Mailman (City Letter Carrier)

Mailman (City Letter Carrier)

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.

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Last Answer on February 18, 2022

Best Rated

I have gotten a lot of junk mail and became kind of lazy and let my mailbox fill up a little. Today I checked my mail and everything was gone but I haven't moved. Can I get my mail back??

Asked by Desi over 10 years ago

I don't know why the mail would have been removed from your mailbox unless the box was maybe overflowing. In that case we may suspend further delivery or empty the mailbox and return any accumulated mail to the senders or discard the mail depending on the class it was sent. Maybe the letter carrier thinks you have moved. It seems the mail has been removed a bit prematurely, but I don't know of a way to get the mail back.

I received a letter back and it has stamped on it BOXED CLOSED RETURN TO SENDER...DOES THAT MEAN THE P.O. BOX NUMBER IS NOT GOOD

Asked by Jeremy over 9 years ago

I'm not sure what it means, but I'd gather that the renter of the PO Box either stopped paying the fee on the PO Box and it was closed or that they closed it on purpose. They also probably didn't put in a forwarding address which is why the label said "return to sender". It means the PO Box number exists but is not currently in use.

How long does it take a package to clear from international sorting centers

Asked by Christina over 9 years ago

I don't know the answer to this. My guess is as long as it isn't being held in customs for further inspection, then it should clear in a couple of days. When I see items from overseas that is postmarked it seems that it took 7-10 days total from when it was mailed. I'm just going on observation here and don't have any inside knowledge on what the goal is to clear international packages for delivery.

If the mail man doesn't find the address does he keep the mail at post office?

Asked by Tenzin chonyi about 10 years ago

Maybe for a day or so to see if anybody in the PO knows where that address is. Being that I deliver mail to the same neighborhood each day I know if a piece of mail has a valid address on it or not. It's possible if there is a replacement letter carrier delivering mail on a certain day and they can't find an address they will bring back the mail and then possibly the regular letter carrier on the route or somebody else would know where the address is. More often than not when mail has an address that can't be found (or the address doesn't even exist), we will endorse the mail as "NSN" which means "No Such Number" and it will be returned to the sender. The USPS has a national database of all valid addresses so we usually know at the PO if an address exists or not.

Could any mailman refuse to give you your mail for any reason

Asked by Refuse almost 10 years ago

As a general rule, I think a letter carrier should be delivering mail to a mailbox unless they know or trust the person asking for the mail. If you are asking if they can bypass a house and not deliver mail at all, the main reason for refusing to deliver mail would be that the carrier feels their personal safety is in jeopardy due to a dog or other unsafe condition. They can also refuse to deliver the mail if safe access or access in general (door to an apt. Building is locked for an example) to the mailbox can't be assured. I don't know if the situation occurred to you which brought up this question. It is rare that I ever don't deliver mail to an address. Even if it's an unsafe construction area, I may give the mail to one of the workers who will put the mail in the mailbox.

I went through the process to get the stamp thing worked out so I could have a priority package picked up tomorrow. hubby was going to get priority box for me, they closed before bus got him there. Will mailman have one when he picks up?

Asked by deborah almost 10 years ago

When the letter carrier comes to pick up your package, they will unlikely have a priority box with them. Most of us carrier no supplies in our postal vehicle. I think you can also edit the pickup request because it sounds like you won't have the Priority Mail package ready for them. You can probably edit or cancel the pickup request if you won't be mailing the item today. If you have any other box you can use that as well unless you have selected the Flat Rate Option for your packaging. If you did select a Flat Rate option you need to use a Priority Mail Flat Rate Box or envelope.

Are the people at the counter in the post office obliged to ask me what I am sending in a Large Letter ?? thank you

Asked by Werlygig almost 10 years ago

I don't believe they can ask you what is actually in the large letter, but I know if it's over a certain weight or size, they can ask something to the effect of "is the item you are mailing liquid, fragile, perishable, or potentially hazardous?" and you self-certify the answer with a yes or no. Certain batteries have to go by surface only and can't fly on airplanes. So I would take exception of they actually ask you what is being mailed if it's first class or Priority Mail. If you are mailing something via Medial Mail they can verify or even open a package to inspect that it is media (books, CDs, cassettes, video, DVD). I hope this answers your question.