I don’t use the post office to send packages. I wonder how many other people have turned away from shipping with the U.S. Postal Service. Unless changes are made, the decline in shipping packages will lead to deficits and cutbacks. I would rather support our post office instead of going to a commercial shipper, but the services rendered are inefficient and waste my time.

My regular mail carrier is great. He comes at the same time each day and does not drop off mail that belongs to the neighbors or from other addresses that are similar to mine in my subdivision of Bay Point.

Recently, when I tried to send a package through him, he could not take it because he thought it weighed a pound. The mailman will not take any package over 13 ounces. My package weighed 14 ounces. This forced me to go to the post office in Midtown.

What a disaster! It was the last time I will go there or to any other station. There was a line 15 waiting with only one teller. The person in front of me said that this happens more often than not. One gentleman had more than 30 packages that he was sending with the green delivery-verification return cards. He had no postage on them and each had to be weighed. The wait was intolerable.

There is no other way to send a package without going to the teller. There was no drop-off box that would accept a small package. There were no postage machines dispensing stamps, no “if it fits, it ships” boxes" and no priority envelopes beyond the flat cardboard ones. A teller told me not to rely on the station to have supplies, and that I should have ordered them online. She said the average wait for supplies is two weeks.

Another time, when I had to ship a package, I went to the UPS store. There was no line. The store had boxes of the right size. Unlike at the post office, the package was traceable without having to use a more expensive rate, and I was given a receipt for the package. When I used the USPS, there was no proof that I had shipped an item.

Maybe some nonprofits, including USPS, should be run by profit-seeking companies. I’m sure that another carrier has the distribution lines already in place that can be modified to ship general mail similar to the package-mailing services. Anything would be better than what USPS has to offer.

Josephine “Terri” Kenna, Miami