Annoying Mail Delivery Issue

[Dalmore]

I've lived in my house for over 20 years. About 5 years ago, we got a Christmas present delivered for the previous owner, a mail-order food gift. I spent about 2 hours on the phone and running around trying to return the present to the sender and informing them that the owner hasn't lived there for over 15 years. The following year, we got another delivery just like the previous year. This time we ate it.

 

[jollystomper]

I can understand getting mail for folks who had lived their before. But we have recently gotten several mail pieces for another address in our town, same number but totally different street name (the street names have totally different letters). We have written on it "delivered to wrong address" and put it back in a mailbox, but a few days later it shows up again. I'm guessing there's a barcode on it somewhere that is getting is routed back to us. Off to the post office to resolve.

Interestingly, the other address was once where a packaged of ours was delivered. Fortunately we caught it when we received the delivery notice and contacted the post office, and the package was delivered later that evening. They never really explained what the root cause was...

 

[harley]

I had recently (a couple of weeks ago) gotten an email telling me I was getting a new credit card to replace an expiring one. It never arrived in the mail, so I called and they sent me a new one (new number). I got it, activated it, updated all my bills that used it for auto payment. Then yesterday the original showed up in the mailbox. Typical for our mail system here in SWFL.

I think some of the problem people here are experiencing is due to dealing directly with their local post offices. I always use the online forms for temporary or permanent change of addresses, as well as hold mails. I seldom have any issue, with the exception of the FL PO not abiding by the start dates I enter. But any time you are dealing with human-type people you are really taking a chance on them getting it wrong through accident or bad attitude. I prefer computers.

 

[aja8888]

We have fought the post office time and time again over the years about mail not delivered (lost for good - just this week on a prescription), wrong mail in our mailbox, no mail delivery for a week (whole neighborhood), and everything else that has gone wrong. Never did we get satisfaction, or even sympathy (or any resolution, for that matter).

We just came to the realization that the postal system is screwed up and the workers don't care (at least the ones we have dealt with). Kind of falls in line with dealing with other government agencies.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Is this unworthy mail addressed correctly? Obviously someone thinks you are worthy of the mail. Or are you unworthy? Do you want the PO to decide what mail you should be receiving that is addressed to you at that address.

Are you referring to the "adpack" type things? The PO has a contract with the adpack company, requiring them to deliver the items. Maybe the PO should just break the contract. Even if addressed to occupant--the PO still has to deliver.

Or do you get catalogs from online purchases that you made but you don't want the catalog. Is that the POs fault? Contact the catalog company, or should the PO do that for you?

Uh...OK. I have an understanding of the PO and how it brings in revenue...contracts and all. Just because they send it to me doesn't mean I have to like it. My beef w/ the PO is misdelivered mail, missing mail, rude employees at the local PO and contract mail carriers who take out the neighbor's mailbox and then just drive away. Is that a bit clearer for you, postmaster general?

 

[TexasPE]

The zip + 4 is your culprit

I'm guessing there's a barcode on it somewhere that is getting is routed back to us. Off to the post office to resolve.
.

THIS

Look at the envelope. Your 'zip code + 4' is printed on it via bar code. The P O automatically sorts the mail by machine (no human involved) to match the zip + 4.

Mark through the bar code and your problem should disappear.

 

[jimandthom]

Uh...OK. I have an understanding of the PO and how it brings in revenue...contracts and all. Just because they send it to me doesn't mean I have to like it. My beef w/ the PO is misdelivered mail, missing mail, rude employees at the local PO and contract mail carriers who take out the neighbor's mailbox and then just drive away. Is that a bit clearer for you, postmaster general?

Yep--- I have the same beefs. I am sure that those same beefs arise at any organization, private or public and they would be perfectly reasonable to express. I would even bet that your employer has the same issues just more specific to your product and service.

You mentioned the contract mail carriers, just like any other job that pays 12-15 per hour you have to guess that you are not hiring the most dedicated/enthusiastic people. This is not to excuse it at all.
There will be some that hang on, do well and become full time.

I guess we are some of the of the lucky ones, where as best as I can tell we get the mail we are supposed to, a few times a year we get a definite wrong name delivery with the correct address. These are mostly catalogs etc. Cant really say we never got something we should have, as our bills are always current and what few meds we have ever ordered on line show up. We always send packages USPS and have never had one not get there and only once was an item broken.

We also have never had an issue with Vanguard, even when we transferred money to the TSP, or transfered inherited IRA and a 401k on 2 separate instances to Vanguard. Doesn't bother me that Treasury Direct has a clunky interface and any errors on medical statements have generally been easy to rectify.

Nope-- I'm not the Postmaster-- just some little ol retired guy living in the UP where its always beautiful even while getting a foot of snow.

