How many would close their mailboxes?

[AboutThere]

The cash/cash-free thread had me thinking: How many of us would decline to receive US Mail if we could?

For me, other than the odd "official notice" that I actually need - and that could easily be emailed - everything else is a nuisance; either a solicitation or a solicitation.

Now the crafty buggers are making their solicitations look like IRS letters, so I have to take the time to open them, and then pay for a garbage bag to throw them away. Since young people no longer send thank-you notes for gifts, there's really no chance I'll ever want to open the day's mail.

While I'm at it, if Delta is listening, I am not going to get one of your credit cards. Not ever.

The US mail is now analogous to the land-line - only used by window replacement salesmen and politicians.

 

[Ronstar]

I used to get junk mail at our Az snowbird condo, but not anymore. The mailman put a form in our box several years ago, wanting to verify info - names associated with the address, etc. I didn't fill out the form. I get no mail. Haven't opened the mailbox in years.

 

[REWahoo]

The cash/cash-free thread had me thinking: How many of us would decline to receive US Mail if we could?

Not me. I still rely on it for my monthly delivery from the Columbia House Record Club.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I would most certainly do away with the mail box. I would say that in a given year, we might get 2 or 3 pieces that are worth having. We are now getting catalogs for previous tenants, previous owners (we bought the house in 2012), my DW's sister and Mother. It's out of control and I am tired of submitting requests to have it stopped. A good friend of mine is now getting junk mail for "Mops", that is one of their cats!

We actually had a neighbor that we would get HOA membership forms returned and the return would say "NO RECEPTACLE". Out of curiosity, we drove by the house and sure enough, they didn't even HAVE a mailbox! I think that if it wasn't for the DW, I would actually rip the box out of the ground and throw it away!

I understand that the USPS actually scans every piece of mail that is mailed. There is a test program out there where they will send you images of the mail you are going to get. It would be great if they expanded it so you could SELECT the mail you wanted to get! That would be TOO AWESOME, so it's never going to happen.

Not me. I still rely on it for my monthly delivery from the Columbia House Record Club.

Funny thing about that...they STILL have a DVD club and they are "supposed" to bring back the record club... What's old is new again!

http://www.columbiahouserecordclub.com/

 

[Danmar]

I could easily do without physical mail service. Hardly anything is worth reading. It isn't sustainable in its current form. So changes will eventually come.

 

[H2ODude]

Getting ready to leave town for 5 weeks and decided that, no, there was nothing likely to come in mail that was very urgent. So they can just hold it all. On trash days, I get the mail and go to the can to drag it back in, and almost always it just gets canned within 6' of the mailbox. It's an incredible waste. Between junk mail and spam calls, who needs all this crap?

 

[athena53]

I still send and receive Christmas cards- the ones I send out always include letters since they go to out-of-town friends and relatives only, For that you still need a mailbox.

The rest of the year- we get maybe one important piece of snail mail a week. I'd be perfectly happy with weekly delivery- and a proportionate decrease in postage rates.

 

[Totoro]

Doesn't the mail offer a scanning service? No more physical documents at all.

I only get a few pieces of mail a month, or even per quarter. Usually the government reminding me to do my taxes or sending an invoice.

Everything else is on-line.

 

[Cobra9777]

I do think it's a bit archaic, and will eventually go away. Right now, we still get 1 or 2 important pieces of mail every week, amongst the crap. But they could all be delivered electronically. Some people are just slow to change. We have a locally-owned utility that has no form of auto-pay or electronic billing. So we get a paper bill from them. Our bank's bill pay service has to send them a paper check because they don't accept electronic payments.

Also, we get at least 1 or 2 Amazon deliveries every week and these are almost always delivered by our postal carrier. I actually feel sorry for her when my monthly 25 lb bag of dog food arrives. It's about 150 ft from the street to my front door.

 

[2017ish]

Not retired yet. Since we live in the sticks, our mailbox is the delivery mode for the WSJ hard copy, which we both enjoy reading. Post retirement, with travel plans, we'll go for digital only; at that point, we'd have no desire to keep mailbox--save for the IRS and various state agencies.

But agree with just about everyone--the signal/noise ratio is dismal.

 

[W2R]

I would stop mail delivery at my house if I could do so without paying anything to do it.

All that is delivered is advertising any more.

 

[GrayHare]

I use mail a fair amount for its unique capabilities, for example, no alternative provides the same level of privacy at such a low cost.

 

[MRG]

I do think it's a bit archaic, and will eventually go away. Right now, we still get 1 or 2 important pieces of mail every week, amongst the crap. But they could all be delivered electronically. Some people are just slow to change. We have a locally-owned utility that has no form of auto-pay or electronic billing. So we get a paper bill from them. Our bank's bill pay service has to send them a paper check because they don't accept electronic payments.

Also, we get at least 1 or 2 Amazon deliveries every week and these are almost always delivered by our postal carrier. I actually feel sorry for her when my monthly 25 lb bag of dog food arrives. It's about 150 ft from the street to my front door.

Water bill, trash no allowance for electronic payments.

When I was stocking up on reloading supplies I purchased a lot of lead bullets online. The casters all made use of the USPS flat rate boxes. How many 200 grain projectiles does it take to make 70 pounds? They all were 65-70 pound deliveries, I think the mail person has forgotten by now.

 

[kcowan]

We get our magazine subscriptions and our Chase Visa bill. We keep our recycle bin right beside the mail slot for everything else. And, of course, we are on electronic delivery for everything important.

