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.
It's odd for someone to say "it's on the truck" when the tracking seems very non-specific and sounds like it hasn't been updated. 8 days is too long for a certified letter to reach you unless the item was missorted en route and was either misdelivered or is sitting at a PO and nothing is being done with it. I don't know what to tell you to do except to wait a few more days. After that, you could contact the sender and say you never received the letter though they would have the same information as the online tracking.
I see on a map you are referring to towns in MN that are about 55 miles apart. That's the mileage from Chaska, MN to Zimmerman, MN. I'd say it's approximately 2 days to get from the origin to the destination. For example, if the letter was mailed on a Tuesday before the collection deadline it should be delivered by Thursday. I hope this answers your question. It's also not a good idea to send actual cash through the mail if you can avoid it.
Congratulations on sticking with the job as the CCAs really get the brunt of a lot of the work and have unpredictable schedules at times. With regard to making your shoes last longer, I don't know if I have a good answer. My shoes get wet in the rain as well and I didn't realize that the water sometimes accelerates the breakdown of the shoe, but I do notice it as of late. My main suggestion for making the shoes last with regard to not getting them wet is to wear rubber overshoes which can be purchased with the uniform allowance. Tingley is a well known brand for these products. They keep your shoes dry but when it's not wet out you wouldn't want to wear them as the rubber may wear out easier walking on dry ground. When wearing these be careful to get them on with a tight fit with regards to your toes and heel because you may trip easier with loose fitting rubber overshoes.
It's possible that either things happened. It may depend on where you live, but actually having things from mailboxes where I work is quite rare. As far as a letter carrier taking it out of the mailbox, I can't really say. Some letter carriers are strict and say nothing can be in the mailbox except US Mail. If they take it out I'm not sure what they'd be doing with it. I am not really sure how you'd find out. I doubt the PO would be of much help. As much as I don't like things left in mailboxes that aren't US mail, if I can clearly see it's not outgoing mail, I'll usually just leave it and put the mail in the box. I have to stress that I can predict the actions of other letter carriers. I've seen too many who don't care and can be vindictive toward customer which I don't understand.
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That's a great question Cindy that I don't know the answer to but I'm embarrassed for the USPS that they would tolerate such lying. I believe if a letter carrier actually attempts to deliver a package or piece of accountable mail they should ring a bell or knock on the door and wait a minute or so before leaving a PS 3849. I know that Amazon.com wants all of their Prime parcels delivered by a specifc date and if they aren't at least attempted, maybe someone in the USPS supervision is held accountable. I'm not really sure. I have seen in our office that parcels that weren't delivered (either missorted or the carrier missed the house and didn't have time to go back) would get an "attempted" scan which is false. I've never done this nor have I ever been asked to do it. I'd refuse because it is dishonest. It also confuses customers when the package may say "attempted" when tracked and the customer knows full well that an attempt wasn't made.
Do you possibly know me? I've recently had a similar situation on the route that I deliver and it is the first time that I encountered this. The previous owner only put in an individual forward, but the PARS (which is an automated forwarding system that intercepts forwardable mail before it reaches the letter carrier) was forwarding the new resident's mail as well because they had the same last name. I asked my forwarding clerk how to resolve this. She said that the family that left should just put in individual forwards for each family member. The mail also should be excluded from PARS so your letter carrier can look at each piece of mail before forwarding it (if appropriate). This seems to have worked okay as the new resident has been quite patient and I've heard nothing beyond the original, and valid I might add, complaint. I'd recommend speaking to someone at your PO explaining the situation, give them a list of all the valid names at your address and ask that the mail be excluded from PARS so the carrier can look at the mail and decide whether it should be forwarded or not. PARS stands for Postal Automated Redirection System. I hope this works out for you as you shouldn't be inconvenienced just because you moved into a residence where the previous people had the same last name.
Jay, I don't know what happened to your package. It would be odd for a package from TX bound for GA to wind up in OH once already being in GA. My guess is that it was somehow missorted and put on a truck or plane to OH. As long as it was addressed properly there is a very good chance it will soon make it back to GA and be delivered to you. While I can't guarantee this, it would take multiple sorting and delivery errors for you not to receive your package. There will be a delay of at least a day or two until you finally receive the package (assuming that you do receive it).
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