, you competition-fearing crap-culture fanatic.
-- SG
Same ploy in UK (Score:1)
Here's a lesson for the U.S. Post (Score:1)
Actually, gas costs less this year. Lots of extra oil, you know? Last I heard, the price of computers what going down, too...
-matt
---
Wha? TV & Movie Theme Songs? Oh yeah....
USPS is WORSE than SHIT - Agreed (Score:1)
A couple months ago (long before the x-mess rush) I placed two seperate orders at Amazon.com. One was for DVDs (ordered on a Sunday) and the other for two books (ordered the Friday before).
From another company, I ordered a PlayStation game the Tuesday immediately after. It was shipped US Priority Mail.
Amazon, in its efforts to be "nice," gave me a "complimentary upgrade" from UPS ground to US Priority Mail for the books. Both orders actually shipped Monday. The game shipped Wednesday.
The DVDs arrived that Thursday. The game arrived Saturday. The books finally arrived *NEXT* Wednesday.
So not only was UPS more than twice as fast, but an order placed and shipped *after* another arrived *EARLIER* than the first USPS shipment.
*Sigh*. I'll never use USPS again for shipping stuff.
Do you think you know what you're talking about? (Score:1)
Canada Post is a crown corporation set up to run the postal system in Canada. It is suffering as a result of the reduced demand for postal mail.
The CBC is a crown corporation that is set up to provide public broadcasting and promote the film and screen industry in Canada. It would be thriving in the information age were it not for constant funding reductions and lame-duck timeslot decisions made by its executives.
The CRTC is a federal commission originally set up to regulate broadcast frequencies in Canada but has had its mandate altered over the years (by our own elected officials) to include Canadian content regulation.
These three entities have nothing in common besides the fact that they are in some way related to the federal government which is, I suspect, the only thing that you don't like about them. As far as not changing to suit the times: Canada Post can't because its mandate is only to distribute mail - do you want to government to extend that to include competing with up-and-coming IT businesses that would put your greasy ass out of work? No, I didn't think so.
The CBC has changed with the times as well as any TV and radio broadcaster can. Its biggest problem is that the material that it chooses to show is not as racy as the stuff that is shown by non-federally-funded broadcasters. As a news broadcaster it is unequalled in the country and, dare I say it, North America.
The CRTC has changed with the times which is probably why you don't like it. Admittedly, some of the views seem outdated but, in reality, they represent the opinions of the majority of Canadians whether you like it or not.
Do you think you know what you're talking about? (Score:1)
I was, of course, talking about the silent majority that keeps voting in the governments that you would have us believe act against our will - not the majority of people who bother to respond to polls. Since Angus Reid isn't StatsCan people aren't obliged to respond to them.
I hope our American friends don't get the wrong impression and think we like the state running our lives.
Why do you care so much about what the states think of our livestyle?
After all Canada is not Sweden.
After all, if we were we would have the highest per-capita GDP and lowest poverty rates in the world.
Two Words... (Score:1)
One word.. (Score:1)
Take my check, via certified us mail, or do without MY money.
Canada Post Idiocy (Score:1)
This is a classic Canadian response to change. Look at the insightful way the CBC, CRTC and Canada Post have responded to change over the years. They'll do anything to protect their pathetic socialized fiefdoms.
Canada Post Idiocy (Score:1)
: This is a classic Canadian response to change. Look at the insightful way the CBC, CRTC and
: Canada Post have responded to change over the years. They'll do anything to protect their
: pathetic socialized fiefdoms.
Go to FedEx and try to ship that package (or letter) to the North Pole.
Canada Post WILL deliver it.
NOT FedEx.
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
Here's a lesson for the U.S. Post (Score:1)
Pretty soon everyone will have an email connection. God knows, with the Democrats in the office any thing else will be discrimination against the poor so email will be subsidized like 'universal' telephone service. At that point, the P. O. will be reduced to a gummint version of FedEx, the U. S. Parcel Service, and that will be the end of it.
Here's a lesson for the U.S. Post (Score:1)
Gas is actually cheaper this year, and it's a state issue, not a federal one. If I go just over the state line, I pay $0.14 less on the gallon. Computers are considerably cheaper this year than last year. The SAME letter costs 2 cents more, but an equivalent computer costs $1200 less, 50% cheaper!
US post office gets something like a 99.9% reliability rating So? It was as reliable last year, and the year before. If my proverbial two cents actually buy me something new, sure, I'll pay it. Those self-stick stamps are a nice improvement, and if those cost more than the lickable ones, that I'd think about. If the P.O. were to open an ISP that would let me pay bills from home for $0.33 per transaction, I might consider it. But as it stands, all those two cents amount to is a cost of living increase for slow, rude staff. (maybe it's just in my little provincial corner of the world - elsewhere it's a very reputable career, right?)
True, they will deliver to the middle of nowhere, and that is the only redeeming quality of the P.O.Service, AFAIC. Well, at least they don't charge us TAX on stamps yet.
Bell.ca just another Ma Bell (Score:1)
Actually, several of the people who responded got it right only technically.
Bell Canada was (in many ways still is) a regulated monopoly. Just as AT&T ("Bell Telephone" until the break-up) in the U.S. was a heavily-regulated company with a monopoly position, Bell Canada has an iron lock (until the near future) on local telephone service. And, for years, it controlled all phones.
In this sense, they were a branch of the government of the day: they had to do what they were told, or risk reprisals from the policy makers.
The sad thing is that now, both in the U.S. and in Canada, we've given in: we have what were effectively government-provided monopoly positions "deregulated". All this does is to enrich the new self-proclaimed "entrepreneurs". These are people who were (yesterday!) simple bureaucrats; but now, they get to lecture us all on our lax ways. How nice for them that they can afford to be lax.
UPS is worse (Score:1)
I would definatly use UPS/FedEx for any kind of packages (not letters though, email there). I've never had any packages get lost or delayed through UPS or FedEx, but a large portion of my USPS mail never makes it here, or makes it here over a week late.
My site contains 100% GPL'd source code
Post obsolete by 2010 or 2000? (Score:1)
Companies spend billions mailing out bills,
statements and reports that could be sent
electronically at a fraction of the cost.
Do you think this will change gradually over
a decade or could it happen much faster?
For example suppose someone offered an incentive
program where you got $0.25 credited to your
ISP account for each item you accepted
electronically instead of by mail.
This could take away a big part of the postal system's bread and butter revenue in a short time.
It would be forced to raise rates and/or cut services which would drive away more customers.
huh (Score:1)
what gives?
Unneccesary waste of trees. (Score:1)
This Hour has 22 Minutes (Score:1)
Sending mail to nowhere. (Score:1)
cdn mail is 46cents for a regular letter.
i do my bill paying online - no more bank machines or mailing them in. i can also set dates to have the payment go thru and can even set it to repeat on any day of the month. only uses 128bit encryption. ya.
US Postoffice is going to die... (Score:1)
Canada Post Backlash (Score:1)
Canada Post's real problem (Score:1)
However, the service level of Canada Post is really dismal, despite the use of such high-tech techniques as postal codes and scan codes. Such is a big disappointment to people used to good postal service such as that found in Hong Kong...
W.A.S.T.E. (Score:1)