The USPS is near collapse and desperately trying to find a new way to spur interest in mail delivery. Today I saw their latest commercial, blasting email and internet. You can view it here if you havent already (go ahead its short, I will wait).

So, they are saying the mail is safer and more secure? Do they not remember that people fear items getting delivered to the wrong address, stolen checks from mailboxes that then have the ink removed and get re-issued? Bills and letters and or packages getting lost in the mail without a trace or hope of return? Let us not also forget the price of postage.

The ad is saying “give your customers the added sense of security a paper bill or receipt provides”. Really? Mail doesn’t disappear with a click they say. Maybe not, but it can disappear in a mail room or mailbox. Or, lets say you have a business in your building who, I dont know is able to accidentally forward the mail of the entire building…every firm at a single address, without consent or hope for return!

Look, I am not saying email or the internet is hack-proof, I am not delusional. And, I do understand the USPS is a struggling business trying to stay afloat. But, in all honesty do they really think this can be accomplished by getting citizens and businesses to turn their back on the very technology that has advanced us this far? If they do, they need a way stronger argument than safety and hack-proof. This country is built on progress and the USPS wants us to go backwards!

What about you? Are you ready to stop your AT&T online billing and wait for a paper one in the mail? Or better yet, stop all those online payments, rush out and order more expensive checks and start mailing bills 2 weeks in advance and hope you dont get a late fee next month!