USPS Informed Delivery rarely shows anything lately

[ExFlyBoy5]

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Originally Posted by braumeister In that case maybe it falls in the category of rural legend?

I see what you did there. Here is a good summary.

https://www.businessinsider.com/what...es-mean-2015-6

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The first digit designates a broad area, which ranges from zero for the Northeast to nine for the far West. The two following digits are the code of a central post office facility in that region. The last two digits designate small post offices or postal zones.

[ivinsfan]

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Originally Posted by braumeister Well, in my case it's a great place to be from. Loved it while growing up (no cracks, please) but never going back.

It's good to love the place you grew up in. I never had a place like that (army brat) and I think it would have been cool.

[ivinsfan]

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Originally Posted by ExFlyBoy5 I see what you did there. Here is a good summary. https://www.businessinsider.com/what...es-mean-2015-6

So I'm a 9 which might mean I'm the smallest PO in that cluster,

[ExFlyBoy5]

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Originally Posted by ivinsfan We don't get scans of stuff like that...

Hmm. That's odd. You would think that the scanners would be pretty universal. Then again, it IS the government...so...

[ExFlyBoy5]

I have "tested" our zip code. We live in a different city than the post office that services our address. So, our mailing address is the city of the post office. I have seen this in unincorporated areas, but I haven't seen this when you live in city A but the mailing address is city B.

Sometimes, contractors don't want to come out because they think we live in the city that is our mailing address (which isn't convenient to the highway). I have to almost ALWAYS mention that we are within a couple of miles of the interstate and to ignore our mailing address.

Anyway, I have tested the mail using the correct zip code and ACTUAL (but wrong as far as the USPS is concerned) city and got the mail in one day. I then tried using the wrong zip AND wrong city (I used a zip that is closest to us but in the correct city) and got it two days later.

It's an interesting system and considering how complex it is, I am impressed that they tend to get most of it right.

[braumeister]

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Originally Posted by ExFlyBoy5 our mailing address is the city of the post office. I have seen this in unincorporated areas, but I haven't seen this when you live in city A but the mailing address is city B.

It can be a bit confusing at times. Our last house was in an unincorporated area of county A but our zip code was shared with part of county B and that was actually in a sizable city.

Since the two counties had different sales tax rates, it was sometimes tricky to get online orders correct. Interestingly, Apple was first -- they figured it out immediately and always offered me a dropdown menu to pick my county after I entered the zip code. Other online merchants eventually followed suit.

[ExFlyBoy5]

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Originally Posted by braumeister It can be a bit confusing at times. Our last house was in an unincorporated area of county A but our zip code was shared with part of county B and that was actually in a sizable city. Since the two counties had different sales tax rates, it was sometimes tricky to get online orders correct. Interestingly, Apple was first -- they figured it out immediately and always offered me a dropdown menu to pick my county after I entered the zip code. Other online merchants eventually followed suit.

Yep. Our taxes are also messed up with this, but the % difference isn't worth the fight.

My SIL lives in the same city as we do, but is in another county and has the same issue with mailing city being different (even different for us). She didn't even realize she was a resident of the city until she tried to get trash service established...and she has lived here for almost 30 years. I think the biggest issue is that "big city" has annexed WAY TOO much land so it only adds to the confusion.

[ocean view]

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Originally Posted by ivinsfan So I'm a 9 which might mean I'm the smallest PO in that cluster,

In our area I’ve noticed that the 4th & 5th digits are assigned alphabetically to the smaller cities within the region (for example the SF Bay Area). Larger cities, like SF get their own region (the 3rd digit of the five).

I just found this website that lists zip codes by state, county and city:

https://www.zip-codes.com/state/ca.asp

[Kerfuffle]

Yep, the accuracy of our informed delivery has not been great in the last few months (I've been signed up for a couple of years at least). Lately I find things that I wasn't notified of, not junk mail which they don't send images of, but legit mail. Just yesterday there was something from the DMV that I wasn't notified of, and a couple of days ago there was a check from a client which I also never got an email for. I'd put it at maybe 80% accuracy where it used to be at 100% very consistently.

