Once I had to send an international RMA that they wouldn't pay for the shipping. It went something like this:

0. Went to Fedex to check on the shipping cost for this tiny box. It was $120 so I passed

1. Went to USPS, found that they were closed, the only option was a 30 minute line to use the machine. Lined up for 30 minutes, found that it the goddamn UI on the machine did not support international shipments.

2. Went home to generate a USPS international shipping label. $25, much more acceptable. FedEx should be out of business.

3. I didn't have a 2D printer at home, tried to 3D print the shipping label with 1 layer of white and 1 layer of black but it wasn't high resolution enough in the X/Y direction for the label to be readable so I gave up

4. Went to FedEx to use their 2D printers but realized I forgot my USB drive at home

5. Went home to get my USB drive

6. Back to FedEx, realized I forgot my mask (this was COVID times, so no go)

7. Went home to get my mask

8. Back to FedEx, printed the 2D shipping label

9. Back to USPS, found out they had no tape

10. Back to FedEx to buy a roll of tape because I don't know where the hell else to buy tape same day, and all my tape at home are electrical tape, teflon tape, or Gorilla tape

11. Back to USPS and the stupid package drop box had a mechanical issue preventing it from opening more than a few cm, not enough to fit my package

12. Went to another USPS to drop the package

> FedEx should be out of business.

Those crazy retail rates exist so businesses can get big discounts. The company I work with ships maybe half a dozen packages international with FedEx a year and they still give us like 60-70% off retail.

> 3. I didn't have a 2D printer at home, tried to 3D print the shipping label

This sentence really captures the absurdity of this story.

Could have 3D printed a pen holder for the 3D printer and then used the 3D printer as a plotter to write the address on a sticker or the envelope itself.

Right?

>12. Went to another USPS to drop the package

You have a USPS drop box for tiny boxes in front of your house.

> house

I can't afford a house ($2M+ where I live), so I don't have one of those mailboxes. My apartment complex doesn't have a visible USPS pickup anywhere that I know of.

If you meant those inverted U shaped things that look like they are from WW2 (maybe WW1?), I forgot about those, but somehow I never know how frequently they are checked ... there is no indicator about when they were last opened and I wonder whether the mailman might just forget about a couple of them in odd parts of town, which is why I always feel more "secure" dropping it at a USPS.

I was once walking down the street when I saw a presumably-GenZ person who thought they were a trash can and casually dumped trash in it so there's also that concern, if everyone is using them as trash cans now ...

>My apartment complex doesn't have a visible USPS pickup anywhere that I know of.

They usually a slot or little door for outgoing letters, if your package was larger than that, sometimes you can leave them at the 'office' of your complex if they have one. But yeah, in your case, going to an actual post office might have been the solution if you don't trust the street mailboxes.

Most are picked up daily at a scheduled time.

Even if you are in rural Alaska or something, drop boxes are checked on a rigid schedule as part of the mail delivery route. They’re reliable.

I do? Where?

Mailboxes are bidirectional. If there is outgoing mail in the mailbox your postal worker will take it to the post office. That is what the flag is for. Not sure how well this is adhered to anymore, to be fair. I could be out of date.

Not sure about OP but it's become more common in certain areas of the US to not have mailboxes in front of each house. But usually there's a shared bank of mailboxes within a mile so with the ability to drop off outgoing

Your doorstep. You just leave it there and they pick it up.

> I refuse to believe there are adults out there where things like using a pen to write and mailing a letter are alien concepts that need to be learned.

Well, believe it. I'm in my 40s and haven't written a letter since I was a kid. Why would I ever have to? Ask someone who was born in 2003 if they've ever written and mailed a letter. 99% are going to say no.

Do you not send thank you cards for birthday and holiday gifts?

Physical thank you cards are pretty dead. I don't even keep track of mailing addresses for a number of my friends (and a couple siblings, come to think of it) - how would I send them a physical card?

Even older relatives - we sent a physical gift a bit ago, but the response/thanks was by text. It just doesn't make sense to send a letter, have it take a week, never know whether it got lost, etc.

