MailmanDave
17 Years Experience
Long Island, NY
Male, 43
I am a City Letter Carrier for the US Postal Service in NY. I've been a city letter carrier for over 17 years and it is the best job I've ever had. I mostly work 5 days per week (sometimes includes a Saturday) and often have the opportunity for overtime, which is usually voluntary. The route I deliver has about 350 homes and I walk to each of their doors to deliver the mail. Please keep in mind that I don't have authority to speak for the USPS, so all opinions are solely mine, not my employer.
Moriah, that is pretty rotten that an ex-roommate would put a hold on all of the mail to your address. I believe you may have to call the USPS help line or visit your local post office to say that your mail shouldn't be held. They shouldn't give you a hard time if you prove that is your address. As far as pressing any charges, I don't have any legal background on what the crime would be and if any charges would stick. The USPS CS # is 800 275 8777.
I have no idea why your aunt would take your packages to your uncle's house and he would open them? That sounds illegal to me unless you have some sort of relationship with them to allow this. I'm assuming you don't live together and aren't happy about this. Your aunt must also live nearby. Was anything missing from the packages? You could start by asking your aunt why she did this and tell her not to. You could also mention it to a delivery supervisor at the USPS where she works. I don't know what kind of family tension you want to cause but if something is actually stolen you could call the police to file a complaint. I also have no idea how far that would go. Whatever you do, it sounds like a real sleazy thing for your aunt and uncle to do and I would never imagine doing this.
It sounds suspicious or odd that your letter carrier is speeding past your house and skipping delivery with nothing apparent to block their access to your mailbox. It could be that you have no mail addressed to your house that day, but you would know better than me if you should be getting a delivery daily. I would call or somehow contact your local post office and ask to speak with a delivery supervisor or manager and mention it to them. Out of 6 delivery days a week, I would guess about 4 of them have some type of mailing that goes to each address which I service. I can't say it's the same for your town. It is also a bit strange that when you have another mail carrier they deliver the mail.
Your postal carrier shouldn't be misdelivering the mail at all. We all make mistakes but it shouldn't be a regular occurrence as you imply happens with your neighbor's mail coming to you. I think it's nice of you to bring it to your neighbor but you certainly don't have to. It is not rude whatsoever to leave the mail in your mailbox so the carrier can see it and hopefully deliver it correctly. I know you may not feel comfortable leaving a note in your mailbox with the incorrectly delivered mail stating that this is a regular occurrence and please be more careful with your delivery, but this type of note would be entirely appropriate. I care so much about delivering properly that I appreciate it when a customer tells me about an errant delivery or leaves the letter in their mailbox to be re-delivered. I wish all of my co-workers felt the same way. Some do and some don't. Thanks for your question.
Physical Therapist
Architectural Project Manager
Day Trader
I have not had an office to deliver on a regular basis so I can't comment as to how far a letter carrier is supposed to go I to an office to deliver or retrieve outgoing mail. Usually I'd expect to mostly deliver to a mail room or reception desk. As far as getting paid by the foot, I can assure you if it is a city letter carrier they are being paid "on the clock" meaning it has nothing to do with distance traveled on foot, but only by time working. A rural letter carrier may have a different way to calculate their pay where I don't know the details. If your letter carrier is wearing the traditional blue uniform, it is likely they are a city carrier and if the location of your postage machine took them longer to access, they'd actually be paid more money because it took them longer. I am being picayune but I hope you understand the point. Some mail carriers are just lazy, will feed you a line, or genuinely know some of the rules about office delivery.
I think what you are asking me is if your landlord can put a stamp on an envelope and put it directly in your mailbox. I don't know the answer to that but mail should probably be processed through our mail delivery system. By putting postage on the envelope they are paying to have something put in a mailbox so I'm not sure that it's technically wrong. There is a possibility that if its in your mailbox with uncanceled postage on it, a letter carrier may assume it's outgoing mail and take it with them as we usually don't look at the destination address for outgoing mail. Thank you for writing.
It is possible that the contents of the envelope stayed in the envelope and the item will reach its destination. If the papers fall out and there is no address on them to either return the papers to you or continue on to the intended recipient, those papers would probably wind up at a "nixie" or "dead letter" area and disposed of eventually.
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