I don't hate the USPS because compared to the national mail/post systems in many other countries it is far better. However, I do think that there is some room for improvement. I recently sent a couple of rims to another BF member and I had them packed in as small of a package as possible. The USPS would have been the most economical way to ship except that the middle of the box was bulging slightly more than the 2 inch thickness of the edges. These were just rims and so there was nothing in the middle of the box and it could easily be slightly compressed less than 2 inches. However, the postal clerk said that I had to be charged for 3" thickness (which about doubled the cost) because if any other mail stop along the way decided that I had not paid enough postage they would just charge me more later. Just sort of silly if you ask me. So I went to UPS and paid their rate for 2 inch thickness.

I don't want to give USPS employees too much of a hard time because they are just trying to make an honest living like everyone else. However, on an organizational/institutional level I felt like the USPS treated me like I was just another guy waiting in line and they were somewhat ambivalent to whether I actually shipped my package with them. At the UPS store, on the other hand, I felt more like a customer and that they didn't want my $26.60 of revenue to walk out the door and go to one of their competitors.