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.
I'd recommend that if you received the mail for someone who previously lived at your residence but didn't put in a forward for you to put the mail back in your mailbox and you can write on it "moved" or "doesn't live here anymore". The letter carrier should take it and not redeliver it to you. You also have the option to discard since nobody would really know but I feel that is the wrong thing to do. By putting the mail back in the mailbox you alert the letter carrier that the person has moved from that address.
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I'll tell you what I do in this situation (which is common) but I can't say what each carrier will do and I'm sure it also varies by location. We deliver many parcels that won't fit into a mailbox. I bring the item to the front door of the house and leave it on the side of the door. I rarely ring a door bell since I don't need to see anybody to give the mail to. I also work in a neighborhood where mail/package theft is close to non-existent. If you live an apartment building or an area where mail can't just be left near a front door then the letter carrier might leave a PS 3849 Delivery Notice/Reminder/Receipt to notify the recipient that we have mail for you to retrieve from the PO or allow you to authorize delivery and leave mail at a specified location.
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I must first start with my disclaimer that we are poorly trained in what the regulations or SOP are when it comes to certain situations that come up. I can't say what is legal or not regarding your question. I do think it is inappropriate for the postal worker to ask you anything about returning mail.
You don't need to explain to any USPS employee why you are returning the mail. It is none of our business. As long as it is an unopened, first-class letter, you should be able to just write "refused" on it and have it returned. Personally I would just discard any unwanted mail. I've received debt collection letters in the past and have just ignored them and not returned them. There are certain classes of mail where we won't return to the sender because the sender has paid a pre-sorted standard rate (which is lower than the first-class rate). In that case, we just recycle any unwanted mail.
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I am not sure if you can. An option is to contact the sender by phone or another means and request to not be sent any mail. If the mail is First class you can write "refused" on the envelope and it will be returned to the sender. Generally any mail that is sent as Presorted Standard (bulk mail) will just get discarded at the local PO if you write "refused" on the mail. The sender would never know you didn't want that mail. I'd just recommend that you discard/recycle any mail you don't want. For the most part customers I deliver mail to don't refuse many letters and probably just throw away anything they don't want. If they give it back to me I handle it as above (either discard the PO where I work or return it to the sender).
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Antiques Dealer
Do you think today's "stuff" will one day be collected as valuable antiques?
Track and Field Coach
Do you let your athletes play another sport in the off-season?
Pharmacist
Have you ever given someone the wrong prescription?
I've never heard of your pay getting docked for not delivering mail on time. I think only Express Mail (aka Priority Mail Express) does have a delivery time guarantee and the sender can request a refund if that commitment isn't met. We can get disciplined at our office (letter of warning/suspension/termination) if we fail to deliver a time guarantee mail item, but I've rarely ever heard of anyone getting anything beyond a warning for this. This type of mail is a premium service so we must give it our utmost attention and care. Good luck in orientation. Here is just a life lesson in general: Don't believe everything you hear. I'm a big skeptic in so much I hear at work unless a reliable source. I actually might annoy people because I believe so little at times.
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Your typo of putting Churchhill instead of Churchill on the eBay order shouldn't cause any delivery issues. Items mailed often have spelling errors and typos. As long as the postal service personnel can figure out what was meant by the mailer or be able to decipher unclear handwriting, the item will usually be delivered properly. The delay in the delivery is probably for another reason, but I don't know what that is. I presume the item wasn't sent with any tracking number or that would be able to provide you with some more guidance as to where the item is.
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Liz, I am no expert in giving advice on how to get more work as an RCA. I believe if you work, you get one-day of pay. There are no partial days. The nature of being a Rural Carrier Asssociate is that there are no guarantees of hours that I'm aware of per week. You are utilized to cover days off for career rural carriers if they call in sick, have annual leave, or have a day off each week or every other week. It can be frustrating not getting much work. My advice is to have a great attitude, be prompt in your attendance for work and do as accurate a job as possible when delivering the mail. Each office is different in how much work the employees get, especially when it's a non-career position like RCA or CCA (City Carrier Assistant). If there are CCA positions available nearby, you may want to consider it. They may work more frequently and can be paid for part of a workday if there are only a few hours of work available. From what I observe and read on FB groups, most CCAs are overworked, not underworked (which is your situation). Another option is to see if any RCA work is available in nearby Post Offices. We have one RCA who works in at least 2 Post Offices. Please mention to the manager or Postmaster that you are eager to have any available work as an RCA. Good luck and please be patient. You are brand new to the USPS.
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