 

[MichaelB]

I think physical mail was and continues to be a vital component of our infrastructure and one of the great enablers of US development.

 

[SumDay]

We moved last fall, and I could not believe the amount of new mail that is generated when you fill out a change of address request. It took 4-6 weeks to get much of the old stuff forwarded, but by golly all the new credit card and life insurance solicitations arrived in short order. They sell your name to everyone except ISIS. It has taken me months and much tenacity to get off all these new lists that USPS decided I needed to be on. I'm now down to a couple of pieces a day, and still make a couple of phone calls a week to get off more lists. It is manageable. I don't know how IRS would reach us, as they say they never call or email, but they're about the only reason I'd need to keep my mailbox. Well, that, and our church donation envelopes. I still like the feeling of dropping that in the basket.

 

[ChiliPepr]

The cash/cash-free thread had me thinking: How many of us would decline to receive US Mail if we could?

I would except I still get magazines and for the fact a lot of Amazon Prime now comes through the USPS now.

 

[FUEGO]

I'm not sure I would give it up completely but I wouldn't have a problem with once per week delivery/pick up.

Our mail is very inconsistent. If it's our regular guy, he's great. Hand delivered to our door when there's a larger package. Otherwise, routine delivery.

Not our regular guy? Who the F knows. Sometimes the mail shows up, sometimes it's in the mailbox, sometimes the mailbox door is even closed. Sometimes it goes missing 2, 3 days at a time.

 

[Buckeye]

I need them because they deliver my Amazon packages!

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

 

[scrabbler1]

This thread reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer asks the PO to stop delivering him the mail. And this was around 1997-98 when all the e-commerce was not as widely used as it is today.


I was able to stop two frequent sources of junk mail - endless letters from Verizon and Optimum (local cable TV provider) wanting me to upgrade to their overpriced, bundled, premium services. I had to call each outfit but it did work so the amount of junk mail has declined. Now I gotta get Geico and Amex to stop it. I hope I won't have to buy another paper shredder for a while, I have gone through 2 or 3 over the years.

 

[Major Tom]

I still get useful mail, though not as much as in the past. Everything that I can get electronically, I do. The other day, I received my mail-in ballot for the California primary, though I'd sign up for electronic voting in a heartbeat if/when they offer it. I still get a few magazine subscriptions. A few close family members still send physical birthday and Christmas cards, and I like to receive those. My best friend, who loves my cats as much as I do, receives occasional cards from the cats, signed with pawprints, and adorned with shed claws and clumps of fur. An electronic version of those wouldn't quite have the same impact. The most valuable USPS service, to me, is the ability to receive packages. Priority Mail, in particular, I find to be a very useful service.

There is one thing I have not received in years though, and that is a personal letter from a friend or family member. Remember when people used to sit down with a pen and paper, and write well-composed prose, sometimes several pages of it? I have some letters like that in storage boxes from my past, but have not received one in a long time. I have a personal seal that used to belong to my grandfather, and it's been on my mind to write a "proper" letter so that I can use his seal. Thing is, and I'm embarrassed to admit this, my cursive writing doesn't look as nice as it used to - I am so out of practice.

When was the last time anyone here wrote, or received, a "proper" letter?

 

[RunningBum]

Where I live, we don't get home mail delivery. We have to either rent one of the boxes in a kiosk, or at the local PO. Most of the homes are 2nd residences or vacation rentals. It would be prohibitive to have a box for every address like the typical neighborhood kiosk. So I could easily opt not to rent a box and I'm not sure what anyone would do about it. I haven't even considered not having one though.

I hate the junk mail as much as anyone. But there is just a little too much other stuff that I need to get. How about credit cards? Apple Pay and the like isn't far enough along to go without cards, and I don't want to pay FedEx rate for delivery. Some workers aren't set up to get payments right away, so they send a bill. A lot of packages still come via USPS. Sure, I could probably pay extra to make sure it's sent UPS or FedEx, but that's not worth it.

I would rather have stronger opt out options so that you could block someone from continually sending credit card offers and the like.

Someday I'm sure I could live without it, but probably don't. The USPS will probably go away some day, but I doubt in my lifetime.

 

[karen1972]

we sometimes can go 3-5 days with no mail. My BF hates junk mail with a passion and is quick to call and find ways to stop it. I don't think its ever going away, but it certainly could slow down to every other day service...really nothing you send in the mail should be that urgent.

 

[athena53]

I use mail a fair amount for its unique capabilities, for example, no alternative provides the same level of privacy at such a low cost.

I don't know about privacy. As mentioned earlier, the Post Office photographs every piece of mail. They used that data to capture someone who was threatening Obama (or mailed him anthrax? I forget) but I still find it creepy.

And, when we moved to a lovely suburb of McMansions in the mellow Midwest in 2003 we were warned not to put anything with financial data (credit card bills, tax forms) in our outgoing mail because identity thieves occasionally raided mailboxes. I still take sensitive snail mail straight to the Post Office for that reason.

 

[youbet]

I think physical mail was and continues to be a vital component of our infrastructure and one of the great enablers of US development.

+1

It scares me to think of a few ISP's having control of all communications.

The good ole US Mail is nicely dispersed with a huge disaster in one part of the country not effecting mail delivery in other parts, etc.

I think we have a ways to go with the Internet before I'd be comfortable not being able to drop something in the mail when desired. It's cheap. Our service has been very good the past few years. It doesn't cost me anything when I don't use it. What's not to like?