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 am just speculating that the item may not have even left PR yet. It has been scanned as being processed through the San Juan PR distribution center but that may not mean it has even been loaded onto an aircraft to the mainland USA. There are significant service disruptions for mail going to/from PR due to Hurricane Maria. I don’t have any more information then to just give you this generic answer and to be patient. If you called the USPS customer service phone #, I’m guessing you’d get a similar answer.
Rose, I'm not sure exactly what you mean by this question. If you would like to give a gift to a particular letter carrier, I'm sure it'd be appreciated. During this time of year (December holiday season), many people who I deliver mail to will give me a cash gratuity or gift of sweets or wine for example. It is never expected by me to receive a gratuity or gift but I follow up with a thank you card to the customer. If you're not sure when your particular letter carrier is working you may just have to wait until you see them to present them with the gift or leave it in your mailbox and hope they will get it. Please ask a follow up question of me if I haven't explained my answer clearly.
I don’t know anything about the claims process and what type of compensation you’d be entitled to beyond the cost of mailing the item unless you purchased insurance or if the type of mailing has insurance associated with it. The carrier shouldn’t have signed for a restricted delivery item. It shouldn’t break your heart to do this. I’d be more aggravated by not getting a service you paid for. To be honest, I often sign for customers when they have certified letters or packages that ask for a signature confirmation. This is mainly because I know most of the people who I deliver mail to. It hasn’t come back to haunt me, yet. I wouldn’t sign for a domestic registered item or for a Restricted Delivery item. As far as how to file a claim, you could go to a Post Office and inquire about the process or perhaps look at www.usps.com for guidance.
Jessica, it depends who you ask or are dealing with regards to who is emptying the locked box. If I personally knew you or you could show me some ID if I didn't know you, I'd gladly return the letter if I could easily find it. Sometimes there are hundreds of letters in the blue collection boxes and the carrier who is collecting the mail from that box may or may not have the time, patience, or personality to return your letter to you. It may be worthwhile to just send another envelope with a check in it if you can't retrieve the letter you accidentally put into the collection box without the check. I've never been told that I'm not allowed to return a letter once it is placed in a collection box, but, then again, our training and procedural enforcement is quite poor so that's why the lack of uniformity across the USPS. Thank you for writing.
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I don't know the answer to this. Most of the time we deliver all of the mail each day that is in our building unless we get backed up with volume or are short on staffing. This may not be the case in the office that delivers your mail. If there is a merchant that you want to go to with a coupon but it arrived late, you could ask the merchant to honor the offer or the business could contact the post office to inquire why their mailing was delivered late. I'm just speculating, but I would think any 3rd Class Mail (the new official term for this will be USPS Marketing Mail) should be delivered within a few days of it being received at the Post Office. Having answered many questions on jobstr, I can see that service consistency varies greatly from office to office and even among the letter carriers in that office.
Thanks Jessica. It’s not me in the photo. I’m not sure if I could put up a photo (I mean I don’t know if it’s an option). I wouldn’t put one up though because I’m not authorized to speak on behalf of the USPS and would prefer my id isn’t known to anybody who may call me out for doing this and tell me to cease or possibly discipline me. It also allows me to be openly critical and honest where I feel it’s warranted. I’m sure the letter carrier liked that you came onto him. I don’t think I’d mind either if I liked the woman. I will now call you “homewrecker”. Absolutely just kidding.
Sarah, if you live on a rural route I believe that is part of their job but not sure. If you have city delivery (which is the type of delivery I do) there is generally no obligation of the letter carrier to accept the package and money and mail it for you. Most people now with access to the internet and printer can print out their own postage label to be put onto a parcel and then given to a letter carrier (who should take the package) for mailing. The program used to be called Click 'N Ship. It is rare that a customer ever asks me to mail a non-prepaid parcel for them. I would say no almost all of the time because I'd have to then mail the package on my own time and don't want to get into a habit of doing that. The bottom line is that you certainly can ask your letter carrier to mail the package for you but not sure what the response will be. Thank you for your question.
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