In Europe where I live sending birthday letters and the like to relatives is still a standard practice, at least in my social environment.

No. In person, text, or phone call.

The only people I know of that do this are over 60.

As someone born in 2003, I did this just last week when filing my tax returns.

You file tax returns by post? What country? Do they charge you extra to submit by post?

That's crazy to me - tax returns for our micro-business and personal tax has been online since at least 2005.

I had to file my tax by postal mail in the US. Granted there is the option to file online, but that only works for ~80% of the people when things are completely within the intended domain. I have just one extra item outside of standard salary slips and some investment income, so I had to file physically.

For federal returns, there's a site called Free File Fillable Forms, which has digitized versions of all the tax forms. Unlike the normal IRS Free File program, there's no restriction on income. If you're comfortable filing paper tax returns, this is the exact same process except the returns are digital and sent over the internet. For state returns, the process depends on your state but everywhere I've lived has a free site that you can use to file your state return.

From https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-form...:

Attaching statements — This program does not allow you to attach any documents to your return, except those available through the program. If you need to attach any such documents, you will have to print and mail in the return.

Especially with business returns, it's common to have to attach statements to certain forms, for example if you choose the de minimis election for equipment repairs that would otherwise have to be capitalized, or when the § 174 changes went into effect and everyone had to start amortizing software development expenses over multiple years. You can't do that on Free File Fillable Forms.

In my state (Minnesota), there is no free online filing for state income tax. You either pay for one of the online filing softwares, or print the sucker out and mail it in. I choose the latter :)

>As someone born in 2003, I did this just last week when filing my tax returns.

Why didn't you efile like a normal person? The only time you need to do it the hard way is if you are under 16 and filing for the first time.

I had to file by mail because I moved and got 2 W-2s for the same job, one of which had several blank fields. This weird W-2 apparently makes me ineligible for e-file.

There is a lot of stuff that can make you ineligible for efiling.anything exceptional and not handled by the standard form requires efiling. They only just recently dropped the requirement for 83(b) elections to be sent in with your tax return, and until then I had to send in a paper return every time I did that.

Most people do it digitally or have an accountant do it, this isn't the norm.

I just sent in my taxes by USPS mail a couple of weeks ago. Long after online payments were available, I would pay my monthly bills by writing checks and sending them in the mail, as that process actually took me less time than logging in to five or six different websites and navigating through their online payment flows.

That's very uncommon. All my bills are set to autopay on my credit card. Who manually pays bills? You don't need to click the buttons every month.

Payment to a credit card often involves extra fees. And I don't want to give them autopay access to my checking account.

I click them manually every month. It's kind of a holdover from when I needed to time things in order to keep my checking account in the black, but I kept the process as it helps me keep track of my bills and catch any errors or discrepancies, which does happen.

It certainly takes less time than writing a check and stuffing an envelope, though, what with saved credentials and smartphones; I can do this in a matter of moments while lying in bed every other Friday morning.

There's a difference between writing a letter longhand, and simply knowing how to use a pen.

I had to inform numerous companies of my mums death last year. A lot of them had either phone support with very long wait times or a postal address, no email. It took me less time to write a letter and post it than to wait on hold

> I refuse to believe there are adults out there where things like using a pen to write and mailing a letter are alien concepts that need to be learned.

Some adults were born in 2007

Younger than Gmail, YouTube, and the iPhone.

The iPhone is not yet 18.

By only two months.

Anyone, even someone born in 2007, should know how to use pen and paper. This is a basic component of being an educated person, not knowing how to do that is as shocking as being illiterate.

Sure. But why are they mailing letters? I remember being 18 myself (a looong time ago), and having a helpful adult shocked that nobody had ever taught me how to write a check. I think I've written a total of 8 in my whole life now?

If a British 12 year old today were to need to write a cheque, I'd expect they would need to look up or be told how it's done.

I wouldn't expect them to need to buy a pen first, or to need several attempts to write 10 words nearly.

You messed up typing nearly though.