Do you mail letters?
 

So, I do indeed fax, when required.

I text, and I email a lot. Even a lot of FTP of our deliverable to most customers for their order.

I have sent only one letter than I can remember in the last 12 months. It was a letter to my credit card company that contained color photos with circles and arrows with descriptions of the garbage a supplier sent and it was all to prove to the CC company that indeed the supplier supplied something, but it had no real value at all, and was not even close to what I ordered. My money was refunded in full.

I send statements to my customers that are more than 30 days past due on invoices, but it is just a copy of the invoice, and the statement, no other information, and it is sent via mail. Happily we have no deadbeats on the books at the current time.

I have not sent a regular letter in decades.

I can't remember the last time I mailed a post card.

I have never sent a telegram or used a courier of any sort.

Last week I asked my wife to cut a check for the arkiteckt.
She asked me why I didn't do it myself.
I said it's been so long, I don't remember how to write a check and I don't have a checkbook.

no, haven't sent a letter in decades.

I do - every year

I sent a poorly scribbled note via mail several months ago.... first time in decades... does that count? Checkbook....ran out of checks mebbe 15 yrs ago... reordered, but they haven't arrived yet... I blame the USPS :D

I regularly send in bill payments, I’ve sent a few cards and I sent a postcard from MN to the school student that was asked for on this forum.

I can’t remember the last time I actually put pen to paper and wrote a letter to a friend; might have been 30 years ago when my HS friend moved away and email wasn’t invented yet.

I do about half my bills online, the rest by mail.

This thread has actually got me thinking that getting a hand written card or letter is really nice and maybe during these odd times, might be a good thing to send to friends.

Yes, of course.

No US mail. I do use UPS.

Yes. Sometimes you need a signed hard copy in everyone's hand. Did it just last week.

Christmas and birthday cards only. Everything else is electronic.

Some of the bills in a business are sent via regular check via the US mail.

I still do. It's the best way to keep in touch with my girlfriend, she is too far away to visit often. Only 23 more years left on her sentence!

For me as well except:

• Federal Income Tax return is mailed
• Vehicle registration renewals are mailed

I also send Thank You cards when applicable. I really feel the small amount of effort it takes to send a Thank You card provides a huge return on investment when it's someone you really care about. Or when someone goes out of the way to show me they care.

I have kept all the letters I have ever received over the years from friends and family. It's hard to believe we actually wrote letters back and forth to each other, given the electronic age we now live in.

Had a good friend who was the USA representative judge on the surfing pro circuit and he used to send me post cards from all over the world. Updates on contest results, etc. He passed away a few years ago and so those post cards carry even more meaning for me.

I have taken a few of these old letters and given them back to some of the people who sent them as a momento. A recent one was from a buddy who went to both Hawaii and Australia on a surf trips. Here's Page 1 from one of his from his trip to Oz in '83.....and one of his post cards.....I have boxes of letters and post cards......:)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1599011861.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1599011861.jpg

What’s a letter? Is it like making a phone call? Or like sending a Fax? Oh I know...it must be like a dial-up modem.

I always sent postcards to friends and family too.

A good trick was to use photos as postcards. My mom had kept every postcard I'd ever sent her. I found this out after her death while sorting through her stuff. It brought a tear to my eye.

I like letters, there is something about the process of writing one, forces me to focus my thoughts. If it matters, I will even do a draft, then write it. I don't like talking on the phone much.

I have a close friend in Hawaii that I write a letter to on her birthday. It's the only time I really use my fountain pen.

I write checks to pay bills. I’m not into electronic bill paying. My one electronic payment is my truck payment. Pain in the butt! The website locks me out on occasion and then sends payment demands that go to my spam. I should just pay the dam thing off.

I send off a stack of envelopes every month.
Call me a control freak but I also want to see and keep track of every payment.
No 'blank checks' allowed...i.e. auto withdrawl.
Fixing mistakes with customer service is a pain..an hour wait..can't speak english..smart as a rock..can't find account..disconnections..once burned, twice shy.

Computers make mistakes also but cover them up.
If that one check out of ten sent doesn't get there, it's the mail, or their own processing.

For my personal bills, I pay all of them, ALL of them electronically. All the utilities, just draft my checking account on the day the bill is due. Late payments just can't happen, even if I am on vacation. For doctors visits or the yard weed killer spray guy, I have the credit union mail a check to the provider for me. That is 100% free, so I have no postage, envelope or effort more than a few clicks on the web site.

