We've been seasonal camping for a few years now. Each year we have had our mail forwarded by the Post Office. It's been working okay. When we got back last year, there was 1 piece of mail in our mailbox from middle of the summer, but it wasn't important so no big deal.We don't get a lot of mail, all of our bills except one are paperless. However, since I am self-employed, all of my customers pay by check sent via mail. About a week after we got here mail started to come in and we were getting mail regularly. But then after about 2 weeks, we stopped getting any mail. My wife had to go back home for a couple days. When she got there, she found the mailbox was full! She went to the post office and asked about it. Our carrier was still there, so the agent at the counter brought her out. She was new, just started on our route a few weeks ago and had no idea our mail should be forwarded!If you have your mail forwarded by the Post Office and all of a sudden stop getting mail, be sure to contact your local PO right away. We have gone through a lot of carriers in the last 10 years or so. Hopefully, we don't get another new one this summer!-Michael

Good info to pass along. Not applicable to me but still good to know.

When you fill out an official temporary Change of Address with the postal service, it should never get to your local post office as it is rerouted at a distribution center. I guess if your mail was coming from a local address using your same post office it would never get to the distribution center?

Same thing can happen with mail hold. Returned from a 2 week trip and found mail box stuffed with mail. We now ask a neighbor to check a couple of days after we leave on a trip.

Accsys - the key word in your post is "should". The folks at the PO are human and make mistakes - maybe more than they should..... Our neighbor gets ours when we are gone.

Our mail goes to our commercial remailing service now, but back when we used to have it forwarded by the USPS, the mail never got to the local post office. It was labeled and forwarded at the regional sorting center.

Forwarding Mail - a cautionary tale... | Good Sam Community

JimK-NY
Explorer II
Jun 06, 2017
Popsie wrote:
Before you leave town, go to your local post office, and get a good telephone number that you can use to contact them directly.

The PO used to put the phone number for every post office on the internet, but they've quit doing that.

With a phone number, you can talk to people who know what's happening with your mail at your post office from where you happen to be.

I tried that. It did no good. Visiting in person was also a waste of time. The post office just does not have any sort of reliable system for forwarding mail.
jesseannie
Explorer
Jun 06, 2017
All of the above is why we use a independent mailbox service. We just call a couple times a month and have it forwarded to us wherever we are.
Jesseannie
mfinnerty
Explorer
Jun 06, 2017
When gone, we generally have our mail held. After a couple of instances of finding mail in our mailbox on our return, my wife started putting a box in the mailbox with a note our mail was supposed to be held. The box took up all the space so the carrier couldn't stick any mail in the mailbox. This next time we will be gone longer so we're having the mail forwarded but will still leave the box and note for the carrier.
Dave_H_M
Explorer II
Jun 08, 2017
wow, we have never had a problem with the local post office, but it is in a small town. Ole (name withheld to protect the innocent) will even hold the mail over the 30 day allowable, no problem.

BTW, I just asked google for the post office in podunk IL, and he came up with a full page on it to include the phone number. :h
Opie431
Explorer
Jun 08, 2017
We put a note covered by plastic and held in place by a rock in the mail box. It has worked well.
B_O__Plenty
Explorer II
Jun 09, 2017
We recently got a post office box but our old mailbox was left in place just in case...Now we get mail at both places..I give up.

B.O.

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