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.
MistyK, the best way to contact the postman would probably be to leave a note in the mailbox asking them to please make sure the mailbox is closed after they make a delivery. They really should be doing that anyway and maybe it was a replacement carrier if this is an uncommon occurrence. I'm not sure the postman will even see the note or respond to it. Of course I can't say for sure whether or not mail is being stolen, but in most areas this is a non-issue. Another way to contact your postman would be to call the USPS customer service phone # where they can likely relay a message to your postman or give you the direct phone # to your local PO. The national customer service phone # is 800-275-8777.
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I don't believe this is as nosy as you think. You are technically correct that we deliver to an address, but sometimes there are names that previously resided at an address who have moved years ago and the mailman may want to have that mail returned to sender "Unable To Forward" because the mail forwarding period has expired. I will do this on occasion but I may not ask directly what a person's surname is. If I see a person at an address and at the same time I see a name on a mailpiece that I'm not familiar with, I may ask the person if the name on the mail is valid to deliver there. It is possible that the mailman just wants to deliver the mail correctly and may not have been nosy, but I can't say for sure. When in doubt as to the proper name at an address, I will often just deliver the mailpiece in question and hope that the residents will advise if it isn't correct. Thanks for your question.
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As long as there is mail to bring to any address we deliver 6 days per week (Mon-Sat). It's not always the same letter carrier who goes to the same address each day but it often is. If you live in an apartment and lost your mailbox key, I don't know that the letter carrier would open the mailbox for you or make any special delivery arrangements to deliver it to your suite or apartment unless they knew who you were and were willing to help until a replacement key could be acquired. I'm not even sure who would get you a replacement key, but I think it is the building management or the landlord.
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I do find it odd to ask questions like that, especially the latter one. I mean if they were to explain why there were doing that it may help you understand the reason. If I'm not sure of a surname is valid to be delivered to a particular address, I may ask a person at that residence if this is a "good" name to deliver. That'd probably be the end of my inquiry unless the person wanted to offer more info. If you don't want the letter carrier asking you questions like that, please say I don't need to provide that information but the mail you've been delivering is valid (or invalid as the case may be. The flip side might be that they may not deliver a name they aren't familiar with if you don't say it is valid or not, though I think the mail should be delivered as addressed unless told otherwise. We aren't the police with regards to knowing who lives where and how long.
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That's good that you have a neighbor looking out for you. I don't know why the letter carrier would do what he did. Is it possible they didn't receive your forwarding order? If you did it online and received a confirmation then they likely got it. Furthermore there should be zero mail in your box if you have a temporary COA in effect and there are no other residents at your house who are receiving mail. It sounds like an oversight or carelessness. To answer your question, I would say no. Mail has to go through our CFS (computer forwarding system...or centralized forwarding system) to be redirected. You aren't allowed to handwrite the new address and then just redeposit it. One suggestion I have is for the neighbor to rubberband your mail and leave it in either your or their mailbox putting a note on top saying "please forward this mail as this addressee has a temporary COA in effect and no mail should be delivered to your permanent address until further notice". I hope that works out for you. Thanks for writing.
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David, if the letter is addressed to you from the non-profit org. and it says "postage paid" in the indicia (the square usually on the upper right hand corner of the letter you are referring to), you may not forward that letter to another recipient. It is postage paid for the letter to get to you and that's it. Any additional mailing of that same envelope would require first-class postage put over the indicia. I would recommend using an entirely new envelope.
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Getting that large size shoe may require a custom order. I was just at the website for US Uniform Company. One of the items I looked up only went as high as size 14. I only looked at one type of shoe. I buy Rocky or New Balance Black leather low top athletic shoes for walking. They will have the mandated SR/USA tag if purchased through an authorized uniform vendor. I can't say any one shoe is better than the other since I don't recall every being uncomfortable in any of them. I don't remember the brand but some definitely wore out faster than others resulting in an expensive (usually more than $100/pair) replacement order. I probably go through at least 2 pair of shoes per year and walk about 5 miles per day on my route, 351 residential deliveries to their door.
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