 

[jimandthom]

So, when they didn't deliver the check addressed to my mother I went to the Post Office. I talked to a clerk and to the supervisor. He defended the postman not delivering the mail because it was addressed to my mother's who has a different last name than I do and he said that my change of address for her was done wrong because I turned it in at the post office near her house not at my closest post office. When I wasn't happy he said the postmaster would call me and had me fill out a form that she was supposed to review and call me. Never heard a word....



Yes, I did this. They took the envelope -- weeks ago -- and then redelivered to me today.....




I agree with you 100%. In fact, that is what I argued with the supervisor at the post office about. That was my position. So, I don't mind them delivering the mail to the previous resident. I just want them to take away and keep it when I say not at this address.....




That may be the way it is some places but not in the suburb we live in. First, I don't mind them delivering the mail to me that is addressed to the prior owner. I stamped it Not At This Address Return to Sender and it was taken away. Then it came back over a week later!

And, I was expressly told that the regular postman on this route has a box for each person at the Post Office and puts the names of the occupants above the box on a label. Any mail that comes to someone with a different last name, he returns. So mail to a previous owner would be on the label (new owners would be added) so would come to us. But mail to, say, my mother
(different last name) would be worried but to a prior owner would be delivered to me (once the forwarding order expired). I am OK with the delivery of the mail to the prior owner. I just want them to keep it when I put it back with the box marked Not At This Address (which is exactly what the Post Office says to do)....

That's pretty much true, unless it comes presorted from the processing center. They are not supposed to alter the presorting. The fulltime carriers who know the route like the back of their hand are more likely to do so.

The days of 1 carrier doing the same route for 30-35 years is gone for the most part. The days when the sorting clerks and carriers touched each piece of mail while sorting and putting into the case is gone. The days of the carrier going above and beyond are done a bit on the sly because if the supervisor wanted to be a pr@ck the carrier could be written up or worse for altering the presorted mail.

 

[jimandthom]

Little tid bit of info which probably directly relates to sloppy service. Speaking about rural carrier, not city.

My spouse was a rural carrier, who happened to retire just in time before they closed his office and would have had to drive an additional 25ish miles to the new site and then drive the same 25ish miles back to the delivery area and then back to the PO to drop off the mail he collected and then drive home again. Before the switch it was about 7 miles, but that come with the job, so that's how it goes.

If the mail truck, bringing the mail from the main center was late===too bad, you couldn't leave until it got there and the mail was cased and put into your vehicle. Even if late by a couple of hours---too bad so sad.

He was still required to complete the route, which was 450+boxes over 54 miles. He was required to still go to every box, even if it was 1 house on a dead end road(farm country) even if the house had no mail to be delivered. He was required to go because that house may have had something outgoing.

That's all perfectly reasonable for good service.

Recall the 1st paragraph where I said the mail delivery truck was late getting to the PO. He still had to be back to the PO by a specific time to be there for the outgoing truck. If he missed the outgoing truck, because of weather, traffic or the mentioned late morning truck, he had to drive the mail about 90 miles additional roundtrip from the PO on his dime.

No oops, do overs nothing. He did retire about 1.5 years sooner than we had wanted, but still the best thing was to retire when he did.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I would even bet that your employer has the same issues just more specific to your product and service.

Employer? What's that?

 

[dadu007]

Whenever I hear people complain about the USPS, I relate this story:
I lived in Japan for about a year in the early nineties. About once a month I had to send mail back to the States. Since it was overseas mail (just a letter), I still had to go to the post office in Kyoto. While the people helping were polite (on the surface, at least), it was a confusing, long, and rather byzantine process just to mail a letter.
I am a big fan of the USPS. Every time I go to the post office or have had to call about a missing package, it's always been a good experience.
Then again, about 80% of my working life has been customer service related, so I know how to start off on a good foot with all such interactions. ;-)

 

[braumeister]

Since it was overseas mail (just a letter), I still had to go to the post office in Kyoto. While the people helping were polite (on the surface, at least), it was a confusing, long, and rather byzantine process just to mail a letter.

I've always had the impression that Japan Post saw itself as more of a bank than a post office. Any truth to that?

 

[dadu007]

I've always had the impression that Japan Post saw itself as more of a bank than a post office. Any truth to that?

Yes, very true. When I was there they sort of did double-duty...it was a strange mix to this gaijin. I also remember tons of (literally) rubber-stamping quite a bit of paperwork by hand!
Also, from time to time I've seen articles in the US promoting the idea of giving the USPS a banking role (in order to keep them alive and afloat...)

 

[braumeister]

I also remember tons of (literally) rubber-stamping quite a bit of paperwork by hand!

Well, at least that's not unique to them. I lived in Brazil in the 80s and that was the norm. Everything needed multiple pieces of paper, each with multiple stamps, and every stamp had to be applied by one particular person in that office over there.

 

[dadu007]

Well, at least that's not unique to them. I lived in Brazil in the 80s and that was the norm. Everything needed multiple pieces of paper, each with multiple stamps, and every stamp had to be applied by one particular person in that office over there.

There WERE fast with the rubber-stamping part...sorta like this, LOL: