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.
Debbie, I m sorry to hear that the ring you ordered on eBay was misdelivered. I'm pretty sure there is nothing we can do regarding reimbursing customers for misdelivered unless there is some insurance purchased by the sender. Your story doesn't surprise me, however, since misdeliveries are made all the time. It's also unfortunate that whoever received the misdelivered package didn't return it to the PO since it didn't belong to them. That would have been the right thing to do. I am also guessing that in the situation you described, the sender won't reimburse your $$ because their records show that the ring was delivered.
Penny, I don't think that a holiday delays the transport of mail through our network by much at all, but I don't really have much insight into this subject. I know our local post offices don't process any mail on holidays, however the processing and distribution centers might still be operating. I would always suggest allowing more than one day for mail to arrive at the intended location even if there was no holiday. This is just to make time for mis-delivered, mis-sorted, or delayed mail. The day after a holiday, we are often hammered with mail to deliver. It is the trade off for having a paid day off (which I'm not complaining about).
Do you mean that the marking was "insufficient postage", not "insufficient packaging". If it was "insufficient postage", I'm pretty sure you would just have to pay the difference between the Parcel Select rate and the Priority Mail rate. What I'm not sure about is how you get credit for an already purchased postage label, if that's even possible. If you took this to the PO for some type of resolution, I question whether all of the clerks would know how to adjust the rate properly as the ability, care, and training of the SSAs (sales and service associates) seems to vary widely. Thanks for writing.
I am not sure how you would get the full name of your postman. I read that he won't give you his last name. I have no idea whether or not he has any obligation to do so. I gladly would give it out, if asked. It is also on my ID badge that I wear. I feel that it should be available to the public, but I am sure you will find great disagreement among my colleagues. If you were to call the PO and ask them, I have a feeling they wouldn't give it to you either. Some people get very private about certain matters, yet they will join Facebook and broadcast a lot about their personal lives. That's about all of the insight I have on this subject. Thanks for writing.
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Probably not. If it was a blank envelope or had very little written on it, the letter carrier possibly took it without looking and it was mixed in with all of the other outgoing mail. From what you described there was likely no name or address on it either. Ultimately it may wind up in the "nixie" office which is for undeliverable items. I don't know where that is or what happens to it afterwards. If you were to contact this office (which I don't even know how you would), I don't think they would have the resources or time to look for the envelope in question.
I remember your question about having tickets delivered to your neighbors and asking if you could ask the mailman to deliver them your house or some type of favor. I am rarely asked for any type of favor like that and I think if I heard a request like yours that may sound a bit fishy I would decline to get involved. It's not worth risking any type of job discipline to help a customer. I don't know that if you approached a mailman they would be offended. I just hope they would have enough common sense to decline to assist you. Also, we don't deliver the route each day so even if one carrier agreed to assist you there is no way of knowing that when they are off from work the replacement carrier would smart to not get involved with any favors. If what you are doing is unethical or shady I would not get the USPS involved.
I am not sure why a postman would be spraying/peppering dogs without actually feeling or being threatened by dogs. We are told to just skip any residence that has loose dogs and notify the supervisor upon return to the PO as to why you didn't deliver the mail. It isn't uncommon for a postman to leave a note for a patron to contain the dogs or "fix your mailbox", etc. We do have more official notices that we can use to ask residents to rectify a situation which is preventing mail delivery, but I'm not sure how frequently they are used. The management in our office isnt terribly communicative with us about this, but I can't tell you what it is like at other Post Offices.
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