Call me old fashion, but some of us still believe that lying is wrong. When you say, "Forget Priority Mail", you are admitting that the USPS is flat out lying about the service they are offering and charging more for. The solution to this problem is simple. The USPS needs to stop lying and promoting a service that they cannot offer. If they wanted to be truthful about the services they offer, they should promote Priority Mail as a 2 to 6 day service depending on distance. Nobody is going to pay 39.95 for next day service for a few eggs. We are talking about chicken eggs, not golden eggs!
Nobody is blaming the carrier for the problems we have been experiencing with Priority Mail. My observation is that the problem is that the district sorting center. Many of the packages that I sent could have easily made it to the destination in three days but got stuck in the district sorting centers for two to three days before being shipped out. I know that priority mail is sent via ground truck and not via the air so I think it is unreasonable to expect packages to go from Texas to Maine in three days. But I think it is also ridiculous for it to take 5 days to go from Texas to Louisiana.
The bottom line is that there are problems with the priority mail system. These problems will never be fixed if we ignore them and blame the consumer for expecting the United States Postal Service to faithfully deliver the services they are promoting. If all consumers would start expecting and demanding that companies live up to their claims, things might get better.
Yes, mistakes happen, but when it becomes a regular occurrence, it is no longer a mistake. The bottom line is that for the USPS to put up large signs promoting Priority Mail as a 2 to 3 days service, when they know that they cannot faithfully deliver that service, is flat out lying. We as a society should demand that companies be honest and truthful in the overt message of their advertising. We should not accept lying to be the norm, and we should vociferously condemn it when we find it. What we should not do is make excuses for it and then try to burden the consumer by telling them to pay outrageous fees if they do not want to be lied to.