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.
Cynthia, that is a good question and I don't know the legal requirements (if any) to return any mail that is errantly delivered to your address, whether it is for a former resident or just delivered by mistake to the wrong address. Anyone who tells you otherwise I would question where they get that information. Most people I know aren't versed in the law when it comes to the US Mail. I do read that tampering with the US Mail is a federal offense but I don't interpret that discarding mail that was errantly given to you to be tampering with it. On the flip side, as much as that person has been a sore spot to you, would it be so hard to just write on the outside of the mail "person doesn't live here" and leave it in the mailbox for the letter carrier to have sent back to the sender? In theory, the letter may find its way back to the sender who may update their records and you won't get any mail from them anymore addressed to the former tenant. Just a thought. Thanks for writing.
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Most post offices are open until Noon or 1PM for retail service on Saturdays if they have Saturday hours at all. I don't know if you can put a reverse on a letter that has tracking via the telephone customer service or via www.usps.com. It may have to be done in person at a Post Office. If you call 800-ASK-USPS they may know a bit more about this subject. Their Saturday hours are 8AM-6PM ET.
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I am not sure if it will be delivered or not. Sometimes a letter carrier will just deliver a letter as addressed and sometimes they will wait until they see new mail coming in via a change of address order (usually a yellow sticker with the new address on it). I am not sure whether the check will be delivered or not. If not, I hope your cousin receives the check back and then re-send it when you are sure that you are getting mail at your new address.
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I have no idea why that happened. I assume you mailed the envelope to their old address because you wanted their new address. You probably also assumed that the USPS would return the envelope to you with the new address of the person who just moved instead of forarding the letter because you endorsed the letter "return service requested". I'm sorry I have no further information and I don't know that your local PO would know a lot about this either. As a letter carrier we are taught close to nothing about what that endorsment means, except that it can be processed through the CFS (Comuterized Forwarding System) which handles forwardable/returnable mail. Normally, Standard Class mail without an endorsment can be discarded if the addressee has moved. If the class of mail has the enodrsment, then the CFS processes the said item, though I don't really know what happens to it exactly.
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I Have heard this question come up several times. While we don't use name cards where i work, I don't know the reason why the letter carrier would change the names on your mailbox. If you ever see him or her, I would try to set the information correct with them. If that doesn't work, try to contact your PO for assistance. You certainly deserve to get mail addressed to you.
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I understand what you mean. Your roommate won't be able to afford to move out if they don't pass their probation period and is terminated. If you see bundles of mail again at your house, I don't know if you would feel that you could confront your roommate and ask them why that mail is there. You may feel that it's none of your business and are being nosy which is also understandable. I don't know what the best advice would be, but if you really want them out of your house AND you think they will leave once the probation period is over, then you may want to just ignore any mail you see around the house. It is definitely wrong for that mail to not have been delivered, but I know you may not want to be a snitch and still have to live with your roommate. I'm sorry that I can't give you the absolute advice of what you should do because one has to look at "the big picture" and the consequences of their actions.
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Unfortunatley, you are probably stuck with the new carrier. Do you know the reason that there was a change in postal carriers? Some of the reasons are: a change in the territory that makes up a route, a carrier chooses to leave their route for another one, or a carrier retires or transfers to another office. When this happens, the route often goes up for "bid", and the most senior carrier who desires to do the route that includes your street gets that assignment. It is not based on how friendly, efficient, or safe that this carrier works. There are plenty of letter carriers at the USPS who won't win congeniality awards or hard worker accolades. There is very little corrective action that can be taken as long as the carrier shows up for work and doesn't get into any motor vehicle accidents. I don't know how you would feel about calling the delivery supervisor to voice your concerns about the new carrier and the safety of their driving as well as them forgetting mail, but you could do that. I don't know what kind of response you will get or if it will change anything, but I don't think it would hurt to mention it. Those qualities are very unprofessional and unsafe in a letter carrier. There are some of these carriers at the office where I work as well. I try to have as little as possible to do with them whatsoever. I'm sure this problem isn't uncommon in the USPS and most other companies. Thanks for writing to jobstr for advice.
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