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.
You can certainly do as you feel is correct. The unpaid bill collector would probably appreciate that. It's hard to know who is connected to who espcially if fake/similar names and different addresses are used. One thing I can suggest is for your Mom and Dad to keep an eye on their own credit report to make sure any debt or credit card accts on there are correct. Most people probably wouldn't get too involved in someone else's business, but I commend you for trying to help someone root out possible fraud.
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I wouldn't get too involved with this if I were you. I mean you wouldn't get in trouble as far as I know but you are correct in saying it's not your responsibility. Who advised you to throw out his junk mail? I would never do that as a USPS employee. No mail is junk to me. A mailer is paying my employer to deliver a service (mail) and I deliver it all. There are certain classes of mail which are non-forwardable and get a better speed of service, but it's all mail. I think the way I'd handle it is one of two ways. The first suggestion is to do nothing as it's truly not your responsibility to get involved with someone else's mail. The second suggestion would be to periodically take all of his mail, rubber band it and leave it by his front door if you feel that is a safe and secure place to leave it. I don't now how your residences are situated. Thank you for this interesting question.
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It is possible you've been lied to as your name suggests which I find to be very bad. Unfortunately I can't confirm if this is the case or not. I don't know of any rules either way as to why the postman would automatically return any mail that doesn't have the hostels name included in the address. It is pretty common for people to receive mail or packages at a hotel or some type of short-term stay facility. A woman who I work next to has a Comfort Inn that is part of her delivery route. I'm pretty sure she delivers any mail with the hotel's street address on it. It's then up to the hotel to notify the recipient that mail has arrived and then return any mail which may be for someone who is no longer there. I think that the letter carrier will accept any returned mail from the hotel and mark it "refused" or "attempted, not known" and it should go back to the sender. You ask "is this possible?" It certainly is possible as nothing surprises me about what happens at the USPS because the consistency of service among the employees and offices is not good in my opinion. I think we should deliver the mail as addressed (especially to a hotel, hostel, Airbnb, etc) and not worry about the names on the mail and let the receiving office decide whether to keep it, return it, or discard. Individual mail cannot be forwarded from a hotel or any business. In the future, if you want something mailed to a hostel, I'd recommend putting both your name and the name of the property you are staying at.
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Cathy, in my opinion that is a tricky situation. I think it technically can be up to the carrier to decide whether or not they feel safe delivering mail to the house with the dog or not. On the flip side, I encounter that situation a couple of times per day and don't think twice about delivering to houses where I know the storm door is latched and strong enough to contain the dog. This is coming from a carrier (me) who isn't too comfortable with dogs overall and have never owned one. It is a very rare situation (almost zero) that I've refused to deliver mail to a house with a dog inside the front door. If the door looks a bit ajar I might put my foot by the front door while delivering the mail. I'm not sure any of this helps. I think the basic mantra is if we don't feel comfortable delivering to a house we don't have to. It seems a bit too gray though because someone could take that to an extreme. I feel it's always easier to deliver the mail then to have to bring it back and then attempt 2x the amount on the next delivery day.
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I don't think I've ever had as detailed a question as yours Isabella. Unfortunately I don't have an answer for you and am not going to research your question as interesting as it is. I don't know postal delivery regulations and I find that when they exist they are adhered to arbitrarily. I understand your concern about leaving outgoing mail (including valuable checks) in an unsecured mailbox outside your office. For the most part we go in to businesses to deliver their mail and take any outgoing mail. There are some offices that have curbside boxes or multi-unit cluster boxes. I don't know that your office qualifies for indoor delivery (though I don't now what those requirements would be). You could call USPS consumer affairs but I don't know how much they can help. It'd be nice if you could at least find out the regulations and know if you are being fed misinformation or you truly don't "qualify" for delivery into your building.
Share Answer: &caption=Jobstr.com&description=The%20mail%20at%20the%20company%20where%20I%20work%20is%20delivered%20to%20a%20curbside%20mailbox.%20%20It%20is%20a%20free-standing%20building%3B%20not%20a%20complex%20or%20high-rise%2C%20nor%20do%20we%20share%20the%20building%20with%20anyone%20else.%20%20I%20requested%20that%20our%20mail%20be%20picked%20up%20and%20delivered%20inside%20the%20business%2C%20but%20was%20told%20that%20can%20only%20happen%20if%20I%20have%20a%20physical%20disability%20that%20prevents%20me%20from%20retrieving%20mail%20from%20the%20mailbox.%20%20In%20my%2030%2B%20years%20of%20working%2C%20I%20have%20never%20known%20this%20to%20happen.%20%20It%20has%20always%20been%20delivered%20inside%20the%20building.%20%20We%20had%20a%20temporary%20carrier%20%28while%20our%20usual%20carrier%20was%20out%20sick%29%20that%20DID%20bring%20the%20mail%20inside.%20%20She%20stated%20that%20she%20documented%20our%20request%20at%20the%20post%20office%20and%20that%20our%20regular%20carrier%20would%20continue%20to%20deliver%20inside%20the%20business%20when%20he%20returned.%20%20This%20did%20not%20happen%2C%20and%20after%20speaking%20with%20him%2C%20he%20is%20unwilling%20to%20deliver%20the%20mail%20inside%2C%20citing%20the%20disability%20reason.%20%20We%20send%20and%20receive%20millions%20of%20dollars%20in%20checks%20each%20month.%20%20The%20mail%20is%20delivered%20to%20a%20locked%20portion%20of%20the%20mailbox%2C%20but%20the%20outgoing%20mail%20portion%20does%20not%20lock.%20%20Leaving%20the%20checks%20in%20the%20mailbox%20for%20pickup%20makes%20us%20very%20uncomfortable%20and%20yet%20at%20the%20moment%2C%20our%20only%20alternative%20seems%20to%20be%20to%20drive%20to%20the%20post%20office%20every%20day.%20%20What%20are%20the%20actual%20USPS%20regulations%20about%20delivering%20mail%20to%20businesses%2C%20and%20if%20it%20CAN%20be%20delivered%20inside%2C%20who%20do%20I%20contact%20since%20I%E2%80%99ve%20had%20no%20luck%20with%20the%20local%20post%20office%20or%20our%20mail%20carrier%3F%20%20Thank%20you%21&redirect_uri=http://jobstr.com/threads/show/4154-mailman-city-letter-carrier-/question/16964)
Lara, today I had a similar situation today with one of the customers I deliver to. They showed me their USPS Infromed Delivery email and an item shown wasn't in their actual mail. It was a specific letter they were waiting for. I don't know what to do if the letter doesn't show up. Your question seems to also ask about not getting any delivery whatsoever on Saturday. That shouldn't happen. We deliver on Mon-Sat excluding national holidays. I know some offices are having a staff shortage, but that's not a great explanation. I have little faith In the quality of work done by some coworkers and supervisors. Many have an "I don't care" attitude. This is nothing new but seemingly more prevalent lately.
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I believe I have been asked this exact same question before with the same wording on this website. Anyhow, if this happened, I'd proceed with caution. When I felt it was safe to do so, I'd park the vehicle and walk around it to make sure everything looked okay. If I was in an unsafe area, I may think that it's some kind of setup to get my vehicle to stop and I'd just keep driving. Your scenario doesn't seem like it would happen very often and I don't usually pay attention to the actual other motorists gestures. I have driven a few times without the back tailgate being properly latched down which could make for a hazardous situation. I probably would be glad if someone had pointed that out to me.
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