Certified Mail is Stupid.

Someone is trying send a certified letter to my house.  The post office will not deliver the letter without my signature on the return receipt.  I don't have any idea who sent the letter or what it's about.  I will probably never find out either because the post office left a final notice in my mailbox yesterday that said my signature was required today or they will return the envelope to its sender.  The only problem is that I had to work today, so I wasn't able to sit at home all day waiting for the mailman.

I have sent scores of certified letters in the past ten years.  I have always had problems getting people to sign for the certified mailings.  That is why I always send a carbon copy of my letter via regular mail.  That way, even if I can't prove that the person got my letter, at least I know that the person got my letter.  Maybe I overestimated the intimidation factor that my law firm's address label carries, but I always thought that people were intentionally avoiding my certified mailings because they feared my wrath.  It turns out that these people were just probably not at home when the post office made their two or three attempts at delivery.  

Why can't the post office figure this out also?  The post office is such a failure.  According to Reuters, the U.S. Post office lost $3.2 BILLION during the first quarter of 2012. That means that they're losing more than $35 million EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!!!!!  I wonder why.  Here is a "company" that charges a flat fee, say $5.00, to drive to someone's house to obtain their signature.  They go to the house on Monday at 11:00 A.M.  No one's home.  So they return Tuesday at 11:00 A.M.  No one's home again.  So they return Wednesday at 11:00 A.M.  All for $5.00!!  Doesn't make much sense does it??

There has to be a better way.  Eventually it should all be electronic, but that is still too far away.  What's not too far away, though, is the demise of the post office.  I predict that there will no longer be a United States Postal Service within 10 years.  Until then, I'll be using regular mail, or FedEx if it's important.  I sure wish whoever is sending me a certified letter would have shown the same courtesy.  I probably wouldn't be sitting here writing this now if they had.