1) The Postal Service doesn't do the job. Not a day goes by that I don't hear someone complaining about a package that was lost, bills delivered to the wrong house, or time-sensitive material arriving too late. If I'm the one who happens to be complaining, every single person I complain to can sympathize. I don't know a single person who thinks the Postal Service does a good job. Even most postal employees I know won't look me in the eye and say they think the USPS does good work. There are two kinds of people in relation to the Postal Service; people who know the post office sucks but that we should keep it because there's no alternative, and people who know the post office sucks and think we should give it the ax so we can create some good alternatives.
2) The Postal Service doesn't even care that it sucks. Have you tried to get some good customer service from USPS lately? Call their 800 number to complain that your carrier didn't even attempt to deliver your parcel. Leave a note for your carrier to please stop delivering mail that goes to the people who lived in your house five years ago. Go talk to the station manager at your local post office about how your carrier is a twit. It's like talking to a brick wall. The folks at the 800 number are more than happy to record your complaint, thank you for calling, and let you know that the manager from your local station will call you. Nothing ever happens, there's never any apology, and the station manager never calls. If you have one of the good carriers, which is about a 50/50 chance, leaving some sort of request in the box might get your issue at least somewhat addressed... until routes are re-assigned or it's your carrier's day off. That, I could live with. If you have the lazy twit carrier (of which there are many), you will be lucky if the worst thing that happens is that the carrier ignores your request. Some carriers will write back on your request with a snide remark. Some will continue delivering mail you have refused. Some will begin intentionally misdelivering or not delivering your mail (a federal offense IF you can prove it). The worst ones will actually damage your parcels (again, a federal offense IF you can prove it) or vandalize your property if they think you're troublesome or if you've been complaining about them (yes, I know of more than one actual occurrence of this). And complaining in person to a station manager? Generally useless, because station managers invariably speak to you as though your request is unreasonable or as though you're too stupid to understand the complex process of delivering the mail.
3) The Postal Service is a money sink. In USPS new employee training, employees are trained to recite the mantra that the USPS has been self-sustaining since 1984. The reason that employees are trained with this little tidbit of knowledge, is specifically for the sake of arguing with customers who might accost the employee and accuse the USPS and its crappy service of being a waste of tax dollars. The employee replies to the accusation that actually, the USPS has been self-sustaining since 1984, and therefore wastes no tax dollars. The problem with this is, the USPS is always in the red and can't even raise enough revenue to pay all of its employees' salaries, so it operates on a massive line of credit from the federal government. That means tax dollars, folks. So even if you are really hardcore and boycott the USPS (which means not sending letters, not subscribing to publications, not ordering Netflix, paying more to send every possible thing by other means), they are still getting money from you one way or another. And they certainly aren't self-sustaining by any stretch of the imagination (though they are correct in saying that they have been legally mandated to be self-sustaining since 1984).
4) The USPS abuses its employees. Take a survey of postal employees someday and find out how many clerks and carriers there are that haven't had job-related injuries. Out of postal employees that have worked for the USPS for more than 10 years, find out how many aren't needing surgery from a permanent job-related injury. There aren't many. And why is that? Because the USPS bullies its employees into rushing when it isn't safe to do so, and into working when they're hurt. And once there is a serious injury, USPS supervisors try to find some reason to blame the employee for the injury and write them up (a letter carrier can get written up if they are the victim of a dog attack, for example). And then the supervisor tries to bully the employee into not filing a workman's comp claim. The supervisors pressure the employee to see the USPS-provided doctor (who is paid by the USPS and therefore will nearly always declare that the injury is not serious and that the employee can get back to work right away). And then, if the employee insists on filing a workman's comp claim and seeing a competent doctor, the supervisor will get in the employee's face and scream that the employee is obviously not really hurt and is trying to scam the USPS.
I think those are four pretty good reasons to hate the USPS. Congress should repeal the law that bans price competition with USPS, and then stop all government subsidies. The USPS would then be forced to become competitive in the areas of quality and customer service. The USPS would probably have to cut jobs in the process (they're doing that anyway), but the startups that would be jumping to compete with it would be creating jobs, many of which would end up going to experienced former postal workers anyway. And I wouldn't have to sit here writing rants against the freaking USPS.
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