[braumeister]

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Originally Posted by ocean view In our area I’ve noticed that the 4th & 5th digits are assigned alphabetically to the smaller cities within the region

Probably reasonable for later additions (new suburbs, etc.), but I think it was pretty random in the beginning.

For example, the five boroughs of NYC:
100xx, 101xx, 102xx Manhattan
103xx Staten Island
104xx Bronx
110xx, 111xx, 113xx, 114xx, 116xx Queens
112xx Brooklyn

[steelyman]

I’m using the USPS Mobile app (residence and P.O. Box) and it works well. I plan to turn off the email notifications.

[pjm-7]

Mail has been light here in western Colorado. I thought had to do with I-70 being closed for the past two weeks because of serious mudslides. Can't move anything though ten feet of mud and boulders. The highway is open for now but could shut down again any minute.

I don't usually get much mail anyhow, except uninteresting mail order catalogs that the previous homeowners got.

[Kerfuffle]

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Originally Posted by steelyman I’m using the USPS Mobile app (residence and P.O. Box) and it works well. I plan to turn off the email notifications.

You might want to hold off on that - they sent an email out recently saying they are discontinuing the mobile app:

"In Summer 2021, USPS is discontinuing the Informed Delivery standalone mobile application. This application will no longer be available for download on your mobile device."

[steelyman]

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Originally Posted by Kerfuffle You might want to hold off on that - they sent an email out recently saying they are discontinuing the mobile app: "In Summer 2021, USPS is discontinuing the Informed Delivery standalone mobile application. This application will no longer be available for download on your mobile device."

Yes. I think it has been replaced by USPS Mobile which offers informed delivery and other things.

[Kerfuffle]

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Originally Posted by steelyman Yes. I think it has been replaced by USPS Mobile which offers informed delivery and other things.

Aha, thanks! I just assumed because the post office was on hard times, they weren't supporting any mobile app anymore. Didn't realize it was just switching to another. Maybe I'll give that a try.

[obsessed]

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Originally Posted by steelyman Yes. I think it has been replaced by USPS Mobile which offers informed delivery and other things.

I'm still irked that they discontinued the Informed Delivery app. It was easy to use and convenient. The USPS Mobile app is really just a portal to the web page and I have to sign in every time so I just rely on the email now.

[steelyman]

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Originally Posted by obsessed I'm still irked that they discontinued the Informed Delivery app. It was easy to use and convenient. The USPS Mobile app is really just a portal to the web page and I have to sign in every time so I just rely on the email now.

It doesn’t bother me. I just use a password manager (one for home, another for box). I like to trim email traffic.

[rk911]

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Originally Posted by RunningBum I've been signed up for Informed Delivery for a few years, I think. I'd get a daily email showing all or at least most of what I'd be getting in the mail that day, or the next day at the latest. My mail box is in a kiosk two miles away from me, though pretty much on the way when I'm driving home, so it was helpful to know when it probably wasn't worth stopping. Now, I rarely even get an email, and it almost always shows no mail coming. Are others enrolled in Informed Delivery seeing the same? Heard any news about it? I think it started around the time when mail delivery got very unreliable, probably because the USPS didn't want to show mail that might not show up for a few more days. And maybe so it wouldn't slow down the sorting process.

our mail is always light as most important stuff is done via e-mail but what we do get matches up with our daily Informed Delivery.

[Sunset]

For us, Informed Delivery does not show the junk mail flyers, and magazines.

Maybe it only does First Class mailings ?

[Scuba]

I don’t find USPS Informed Delivery to be very helpful. We signed up for it to monitor mail while we were away for two months. The vast majority of mail pieces did not have a scanned image. Next time we go away for an extended time, we will go back to VTG service we previously used. Far superior to USPS Informed Delivery in many ways.

https://www.virtualpostmail.com