Ford himself is to blame! The timing of his death was wholly inconsiderate! I'm too upset to describe my feelings right now!!! Some very important coupons were supposed to arrive in the mail that day. My new year's resolution was to going to be to lighten up a bit, but how can you lighten up in a world gone MAD?!

Very funny "No words to describe my ire" ! Had a good laugh ..

I am not against taking a day off for mourning - but my question is what exactly do they expect the employees to do to mourn Ford's death? Most of the employees are going to be out shopping or taking care of their personal chores ( nothing wrong with that either - hey, they just got a day off )

Instead, for such occassions, why doesn't the USPS ( or DMV or any other agency ) observe a moment of silence and continue with their work? Three days of no-mail are going to cause considerable backlog for the USPS and the mail delivery folks will have to work a little more harder for the following two weeks !

THIS IS NO LAUGHING MATTER!!!

A Republican ex-president dies, a Republican president signs an executive order that stops mail delivery on Tuesday. Can’t you smell the right wing conspiracy? Folks, this is just the slippery slope. First our coupons, next our junk faxes, and soon the telemarketing phone calls. We need a bipartisan committee formed to probe deeper and discover the evil truth behind this before it stops the daily paper from littering our driveways!

The disruption to our mail service is crucial to some, inconvenient to others. Some business customers will be seriously affected by checks not arriving, etc. Some private individuals will be affected for the same reason. Some college applications must be postmarked at the latest Jan 2nd or be classed as "late". Making this spur of the moment decision at such a late stage is a crucial mistake. As it is, the Post Office is losing out to Fed Ex and UPS. This will make matters worse and customers will start losing faith in the Post Office and find other means to get important documents where they should be in a timely manner. It is just another downhill trend that will ultimately mean a demise in something we have trusted in the past.

realistic.

so what you are saying is that this impacts uninformed procrastinators?

mail collection will still occur from collection boxes, so you can still get a January 2nd postmark. Anyone that will have business problems for not receiving a check for 24 hours is probably going to fail for another reason in a month anyway.

This is not the post offices doing, they are responding to an executive order for a national day of mourning.

National Day of Mourning - what exactly does the govt expect people to do? I feel this is just a wasted day .. instead, do your regular work and take sometime from the day to do something for the mankind .. in this case, something that Ford worked for / believed in / the charities that he cared about.

What I am saying is exactly that. Uninformed procrastinators probably will suffer to a minor extent. Those procrastinators who are anxious about delivery will go elsewhere. I am sure that FedEx and UPS are rubbing their hands in glee as I am sure that they will get some business from this.

The point is, that it is the Post Office who will suffer. Their service is becoming second class to what can be offered elsewhere and if these executive directives happen too frequently then their business will suffer as their service will appear more unreliable. They should be striving to compete with other services, not lag behind. Already the mail delivery is much later in the day than both FedEx and UPS for overnight service. This is only adding to the frustrations.

I agree with realistic that the USPS is already losing out to Fedex and UPS. Unfortunately, this will only translate to further increases in postal rates to make up for lost business. I used to think there were only two certainties in life - death and taxes - but it looks like a third certainty is now etched in stone - postal rate hikes every few moons.

Wouldn't it be nice if we had a choice of carriers for our everyday mail? I mean we already can choose who to use for our packages. Why not letters too?

Thanks for all of the information. I kept checking my mailbox and could not understand why i did not get any mail today. All of this information has been extremely helpful in solving my problem! Thanks from your East Palo Alto neighbor!

Thanks for all of the information. I kept checking my mailbox and could not understand why i did not get any mail today. All of this information has been extremely helpful in solving my problem! Thanks from your East Palo Alto neighbor!

Did anyone get mail today? As of quarter past five today(Wednesday), I have not heard the familiar sound of mail passing through my mailbox. What gives?