Post office screws up again.More info post #20!

[Miss Jasmine]

OK, I forgot to add taht $2000 worth of checks were in that mail that was delivered to someone else. What if that had gotten into the hands of someone who would have found a way to cash them?

Hmm yeah maybe you should go to the post office and talk to the postmaster there. That is just nuts. And then hope your other checks show up in the future. Seriously, I do think something should be said.

 

[GraysMom]

However, I also inform the police when we're not going to be home, and they check on the house daily, including a walkaround the perimeter of the house.

Wow, that's great that your police will do that for you. Did you just call them and tell them you'd be away, or how did you set it up?

 

[goofyforlife]

We been getting mail for people across town lately.....

Yikes...........

My dog walker will bring in the mail for us but last trip i had it held at the PO. I went in the day we got home and picked it up no problem....

Weird thing happened though... Some mail got through the stop..(dog walker got it from the lock boxes down the street from us)

There were slips for certified mail and a package i wasn't expecting that by the dates on the slips were clearly left during the hold period...

Weird freaky...Maybe we had a sub that day or something....

Although my dh dd come home to our bank statements in the door the other day (which means one of the neighbors got them)

 

[DVC-Don]

They screw up our all the time by delivering the proper street number, but wrong street!

I had ours held while we were at WDW just now (12/21 to 12/26) Well, we got no mail until yesterday (12/28) but along with our pile we got mail for other people too! We now get most of our bills via email and also pay most by online methods now. I think only our water bill comes via US mail now.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

Wow, that's great that your police will do that for you. Did you just call them and tell them you'd be away, or how did you set it up?

The first couple of times I called them, but once I knew the questions they asked, I started dropping off a printout of our plans. They review it while I'm there and are always mighty impressed that I provide the answers to all the questions they would have asked.

The info I provide...the address, the dates we'll be gone, our cell phone numbers, a local person to contact (my FIL), what cars (model, color and license plate numbers) will be in the yard, what lights will be on in the house, and whether or not anyone will be checking on our house (who and license plate number, I suppose...we never have anyone checking). I hadn't realized they walk around the house until one time they came 2 days EARLY and looked in the window and freaked out the dog. Last year, DD's friend Greg (17) went for a walk and stopped by the house to say hello, and a police officer interrogated him! He was terrified, but he's a great story teller and it made for a pretty hilarious story, poor kid.

 

[kelleigh1]

I agree.

We stop delivery online, and also leave a note for the carrier (to take). So far, it has worked fine. I personally wouldn't leave any sign that I wasn't home, ie, a mailbox with a rubberband on it or a note inside the box that was intended to stay there. If there's any indication to a burglar that we might not be home (ie, cars staying in the same location), I don't want to confirm it for them. JMHO However, I also inform the police when we're not going to be home, and they check on the house daily, including a walkaround the perimeter of the house.

Also, regarding stopping both mail and newspaper deliveries...we have them stop delivery a day before we actually leave, so that if we still do get delivery that day, we can contact them and correct the situation.

You obviously don't live in my town because our police would never check the house while we're away. We'd probably get a "so, why are you telling us?" (So glad that I'm moving soon.)

As for the mail...don't even get me started. I'm still waiting on the Music CD and the sandals that my friend made me for my wedding. (I've been married 2 1/2 years now.) And then there is the box that my sister sent in March 2001. Although last year I did receive a returned Christmas Card because I had the wrong address for my friend in CA. Too bad I'd mailed the card in 2003.

I've contacted the Postmaster General a number of times and gotten nowhere. I give up. Now if my family or friends are sending me something important, I make them send it to my office.

 

[jenjunsan]

If it is my normal post lady, she is wonderful. But throw a sub in there a couple days and it's all out of wack! My old address was horrible. Years ago (okay, a decade or more) someone called me from 3 streets over and had found my college application that I mailed that day in their front yard.

 

[Aidensmom]

When we first lived in our house, our mailbox was vandalized and/or stolen on 3 occassions within the first month. (Why ours, I don't know, it didn't happen to anyone else. ). Anyways, I got a PO Box and put in a forwarding order to forward everything from the street address to the PO Box so it would still all go to the PO Box during the time I was changing my address with everyone. Nothing got forwarded. I went to the post office and complained, they said they'd leave a note for my carrier. One days worth of mail was forwarded, and then back to the same old thing. I complained again. This time, the carrier stopped delivering the mail to the house, but instead of forwarding it, it all got marked "addressee unknown" and returned to sender. One of those things, unfortunately, was a several thousand dollar check to pay the contractor fixing my home where a tree came through the roof. I am pretty sure that was retribution for my complaints, so I am a little scared of complaining to the USPS anymore.

Three years later, the forwarding order is no longer valid, but we still get no mail at our home, it is returned. We don't even get junk mail. We only get mail if there is a substitute carrier.

 

[disneymom3]

I would complain but I bet it won't do any good. We have atrocious mail service in our neighborhood and many of us have complained many times. Nothing happens. We get mail wrongly delivered, not picked up out of the box, she will NOT pick up priority mail pkgs from the step like they advertise they will do, (and besides she smokes in her car so my ebay auctions that state "from a nonsmoking home" are NOT going in her vehicle, thank you!) and whenever we have mail held, it is always a few days after we indicate we want it that it actually shows up. Last trip, there was a RED and HUGE slip in the box that said mail was being held. I didn't like that as I felt it was too obvious that no one was home. Next time I am just asking my neighbor to get it.

 

[Chuck S]

Really, if you don't have a neighbor you are friendly enough with to collect your mail daily, I'd have it held at the post office and then pick it up at the PO when I got home rather than have it delivered.

 

[FroggyinArk]

ourregular mail man is also a close neighbor,, we really are not lookingforward to the day he retires, the subs never get any of it right, but i can always reley on not getting mail in the box while on vac, cause hte mailman is also the nieghbor that feeds the cats and watched hte house.

 

[bananiem]

Really, if you don't have a neighbor you are friendly enough with to collect your mail daily, I'd have it held at the post office and then pick it up at the PO when I got home rather than have it delivered.

If we're going to be gone a couple of days I'll ask one of the neighbors but since everybody is so busy this time of year and going to be gone themselves I thought I'd let the USPS do what they say they will do. Silly me.
The post office is across town and nowhere near anything I ever go to so I just thought this would save me a trip. I learned my lesson!