My most recent (a couple weeks ago) experience with the passport office was a model of efficiency. Because of my work I always need to have a current passport and mine was coming up for renewal. I called the passport office and they told me to make an appointment on line, bring my application and photos and have a letter from my employer or an itinerary showing travel in the next 14 days and I could walk out the same day. They were right. My appointment was for 0830 where they took my paperwork. They told me to come back at 1100, and it was done. The catch to this is that you need to go to one of the main passport offices of which there are not very many many in the country but Denver happens to be one of them. Otherwise, I think it takes a few days by FedEx.
The website is outsourced to a private company.
Wow 4 weeks!
So? The government is still responsible. We held the FAA ultimately responsible when LockMart was having problems with the flight service stations. In the private sector most of us hold the company we deal with responsible for services provided, even if the services were outsourced. None of us care that customer service was outsourced to a company in India or Nebraska.
Well it seems, as in the example you noted, that service is most always worse once the government lets the private sector take something over. Kinda blows the whole 'government sucks at everything' theory that a bunch of people have been expousing in this thread and other non-SZ threads fo late.
one of the very few things I miss about living out there - langostas, langustinos, camarones e cervesas in puerto nuevo... and then the fish market and fish tacos in Ensenada ... and the diving ... ok, that's about it. Don't let my wife read this, or we'll be living there again in a heartbeat.
Hmm fish tacos in Ensenada...hmmmmmone of the very few things I miss about living out there - langostas, langustinos, camarones e cervesas in puerto nuevo... and then the fish market and fish tacos in Ensenada ... and the diving ... ok, that's about it. Don't let my wife read this, or we'll be living there again in a heartbeat.
I seem to remember that the private security the airlines used for screening weren't as bad as the TSA has been. OTOH, they may have been as bad if they had to enforce the same rules (3 oz liquid, 1 qt bag, double secret rules, etc, etc). The postal service has worked reasonably well. Seems to be a mixed bag.
Of that I will agree. I was mostly making my comment in reply to the knee jerk post early on in this thread.
Holy necrothread, Batman!