For my business, yea, I still mail a check because banks suck big time, and my bank like most banks charge me for any service. And I do mail statements to the slow paying clients.

I love my credit union for my personal finances. I just wish I could use a credit union for my business but the law says I have to use a bank. Did I mention all banks suck?

Computers don't make mistakes. It is the human computer operator that screws up.

If you set up automatic payment for your utilities, they will pay the bill on the last possible day it is due, and not late. Every single month.

I've had my bills drafted from my acct or paid electronically for almost three decades. Taxes (Fed & state) online forever too.

A few checks that I need to send....via my CU bill pay...they send a paper check.

Never an issue...not one.

I finally convinced my parents years ago.... same for them.

It's just painless and something I don't have to deal with.... so I don't :)

edited: Oh yeah.... all banks suck :D

I believe that a physical letter has greater impact than an email or text. It takes more time and effort than to just rip off a text or e-mail. If I am communicating with a company on a complaint they get an old fashioned typed letter with a stamp on the envelope. I have found I get a better response rate than if I e-mail them and never hear from them again.

Likewise, we send cards for special events, well wishes, and holidays. I make my own and put a lot of time and energy into the content to make it personal and still hand sign all our Christmas cards.

BSOD. They sure do. GIGO.

Whenever I've gotten tenant turnover I have to deal with the utility company. An account or sometimes two listed at that address (in my name as owner) gets automatically turned when they cancel their personal apartment account. Sometimes it takes a full day to turn back on. The tenant shouldn't legally be able to touch the account but it happens.

And I just called regarding my own house which I've owned for more than a decade. Turns out my own phone number is not associated with my own house. It got automatically switched at some point in time as well. WTH. These people.

None of these changes were enacted on paper with a traceable authorizing signature.
They just happened like magic in the ether. No tangible trace.
Maybe someone impersonated me playing games.

Good thing it was not too important, or someone's entire life could be gone with a major glitch..which has happened more than once..
And the entire world is supposed to operate of that type of system?

Those are bad programming and really bad employees operating them. Most cities own the water system, and usually some government bureaucrat department person that does not care about customer service just makes a decision and does it because no one can stop them.

It is not like the computer decided to do it. Some human bag of water did it.

I fought with the IRS for 4 years and sent countless faxes and spent hours on the phone trying to get a error on my withholding statement on my Social Security earning statement corrected. Finally they set up an appointment. I had to go see them in person, show a human the pile of documentation and she said, this is easy. 10 seconds on the computer and it was fixed. There is a log that shows when the file was opened. It had never been touched since it was put in wrong by a human. The other paperwork I sent was never touched by anyone as they did not care. Human error, not the computer. Everyone blames the computer because a computer can't argue the facts.

Computers & Humans....

Dumb & Dumber :D

A friend of mine is a programmer and writes specialized software. One of his expressions is "Our software doesn't have bugs, it has undocumented features."
Computers do have errors.

Most “computer issue” are actually wetware issues. (Slang for computer user). Or EBKAC, error between keyboard and chair.

Computer Errors ... but only because humans screwed up :D. My degree was in computer science four decades ago and no one will ever win that argument with me...because I am correct :D. All they do is follow instructions...

I have gotten into a habit of writing letters to my Mom with pics of my grandkids. She's in assisted living and visits were verbotten for a while. Now we can visit outside. I've realized though she doesn't remember much visit to visit. A letter with photos printed from my home computer of her great grandkids hopefully helps to pass the time as she spends way too much of it alone. Hopefully the pics will reinforce the fact she has family and remind her of who they are.

computer error rate is quite low, but non-zero - cosmic rays are one source, and - of course - the original bug was a moth

you're a software guy, I bet

usually it's human - true; and some bozo tries to escape responsibility by blaming an innocent machine

AI will fix THAT problem !!

Computers are nothing but fancy binary adding machines. Yea, in theory a computer circuit can get hit with a cosmic ray and have a error. But the software should catch it and fix the error.

Humans get hit with cosmic rays as well. On Earth is is not a issue to worry about.

Naw... the original "bug", and even modern hardware failures don't produce "errors", they cause "crashes". Even "bit polarity errors" are detected and corrected... except when CD audio is involved....

Renember our discussion on that eons ago ;)

And computers are not "binary adding machines" either Glen.

Computers just do what they are instructed to do....nothing more, nothing less.

It's not voodoo .... no do do :D