I wish that there was some way that I could just completely opt-out of postal service.  It’s a source of constant frustration that while ninety percent of everything received by postal service is junk, there are still organizations that consider “delivered in writing by U.S. post” to be the most definitive way to relay important information.

Times have changed and postal service is a “noisy” burden.  It’s certainly the absolutely least reliable way to relay timely or important information to me.  This is especially true for fiscal institutions.  A postal message spends days or weeks in transit, which means it’s already completely stale/old information by the time it arrives.  If it is a call to action, the opportunity has likely passed before the message is even delivered.  If it is a call to prevent action (like a lowered limit or an overdraft) it is much too late to prevent any meaningful action.

Of course, when it’s delivered that doesn’t mean that the postal message was actually received.  No one waits for postal mail with baited breath anymore.  It may reside in the post box for a day or two before someone remembers to check it.  When checked, an important message will likely reside in a large stack of advertisements and spam.

And those advertisements and spam now deliberately mimic important messages to increase their chances of being opened. If I had $10 for every phony loan consolidation postal message I’ve received that has impersonated the U.S. government or other major financial entity, I would have easily paid off our student loans by now. (Now appears to be the season of “impersonate a tax document, like a W-2” with the tear off borders instead of an envelope.)

So now the “important” message (that is probably too old to actually be important anymore) is in a stack with deceptive and unsolicited spam to be opened whenever the resident has time to clean their desk/counter/ad-hoc-mail-depot.  This is like trying to sell financial services at a flea market.  Being surrounded by a wretched hive of scum and villainy is no way to convey even legitimacy, much less importance.

There are two possibilities as to why major institutions like financial institutions are still relying on postal delivery for important notices.  The first is that they are so completely out of touch with the progress of society and technology that they just haven’t noticed that the only modern, valuable use that a postal mail box has is “magazine and holiday card dispenser.”  However, it seems unlikely that they could avoid noticing the sharp decline in physical check orders in younger demographics, increased ATM usage, and ubiquitous internet banking, all while simultaneously leveraging modern exchange markets and launching things like E*Trade, and avoid the obvious conclusion that postal mail has expired.

The second is that the postal messages are in no way intended to actually be useful to the customer or recipient.  They are sent entirely as a cover-your-ass effort by fiscal institutions so that they can provide enough legal notice of their actions to put the burden on the customer for their actions.

And that’s why I’d rather just opt-out of postal service.  We’ve (unfortunately) moved past the age where major institutions, like banks and fiscal institutions, are responsible and ethical organizations that act in the customer’s best interest and merely need to document their efforts to prove legality in complaints.  These organizations are more likely to take advantage of customers (or completely disregard their interests) in order to cover up their own incompetent fiscal maneuverings.  Sending “dead on arrival” messages by postal service is just a cop-out maneuver to try and shift blame.  Postal messages are an unreliable communication mechanism that gets too much legal sway by the physical virtue of existing “in writing”.

I want to opt out!